PA returns 'secretly-received millions of shekels' to Israel

The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) has returned “millions of shekels” to Israel, which the latter had secretly-transferred to the Fatah movement, Israel’s Channel 7 announced yesterday.

“The Israeli government has secretly-transferred millions of shekels to the PA in order to help alleviate its financial crisis and to prevent the Palestinian leadership from collapsing,” the channel said, explaining that the PA “had refused to receive the transaction and had returned the money.”

The Israeli channel pointed out that “the return of funds by the PA was the centre of the discussion during the Sunday meeting between the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s and his finance minister Moshe Kahlon.”

For more than two months, the PA has been refusing to receive the clearing monies from Israel after the latter’s decision to deduct 41.8 million shekels from the salaries of the Palestinian prisoners and martyrs. The leadership has repeatedly stressed it would never receive the clearing money “if it was a penny short.”

The PA is yet to comment on the Israeli statements.

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