Did you actually even read the article

The action by the Israel Electric Corporation came against the background of a worsening financial crisis in the Palestinian Authority after Israel began last month to withhold more than $100 million in monthly tax revenue it collects on behalf of the authority in response to the Palestinian leadership’s move to join the International Criminal Court.

The debt has grown over a few years to 490 million and all attempts to make payment arrangements were to no avail.
The 100 million was just withheld last month and is far less than what is owed. It has nothing to do with why the PA has not paid this bill which has led to the power reduction. The only thing it has to do with the bill is it may be used to reduce it.

The article continues to state that the power reduction was an independent company decision which in the past it was actually stopped from doing by the Government.

Are you saying the Palestinians should not have to pay their electric bill or make arrangements unlike most everyone else in the world who gets disconnected after a few months of not paying let alone a few years like the Palestinians.

The Israeli power company, which supplies most of the electricity to the West Bank, said it decided to limit the supply to the districts of Nablus and Jenin for less than an hour on Monday afternoon given the Palestinian Authority’s debt, which has been building over a number of years, and is now at a peak of 1.9 billion shekels, or around $490 million.

Over the last year, the company said, it has issued warnings and tried to find an arrangement to reduce the debt through contacts with the Israeli government and international bodies, to no avail. The company said it has been stopped in the past from taking the step of reducing supply for political reasons. There have, however, been proposals in Israel to divert some of the withheld Palestinian tax revenue toward paying down the debt

.Mr. Netanyahu’s office issued a brief statement saying that the company had decided to take the power-reduction step independently and not at the government’s instruction

.A spokeswoman for the Israel Electric Corporation, Dalia Bodinger, said the company would “continue to reduce the supply from time to time with the goal of reaching an arrangement to stop the debt from growing further and to begin to reduce it.”

the first place.

LONDON - US Secretary of State John Kerry on Saturday expressed concern about the viability of the Palestinian Authority if it does not soon receive tax revenue which has been withheld by Israel.

http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/Kerry-warns-on-viability-of-Palestinian-Authority-if-Israel-blocks-funds-391754

raid the accounts of Abbas, and Arafat's widow. I am sure there is more than enough stolen money there to cover the debts.

Controlling the water, electricity and taxes, Israel’s mob - IEC, Customs and the infrastructure ministry - shows the Palestinian Authority who’s the boss.

By Zvi Bar'el

There is no closure on the West Bank: Citizens can go out in the streets, travel, spend time in Ramallah’s discotheques and renovate their homes. Paradise.

But just so they won’t forget where they came from, and where they’re going, Israel reminds them that their ship of fools is no more than a corpse tossed to the side of the road, with every passerby permitted to kick it or spit on it.

Two days ago, Israel Electric Corp. cut off the current to Jenin and Nablus. But for just 45 minutes. A humane gesture by a creditor that only wanted to hint to the Palestinian Authority what will happen if it doesn’t pay 49 million shekels ($12.4 million), the amount of the most recent invoice, and doesn’t take care of the cumulative debt, almost 2 billion shekels.

The Sopranos would probably ridicule this soft-hearted attitude, treating debtors with kid gloves. If you want to cut off the electricity, do so - don’t talk, as Tuco the Ugly would suggest.

We really have to thank this corporation, which knows exactly how to strangle the Israeli economy, for making do with three quarters of an hour, which caused the residents of Nablus and Jenin to lose their electrical confidence.

Israel gave a different gift to the residents of Ramallah, about whom we have already written here.

The city of Rawabi was built magnificently. It’s missing only one thing - water - because the neighborhood bully is demanding that the joint Israeli-Palestinian water committee convene and approve the project, or it won’t open the tap.

The committee hasn’t met for years because the Palestinians don’t want to approve settlement projects. But has anyone heard about a water shortage in the settlements because the committee didn’t convene?

Suddenly Israel has become a law-abiding country that zealously adheres to agreements that it helped destroy with its own hands. Who can guess when it will decide to abide by agreements and when it will violate them?

After all, in January Israel once again violated the agreements it signed when it decided to freeze the transfer of the tax money it collects for the Palestinians. Half a billion Palestinian shekels are lying in an Israeli safe awaiting the moment when the PA’s tongue turns blue from suffocation.

For the past two months about 180,000 officials and members of the security services, the ones who are supposed to implement the defense coordination with Israel, have been receiving partial salaries.

That will be their lot in March too, since during an election season Israel doesn’t pay debts and doesn’t do favors for the Palestinians.

We will only mention that this illegal decision is nothing more than revenge for the fact that the PA decided to join the Rome Statute and the International Criminal Court.

What a mistake. Once again the PA forgets which guys are running the neighborhood, and it has to pay dearly for that. It’s a shame that the PA doesn’t devote more time to watching popular crime series.

The battered PA finally understands that even those whom it considered its good friends are afraid to start up with the gang.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry issued his usual warning, to the effect that the PA will collapse if Israel doesn’t transfer the tax money. The European Union, one of the cornerstones of the Quartet, whose job it is to supervise observance of the agreements, nods its head in sorrow. And the voice of the Zionist Union, the hope of the political bonfire of the vanities, froze in the cold.

Because what can really be done when the IEC, the Israel Customs Authority and the minister of national infrastructure have become a substitute government? They are the ones who decide policy, they implement it and they won’t pay the price.

This way another layer of the occupation system is developing: occupation from a distance. Lock the Customs safe containing the tax money, turn off the switch at the IEC, don’t open the tap. Nobody’s hands get dirty, there are no casualties, fear of the occupier is maintained and there’s more to come.

Source: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.premium-1.644049