Moscow (Russia), August 1: Israel will withhold 600 million shekels (USD 176 million) from taxes collected for the Palestinian Autonomy in response to Palestine paying people serving time in Israeli prisons for committing acts of terrorism, the country's media reported on Sunday.
According to the Jerusalem Post, the Israeli Security Cabinet voted earlier in the day to deduct the aforementioned sum as long as the Palestinian Authority (PA) pays convicted terrorists or families of Palestinians killed during an attack on Israelis.
The amount is said to correspond to the sum spent by the PA on such payments. The deductions will be conducted over the course of the next 12 months.
Meanwhile, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, the Palestinian president's spokesman, responded by saying that Israel's decision is "piracy," an act of theft from the Palestinian people, adding that this measure will not achieve anything as the rights of Palestinian prisoners will not be affected.
Israel collects taxes on behalf of the Palestinian Authority every month. This is one of Palestine's main sources of budget funds.
Source: Sputnik
