Palestine refuses ‘financial blackmail’

Fatah’s leader said that international authorities have offered a proposal to the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to aid with resolving the current financial crisis. The proposed offer involved transferring a billion dollars to the treasury of the Palestinian presidency, on the condition that he does not pursue Israeli leaders at the International Criminal Court. The Fatah chief drew parallels with the financial blackmail that was exercised against the former Palestinian president Yasser Arafat, asserting that the world is adopting the same approach with the current president. He stressed that such attempts would not be allowed to frustrate the Palestinian people and their leadership. The Palestinian Authority is currently suffering from a billion dollar deficit, which has pushed the Palestinian leadership to seek loans from local banks to meet the salaries of the employees. The Authority has not been able to pay employees for their December salaries; it needs to secure $150 billion per month to meet the payment of its Palestinian employees.