New Israeli government acts to penalize Palestinians

JERUSALEM — In some of its first acts since coming to power, Israel’s new Security Cabinet approved a series of punitive steps against the Palestinian leadership, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said.

According to a statement from Netanyahu’s office, the move is in retaliation for Palestinians pushing the U.N.’s highest judicial body to give its opinion on the Israeli occupation. The Palestinians vowed to continue their diplomatic efforts despite the Israeli new measures.

The development underscores the hard-line approach to the Palestinians that Israel’s new ultranationalist government has promised at a time of rising violence in the occupied territories.

It comes a week after the United Nations General Assembly voted to approve a resolution requesting that the International Court of Justice intervene and render an opinion on the legality of Israeli policies in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem.

Israel’s Security Cabinet described the Palestinian Authority’s request to the U.N. as a “decision to wage political and legal war against the State of Israel.”

“The current government will not sit idly by in the face of this war and will respond as necessary,” it said.

In response, the Security Cabinet, packed with Netanyahu’s far-right and religiously conservative allies, decided Israel would withhold $39 million from the Palestinian Authority and transfer the funds instead to a compensation program for the families of Israeli victims of Palestinian militant attacks.

It also said Israel would further deduct revenue it typically transfers to the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority — a sum equal to the amount the authority paid last year to families of Palestinian prisoners and those killed in the conflict, including militants implicated in attacks against Israelis. The Palestinian leadership describes the payments as necessary social welfare, while Israel says the socalled Martyrs’ Fund incentivizes violence.

The Security Cabinet also targeted Palestinian officials directly, saying it would deny benefits to “VIPs who are leading the political and legal war against Israel.” Top PA officials receive Israeli permits that allow them to travel easily in and out of the occupied West Bank, unlike ordinary Palestinians.

“Israeli blackmailing of our tax revenues will not stop us from continuing our political and diplomatic struggle,” said Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh. He added that the Israeli measures will deepen the Palestinian financial crisis and budget shortfall.