ABBAS CENSURES ISRAEL ‘GANGSTER’ REGIME OVER TAX MOVE
West Bank, 14 Jumadil Awwal 1436/5 March 2015 (MINA)– Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has denounced a decision by the Israeli regime to withhold Palestinian tax revenues, worth more than $100 million a month.
“How are they allowed to take away our money? Are we dealing with a state or with a gangster?” he asked at the opening of a two-day meeting attended by officials from the Palestinian Central Council in Ramallah on Wednesday.
In response to Palestinian efforts to finally attain membership at the International Criminal Court (ICC), Tel Aviv announced a freeze on the revenues transfer in January, Press TV quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.
Palestinians, on the other hands, are continuing efforts to file war crimes charges against the regime at the ICC.
The Palestinian president further called the tax move a provocation, noting that “peaceful, popular resistance is the only way for us” in the fight against Israel.
Israel talks
The meeting, attended by legislators, union leaders, and other figures, focuses on a review of interim agreements with the Israelis, which could even pave the way for the suspension of security coordination with them.
Abbas asked “all countries of the world to recognize the state of Palestine”.
“But we want to say to the Israeli side, these recognitions do not mean in any way that we do not want to negotiate, or that we’re running away from negotiations,” Abbas said, adding that talks would continue with “whoever” wins an Israeli general election on March 17.
“We are not interfering, or saying who we’d like to see or who we’d not like to see,” he said, noting negotiations would continue with “whoever that man is, or whatever his politics”.
Palestine elections
The Palestinian president further said coordination was underway with resistance movement Hamas for elections in Palestine.
“As soon as Hamas sends me written official approval, I will immediately issue a decree calling for elections,” he said.
Last April, Hamas and Abbas’s Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) agreed to hold a general election by the end of 2014, but a recent summer Israeli war on Hamas-controlled Gaza, among other factors, has delayed the move. (T/P010/R04)
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)
