Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Ashtayeh on Sunday declared, regarding the tax revenue Israel is collecting for the PA, from which it cuts an amount equal to the PA’s salaries to terrorists behind bars and their families: “Israel continues to hold our money and we continue to refuse to receive these funds.”
He then added: “Under the guidance of President Abu Mazen, we will pay 60% of the salaries this month.” By “president” he meant chairman, and by “Abu Mazen” he meant Mahmoud Abbas.
According to Ashtayeh, for the month of June, each government employee earning 2,000 shekel ($560) or less in Judea, Samaria and Gaza will receive his entire pay.
The rest will receive 60% of their salaries, according to the PM, who warned, according to Ma’an, that “the allowances will not be paid to those who do not deserve it in the West Bank and Gaza.”
This is probably code for Hamas-affiliated government employees.
Terrorists behind bars in Israel, however, will get the whole shebang, according to Ashtayeh, who vowed: “We will honor our commitments to the prisoners and the families of the martyrs, and we salute the employees for their patience, and ask the private sector to understand them.”
That’s a call to local groceries to open tabs for government employees who are too broke to feed their families.
“The Cabinet has decided to set up a financial legal team to follow up all cases of piracy by Israel, be it the crossings tax, cuts of workers’ wages, electricity, water, sewage, medical transfers and oil taxes,” the PM announced.
With the same breath, Ashtayeh celebrated what he saw as the failure of the Bahrain conference, which schemed to interject some $50 billion into the area, half of which could go to the PA for major, jobs-rich infrastructure projects.
He then announced an important meeting between his own failed government and the second-poorest economy in the region: “At the beginning of next week, the Jordanian-Palestinian Higher Ministerial Committee will be held to coordinate and promote trade, industrial, educational, health, oil and oil issues,” Shtayeh said.
Stay away from Ramallah municipal bonds…