Israel Electric Corporation Limits Power to Palestinians Over Massive Debt

After threatening to do so for years, Israel’s electric company has decided to stem the flow of power to the PA, which is hundreds of millions of shekels in arrears. 

After years of deliberation, the Israel Electrical Corporation (IEC) has finally decided to begin penalizing the Palestinian Authority (PA) for a massive electric bill that it refuses to pay.

The huge debt of NIS 1.8 billion was accumulated over a number of years, and the Palestinians have refused to pay their bill, causing the IEC serious financial difficulties.

Eli Glickman, CEO of the electric corporation, announced in a letter at the end of December to Israeli government officials and agencies that the PA’s bill amounted to NIS 1,700,843,315, which leaves the company no choice other than to limit the flow of power to the Palestinians by 50 percent for two hours each day –  an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening.

The IEC noted in the letter that it continued providing electricity to the Gaza Strip throughout Operation Protective Edge and even worked under fire to repair damaged power lines that were hit by Hamas fire.

The IEC alerted the PA and other relevant government ministries to the debt, but to no avail.

“So far, no solution has been found to pay off the debt. Therefore, out of the wish to avoid hurting the power supply for the civilian population in the West Bank as much as possible, on the one hand, and curbing the increasing debt as much as possible, on the other hand, it was decided to limit the power supply at this point, with the hope that a solution is found soon,” the letter by the IEC read.

By: World Israel News staff