Minister calls for ousting PA if it seeks arrest warrants for Israel war criminals

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said that the Palestinian Authority must be toppled if it continues to seek recognition at the UN and the arrest of Israelis by international bodies, local media reported yesterday.

The far-right finance minister said if the Palestinian Authority (PA) continues its efforts to seek international recognition of a Palestinian state and to obtain international arrest warrants against Israelis for the war in Gaza, the transfer of tax revenue to them will be halted.

In an open letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Smotrich warned that if orders are issued to arrest senior Israeli officials and soldiers, he will halt the transfer of funds to the PA.

The PA “draws encouragement and legitimacy for its actions from the [US] Biden administration’s turning its back on Israel in legal contexts through the imposition of sanctions on the settlers, and apparently also on the IDF, as well as from the harsh tones of the leaders of European countries against Israel in the context of the war in Gaza,” the Times of Israel quoted Smotrich saying.

Under the terms of the 1993 Oslo Accords, Israel collects tax on behalf of the Palestinians and makes monthly transfers to the PA pending the approval of the Ministry of Finance. Tel Aviv has repeatedly withheld some or all of the tax money claiming it is being used to “fund terrorism” without providing evidence for its claims.

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