Tobias (Toby) Siegal is editor and contributor to The Times of Israel.
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh warned that a series of sanctions passed last week through the security cabinet opposite Ramallah would lead to the collapse of the Palestinian Authority.
In a rare interview with Israeli Haaretz, published Monday, Shtayyeh defended Ramallah’s resolution at the United Nations to ask the International Court of Justice to draft a legal opinion related to Israel’s conduct in the West Bank and Gaza, a step Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referred to as an “extreme measure against Israel. “
Palestinians “have the right to talk about the occupation around the world,” he told Haaretz. He further accused Israel of “profiting from the occupation. “
The successful Palestinian initiative at the UN General Assembly has been cited by Israel’s new radical government as explaining why a series of sanctions against the Palestinian Authority, adding the seizure of NIS 139 million ($39 million) in tax revenues that Israel collects on behalf of the PA and, Instead, it channels it to Israeli victims of Palestinian terrorism.
The Palestinian Authority prime minister called the move “another nail in the coffin of the [Palestinian] Authority,” if “the foreign community, with its management in Washington and Arab countries,” does not immediately interfere.
He said the PA gets normal investments from the United States and the cash transferred from the European Union is for infrastructure only.
Shtayyeh also criticized the new government, widely recognized as Israel’s top right wing, for isolating the Palestinian Authority.
“Previous Israeli governments have tried to end the prospect of a two-state solution, while the existing government is also fighting the Palestinian Authority itself,” he charged.
Netanyahu has long boasted of his efforts to isolate the Palestinian Authority. While Shtayyeh has made similar comments several times in the afterlife about the near collapse of the Palestinian Authority, this time the Israeli government is made up of many lawmakers who blatantly shut down the Palestinian Authority, seeing it as a framework that incites terrorism.
They do not share the view of the defense establishment, which emphasizes the importance of Israel’s security cooperation with the Palestinian Authority to prevent more elements from seizing power, and has led successive governments to avoid its dissolution.
“We read the scenario very clearly,” Shtayyeh said. Increase the structure of the agreement along Jerusalem’s disengagement from the West Bank, annex Area C territory and now crush the Palestinian Authority – this is the plan implemented through the Israeli government. “Area C represents about 60% of the West Bank with complete Israeli security and civilian control, where all agreements are in place and Palestinian progression is very limited.
In coalition agreements between Netanyahu’s Likud party and the devout far-right Zionist party, the prime minister agreed to push for the annexation of West Bank land. .
The leader of devout Zionism, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, has long advocated the annexation of giant portions of the West Bank, the gigantic expansion of the settlement structure, the legalization of illegal Israeli outposts, and the demolition of the out-of-control Palestinian structure in Area C.
At a press conference on Sunday, Smotrich had “no interest” in the continued existence of the Palestinian Authority.
While prime minister in 2020, Netanyahu pushed to annex around 30% of the West Bank, but then abandoned the plan under pressure from the administration of then-US President Donald Trump and struck a deal to normalize diplomatic relations with the UAE.
In response to the claim that the Palestinian crusade at the UN was unilateral, Shtayyeh said: “Total profession is unilateral and construction in [Jewish] settlements unilaterally, everything is unilateral. But if we address the UN and the foreign community, then is it and unilateral? »
The Palestinian leader also claimed that Israel was actively profiting from the standoff by charging a monthly fee of NIS 30 million ($8. 6 million) deducted from invoices for facilities provided to the Palestinian Authority.
“Israel sells us everything, adds sewage treatment, electricity and drinking water, and benefits from the total mechanism,” Shtayyeh said.
He said the Palestinian Authority would look to Arab League member states, the European Union and the Biden administration for monetary aid and prevent Israel’s attempt to “make the two-state solution heavier. “
“Palestinians go anywhere,” he said.
The Times of Israel contributed to this report.
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