Israel’s Finance Ministry has persuaded the Palestinian Authority to pay its mammoth electricity bill, totaling some NIS 2 billion (around $528 million) in debt.
The agreement was reached following recent talks between officials at the Finance Ministry and representatives of the Palestinian Authority, according to a report published Wednesday by the Hebrew-language edition of Israel Hayom.
For decades, no attempt was made to pay the bill, and no Israeli government succeeded in forcing the Ramallah government to make good on the debt.
At the end, Israeli citizens were forced to pay the tab with higher rates resulting from the unpaid bills for the Israel Electric Company electricity supplied to Palestinian Authority lines and supplies servicing Arabs in Judea and Samaria.
Now Israel must wait to see whether their discussions were simply “talking the talk.”
