In what is being described as a most “substantial” move on the ground in years, the Israeli military has cordoned off the entire metro area of the West Bank city of Hebron, putting some 700,000 people under a state of military blockade after a pair of Israelis were reported killed in terror attacks in the past 48 hours.
That’s just the first step in what appears to be a series of broad bellicose steps by Israel’s far-right government, with the Security Cabinet planning to meet on Saturday to discuss more measures. In addition, Israel announced the intention to confiscate an unspecified amount of Palestinian tax money.
Israel in obliged by international agreement to collect some taxes on behalf of the Palestinians, and has often used tensions in the West Bank as a pretext to seize some, or at times all, of the collected taxes. Such moves have been criticized as particularly risky, tending to weaken the Palestinian Authority’s ability to maintain security and increasing unrest.
Though it’s unclear what else might be coming in this latest round of actions from the Israeli Security Cabinet, several ministers have gone on record demanding more demolitions and the seizure of more Palestinian land for Israeli settlements, so that is likely to be among the measures debated.
Just another regular day for the apartheid state with no borders
Why do they have to steal their money, also? Aren’t they aware of the stereotypical images this act reinforces?
The amount of money taken is the exact amount the PA had given to the families of the terrorists.
Money collected by Israel is transferred to the PA, as long as this money is not given to the families of terrorists who stab 13yo girls in their sleep
Stealing is stealing. It is the Palestinians’ money – how would you describe it if the Palestinians stole the “settlers” money because they “owed” Palestine money for the land they stole. I should expect you to twist that to the shape you wanted, eh Ethan?
Yes, stealing is stealing … so why does it really matter whether the Israeli regime steals it and keeps it, or steals it and hands it over to some other gang of thieves?
“Why does it really matter…?” Because this is exactly what is happening – Israel commits illegal acts against the Arabs and the Arabs commit (or try to commit) illegal acts against the Israelis or other Western people (for allowing the Israelis to commit the original evil acts). This country is killing Arabs and spending trillions in the process and now combatting terrorism in our country. In our own self-interest, we must stop Israel’s initiation of evil
I’m not one of those who believes that making theft “legal” causes it to stop being theft.