Israel to Withhold $180 Million in Taxes Owed to Palestinians Due to Prisoner Salaries

On Sunday, the Israeli government announced that it would withhold $180 million in tax revenues collected on behalf of the Palestinian Authority last year, which accounts for about seven percent of the total tax revenues owed to the Authority. Under a law enacted in 2018, Israel annually calculates what it believes the Palestinian Authority has paid in salaries to prisoners and families of conflict victims and deducts this amount from the taxes it collects on behalf of the Palestinians. The taxes collected by Israel constitute nearly half of the income of the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israel describes the salaries given to activists and their families as a "pay-for-slay" policy that encourages violence. Palestinians, on the other hand, celebrate prisoners and refer to them as heroes in their struggle for an independent state, asserting that their families deserve support. Qadri Abu Bakr, head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization's Commission of Prisoners' Affairs, described the Israeli action as an act of "terrorism and extortion." Abu Bakr stated, "These racist actions and the policy of confiscating part of the tax revenues of the State of Palestine... under the pretext that they are paid as salaries to prisoners and their families, as well as to the families of martyrs, will only increase the leadership and the Palestinian people's determination to support these fighters who defend their homeland with their lives and years."