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00:00All right, let's shift our focus for now. A deep financial crisis has crippled the administration
00:04in the West Bank, led by President Mahmoud Abbas, prompting questions over its future.
00:08The Palestinian Authority's finances have been in disarray for years as donor states
00:12have cut back funding. This even as nations continue to press for a revitalized body to
00:17run Gaza after the war. Here's a report.
00:23These roads in Jenin refugee camp were torn up by Israeli army bulldozers months ago.
00:28The Palestinian Authority, or PA, can't afford to fix them. A financial crisis has crippled
00:34President Mahmoud Abbas' administration in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. It's prompting
00:39questions over how it can govern there, let alone run the Gaza Strip too when the war
00:44ends as the United States and other countries want.
00:49The strains are visible in Jenin, where Israel has long targeted Palestinian militants and
00:54has stepped up operations since October. Mahmoud Abu Talal is a local activist in Abbas' Fatah
01:00faction.
01:01A lot of penalties have been imposed on the Authority. The Authority's situation is like
01:08it has fallen off a plane nowadays. I am being straightforward here. The PA is taking a beating,
01:15just like the people. And God knows if it will be able to withstand this or what. The
01:21coming phase is uncertain.
01:26The salaries and services provided by the PA once helped keep Abbas and his Fatah faction
01:31relevant, despite Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank and the challenge of militant
01:36groups like Hamas, and despite the violence that has surged across the West Bank since
01:40the Gaza conflict broke out in October, with hundreds of Palestinians killed in clashes
01:45with Israeli forces. PA finances have long been in disarray. But officials say this is
01:52the worst crisis since the Authority was created under interim peace deals 30 years ago.
01:58Government employees are being paid a fraction of their salaries. Health services are collapsing.
02:03Donor states have cut back funding, demanding reforms to tackle corruption and waste. Israel,
02:09whose military controls the West Bank, collects taxes on goods that pass through it into the
02:14occupied territory, and it's supposed to hand them over to the PA. But since Hamas
02:19attacked southern Israel in October, Israel has withheld a chunk of those tax revenues,
02:25to the tune of $1.6 billion, according to Mohamed Abou-Rab, a PA spokesperson.
02:33The financial crisis is real and ongoing. Israel deducts around two-thirds of the revenue,
02:38and this puts all government plans on hold and increases public debt for the Palestinian
02:43public's finances. Israel continues to withhold more than six billion shekels from the Palestinian
02:48government.
02:53Israel denied it had retained that amount. It says the funds would be sent to Gaza and
02:58end up in Hamas's hands. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office did not answer questions
03:03for this article. The United States has urged Israel to release the funds.
03:08At this government clinic in Jenin, Hayat Hamdan hoped to find subsidised medication
03:13for her wheelchair-bound husband. But cuts to PA salaries mean staff at such clinics
03:18only show up a couple of days a week, according to unions. And many of the pharmacy shelves
03:23are empty.
03:27They told me it is out of stock, just like many other types of medicines.
03:34We are from Eraba, and there we don't find the medicines for patients. We end up having
03:39to buy them at our own expense.
03:45Last year, angry crowds confronted senior Palestinian Authority officials, accusing
03:51them of weakness in the face of Israeli military raids, as militant fighters paraded in the
03:57streets.
03:57The Palestinian Authority last held parliamentary elections 18 years ago, and many Palestinians
04:03view it as corrupt. More than 60% of Palestinians want to see it dissolved, according to an
04:08opinion poll by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in June. It also
04:14found that support for armed struggle had risen.
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