Arab Parliament urges France to pressure Israel to release Palestinian tax, customs revenues

CAIRO, July 3 (MENA) - Arab Parliament Speaker Mishaal al Salami urged France to practice pressure on Israel to release all Palestinian tax and customs revenues it is withholding.

In messages from Salami to the French president and the heads of the French National Assembly and the Senate, he lauded the French stances towards the Palestinian cause, noting that France was the country that brokered Paris Protocol, a framework agreement inked in 1994 establishing the interim-period economic relations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA).

Paris Protocol was one of the consequences of the Oslo Accords signed between Palestinians and Israel in the mid 1990s, which has created the formation of the PA, regulating its finances and tax system.

According to the protocol, Israel collects taxes on behalf of the PA in the occupied territories, and transfers the revenues generated from them to the PA.

By refusing to transfer Palestinian tax revenues, Israel grossly violates the terms of the protocol, which does not put any restrictions on how Palestinians spend their own revenues.

Salami asserted that the Arab Parliament totally rejects that Israel deduct part of the revenues of the Palestinian taxes and customs it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, adding that Israel has no right to take from this Palestinian money.

He urged the international community to shoulder its responsibility toward protecting the Palestinian rights and take the necessary and effective measures to restore the frozen Palestinian funds from Israel.