Tourism Minister Levin Backs PM Plan to Use PA Taxes to Reimburse Israeli Farmers

Tourism Minister Yariv Levin said Monday that Prime Minister Netanyahu is correct to use tax money collected for the Palestinian Authority to fund damages caused by flammable kites to the farmers of the Gaza Belt region, despite the fact that Israel holds Hamas, as the governing power in Gaza, responsible for the arson attacks.

“There is no reason for this damage to fall on the Israeli economy,”  Levin told Army Radio.

“It makes no sense that we continue to give money to the Palestinians. (Not only has) the Palestinian Authority and Abu Mazen not helped to resolve the conflict for a long time, but they are the heart of the problem. They take the money and give it to the families of the terrorists that sit in our prisons,” Levin said.

Netanyahu’s instruction Sunday to withhold tax monies from the PA in order to offset damages caused by the burning kites followed weeks of cross-border arson attacks that have also included  firebombs attached to kites and kites doused in petrol, set alight and then launched over the border, which has set thousands of acres of mostly wheat crops on fire and caused millions of shekels in damages.

The farmers evaluate the damage to be more than NIS 5.5 million, including the burning of the crops and the damage to their working tools.

Asked about taking money from the PA to offset damages attributed to Hamas, Eshkol Regional Council head Gadi Yarkoni said it makes no difference where the government takes the money from to compensate the farmers.