RAMALLAH, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian Authority condemned on Sunday the Israeli security cabinet's approval of cutting over 138 million U.S. dollars from its tax revenues that PA pays to Palestinians jailed in Israeli prisons.
"The deduction from the Palestinian clearing funds is totally rejected and it is considered a piracy of the money of the Palestinian people," said Nabil Abu Rudeineh, PA presidential spokesman, in an official press statement.
"President Mahmoud Abbas always stresses that we will not accept any harm to the livelihood of our heroes, the prisoners and the families of martyrs and wounded," Abu Rudeineh added.
"This is an arbitrary unilateral decision that blows up the signed agreements," he stressed.
Under interim peace deals signed in Paris in 1996, Israel collects taxes on behalf of the PA, which puts the current monthly sum at 222 million dollars. Since the negotiations stalled in 2014, Israel has at times withheld money as a measure of protest or pressure.
Meanwhile, Qadri Abu Bakker, chairman of the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs in Palestine Liberation Organization, said the Israeli decision was approved "with the comprehensive support of the U.S. government."
"Israel is working on undermining the issue of the Palestinian prisoners and the legitimacy of their national struggle and to show the prisoners as terrorists," Abu Bakkar said.
"The PA will continue to pay the prisoners," he added.
