December 2, 2012

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s Cabinet approved a resolution that rejects the United Nation’s vote to upgrade the Palestinian’s status, and said it would not transfer tax payments to the Palestinian Authority.

The resolution adopted on Sunday at the regular weekly Cabinet meeting said in part: “The Jewish people have natural, historical, legal rights to its homeland with its eternal capital Jerusalem. The state of Israel as the state of the Jewish people has rights and claims to areas that are under dispute in the land of Israel.”

The resolution also said that last week’s U.N. vote will not be used as the basis for future peace negotiations. 

“The Palestinian Authority’s one-sided step at the U.N. constitutes a gross violation of the agreements that have been signed with the State of Israel; accordingly, the Government of Israel rejects the U.N. General Assembly decision,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the meeting.

Also on Sunday, Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said that he would not transfer tax payments collected by Israel on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, as part of the punitive measures taken in the wake of the U.N. General Assembly vote to grant the Palestinians non-member observer state status.

Instead, Steinitz said, he would use the money “to offset their debt to the Electric Corporation.”

Israel collects taxes and customs duties on goods imported into the West Bank on behalf of the P.A. in the amount of about $100 million a month.

It is not the first time that Israel has frozen payments to the Palestinian Authority.
 

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