Israel Imposes Sanctions Against Palestinians

April 29th, 2014

David Schulberg

Israeli officials have confirmed the implementation of a new round of sanctions against Palestinians today, nominally to punish them for signing the Geneva Convention and other UN agency accords.

The new sanctions include the revocation of building permits, and the authorization to install a cellphone network in the occupied West Bank, as well as freezing the funds belonging to Palestinians but held in Israeli banks. There will also be travel restrictions on all Palestinians above and beyond the usual ones.

In addition to the funds being frozen, Israel has also announced its intention to permanently increase the portion of the Palestinian tax money it seizes monthly to pay for electricity, a moot point since Israel often ends up seizing the whole thing on some other pretext.

The Palestinian Authority is said to be seeking emergency funding from the Arab League in response to the move, saying their financial coffers, always on the verge of being empty, are in even more trouble than usual because of the Israeli seizures, and they may miss salary payments to security forces.