Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh has warned that a series of sanctions approved by the Security Cabinet against Ramallah last week will start the collapse of the PA.
In a rare interview with Israeli daily Haaretz, published on Monday, Shtayyeh defended Ramallah’s bid at the United Nations to have the International Court of Justice deliver a legal opinion on Israel’s behavior in the West Bank and Gaza Strip – a move Prime Minister Benjamin insisted on Netanyahu took it as an “extremely anti-Israeli” measure.
The Palestinians “have the right to complain to the world about the occupation,” he told Haaretz. He further accused Israel of “profiting from the occupation.”
The successful Palestinian initiative in the UN General Assembly has been cited by Israel’s new hard-line government as the reason for a series of sanctions against the PA, including the confiscation of NIS139 million (US$39 million) in tax revenue that Israel paid on behalf of the PA moves in, and channeling them instead to the Israeli victims of Palestinian terrorism.
The Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority called the measure “another nail in the blood [Palestinian] coffin of authority” if “the international community, with a focus on the administration in Washington and the Arab countries”, did not immediately intervene.
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He said the PA receives no regular funding from the United States and that the money transferred from the European Union is only for infrastructure.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L), Tzachi Braverman (2nd L), National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir (2R) and Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman (R) at a cabinet meeting January 3, 2023 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Shtayyeh also criticized the new government, widely regarded as Israel’s most right-wing ever, for isolating the PA.
“Previous Israeli governments have tried to end the prospect of a two-state solution, while the current government is also fighting the PA itself,” he charged.
Netanyahu has long boasted of his efforts to isolate the PA. While Shtayyeh has repeatedly made similar remarks in the past about the impending collapse of the PA, this time the Israeli government is made up of many lawmakers who openly support the PA’s closure and view it as a terrorist entity.
They do not share the view of the defense establishment, which has stressed the importance of Israel’s security cooperation with the PA to prevent more extreme elements from taking power, and who have urged successive governments to prevent their dissolution.
“We see the situation very clearly,” Shtayyeh said. “Increase settlement construction, separate Jerusalem from the West Bank, annex Zone C area and now crush the PA — that is the plan being carried out by the Israeli government.” Area C is about 60% of the West Bank with full Israeli security and civilian control, where all settlements are located and Palestinian development is very limited.
In coalition agreements between Netanyahu’s Likud party and the far-right Religious Zionism party, the prime minister agreed to move ahead with the annexation of land in the West Bank. However, the pledge was vague, allowing Netanyahu to remain silent on the issue if he so wished.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, leader of religious Zionism, has long advocated annexing large parts of the West Bank, massively expanding settlement construction, legalizing illegal Israeli outposts and demolishing rampant Palestinian construction in Area C.
In a press conference on Sunday, Smotrich said he had “no interest” in the continued existence of the PA.
During his tenure as prime minister in 2020, Netanyahu pushed to annex about 30 percent of the West Bank, but later shelved the plan under pressure from then-US President Donald Trump’s administration and instead reached an agreement to normalize diplomatic relations with the United States Arab Emirates .
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich holds a press conference with bereaved families at the Treasury Department in Jerusalem on January 8, 2023. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Regarding the claim that the Palestinian campaign at the UN was unilateral, Shtayyeh said: “The entire occupation is unilateral and structural [Jewish] Settlements unilateral, it’s all unilateral. But when we turn to the UN and the international community, is that wrong and one-sided?”
The Palestinian leader also claimed that Israel is actively profiting from the conflict, charging a monthly commission of NIS 30 million ($8.6 million), which is deducted from payments for various services provided to the PA.
“Israel sells us everything, including sewage treatment, electricity and drinking water, and basically benefits from the entire mechanism,” Shtayyeh said.
He said the PA will reach out to Arab League member states, the European Union and the Biden administration to ask for financial support to thwart Israeli attempts to “crush the two-state solution.”
“The Palestinians are not going anywhere,” he declared.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
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