RAMALLAH, Wednesday, February 20, 2019 (WAFA) - President Mahmoud Abbas said today that he will not accept the tax revenues Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinians if they were short by one penny.
He also said that the decision of the Israeli government to deduct money from the Palestinian tax revenues, which he described as piracy, under the pretext it was paid to the families of prisoners and those killed by Israel is part of the Israeli policy to strangulate the Palestinians in order to implement the “deal of shame,” in reference to the American-sponsored deal of the century.
He told a meeting for the committee charged with following up the implementation of the decisions of the Palestinian Central Council held at the presidential headquarters in Ramallah that this decision is a nail in the coffin of the Paris economic agreement and a clear abandonment of all the signed agreements. “It means that Israel is violating all the agreements we signed with it and not just the Paris Protocols,” he said.
The President stressed his rejection of what he described as the “unjust decision,” saying, “we assert that we will not receive the money short by one penny. We will not accept it at all. Either we get all our money and our rights, or we will not accept even one penny from it. As long as they have pirated some of it, let them steal the rest of it.”
He stressed that “the issue of the families of the martyrs and prisoners is one of our highest priorities and that any amount of money available to us will be allocated to them so that everyone understands that the martyrs, the prisoners and the wounded are the greatest and most honorable of our people.”
He called on world governments to shoulder their responsibilities toward Israel’s abandonment of the agreements, warning against “the serious consequences of the deadlock in peace and the continuation of the Israeli government in its actions and crimes against our people, not just the government, but also the settlers backed by the Israeli occupation army.”
The president appreciated the position of the European Union, which called on Israel to respect the signed agreements, and said: "This position means that there are voices that stand with justice, and these voices come from Europe. They know that we are right and we are always right, but when a voice like this comes from Europe, it confirms that they stand on the side of right, even in principle and in a simple manner."
He said that the leadership is currently considering taking several steps for economic disengagement from Israel and other decisions, “which means that all doors are open and not only with regard to the economy, but security, politics and others.”
He said, addressing the meeting: "You have the right to discuss, study and make the necessary decisions in this regard. You are the highest leadership of the Palestinian people and the decision-makers. Say what you like and what public interest dictates. Then we have to implement all what will be decided. We will also go to international judicial parties to sue the occupying state for stealing the money of the Palestinian people.”
He stressed that the conditions the Palestinian cause is going through now require everyone to act with full responsibility for the interest of the Palestinian people.
President Abbas criticized the Palestinian factions that doubt the role of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the legitimate and sole representative of the Palestinian people, saying that “those who do not believe in it, as what happened in Moscow by some factions, can stay outside and we will not deal with them. I declare by my name and on behalf of the PLO and Fatah, we will not meet with those who doubt the PLO as the legitimate and sole representative, or do not accept it this or that.”
He pointed out that Israel issues every day decisions and initiates laws aimed at eliminating Palestinian national rights.
He said that the Israeli decision issued today to build thousands of new settlement units in Jerusalem as well as the escalation and attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque come in the context of the racist actions aimed at forcing Palestinian surrender and to sell Jerusalem. “They will not succeed in this,” he said, criticizing the US administration for its decisions on Jerusalem and others, which he said “are null and void.”
He reiterated the Palestinian firm positions of rejecting to meet with the US administration unless it retracts its positions and decisions. “We will not accept the US as the sole mediator of the Palestinian cause, but only within the framework of an international committee emanating from an international conference. Other than this, we do not trust them as mediators after they have proven to all of us and to the world that they are totally biased toward the Israeli occupiers.”
M.K.
