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Palestinians look for modifying Paris agreement signed with Israel

27 September 2011 23:23 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Palestinian officials and analysts said Tuesday that substantial modifications of Paris agreement, signed in 1994 and aimed at coordinating the economical ties with Israel, would be essential to strengthen the characteristics of the Palestinian state, APA reports.

Mohamed Ishteya, director general of the Palestinian Economical Council for Development and Reconstruction (PECDR), said the Paris agreement depended on the basis of free movement of trade, workers and goods in both directions.

"But what Israel is doing, mainly imposing restrictions, made the trade movement going only in one direction, as the Israeli trade to the Palestinian territories hit four billion U.S. dollars per year, while the Palestinian products going to Israeli markets is only 300 million U.S. dollars per year," Ishteya said.

Last week, the Palestinians submitted a request to the United Nations Security Council for a recognition of a full membership of an independent Palestinian state established on 1967 territories. The council is scheduled to debate and present the Palestinian bid for voting next week.

The Palestinian economy relatively recovered in the years 2009 and 2010, when its revenues reached two billion dollars.

Abbas told reporters en route to Amman, Jordan from the UN General Assembly that the Palestinians want to modify the "unfair" Paris agreement as part of his steps to finalize the request for a full membership of a Palestinian state.

Over the past 17 years, the Palestinians had been complaining that the Paris agreement was unfair. But all their attempts to modify the agreement had failed because Israel was still sticking to it.

Palestinian officials said that changing the margins of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) industry and economy will increase the opportunities of setting up productive industrial and agricultural projects and ending dependence on foreign aids gradually.

Ishteya said that various kinds of goods imported by Israel from abroad were sent to the Palestinian markets later on with no taxes. However, according to the Paris agreement, there should have been taxes imposed on the goods sold in Palestinian markets.

Abdel Hafiz Noufal, director general in the Palestinian Ministry of Economy, said that the Paris agreement "is not anymore meeting national needs of the Palestinian people, the vision for a Palestinian state and needs to develop the economical ties with the entire world."

According to the agreement, the Palestinians don’t have the right to establish direct economical ties with countries that don’ t have diplomatic ties with Israel. So PNA can’t have economical ties with 48 countries, mainly Arab countries like Saudi Arabia, Noufal said.

Internally, the Palestinians are complaining that allowing goods and products from Tel Aviv into Ramallah or Jericho in the West Bank is very much easier than going the opposite way due to Israel’s restrictions imposed on the Palestinian exports.

Samir Abdulla, a West Bank-based Palestinian economist, said that Israel has never been committed to Paris agreement, mainly in what is related to export of Palestinian products.

Palestinian exports to Israel declined 50 percent in 2000, when the second Palestinian Intifada or uprising erupted against Israel, according to Abdulla.

He also referred to Israel’s rejection to activate a technical committee formed in accordance to Paris agreement to organize the movement of export and import between Israel and the PNA.

Ishteya further mentioned that "Israel is obstructing an economical agreement to be signed between the PNA and the European Union."

The other annoying issue is that Israel holds Palestinian revenues of taxes, which contribute to two thirds of the latter’s budget.

Nasser Abdel Karim, a professor of economy at Beer Zeit University in the West Bank, said that controlling the taxes revenues had given Israel a grip over 70 percent of PNA’s income, adding that "this means that Israel would continue the policy of blackmailing the PNA."