The United Nations (UN) on Thursday demanded that Israel unlock millions of dollars in taxes it collected for the Palestinian Authority (PA) and froze as a penalty, in response to the PA applying to join the International Criminal Court (ICC) in breach of the Oslo Accords to sue Israel.
A senior UN official claimed to the UN Security Council that the freeze of about $127 million imposed on January 3 was in violation of the Oslo Accords. He failed to mentioned that the ICC application was itself a breach, as were the numerous unilateral PA requests to join international treaties that accompanied it.
“We call on Israel to immediately resume the transfer of tax revenues,” said UN Assistant Secretary-General Jens Anders Toyberg-Frandzen.
The UN’s criticism joins the bandwagon after the US and European Union (EU) already slammed Israel’s move, with both parties remaining notably silent regarding the PA application to ICC that triggered the Israeli response.
Regarding the frozen funds, there have been suggestions to use that money to pay off the 1.4 billion shekels (over $360 million) in unpaid electric bills the PA owes Israel, as part of its more than $4.8 billion in debt.
The 15-member UN Security Council was meeting to discuss the Middle East, after last month voting down a unilateral PA resolution demanding statehood and Israeli withdrawals – which itself was a unilateral breach of the Oslo Accords.
The UN official told the council that recent developments had further reduced prospects for reviving Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Israel and the PA are “now engaged in a downward spiral of actions and counter-actions,” claimed Toyberg-Frandzen.
The council was meeting as Arab foreign ministers gathered in Cairo decided to make yet another attempt at a UN resolution demanding Israel’s withdrawal from eastern Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.
Several Arab countries were tasked with what the Arab league described as “the necessary communications and consultations to submit a new Arab proposal to the Security Council.”
The United States and Australia voted against the last unilateral resolution, while France, Russia and China were among eight countries that backed the resolution and five others abstained, leaving it one vote short of the nine required for adoption.
Even if it had passed, the resolution was predicted to be shot down by a US veto.
A renewed resolution proposal may have different results next time, however, as five countries with stronger anti-Israel stances started their term at the Security Council this month. Those five are Angola, Malaysia, New Zealand, Spain and Venezuela.
AFP contributed to this report.
Leave a Reply