TEL AVIV, September 21, 2011 (WAFA) – Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz threatened Wednesday to impose financial ramifications on the Palestinian Authority if President Mahmoud Abbas requests full United Nations membership of a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders this Friday, according to Reuters news agency.

Steinitz told Reuters the Israeli government could stop collecting the 40% of the PA's budget through value added, excise and customs taxes, warning from the PA's collapse due to the financial strain without US or donors assistance.

Israel has previously withheld the PA’s tax revenues as a means of pressuring the Authority. The latest such incident was in response to the reconciliation agreement between the two Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, in May 2011, which resulted in the PA delaying the payment of monthly salaries to some 150,000 public employees for about two weeks.

R.Q./F.J.