JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s finance minister transferred $115 million that Israel collected for the Palestinian Authority to the Israel Electric Corp.
Yuval Steinitz sent the money scheduled for a December transfer to the electric firm on Wednesday. The collected taxes that Israel withheld from the Palestinian Authority in the wake of its successful request to upgrade its status at the United Nations was used to offset the PA’s hundreds of millions of shekels of debt to the company.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman on Tuesday had said that Israel would withhold transferring collected tax monies to the PA until at least March. Israel collects income tax from Palestinians working in Israel, as well as import duties for the PA.
It is not the first time that Israel has withheld tax payments to the PA.
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