The Palestinian government rejected Israel's announcement of awarding a tender for operating funds for Palestinian workers to a private Israeli company, and considered the step contrary to the signed agreements. The government also considered these procedures a clear violation of Israel's obligation to transfer funds to Palestinian institutions.
The Palestinian government rejected Israel's announcement of awarding a tender for operating funds for Palestinian workers to a private Israeli company, and considered the step contrary to the signed agreements.
This came in a speech by Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh on Monday, at the start of the weekly session of the Council of Ministers in Ramallah.
Shtayyeh said, "The Cabinet affirms that the measures taken by the Israeli government, according to which the bid for managing and investing pension funds and compensations due to our Palestinian workers in Israel, was awarded to a private Israeli company, are unacceptable."
The Cabinet considered these measures "an explicit and clear violation of Israel's obligation to transfer these funds to the competent Palestinian institutions under the Paris Economic Protocol, and a flagrant violation of it."
On Thursday, the Palestinian Ministry of Labor said in a statement that the Israeli government had "awarded the tender for the management and investment of retirement funds and severance compensation for our Palestinian workers in Israel, to a private Israeli company called Amitim," without specifying the time of the award.
It described the procedure as "an explicit and clear violation of Israel's obligation to transfer these funds to the competent Palestinian institutions under the Paris Economic Protocol, and a flagrant violation thereof."
For his part, the Secretary-General of the Palestinian Federation of Trade Unions, Shaher Saad, told Anadolu Agency that the Israeli decision was taken months ago by one party without reference to the Palestinian side, and it will enter into force during next April.
He added that the new company will receive workers' dues from companies and contractors instead of the Ministry of Finance or the Israeli National Insurance, and it will be responsible for disbursing the money to those who are entitled to it and deducting the necessary fees and taxes.
Saad mentioned 3 questions about the company's work: "Will its work include previous dues to workers since 1973 to workers estimated at $28 billion? How will workers get their rights? What is the extent of transparency in the company's work?"
He pointed out that there are more than 215,000 Palestinian workers working in Israel, whose monthly dues exceed one billion and 350 million shekels (about 383 million dollars).
The Paris Economic Protocol is an agreement signed by the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel in 1994, to regulate the relationship between them in terms of customs taxes, banks, currencies in circulation, trade movement, exports and imports.