RAMALLAH, Wednesday, December 2, 2020 (WAFA) – For the first time since May, and after being paid only half salary or part of it for employees with low wages, Palestine’s 170,000 public employees are going to get tomorrow the full November salary, plus 50 percent of the unpaid sum. The remaining 50 percent will be paid with next month’s salary, today said the Palestinian Ministry of Finance.

The payment was made possible after Israel has today transferred to the Palestinian Finance Ministry the full amount of the tax revenues withheld since May, and which amounted to over $1 billion.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) stopped getting the tax revenues Israel collects on its behalf on goods entering its ports and destined to the Palestinian territories, which amounts to around $200 million a month, after it severed ties with Israel on May 19 and ended the work of the Israel liaison office.

The PA was objecting to Israeli plans to annex a large swath of the occupied West Bank. However, when Israel has recently shelved this plan and with a change in leadership in the United States, the PA decided to resume coordination and ties with Israel that led the latter to release the withheld funds.

The Finance Ministry said in its statement that it will continue talks with Israel over any remaining revenues not included in the current transfer, adding that it will also pay some of the outstanding debt to the private sector, mainly hospital and medical suppliers in order to face the coronavirus outbreak.

M.K.