Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon on Monday said that Israel will reject Palestinian requests to update the 1994 Paris Protocol, the framework that established economic relations between Israel and the PA, Israel Radio reported.
Palestinians have huge debts to Israel, and yet they are operating against it in international organizations, Ayalon said.
"There
is no room to fix it when there is no progress in the political
channel, and the Palestinians have huge debts to Israel for transferring
gas and electricity, for example," he said.
Over the past week, PA
President Abbas has come under pressure from many Palestinians to cancel
the Paris Protocol under the pretext that it imposes severe
restrictions on the development of the Palestinian economy.
The
Paris Protocol set Israeli sea and air ports and border crossings with
Jordan and Egypt as paths for Palestinian trade with other countries.
Hassan
Khreisheh, an independent legislator, said that changing the Paris
Protocol has become a popular demand that the PA leadership can no
longer ignore.
The PA’s request came as Palestinians continued to
stage protests in various parts of the West Bank against the high cost
of living.
Demonstrations took place in Nablus and Ramallah
Sunday, where Palestinians chanted slogans against Prime Minister Salam
Fayyad and Abbas and called for their resignation.
The protesters blocked main roads in the two cities and vowed to continue demonstrating until the two PA leaders resigned.
Until now, protesters had only demanded the resignation of Fayyad.
Palestinians on Monday also held a one-day strike of public transportation in
the West Bank Monday to protest against an increase in the price of fuel
and basic goods.
“This is just the beginning,” said cab driver Ahmed Samara from Ramallah. “The Palestinian Authority has failed and must go.”
Hanna Amireh, a senior PLO official in the West Bank, warned that the PA could lose control if the protests continued.
Noting that the crisis was severe, he urged donor countries to quickly help the PA to prevent further deterioration.