Israel Stealing Palestinian Tax Revenues & Palestine Near Economic Collapse

A financial report has been issued by the International Monetary Fund, highlighting the economic effects of the sanctions imposed on the Palestinian government for the better part of a year. The Israeli government is currently holding at least $600 million in tax revenues that rightfully belong to the Palestinian government.

Source

Ramallah- The Palestinian territories are on the verge of economic collapse, warned a senior Palestinian official Saturday. New economic figures for the first 10 months of this year showed a dramatic decrease in investment and economic performance while unemployment had increased.

Speaking to reporters in Ramallah, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said, "I am not exporting fear," adding, "This just mere warning."

He said gross domestic product (GDP) had dropped in the first 10 months of 2006 by more than 24 per cent compared to the previous year and per capita income had decreased by more than 27 per cent.

Unemployment had increased from 23 per cent in 2005 to 40 per cent by the end of October 2006 and investments dropped by 60 per cent for the same period from one billion US dollars to 400 million.

Source

It doesn't take much more time for the Palestinian territories to collapse in its entireness. Israel pressures Palestine by both militarily and financial means. That the world community doesn't really care about the violence was already known, but that Israel is allowed to steal tax revenues is new. Within several months/years Palestine is literally broken and no threat to Israel anymore.

Yeah they have been withholding those taxes under the auspices that it will fund terrorism. Then they complain when the Pal government is incapable of policing its own citizenry due to insufficient funding. This is such an old ploy by the Israelis. They are so transparent.

Bomb the PA , take away their guns and armor , then cry out that the PA is weak and not doing anything to stop criminals. Same old story just a different year and new PM.

Maybe the Israeli's are spending the money them selves because they asked the US for funding to cover their costs to go into Lebanon and bomb the living day lights out of that country.

Originally posted by denythestatusquo
Maybe the Israeli's are spending the money them selves because they asked the US for funding to cover their costs to go into Lebanon and bomb the living day lights out of that country.

They what? They wanted the US to fund their excursion into Lebanon?
Dont we already give them some crazy amount of money on a daily basis?

Mdv2, you said the 'world community doesnt really care about the violence'
To a certain extent this is true, but I believe it is because of ignorance of the issues. Stories like this one, or Isreal using f-16s on civilians, or dropping cluster bombs on farmland at the end of their excursion, or the Lavon affair or the USS Liberty incident, which are all part of a pattern, go underreported and thus ignored by the vast majority of blissfully ignorant, over-stimulated, drugged up and dumbed down population of the west.
As their waiste sizes increased their understanding and compassion decreased. (No this isnt a slam on fat people or westerners, its an observation I have made in my 36 years as an American.)
Man, I just realized that I am leary to type my feelings on various subjects for fear of verbal assaults and fines from mods.......
Free speech aint what it used to be I guess......

Originally posted by ThePieMaN
Yeah they have been withholding those taxes under the auspices that it will fund terrorism. Then they complain when the Pal government is incapable of policing its own citizenry due to insufficient funding. This is such an old ploy by the Israelis. They are so transparent.

Bomb the PA , take away their guns and armor , then cry out that the PA is weak and not doing anything to stop criminals. Same old story just a different year and new PM.

Pity the poor Palestinians for deciding themselves by voting into office a Party (HAMAS) that they knew would cause the Palestinian people to suffer sanctions and hardship. Sorry that I don't feel bad for them, they voted in HAMAS, they must live with the consequences of their actions. It was a free and democratic election was it not? Voting is a right and a responsibility.

As to you comment that the Palestinian government is incapable of policing it's own citizenry due to insufficient funding, again they have chosen to "look the other way" when it comes to terrorism in the Gaza and West Bank. Even when relations and money were better, the PA never tried to disarm groups in it's midst, don''t make it sound like they did. They allowed, Islamic Jihad, HAMAS, Al-asque martyrs and other groups to roam around with no restrictions. If you allow anarchy to reign in your country don't be surprised when it comes back to bite you in the butt. Who is to blame for that?

Before someone chimes in, I am for a Palestinian State along side Israel each living in safe and secure borders with mutual recognition. Both sides need to change the way they do business, but the Palestinians really need to stop with the blame game of blaming everybody except themselves for the situation they are in. I have yet to hear one major Palestinian leader say "We must accept some of the blame for the situation we are in". They continually make poor leadership decisions at the top level of government, which goes back to the vacuum that Arafat left when he died. When you think you are infallible it makes for a continuing tragedy. There is plenty of blame to go around, it's time for both sides to look in the mirror and blame themselves first for the situation then work to resolve it.

You do realize that the area we are discussing has been considered militarily occupied since 1967.
Thats longer then I have been alive.
Had I been born and grown up in Palestine I would have spent my entire life under military occupation.
Had I spent my entire life in my homeland under military occupation I would probably harbor more than a little resentment towards the occupying nation.
Seems to me a logical first step towards peace would be, hmmm, I dont know, withdraw the occupying forces?
How can you expect any Palestinian generation to work (or vote) towards peace when they were literally born and raised in a police state imposed on them by an occupying army?

Originally posted by pavil
.

As to you comment that the Palestinian government is incapable of policing it's own citizenry due to insufficient funding, again they have chosen to "look the other way" when it comes to terrorism in the Gaza and West Bank. Even when relations and money were better, the PA never tried to disarm groups in it's midst, don''t make it sound like they did. They allowed, Islamic Jihad, HAMAS, Al-asque martyrs and other groups to roam around with no restrictions. If you allow anarchy to reign in your country don't be surprised when it comes back to bite you in the butt. Who is to blame for that?

The results that you have been witnessing are the only results the Israelis would ever be satisfied with, so yes you are right, since the PA was never willing to kill innocent victims they will never get the same results that any Israeli government would be satisfied with. In comparison to IDF forces it would appear as though they were looking the other way, when in fact they were only seeking out those that were truly guilty of crimes.

With all these daily "Militant" and "terrorist" being killed on a daily basis you would figure that some people would be smart enough to say ...where are all these guys coming from and why isn't there so much more carnage then 1 qassam every few days. Its all a sham.

The "Homogenization" of the Palestinians has been a slow process. The PA made it even slower and Israel would not allow that. They want all Arabs out of Israel and they are becoming impatient after 60 years. You will soon see the true cause of Zionism unveiled starting with people like Avigdor Lieberman. The facade of Democracy was just a show to make people believe otherwise and help them along the way.

Israel should be giving the Palestinians that tax money period.

One of the posters mentioned Israel going into Lebanon...Uh, what were they suppose to do. hezbollah was shooting rockets and kidnapping soldiers. Is Israel suppose to sit on its butt, so the Iranian funded and supplied illegal militia, attacks a soverign nation. Tell Hezbollah to cut the crap out, and Israel won't touch Lebanon. But you forget to mention that.


But I do think Israel should pay the taxes to the Palestinians.

The Palestinians had an election fair and square. Many Western nations said, "Well, no more aid for you, as we don't like hamas. What are they going to do with this Aid?"

Don't cry when other people don't like your government *cough* like America *cough*. You elected it, and now suffer the consequences of the many in international community not liking you.

Hamas is going to have to find a way to support the Palestinian people, without the aid.

The pain Israel is causing by not giving the rightful tax money is wrong.

The countries involved were willing to work with Hamas until they said there would never be peace until Israel was gone. Also if they are so poor where are the hundreds of tons of weapons that are coming in every day cominig from or is it just weapon welfare from Syria or Egypt. Maybe Israel should just buy bombs with the money and give it back to them then that way and save them some time.

Originally posted by 11Bravo

Originally posted by denythestatusquo
Maybe the Israeli's are spending the money them selves because they asked the US for funding to cover their costs to go into Lebanon and bomb the living day lights out of that country.

They what? They wanted the US to fund their excursion into Lebanon?
Dont we already give them some crazy amount of money on a daily basis?

Seriously man. they asked for $US 2 Billion to cover their costs, I don't know if they got it or not. They likely did since they control Washington anyways.

It was not widely known but I came across it in one of the Israeli newspapers online it may have been Hareetz (sp?). You can search for yourself.

Israel is more important to Washington than the US is it appears.

Originally posted by 11Bravo
You do realize that the area we are discussing has been considered militarily occupied since 1967.
Thats longer then I have been alive.
Had I been born and grown up in Palestine I would have spent my entire life under military occupation.

I am aware that the territories have been occupied since 1948 if you want to get technical and since 1967 under Israeli military occupation. Yes I would be angry at Israel but I would be questioning my own leaders failed polices that have yet to succeed for the past 40 or so years.

The PA has done a miserable job running the West Bank and Gaza. Yeah I know Israel hasn't helped matters but even then they should be better off than they currently are. It's not all Israel's fault, some blame must be directed at the Palestinians themselves. If I wanted to get Israel out of my land and had eight or nine security forces, I would make darn sure that I kept order on my side.

The Palestinians now have an elected government led by a group that won't even acknowledge Israel's right to existence and you expect Israel to negotiate with them? Give me a break. Sorry but the Palestinians have to start blaming themselves instead of others for the current situation that they got themselves in.

Israel pulls out of the Gaza Strip and what happens? Gaza becomes a launching platform for attacks into Israel proper and gets Soldier's captured and HAMAS wins a free election in the territories. The Palestinians knew that if they elected HAMAS there would be hardships involved if Hamas did not explicitly acknowledge Israel's right to existence. They shot themselves in the foot and should be looking in the mirror before complaining about how the rest of the world is treating them.

I know this sounds like Palestinian bashing, and I don't mean it to, but can anyone tell me that the political leaders of the Palestinians have done a stellar or even average job in managing the situation?

Why is it a holy grail that Israel has a right to exist in the first place?

For thousands of years the Jews did not have a homeland and it was not an issue at all. Furthermore your own religion says that you should not have a homeland. You highest religious authorities say you should not have a homeland.

I used to believe in this lie but no longer.

The creation of Israel has frankly led to a great deal of instability in the world and a great deal of wasted resources on military expenditures just to make a very small population of pampered people happy. I fail to see the sense in this madness any longer.

Originally posted by ThePieMaN

The results that you have been witnessing are the only results the Israelis would ever be satisfied with, so yes you are right, since the PA was never willing to kill innocent victims they will never get the same results that any Israeli government would be satisfied with.

Ok. Simple question. Did the PA disarm any group of major militants when they had the chance? They never had the courage to take on this major task that they needed to do to establish real control with the Palestinian authority. That is the one of the major blunders the PA have made in regards to this situation.

Originally posted by sbob
One of the posters mentioned Israel going into Lebanon...Uh, what were they suppose to do. hezbollah was shooting rockets and kidnapping soldiers. Is Israel suppose to sit on its butt, so the Iranian funded and supplied illegal militia, attacks a soverign nation. Tell Hezbollah to cut the crap out, and Israel won't touch Lebanon. But you forget to mention that.

Hizbollah shot rockets at the soldiers on the border, not at the entirety of Israel. Israeli forces should have attacked the Hizbollah forces and not the entirety of Lebanon. The Hizbollah militants only began firing rockets into Israel proper about 1 day following their bombardment of Lebanese infrastructure and even then they told the Israelis that they only wanted to bargain for the Lebanese prisoners being held in Israel. (Which is one of the items covered in res 1701 the consideration of Lebanese prisoners held in Israel). Israeli troops went into Lebanon and took some of those people just like Hizbollah did.


Pie

Originally posted by denythestatusquo
Why is it a holy grail that Israel has a right to exist in the first place?

Not to want to go down this road again, but simply put, there are about 6M people in Israel now and about 4M in the West Bank and Gaza. Neither population is going to vanish, they must find a way to coexist. Why don't we just move all 10M people out of the area and put them somewhere else that is uninhabited?

Originally posted by denythestatusquo
Why is it a holy grail that Israel has a right to exist in the first place?

For thousands of years the Jews did not have a homeland and it was not an issue at all. Furthermore your own religion says that you should not have a homeland. You highest religious authorities say you should not have a homeland.

I used to believe in this lie but no longer.

The creation of Israel has frankly led to a great deal of instability in the world and a great deal of wasted resources on military expenditures just to make a very small population of pampered people happy. I fail to see the sense in this madness any longer.

Yes, ditto.
I used to believe this lie as well.
Besides, like you said its all right there in the black and white of the Bible.
But it also says that when you see the creation of Israel it is a sign of things to come.

Interesting thread. The Israeli/Palestinian conflict was tailor made for a message board about propaganda and conspiracy theories. But considering the high value many board members here place on objectivity and hard facts I am surprised by some reactions in this thread.

First of all I'd like to state that I am pro-Palestinian and first began learning about the conflict due to my outrage at Israel's treatment of Palestinians. Since then I have learned enough about the complexity of the situation to know that while neither side is blameless, neither side is truly acting out of greed or baseless hatred. The events that culminated in Israel's creation were global in nature and have as much to do with colonialism as WWII. Neither the Palestinians nor Israelis caused the problems they face. However it has been left to them to fix them.

The system of Israel collecting tax revenue on behalf of the PA was one of the articles in the Oslo accord. It is to Israel's credit that even after the PA chose to violate that accord by sparking the second intifada Israel continued to collect and deliver taxes. However, I fail to see how anyone could expect them to continue doing so now.

Some have accused Israel of hypocritically pushing for democracy only to punish the Palestinians when they voted for the "wrong" party. This is incorrect and it misses the point. Pushing for democracy is for the Palestinians own benefit. Democratizing was not a favor the Arabs did for Israel. (Rather, it was the opposite.) The great benefit of democracy is that you become responsible for your own destiny. Notice that the Israeli's did not prevent Hamas from running, nor did they disrupt the election. They allowed the Palestinians to choose their own government.

Furthermore, Palestine is not being punished for choosing Hamas. They are being punished for Hamas' actions. Hamas has refused to abide by peace treaties the PA signed and refuse to recognize Israel's right to exist. If Hamas should decide to respect their own peace treaties and remove the statement from their charter calling for Israel's destruction then Israel stated that they would end the aid embargo.

It is foolish and counterproductive to give Hamas a pass on their responsibilities. If
this were a dictatorship it would be one thing. But Hamas is a freely elected government and must be treated as such. What kind of message does it give them, (and the world) if we do not require Hamas to adhere to their treaties? Holding Hamas to a lower standard harms the peace process in the long term. Yes, I realize that Palestinians are dying for lack of medicine. This may sound trite, but it looks as though Hamas has some tough decisions to make. Israel can not be expected to aid a government that has invalidated their standing peace treaty and openly called for their destruction. No one ever said that aid should be unconditional. If it was unconditional, then what reason would Hamas have for making peace? Why buy the cow if you can get the milk for free?

well said Shaktimaan

Shakti

In regards to the election of Hamas. Hamas had called for a cease-fire and was abiding by it for a period of 14 months. Which was well before and well after election time. The Israelis began demonizing Hamas even before they had a chance to take office and to begin enforcing their own domestic policies. I don't see why it is so important that Israel have this immediate policy of "recognition" when the Palestinians themselves were never even given time to establish themselves as a state. If the israelis were smart, and only wanted to look out for their interest and the interest of their neighbors, it would best serve them to help them get on their feet , open their airport, allow some trade between the 2 countries and allow some healing time before they start making demands. Rather then make a deal to buy natural gas from palestine who has access to gas fields off their coast, they purchased the gas from Egypt who is purchasing the gas from the palestinians...foolish things like this are just showing them they they are not out to help the Palestinians thrive and progress. Remember Israel has had a 60 year head start in industry and trade. They before anyone else should be helping the Plestinians stand on their feet instead of cutting them off at the ankles every chance they get.

Originally posted by ThePieMaN
Shakti

They before anyone else should be helping the Palestinians stand on their feet instead of cutting them off at the ankles every chance they get.

Respectfully, when will it be time for the Palestinians to stand on their own feet? If they have fallen down, when does it become time for them to ask for and offer their own hand up looking for a hand in return. Why is it always the World's and Israel's responsibility to help them, can't they ever take steps to help themselves? They had a chance to disarm all the militia's and they chose not to.

Do you think the world would think less of the Palestinians if they were to actually pursure a policy of peace rather than one of violent confrontation. Why can't Hamas agree to recognize Israel's right to exist and also honor all previous agreements between Israel and the Palestininans? As I said before someone is going to have to make the first move toward peace again.