Why freezing Palestinian taxes won't help Israel

posted on: Apr 2, 2015

The Palestinians knew with certainty that a few days after the Israeli general elections on March 17, the tax funds that Israel froze in January would be released.

How did they know? For the past two decades, the tax revenues collected by Israel under the 1994 Paris Agreement have been used as a political tool to placate the Israeli public. This questionable economic weapon has always proven to be not only ineffective but even detrimental to Israel’s security interests. Yet, as far as the decision-makers are concerned, this is a readily available and harmless practice if used in moderation.

This time, too, the Israeli punishment meted out following the request of the Palestinian Authority (PA) to join the International Criminal Court (ICC) in December 2014 was limited to the duration of the electoral race. At the end of the three months of sanctions, and just short of the PA’s economic collapse or a violent outburst in its territories, the prime minister “acquiesced” to the entreating of Israeli security officials and ordered the unfreezing of the funds, despite the Palestinians not having withdrawn their appeal to the ICC.

Source: www.al-monitor.com