Huckabee holds rare meeting with PA official to discuss West Bank tensions — officials |
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee held a rare meeting with Palestinian Authority Vice President Hussein al-Sheikh in Ramallah on Wednesday to discuss ongoing tensions in the West Bank, a US official and a PA official revealed to The Times of Israel.
It was just the second known meeting between the pair since the start of US President Donald Trump’s administration, and came amid another largely unchecked wave of settler violence and IDF counter-terror operations that have the territory on edge.
The US has privately been urging Israel to respond more aggressively to settler violence, but with limited success, the US official said.
Huckabee and Sheikh also discussed the continued Israeli withholding of Palestinian tax revenues, which has severely hampered Ramallah’s ability to operate because the funds make up the majority of its budget, the PA official said.
Earlier this year, Huckabee said he had been working to convince Israel to release the funds, but that the effort was derailed by PA-backed decisions from Western countries to recognize a Palestinian state. Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has been withholding the monthly payments — which have accumulated to several billion dollars — in protest of Ramallah’s policies, including the payment of stipends to terrorists and........