RAMALLAH, Monday, March 14, 2022 (WAFA) – Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh met today in Ramallah with a delegation from Harvard University during which he briefed them on the challenges faced by the Palestinian Authority (PA) due to Israel’s ongoing unjust deductions from Palestinian tax revenues.

He said that Israel’s unfair deductions put the PA in a monthly financial deficit which affects its ability to fulfill its obligations toward the Palestinian people only because PA takes care of the families of Palestinians who were killed by Israeli forces.

“We have no reason to be optimistic from the Israeli government whose prime minister had three nos; no for meeting with President Mahmoud Abbas, no for negotiations, and no for the establishment of a Palestinian state,” Shtayyeh told the US delegation consisting of 300 students.

“This [Israeli] government does not want a two-state solution, nor a one-state solution; what it wants is a continuation of the deteriorating status quo,” added the premier.

“Racism in Israel is through legislation and practice, and its claim that it is a democratic state is propaganda because legislation to kill and occupy is not a democracy,” said Shtayyeh.

The Prime Minister stressed that double standards in the international community must end, and international law and UN resolutions with respect to the Palestinian issue must be applied. “Palestine has been suffering for the past 74 years and none of the UN resolutions have been implemented,” he said.

T.R.