JERUSALEM // The Palestinian negotiator in peace talks with Israel said on Friday that the Israeli decision to stop tax money transfers to the territories was “piracy”.
Israel collects about US$100 million (Dh360.7m) a month in taxes for the Palestinians and said it would withhold the money to punish them for pushing to sign up for more recognition from international agencies and treaties.
Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said that “the Israeli decision to withhold these funds is piracy. ... It cannot be maintained”. He also said talks persist, though “gaps remain big.”
The talks have teetered since Israel failed to release Palestinian prisoners as promised and moved forward with more settlements in land Palestinians want for their future capital.
The Palestinians received a boost on Friday when the Swiss government said they can join the Geneva Conventions governing the rules of war and military occupations.
Israel had opposed the move, arguing that there is no universally recognised Palestinian state.
The Palestinian Authority signed letters of accession to several international treaties after Israel failed to carry out a planned prisoner release that had a March deadline. On Thursday, the United Nations said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon accepted Palestinian applications to join 13 other UN conventions.
Switzerland, as the depository of the Geneva Conventions, said “the state of Palestine” acceded to the conventions effective April 2.
One aspect of the Geneva Conventions that has raised particular concern in Israel is the prohibition on colonising occupied land. Israel claims this should not apply to the West Bank and Gaza because the two territories exist in sovereignty limbo — no longer claimed by Jordan and Egypt, who ruled them before 1967, while the Palestinians have never had a state.
Israel has also argued that East Jerusalem should not be considered occupied because it has extended citizenship rights to its Arab residents, although only several thousand of the city’s quarter million Arab residents have taken advantage of this. The international community has not recognised Israel’s annexation.
The Palestine Liberation Organisation first asked to join the Geneva Conventions on June 21, 1989. At the time, the Swiss Foreign Ministry said it was not in a position to decide on the bid “due to the uncertainty within the international community as to the existence or non-existence of a State of Palestine”.
The UN General Assembly passed a motion on November 29, 2012, upgrading Palestine to a “non-member observer state” of the global body.
As the peace talks continue to falter, a key partner in Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition threatened to pull out of the government if a deal to salvage peace talks with the Palestinians includes the release of Israeli-Arab prisoners.
The ultimatum by economy minister Naftali Bennett, who heads the ultranationalist Jewish Home party, further complicates US efforts to keep fraught negotiations from collapsing.
Mr Bennett’s party has 12 of the 68 seats in ruling coalition, and should it quit, Mr Netanyahu would have to find new allies to maintain a working majority in the 120-seat parliament.
There was no immediate comment from Mr Netanyahu’s office, but senior members of his right-wing Likud party dismissed Bennett’s announcement as an “empty threat”.
Bennett says the Palestinians should not have any say in how Israel deals with its own citizens. “The emerging deal, if it includes the release of murderers with Israeli citizenship, damages Israeli sovereignty,” Mr Bennett said.
“If the proposal passes, the Jewish Home will quit the government,” he said.
* Associated Press with additional reporting by Reuters
