Abu Bluff turns down tax money as Israel sets off unpaid bills

'Moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen has turned down tax revenues that were to be turned over by Israel because the Israeli government set off from the money amounts owed by the 'Palestinian Authority' for electricity and other utilities and for hospitalization.

Israel withheld the collected tax revenues beginning in January after P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas signed requests in late December to join the International Criminal Court and other international conventions as a result of the failure of the United Nations Security Council to pass a Palestinian statehood proposal.

The Palestinians are believed to owe millions of dollars to Israel for utilities provided by Israel as well as for visits to Israeli hospitals, Reuters reported.

Abbas rejected the returned funds saying Israel had deducted one-third of the money owed to them.

“We are returning the money. Either they give it to us in full or we go to arbitration or to the (International Criminal) Court.  We will not accept anything else,” he said Sunday.

The P.A. said last week its public employees would receive 60 percent of their salaries for the month of March, the Wafa Palestinian news and information agency reported.

Israel has never signed the Rome Protocol and has never submitted to the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. As a sovereign nation, it cannot be hauled into court without its consent. Good luck suing us there.