BETHLEHEM, May 1, 2011 (WAFA) – Prime Minister Salam Fayyad Sunday criticized an Israeli decision to freeze taxes and customs revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA), stressing he will not be deterred by this action.

Israeli Finance Minister, Yuval Steinitz, Sunday said that the Israeli government has decided to withhold transfer to the PA of $90 million of tax funds and customs fees that Israel collects on the Palestinians’ behalf due to the unity agreement reached on Wednesday between Fatah and Hamas.

Asked by WAFA about the impact of the Israeli act on the PA, Fayyad, who was in Bethlehem to attend special ceremonies for the beatification of the late Pope John Paul II, said: “We certainly will not stop at these threats. We are in contact with influential international parties to dissuade Israel from proceeding with this act.”

He said this decision “will not deter us from moving forward to end the division, restore national unity, and to establish our independent state.”

“Ending the division and achieving reconciliation is our goal and we should unite and redouble efforts to achieve that,” he said.

Saeb Erekat, member of the PLO executive committee, described the Israeli step as “a systematic policy designed to destroy the peace process and to abort international efforts to establish a Palestinian state.”

“Israel has been talking in the past that there is no Palestinian partner to negotiate with because of the split between the West Bank and Gaza,” he said. “Now after reconciliation, it claims that the funds of the Palestinian people will go to terrorism.”

Erekat said that “the Palestinian leadership was in direct contact with world leaders to inform them that Israel aims to use the pretext of reconciliation to sabotage the peace process the world is trying to re-launch.”

He said the Palestinian Authority had not received any official information from the Israeli government indicating that it has decided to stop transferring the tax revenues.

Political advisor to President Mahmoud Abbas, Nimer Hammad, said that Israel’s decision to freeze Palestinian tax revenues intends to disrupt the Palestinian reconciliation and keep the de facto situation, which serves its interest.

He said the answer to this threat is to speed up formation of the Palestinian government so that the world will see who will be in it and its platform. “Israel cannot take a unilateral stand against this government,” he said.

Hammad said President Abbas took into consideration all possibilities when he agreed to end division. He is determined to end the division and to put together a governmental no one can oppose, he said.

Israeli Finance Minister Steinitz said he instructed his ministry’s representatives not to attend the meetings scheduled for Sunday with PA officials to discuss transfer of $90 million collected last month as value added tax on goods imported by Palestinians and destined to the Palestinian Territory, but entering through Israeli ports.

Israel had withheld transfer of tax revenues twice in the past. The first time was during the second Palestinian intifada (uprising) that began in 2000. It however resumed transfers after Abbas became president in 2005. The second time was in 2006 when Hamas had formed the Palestinian government after its victory in legislative elections. Israel resumed transfers when Fayyad formed a government without Hamas in 2007.

Israel transfers every month around $100 million in taxes and customs, which is normally used to pay salaries for public employees. The money was supposed to be transferred this week but apparently would now remain in Israeli hands.

Y.Y./M.A.