Political rupture has been plaguing Palestinian-Israeli relations ever since political negotiations between the two were disrupted in June 2014, while security coordination still stands.
On May 17, Israel’s Channel 2 reported a secret meeting held that day in Jerusalem between Israeli Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon and his Palestinian counterpart Shukri Bishara. During the meeting, an agreement was reached whereby Israel would provide economic concessions to the Palestinians. It was also reported that both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas, the head of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and president, knew about this meeting.
Confirming the meeting, a senior official at the Palestinian Ministry of Finance told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “Israel and the PA agreed to hold regular meetings to settle many financial issues all the while guaranteeing the Palestinian interests. These issues include accounting and missing clearing bills that were not received by the Palestinian side, in addition to the amounts of money Israel is yet to transfer to the Palestinian treasury,” of which he did not specify their value.
On May 21, Haaretz reported that US Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt succeeded May 2 in bringing together Israeli Minister of Regional Cooperation Tzachi Hanegbi with senior Palestinian officials, on the sidelines of meetings between donor countries in Brussels.
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