EU Undermines Israeli Government Efforts To Drain Palestinian Finances

Monday May 09, 2011 17:15 by Kevin Murphy - IMEMC & Agencies

The EU has undermined efforts by Israel to stop the flow of money into the Palestinian Authority’s budget through an 85 million euro payment to the Palestinian administration. The payment is in addition to the 100 million euro payment approved earlier this year as part of funding for Palestinian state building efforts.

EU Commissioner Stefan Fule has called on EU states to continue to fund Palestinian state institutions through the PEGASE mechanism launched in February 2009.

Israel has withheld 870,000 dollars in Palestinian taxes since May 2nd, collected by the Israeli administration on behalf of the PA, in response to the unity deal between Fatah and Hamas.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has urged Israel to release the collected Palestinian revenue during a phone conversation with Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday night.

Meanwhile, 27 US Senators, many from the Democratic Party, have called on US President Barrack Obama to withdraw funding from the Occupied Territories after the new unity deal, the Jerusalem Post reported last Thursday. However no such action has yet been taken by the US administration.

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