RAMALLAH /PNN /
The Palestinian Finance Ministry stated on Thursday that Israel was withholding approximately ILS 7 billion (equivalent to $1.917 billion) of clearance tax revenues for the period from 2019 to February 2025.
The Finance Ministry said that Israel, which refuses to transfer these funds to the State of Palestine, unilaterally deducted this sum under several flimsy pretexts. As part of this sum of tax revenues, Israel deducted ILS 2 billion under the claim that the funds were allocated to the Gaza Strip, ILS 3.7 billion claimed to be the allowances and stipends for the families of slain Palestinians and prisoners, in addition to ILS 1.2 billion in revenues from the departure tax on crossings to Jordan.
Since the onset of its genocidal aggression on Gaza in October 2023, the Ministry added, Israel has stepped up the financial penalties, raising the value of deductions from Palestine’s clearance revenues to over 50% of the total monthly clearance revenues and deliberately delaying the transfer of the remaining sum. As a result, the remaining sum of the revenues is now transferred after the middle of every month, exacerbating the fiscal crisis gripping the Palestinian government and limiting the government’s ability to disburse public servants’ monthly salaries and meet other financial obligations on time.
In addition, Israeli official sources reported that additional large sums are deducted from the withheld clearance tax revenues to compensate the families of Israeli “victims and casualties”.
According to the data issued by the Financial Ministry, Israel, the occupying power, deducted ILS 275 million claimed as equivalent to the allocations disbursed to Gaza in addition to ILS 52.6 million claimed as the allowances and stipends for the families of slain Palestinians and prisoners monthly.
It added that during the period from 2012 to February 2025, Israeli deductions from clearance funds amounted to ILS 20.6 billion, broken down as follows: ILS 12.5 billion for electricity, ILS 4 billion for water, ILS 1.3 billion for sewage, and ILS 3 billion for medical services.
The Ministry slammed the ongoing deductions and withholding of the remainder of the tax funds as an illegal action and a gross violation of all signed agreements, a step that has a direct adverse effect on the Palestinian economy and Palestinians’ livelihoods.
It pointed out that the government, in cooperation with international partners and relevant actors, continues to put pressure on Israel to release the withheld funds and halt the policy of illegal deductions.
