Israel maintains Palestinian funds freeze

Israel's cabinet decided on Monday to continue to withhold tax revenues owed to the Palestinian Authority and international envoys ended talks with no sign of a breakthrough in efforts to restart peace talks.        

The freeze on the transfer of funds collected by Israel on behalf of the Palestinian Authority was imposed on Nov. 1, a day after the Palestinians won full membership of the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO as part of their unilateral drive for statehood.         

The money includes duties on goods imported to the Palestinian territories, amounting to some $100 million per month and is vital to the payment of civil servants' salaries.         

Israeli Army Radio said Defense Minister Ehud Barak had pushed for the freeze to be lifted, cautioning that a cash crunch could weaken the Palestinian Authority, which cooperates with Israel in stopping anti-Israeli violence in the West Bank.        

UNESCO was the first U.N. agency to admit the Palestinians as a full member since Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas applied for a full seat at the United Nations on Sept. 23 in the absence of peace talks that collapsed more than a year ago.         

-Reuters