RAMALLAH, Tuesday, April 02, 2019 (WAFA) – The Israeli Finance Ministry’s order deducing the stipends paid to the families of Palestinian prisoners in Israel in addition to those killed and injured by Israeli forces dominated the front page headlines in Tuesday’s issue of the three Palestinian Arabic dailies.
The dailies reported that Israeli Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon signed an order to deduct 42 million shekels (approximately $11.5 million) every month from the tax revenues that Israel collects on behalf the Palestinian Authority.
Al-Hayat al-Jadida and al-Ayyam also reported the Palestinian Finance Ministry announcing that the Palestinian Authority, for the second consecutive month, would pay only 50 percent of the March salary to civil servants.
They also reported that Palestinian Finance Ministry confirming that Palestinian prisoners and families of injured and killed Palestinians will be paid full stipends.
On the other hand, al-Quds opted to highlight expanding Israeli settler-colonialism in the occupied Palestinian territories in its main front page news item.
It said that Israeli occupation authorities are expected to retroactively authorize 99 percent of settlement outposts across the West Bank ]within two to three years[ and announce the construction of 20 new Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
This was highlighted in the Israeli Yesh Din human rights organization’s report titled The Age of Regularization- The Zandberg Committee Expropriation Report for Retroactive Authorization of Israeli Outposts and Illegal Construction in the Settlements: Analysis, Ramifications and Implementation.
The dailies also spotlighted Israel’s plan to accommodate 250,000 settlers in the occupied Golan Heights.
Additionally, the dailies reported that Israeli settlers punctured the tires of several Palestinian vehicles and spray-painted racist anti-Palestinian graffiti on vehicles and walls in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina.
Al-Quds said that Israeli forces sealed off the entrances to Aboud and Nabi Saleh villages, northwest of Ramallah.
Al-Quds and al-Ayyam added that Israeli forces also closed the entrance to the northern West Bank village of Izbat at-Tabib near Qalqilia.
Al-Ayyam said that Israeli forces rounded up eight Palestinians in multiple overnight raids across the West Bank.
Focusing on Jerusalem, al-Quds said Israeli police banned a Waqf-appointed guard access to Al-Aqsa Mosque compound ]for 15 days[ and detained a Palestinian from the Jerusalem neighborhood of al-Eissawiya.
It added that a Palestinian lawyer has submitted an appeal against Israel’s plan to install and operate a cable car around Jerusalem’s Old City.
According to al-Ayyam, Israeli troops shot a Palestinian and caused dozens others to suffocate from tear gas during a raid that triggered confrontations in the northern West Bank city of Jenin.
Regarding Egypt’s efforts to defuse tensions in Gaza, al-Quds said that the Egyptian delegation left Gaza following a three-hour meeting with Hamas leadership.
Al-Ayyam elaborated that the Egyptian delegation briefed Hamas leaders about Israel’s responses on the demand for a timeframe for the implementation of the Israeli pledges towards Gaza.
Moreover, al-Quds and al-Ayyam printed a translation for the AFP’s report Palestinians see little hope in Israeli elections.
Al-Quds also spotlighted American diplomat Dennis Ross’ opinion piece Golan policy may invite Israel’s right to annex West Bank territory. That would spell disaster. Ross’ opinion piece was posted in the American daily newspapers Washington Post.
It also covered a Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor’s report detailing Israel’s human rights abuses against Palestinians in East Jerusalem.
According to al-Ayyam, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry summoned the Palestinian ambassadors to Brazil and Hungary over Brazil and Hungary’s Jerusalem embassies move.
It said that Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails threaten to go on an open-ended hunger strike starting from Sunday April 7th.
It highlighted the Arab Organization for Human Rights in the UK’s statement revealing that 32-year-old Palestinian Mahran Baajour was subjected to enforced disappearance and torture by Mossad agents in Ghana since his arrest on 13 December 2018 until his release in March 2019.
In addition, al-Hayat al-Jadida said that Palestine hosted an international roundtable on public administration, an event which was attended by ministers from 35 states.
K.F.
