Israel to withold $50 million monthly tax collections

[lovuian]

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=023c4a52065ef621
Israel is imposing economic sanctions on the Palestinian Authority, a day after the parliament led by the Islamic militant group Hamas was sworn in.

Israel's Cabinet decided to halt $50-million monthly tax payments to the Palestinian Authority. Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel will not deal with an organization seeking the destruction of the Jewish state.

"With Hamas in power, the Palestinian Authority has become a regime of terror," Mr. Olmert said, and "Israel will not agree to that."

more...

Wow the newly elected government is getting a big HELLO...

[acmejack]

1. Everyone is screwing them out of their money.

One might think they were not legitimately elected or something. The will of the people only extends so far apparently...

[barb162]

2. Israel is doing a withhold here. Who is "everyone " else?

[Tom Joad]

3. The result: a humanitarian disaster. The Israeli leaders are amused

See this post:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=124x116650

[barb162]

4. No humanitarian disasters;Hamas dismisses Israeli sanctions

Last Updated: Monday, 20 February 2006, 04:29 GMT

Hamas dismisses Israeli sanctions

Newly named Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniya has dismissed the effect of Israeli financial restrictions on the Palestinian Authority (PA).
Mr Haniya also played down the impact of a drop in Western aid, saying Arab and Islamic states would step in.
snip

He said the Palestinians had "lots of alternatives".

"We have other Arab and Islamic countries and members of the international community who are ready to stand next to the Palestinian people."

snip
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4731058.stm

[Tom Joad]

5. I am not sure they will get this aid, but one thing for sure is that

these tactics will strengthen the status of Hamas. It will probably become one of the most popular parties in the Arab world.

If Israel really wants to not deal with Palestinians...
Why the F*&^& is it still occupying the West Bank? Why is it increasing settlements??!
It still wants the land, and get rid of the people.

[barb162]

6. The Palestinian PM seems pretty sure in that BBC article

Since Hamas intends to develop its own economy separate from Israel and I think Israel wants the same, at least they agree on one thing. "Things" will work out.

[Violet_Crumble]

7. Barb, the tax revenue belongs to the Palestinians...

In refusing to transfer the revenue, Israel is violating its written agreement to do so. I think there's some confusion here where people are thinking this money is Israel's to decide whether or not to give. It's not. This is revenue collection, not aid...

Violet...

[eyl]

9. Let me ask you a question

in WWII, had Australia owed Japan money, do you think it should have paid it?

We can argue the wisdom of withholding tax revenues from the Palestinians. But I find it shocking that people seem to be arguing that Israel has a moral duty to fund an organization devoted to its destruction, both in word and deed.


*BTW, if we tranfer the money and Hamas resumes large-scale terrorism, ten years from now, will this be held up by Israel-bashers as another instance where "Israel funded Hamas"? :)

[Violet_Crumble]

10. We were at war - we also didn't collect revenue for the Japanese...

The I/P conflict is very different in that there's no war, and Israel signed an agreement during the days of Oslo to transfer the revenue to the PA on a monthly basis. How I see it is that while Hamas is being urged to acknowledge signed agreements with Israel, Israel is under no obligation to do the same. This isn't funding, as the revenue isn't Israels to use to fund anything. It's revenue collected on behalf of the Palestinians. So while I would find it unreasonable to expect Israel to commit funds to the PA, I think it's unreasonable both legally and morally for Israel to refuse to transfer tax collected on behalf of the Palestinians to the Palestinians. I've asked this a few times and done a bit of a lazy google to try to find out more, but you might know something about it and be able to fill me in. What are these taxes being collected on, and who's paying the taxes? And why can't Israel just stop collecting the taxes and why can't the PA collect them?

To answer yr * question - if that scenario were to happen, then more than likely some people would choose to see it that way. It could be added to the long list of incredibly ignorant slants that people put on things with both sides of the conflict, but it's not a reason to withhold the taxes. At this point in time with the election of Hamas and a new Israeli PM, my opinion is that Israel does have the opportunity to get itself some moral high ground (and anyone who tries to say that Israel isn't interested in getting itself a slice of moral high ground is wrong), and withholding taxes that doesn't belong to it isn't a good way to do it. What Israel should do is do the right thing in matters like this, and if Hamas continues down the path of no negotiation or acknowledgement of Israel, then there's absolutely no ambiguity in where the blocker to peace is...

Violet...

[eyl]

11. While we weren't formally at war with the PA

we were so in effect during the intifada (note that the PA provided funds to terrorist orgs, AAMB in particular, "under the table"). Furthermore, usually war can only legally exist between two states, which the PA isn't. So legally, you can argue that it's impossible for the PA to be at war with anyone - and that therefore, Israel cannot take steps against it which would normally be taken in time of war.

Functionally, however, the PA can be at war (or armed conflict, to be precise), though it suited Israel's government not to formally raise the conflict to quite that level. To make the situation even more complicated, there are organizations which are not beholden to the PA (either formally or in truth) which are carrying out their own armed struggle against Israel (something which isn't the case in a "standard" war). In this case, one such organization has become the PA's government - as such, the state of armed conflict Hamas is maintaining with Israel can be considered to have been transferred to the PA as a whole - and the onus is on Hamas to show that state is no longer extant. Until Hamas makes that clear, Israel is justified in treating it as a hostile entity.

The upshot of all this is that if you want to be strictly legalistic, I suppose you could make a case that Israel isn't in a formal state of war and thus must continue to uphold every stipulation of previous agreementsw. But what concerns me here is the moral (and the practical) aspect of the question. When you get right down to it, what you're demanding is that Israel provide funds to a hostile PA. It doesn't matter whether those funds are Israel's to give or not - they spend the same. Bear in mind that it's a fairly common wartime move for a country to freeze an enemy government's assets in its territory, even though those assets don't belong to it. Consider also this question - under the agreements, ISrael provided the PA with arms. Had the agreements thus stipulated, do you think Israel should have continued doing so in the current situation?

As for your point that their isn't comensurate pressure on Israel to follow signed agreements as their is on Hamas, remember that Hamas has previously explicitly rejected those agreements, and thus it must now acknowledge them. The situation is therefore not symmetric.

As for the taxes themselves, AFAIK they're custom taxes on Palestinian goods (or goods intended for the PA's territory) which pass through Israeli ports. Why the Palestinians can't collect them themselves should be obvious (at least under the current setup). I suppose Israel could simply stop collecting them, but that could also be seen as a breach of the agreements; instead, if they are frozen, then judging by previous cases what will happen is that they will be collected, and "stored" pending settling of the issue, at which point the accumalated taxes will be transferred to the PA.

One last point regarding your comment on the moral high ground. To be honest, by now I (personally, that is; I suppose many Israelis, much less the Ministry of Foregin Affairs, might feel differently) don't really care about it. Maybe I've just become overly cynical and bitter, but I've come to the conclusion that Israel will never have its actions fairly assessed. As such, what concerns me is our morality in my own eyes - what the rest of the world thinks is immaterial (well, it's obviously material in a practical sense, but not in a moral one).

[rfkrfk]

8. Hamas, not smart enough to tax people, or just lazy?

reach out and tax someone

[Englander]

12. Palestinians are being robbed by Israel

By Amira Hass
AMIRA HASS is the Ramallah correspondent for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

February 21, 2006

It is evidently difficult to scrub off the sticker that is glued onto the front window. That's why when a new car from Germany or South Korea or the United States rolls onto the packed streets of Gaza or Ramallah, it generally has the big label with thick, red Hebrew letters forming the word "Checked" stuck on its windshield for several months.

The label is a mark of the special customs and security checks conducted at the Israeli seaports of Ashdod or Haifa, which serve as the main entrances for most of the foreign goods bound for the West Bank and Gaza. Palestinians import all sorts of products: water pumps from Sweden, bulldozers and boxes of corn flakes from the United States, plastic toys from China, washing machines from France and cheese from Denmark — and virtually all of them reach their destinations only after they've been through Israeli port authorities and Israeli security checks.

At the ports, Palestinian importers are required to pay the Israeli authorities the value-added tax of 17%, as well as whatever custom taxes are due on goods that come in on their way to the West Bank or Gaza. These transactions (along with direct Palestinian transactions with Israeli firms and merchants) last year yielded revenues of $711 million.

>snip


Last year, the $711 million constituted almost two-thirds of the Palestinian Authority's revenues. (Only $383 million was collected in income and sales taxes within the West Bank and Gaza.) Even with all those revenues, there was still an $800-million shortfall in the Authority's $1.9-billion budget. Why are domestic tax receipts so low? Because the economy is in constant recession and "operates well below its potential," according to the World Bank.

What debilitates and cripples the Palestinian economy is Israel's heavy, systematic restrictions on movement within the occupied territories — hundreds of roadblocks and military checkpoints that delay, prolong and sabotage normal economic activity and, hence, potential tax revenues.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-oe-hass21feb21,0,7819898,print.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-california