Ramallah / Awad al-Rajoub / Anadolu

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday called on Arab countries to fulfill their financial obligations to Palestine and its people.

This was in a written message sent by Abbas to Arab League Secretary General Nabil Fahmy regarding the ongoing Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people and the latest developments in the Palestinian cause.

The message was conveyed by Palestine's permanent representative to the Arab League, Mohanad al-Aklouk, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.

In his message, Abbas called for 'activating the Arab financial safety net to support the steadfastness of the Palestinian people by supporting the budget of the State of Palestine.'

He added that this comes 'out of shared Arab responsibility in light of the ongoing Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people and Israeli policies and measures aimed at undermining the foundations of their steadfastness on their land in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.'

The Arab financial safety net was approved in 2010 with a value of $100 million per month to support the Palestinian government in financial crises.

The Palestinian president also touched on the punitive economic and financial policies and measures pursued by Israel against Palestine, 'including the withholding of Palestinian tax revenues and the resulting escalating financial pressures that have turned into debts on the Palestinian government, complicating its ability to meet its basic obligations.'

Wafa quoted the Secretary General of the League as expressing his keenness to make 'the necessary efforts to support the Palestinian cause and the just struggle of the Palestinian people in the face of the policies and practices of the Israeli occupation authorities.'

Tax revenues (clearance revenues) are taxes and customs collected by Israel on behalf of the Palestinian Authority on goods entering the occupied territories, before being transferred monthly to the Palestinian Ministry of Finance, according to the Paris Economic Protocol signed in 1994.

Clearance revenues constitute about 56% of total Palestinian public revenues. Starting in 2019, Israel decided to deduct amounts from clearance revenues under various pretexts, then stopped transferring them entirely about a year ago, until the total withheld funds exceeded $5 billion, plunging the Authority into a financial crisis that made it unable to pay its employees' salaries in full.

In addition, Israeli violations and attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank continue.

From October 8, 2023 to June 29, attacks by the Israeli army and settlers in the West Bank have resulted in the killing of 1179 Palestinians and the injury of about 13,000, in addition to the arrest of about 24,000, according to data from the Palestinian Government Media Center.