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Palestinian Authority owes Israeli energy company £175 million

February 10, 2014 at 2:22 pm

Israeli Energy and Water Minister, Silvan Shalom, met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss the Palestinian Authority’s debts to the Israeli National Electricity Company.


Israeli newspaper Maariv said that the debts were nearly NIS 1billion (£175million). The meeting comes one week after an official warning to the Palestinian Authority by the Israeli National Electricity Company over its debts.

According to the newspaper, the level of debts is unprecedented. It said that most of the debts are owed by Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank through the Jerusalem Company for Distributing Energy.

Former Israeli Financial Minister, Yuval Steinitz, previously decided to stop transferring Palestinian tax revenues to the Palestinians Authority. In the wake of the UN recognition of Palestine as a non-member state in last November, he said this money should go to Israeli energy companies.

Netanyahu continued the block on the tax money although Palestinians agreed to go ahead with peace talks through American mediation.