Friday, December 9, 2011

Israel Taxes Palestinian Patience

And they would be taxing yours, too, if they were withholding your money from you (among the other transgressions and violations of dignity over six decades)!!

"Israel puts hold on tax transfers to Palestinians" November 04, 2011|By Amy Teibel, Associated Press

JERUSALEM - Israel has carried out its threat to suspend transfer of tax payments totaling some $100 million to the Palestinian Authority to protest this week’s admission of Palestine to the United Nations’ cultural agency, officials said yesterday.

UNESCO membership was part of a broader campaign to win overall UN recognition of an independent state of Palestine, in defiance of US and Israeli opposition. The agency’s acceptance on Monday buoyed the Palestinians but infuriated Israel because it endowed the Palestinians with greater international legitimacy.

Israel's attitude -- considering it was created in the very same manner -- is atrociously appalling.

Israel later said it would punitively suspend the monthly transfer of about $100 million in customs, border, and some income taxes it collects on behalf of the Palestinians and relays to their government in the West Bank. Yesterday, Palestinian officials said Israel has not made this month’s transfer....

Doesn't that phrase make it sound like Israel is doing them such a favor?  On behalf of them?

Well, my position is that the Palestinians are quite capable of collecting their own taxes, thank you very much, were Israel to let them.

The AmeriKan media makes it sound like Israel is doing them a favor (blog editor simply shakes head). 

The funds are critical for the Palestinian Authority, which employs tens of thousands of people. The cut-off comes just days before a Muslim holiday.  

Yeah, happy holidays, Muslims (from Israel, sigh). 

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said he had borrowed from local banks to make sure people get paid ahead of the holiday....

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And now Israel says it is stealing, 'er, keeping the money?

"Israel keeps $100m owed to Palestinians" November 15, 2011|Associated Press

JERUSALEM - Israeli Cabinet ministers decided yesterday to hold on to some $100 million in taxes owed to the Palestinians, an official said, despite warnings from Israel’s Defense Ministry that the measure could threaten the stability of the Palestinian government in the West Bank.

Israel stopped transfer of tax funds as punishment for the Palestinians’ successful bid for admission to the United Nations’ cultural agency UNESCO.... 

This punitive s*** is just so enraging.

Israel charges that the UN bid is one of a series of steps to bring unwarranted pressure on the Jewish state.

You don't even know what pre$$ure is. Cut off the $ymbolism to Israel and see what happens. What if the "world community" did the right, just, and humane thing regarding western and Israeli war crimes and criminals? If anything the UN is running a roadblock (something Palestinians are used to) for the Zionist enterprise.

Israeli defense officials have said funding cutoffs threaten Mahmoud Abbas’s moderate Palestinian Authority, which employs tens of thousands of people, including security forces whose work at preventing attacks on Israelis has won praise from Israel and the United States.  

You think I'm just off the charts and walls when I accuse Abbas of being a Palestinian pawn?

In accordance with interim peace deals, Israel collects customs, border, and some income taxes on behalf of the Palestinians and relays them monthly to their West Bank government....   

Yup, there is good old Israel again collecting those taxes on behalf of Palestinians who I guess just can't do it themselves.

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As opposed to the land theft, it looks like Israel is not going to get away with stealing the Palestinian tax loot (unlike AmeriKan taxpayers):

"Israel may release frozen Palestinian funds" November 29, 2011|Associated Press

JERUSALEM - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hinted yesterday that Israel might soon release tens of millions of dollars owed to the Palestinians, according to officials who heard him testify before an influential parliamentary panel.

Israel has refused to transfer the money to punish the Palestinians for their attempts to join the United Nations. The Palestinians recently were accepted to the UN cultural agency, UNESCO, as part of a broader effort for recognition as a full UN member state.

Western donor nations, and even Israel’s own Defense Ministry, have urged Netanyahu to release the money, but he faces opposition from within his own hard-line coalition. His foreign minister is accusing the Palestinians of using the money to reward terrorists.

In a closed hearing yesterday, Netanyahu told the parliament’s foreign affairs and defense committee that Israel was “considering the possibility of renewing the transfer of money to the Palestinians’’ because they appear to have suspended their efforts at the UN, the officials said.

That would change if the Palestinians revive those efforts, one official said.  

Yeah, blackmail and extortion always win a lot of trust.

The Palestinians applied for UN membership in September, but the statehood bid has stalled after they failed to marshal the required support of nine of the Security Council’s 15 members.

The Palestinians have said that as a backup plan, they will seek a lesser upgrade to nonmember observer status, but so far have not taken any action.

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Then they shall be "rewarded":

"Israel relents on tax transfer, averting Palestinian crisis" December 01, 2011|By Karin Laub, Associated Press

RAMALLAH, West Bank - President Mahmoud Abbas’s Palestinian government narrowly dodged a full-blown cash crisis after Israel agreed yesterday - under intense international pressure - to resume the transfer of $100 million a month in frozen tax funds.

The episode illustrated the fragile financial foundations of Abbas’s West Bank-based Palestinian Authority and the broad international consensus that it needs to keep functioning to ensure some stability, especially at a time of diplomatic deadlock. Israeli-Palestinian talks on the terms of a Palestinian state seem unlikely to resume before next year’s US presidential election and an Israeli vote, possibly in 2013.

So no talks on a state or deal for at least two more years; how much more Palestinian land is Israel going to swallow in the interim?

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel suggested yesterday that he might stop the monthly transfers again if the Palestinians take more steps to bypass negotiations and seek UN recognition of a state of Palestine. That could embroil Netanyahu in another embarrassing political zigzag.... 

Now my patience is wearing thin.

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