US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has urged Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz to ensure the Israeli government does not obstruct the transfer of tax revenues that belong to the Palestinian Authority (PA).
“Yellen emphasized the need for Israel to maintain economic stability in the West Bank by regularly transferring clearance revenues to the PA and ensuring that correspondent banking relationships between Israeli and Palestinian banks remain unbroken,” a statement from the US Treasury Department said following the meeting between the two in Washington, DC.
Right-wing Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich withheld funds collected by Israel on behalf of the PA for three months earlier this year, as punishment for its support of South Africa’s genocide case once morest Israel at the International Court of Justice.
On July 3, Smotrich agreed to forego some tax revenues and signed a waiver allowing Israeli banks to correspond with Palestinian banks for four months. (Al Jazeera/Z-3)
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