Ramallah /PNN/ 

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Riyad al-Maliki said today that the Palestinian leadership is considering a legal and political response to the vindictive measures recently announced by the far-right Israeli government against the Palestinian people.

On Friday, the Israeli Ministerial Committee on National Security Affairs ordered the transferring of approximately NIS 139 million (nearly $39 million) from Palestinian Authority tax funds to the so-called “Israeli victims of terrorism”, in response to Palestine’s pursuit at the UN General Assembly of an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on the illegality of the Israeli occupation.

The Israeli Ministerial Committee also ordered offsetting of the welfare payments made by the Palestinian governments to the Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails and the families of Palestinians killed by Israeli occupation forces in 2022.

"The Israeli occupation’s measures violate international law, and come in response to the State of Palestine’s natural and legal right to get rid of the decades-long occupation," al-Maliki told official Voice of Palestine radio.

He added, "In an [identical] letter to foreign ministries around the world, we will call for a clear position on these measures, so that the Occupying Power [Israel] will realize that it is not fully free to act as it pleases."

He explained that work is underway to build an international public opinion against the occupying regime by exposing its crimes before the countries of the world.

 For his part Ahmad Majdalani, member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), said today the recently announced Israeli measures against the Palestinian people amount to collective punishment.

Speaking to the Voice of Palestine radio, Majdalani warned of an imminent “explosion in the situation”, adding that Palestine’s diplomatic and legal action at the international level will continue to achieve justice.

Majdalani expressed his fear that there is no longer a political horizon with the Israeli government that is seeking to impose a fait accompli policy and divide Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third holiest place, between Muslims and Jews.

The PLO official affirmed the Palestinian Authority’s commitment to the conditions of the Quartet on the Middle East, saying Israel refuses to recognize the agreements signed between the two sides.