GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The Palestinian leadership moved on several fronts this month to implement its threats to redefine and limit relations with Israel. The PLO took steps toward taking Israel to court on a number of commerce- and labor-related issues and amending the Paris Economic Protocol, the agreement governing the economic relationship between the Palestinians and Israelis. The Palestinians have repeatedly accused Israel of violating the provisions of their arrangement.

In March, Palestinian President and PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas had made the decision to resort to international arbitration against Israel. A source at the Palestinian Authority (PA) Ministry of Finance who requested anonymity told Al-Monitor that at the weekly ministerial meeting on Sept. 2, the government had asked Finance Minister Shukri Bishara to prepare cases to submit to the International Court of Arbitration in The Hague. The following day, Bishara announced that the leadership would ask the court to rule on 11 commercial and financial issues involving Israel and inquire separately into amending the Paris agreement. The file is expected to be officially presented to the court at the end of September.

The commercial issues over which the Palestinians have complaints include obstruction of trade, whereby Israel bans certain Palestinian goods from Jerusalem and Israel and also decides what goods can enter the Palestinian territories. The Paris agreement provides for Palestinian laborers to work in Israel, but Israel has unilaterally barred workers from Gaza from entering to work there. The Palestinians are also prohibited from introducing a national currency, and must instead use the Israeli shekel, the US dollar or the Jordanian dinar.

PLO and Israeli leaders signed the Paris Protocol in 1994 to manage economic relations between them in regard to the West Bank and Gaza during what was supposed to be a five-year transition period, as established in the Oslo Accords. With no peace agreement having been reached between the two sides, the protocol remains in force, covering labor, trade relations, financial relations and financing for the PA. “The protocol has turned the Israeli occupation into a lucrative project,” Bishara charged. Human Rights Watch has reported for instance on how Israeli companies contribute to the confiscation of Palestinian lands to build settlements, which in turn financially benefit from the industrial zones established within their confines.