A senior Palestinian Authority (PA) official announced on Wednesday that the PA refused to receive the tax revenue dues from Israel because it had ended all agreements with Israel, the Xinhua news agency reported.
Hussein Al-Sheikh, the PA “minister of civil affairs”, tweeted that "we confirm our rejection to the money of the tax revenue dues from Israel."
"Refusing to receive the money is an implementation of the Palestinian leadership's decision that all agreements and understandings reached with the Israeli government ended," he wrote.
Israel's security cabinet last year approved the freezing of 507,697,000 shekels ($140,350,300) from the tax money it collects on behalf of the PA over the PA’s payments to terrorists who carried out attacks against Israelis and their families.
The PA then angrily announced that it had returned the tax revenues to Israel after it deducted 41 million shekels from them. PA officials made clear that it would be “all or nothing”, that is they will receive the full tax revenues from Israel or will accept none.
Earlier this week, however, Channel 13 News reported that Israel had stopped offsetting the PA's payments to terrorists.
PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas announced recently that the PA was no longer bound by the agreements it signed with Israel and the US, including the security coordination with Israel.
The decision came in response to the coalition agreement between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz, which stipulates that the government can apply sovereignty over Judea and Samaria in July.