Israel seeks to punish PA over UN human rights probe

A meeting of eight senior Israeli ministers is to be held in Israel on Sunday to discuss sanctions against the Palestinian Authority and representatives of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Israel. It is, however, not clear if the forum of ministers will reach any decisions in the March 25 meeting, Haaretz reported. According to one source, three of the eight Israeli ministers, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya'alon and Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz support freezing the transfer of tax revenues to the PA. Senior Israeli officials have previously said that Israel has no intention of cooperating with the UN committee. Netanyahu 's office also announced on Friday that the committee members would be denied entry into Israel. Nabil Abu Rudeineh, the spokesman for the acting Palestinian Authority chief, Mahmoud Abbas, has described the establishment of the UN Human Rights Council’s investigative committee as a shift in position of the world in favor of the rights of Palestinians. Nearly 500,000 Israelis live in more than 100 settlement units built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem).