TV: PA seeks ‘urgent’ meeting with Israel official

Minister of Civil Affairs of the Palestinian Authority (PA) Hussein Al-Sheikh has been seeking an “urgent” meeting with Israeli Minister of Finance Moshe Kahlon, Israeli TV Channel 13 revealed yesterday.

During a telephone call with the channel, Al-Sheikh said that he wanted to arrange a meeting to discuss the “financial crisis” being experienced by the PA as a result of Israel’s withholding of Palestinian tax revenues.

He said that the PA hoped that Israel would form a government quickly after the elections in order to solve the issue of the outstanding money, which the PA refused to receive after Israel decided to deduct $138 million in an alleged effort to stop payments to the families of Palestinian martyrs and prisoners.

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Shehab News Agency reported political analysts saying that the PA “is depressed” because of the possibility that the head of the Likud Benjamin Netanyahu could form a unity government with the head of the Blue and White (Kahol Lavan) alliance Benny Gantz.

The PA, the analysts said, hoped that Gantz would form a left-centrist government that would move the peace process forward and reverse the decision to deduct the salaries of the families of prisoners and martyrs from the PA tax revenues.