Israel’s finance minister threatens to confiscate additional Palestinian tax revenues

Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has threatened to withhold further Palestinian tax revenues from the Palestinian Authority, announcing the preparation of what he described as a “national emergency plan” over waste burning in the occupied West Bank.

In a statement released on Thursday, Smotrich said he had held an “emergency meeting” with Israel’s defence minister, Yisrael Katz, to discuss what he referred to as the “threat of burning Arab waste in the West Bank”.

He claimed the issue was “more widespread and dangerous than has been described so far”, describing it as a “serious and ongoing threat to environmental quality, quality of life and the health of the region’s residents”.

Smotrich said he was committed to “eliminating the phenomenon through strict enforcement, waste removal, harsh and painful fines, and, of course, by imposing the costs on the Palestinian Authority”.

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He announced the preparation of an “immediate and long-term” emergency plan, which includes defining the issue as a national security threat and implementing administrative measures through military orders. These measures would involve the confiscation and permanent seizure of Palestinian waste collection trucks.

The plan also includes allocating “unlimited budgets” to recruit private-sector contractors and heavy equipment to extinguish fires and remove waste, with the costs deducted directly from Palestinian Authority funds.

In previous years, Israeli occupation authorities obstructed a German-funded project to establish a landfill near Ramallah in the central West Bank. The project was blocked after Israel demanded that nearby settlements also be allowed to use the landfill, a condition rejected by Germany.

“Clearance revenues” refer to taxes and customs duties levied on goods imported into the Palestinian territories, either through Israel or via border crossings controlled by Tel Aviv. These funds are collected by Israel on behalf of the Palestinian Authority and have repeatedly been withheld or deducted as a form of political pressure.

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