Jerusalem: IsraelAfter a rare meeting with the Palestinian president, the defense minister on Wednesday approved a series of measures aimed at improving relations with the Palestinians. Mahmood Abbas in Israel.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz met Abbas At his private residence in the Tel Aviv suburb late Tuesday. It was the first time since 2010 that Abbas met an Israeli official inside Israel. The two discussed security coordination between Israel and Abbas’s Palestinian Authority, which administers the occupied territories. Western coast,
Gantz’s office said he approved “confidence-building measures”, including the transfer of tax payments to the Palestinian Authority, the authorization of hundreds of permits for Palestinian businessmen and VIPs, and residency for thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Involves approving the situation.
Israel collects millions of dollars in taxes on behalf of the PA as part of interim peace agreements signed in the 1990s.
Tax transfers are a major source of funding for cash-strapped Palestinians, but Israel has withheld funds on payments of PA stipends to thousands of families of relatives killed, wounded or imprisoned in conflict. Israel says the payments encourage terrorism, while Palestinians say they provide vital aid to families in need.
Israel approved residency for about 9,500 Palestinians. Israel controls the Palestinian Population Registry, and over the years its policies have left an estimated tens of thousands of Palestinians without legal status, severely limiting their freedom of movement, even within the occupied territories. . Israel granted legal status to some 4,000 Palestinians in October.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is opposed to the Palestinian state. His government has shown no interest in reviving peace talks that broke down more than a decade ago, but has said it wants to ease tensions by improving living conditions in the West Bank. Recent months have seen an increase in violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank and Palestinian attacks on Israelis in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Gantz’s meeting with Abbas – the second in six months since Bennett’s coalition government came to power – drew vociferous criticism from Israel’s opposition lawmakers, including former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, the largest in parliament.
The Palestinians want an independent state that includes all of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, a territory occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.
Hamas captured Gaza from Abbas’ forces in 2007, a year after the Islamic terrorist group won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections. Since then Gaza has been under an Israeli-Egyptian blockade.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz met Abbas At his private residence in the Tel Aviv suburb late Tuesday. It was the first time since 2010 that Abbas met an Israeli official inside Israel. The two discussed security coordination between Israel and Abbas’s Palestinian Authority, which administers the occupied territories. Western coast,
Gantz’s office said he approved “confidence-building measures”, including the transfer of tax payments to the Palestinian Authority, the authorization of hundreds of permits for Palestinian businessmen and VIPs, and residency for thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Involves approving the situation.
Israel collects millions of dollars in taxes on behalf of the PA as part of interim peace agreements signed in the 1990s.
Tax transfers are a major source of funding for cash-strapped Palestinians, but Israel has withheld funds on payments of PA stipends to thousands of families of relatives killed, wounded or imprisoned in conflict. Israel says the payments encourage terrorism, while Palestinians say they provide vital aid to families in need.
Israel approved residency for about 9,500 Palestinians. Israel controls the Palestinian Population Registry, and over the years its policies have left an estimated tens of thousands of Palestinians without legal status, severely limiting their freedom of movement, even within the occupied territories. . Israel granted legal status to some 4,000 Palestinians in October.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is opposed to the Palestinian state. His government has shown no interest in reviving peace talks that broke down more than a decade ago, but has said it wants to ease tensions by improving living conditions in the West Bank. Recent months have seen an increase in violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank and Palestinian attacks on Israelis in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Gantz’s meeting with Abbas – the second in six months since Bennett’s coalition government came to power – drew vociferous criticism from Israel’s opposition lawmakers, including former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party, the largest in parliament.
The Palestinians want an independent state that includes all of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, a territory occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.
Hamas captured Gaza from Abbas’ forces in 2007, a year after the Islamic terrorist group won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections. Since then Gaza has been under an Israeli-Egyptian blockade.
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