(Jerusalem) Israel announced on Friday the adoption of sanctions against the Palestinian Authority, to make it “pay the price” for its recent move to have the question of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories examined by the UN.
The decision was taken Thursday during the first meeting of the security cabinet of the new government, led by Binyamin Netanyahu, and the most right-wing in the history of Israel.
The select cabinet has decided to award families of victims of Palestinian attacks about NIS 139 million (C$53.4 million) from what Israel collects in customs duties on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, says a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office.
Israel will also retain other funds collected for the Palestinian Authority, up to what it paid in 2022 “to terrorists and their families”, adds the text, without specifying an amount.
The Palestinian Authority pays monthly allowances to the families of Palestinians imprisoned in Israel for carrying out anti-Israeli attacks and to those of those it calls “martyrs”, whether Palestinians who died carrying out anti-Israeli attacks or during clashes with the Israeli army in the West Bank.
The security cabinet has also decided to freeze Palestinian construction projects in certain sectors of this Palestinian territory occupied since 1967 by Israel.
According to the press release, these decisions follow the adoption on December 31, at the request of the Palestinian Authority, of a resolution of the United Nations General Assembly asking the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to consider the question of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories.
Adopted two days after the inauguration of the new Israeli government, the non-binding resolution also calls on Israel to end Jewish settlement in the West Bank and urges the ICJ to determine “the legal consequences of Israel’s persistent violation of the right of the people Palestinians to self-determination”.
Denouncing a “political and legal war against the State of Israel” launched by the Palestinian Authority, the government of Mr. Netanyahu affirms that it “will not sit idly by” and “will respond as it should”.
The measures “aim to make it clear that Israel will pay the price for any attempt to harm (it) on the international stage”, according to a statement by Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen.
But they “will not discourage our people and our leaders from continuing the fight and the political, diplomatic and legal action to provide international protection to our people and put an end to Israel’s impunity”, retorted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Palestinian foreign affairs.