The more things change, the more they stay the same. From the New York Times:
West Bank Firebomb Hurts 4 Tax Collectors
Jerusalem, — Four Israeli tax collectors were wounded when a gasoline bomb smashed through the windshield of their car as they drove through the West Bank city of Ramallah, the army said.
Two firebombs were thrown at the Israelis, who collect taxes from Palestinians for the military government in the occupied territories, as they drove to work early this morning, income tax officials said.
Palestinians have resisted paying taxes to Israel because the taxes are a potent symbol of occupation. The underground leadership of the Arab uprising has repeatedly called on Palestinians to boycott the Israeli military government by refusing to pay taxes.
The new military commander of the West Bank, Maj. Gen. Yitzhak Mordechai, ordered a curfew placed on the street where the attack occurred and the nearby Kadura refugee camp. Soldiers later arrested 40 people, the army said.
In the Gaza Strip, Palestinians are required to prove they have paid their taxes before they can obtain a new military pass to go to Israel. The army has said is the deadline after which only pass holders will be allowed to travel from Gaza to Israel.
The army announced today that Gaza Arabs who still do not have a pass by will be able to apply for one, though Israel had said previously that no new passes would be issued after that day.
And another Times piece from :
West Bank Town Elated but Poorer As Israel Ends Six-Week Tax Siege
By Joel Brinkley, Special to The New York Times
Beit Sahur, Israeli-Occupied West Bank, — Israeli soldiers cleared roadblocks , ending a six-week state of siege here, and the residents of this Palestinian town cheered.
“We won — we beat them,” said Khalil Hana Rishmawi, even though Israeli officials had seized the machinery in his sewing factory in lieu of the taxes he and most residents in this small, moderately affluent town had refused to pay.
“The campaign failed,” he said. “No one paid the taxes.”
$1.5 Million in Goods Seized
But the Israeli authorities were declaring victory too. Tax collectors have seized cars, refrigerators, clothing, washing machines and other belongings valued at $1.5 million. And this afternoon, Brig. Gen. Sheikhe Erez said, “We decided to end the operation since we did what we wanted to do.”
In truth, the Beit Sahur tax revolt was fought to a draw, and it came to be a symbol for the Palestinian uprising as a whole. Almost to a person, Beit Sahur’s residents refused to pay their taxes. But many of them had to stand by and watch as their belongings were seized instead.
And when Israel auctions off the goods next week, it will finally collect some of the back taxes that Beit Sahur owes, but at a price. The Beit Sahur seige brought a new array of international criticism. And the town’s tax debtors, most of them middle-aged businessmen who had no involvement in the uprising, are anything but chastened.
Earlier this month Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin vowed, “We will teach them a lesson.” But tonight Tawfik Abu Aita, a 51-year-old clothing manufacturer, said: “They used a cannon against a bird and blew away the whole tree. That’s why they failed.”
And several liberal Israeli legislators said this afternoon that if the army was willing to deal with a nonviolent civil protest so harshly, it would only encourage Palestinians to use violence instead. The army and the residents of Beit Sahur are likely to find themselves in a similar position a year from now, both sides stubbornly refusing to move, but neither side is saying what it will do.
In mid-, the army singled out Beit Sahur, a largely Christian town of 10,000 near Bethlehem. Military officials found that 320 businessmen had not paid taxes, even though most of them were regular taxpayers before the uprising began 23 months ago.
“I paid the taxes before, but now all of us go by the rules of our leadership,” Mr. Rishmawi said, referring to the underground leaders of the uprising. In leaflets for many months, they have urged Palestinians not to pay taxes. “The taxes should be spent on services, health, roads and other things we need here,” said his son-in-law, Majed Rishmawi. “But do you see any services being offered here? No.”
After sending tax collectors door to door and getting unanimous refusal, the army sealed off Beit Sahur. No visitors or journalists were allowed in, and only people who paid taxes were let out. Still, hardly anyone paid. Then 40 debtors were arrested and 35 were indicted. Some have been given stiff fines or sentenced to time in jail.
Still almost no one paid. So tax collectors escorted by troops showed up with trucks and started confiscating belongings left and right. “They took 1,500 blouses, 700 kilograms of wool and a 1986 Opel Cadet,” Mr. Abu Aita said. They didn’t get the 1989 Audi 80 parked in front of his house. “I had that registered under a different name,” he said. And when the soldiers tried to seize the knitting machines in his factory, “they found it very difficult to dismantle them and put them in the car,” he added with a chuckle. The soldiers gave up and left the machines behind.
Mr. Rishmawi said each man was given a Hebrew-language inventory of items seized — “9 umbrellas, 20 small cartons of socks, 4 baby suits” — and told that the goods would be sold at auction if the back taxes were not paid.
Auctions a Few Days Away
Now that the tax siege is over and the auctions are only five days away, Mr. Rishmawi and Mr. Abu Aita, like most everyone in town, say they will stand by and watch as their belongings are sold. They still have no intention of paying their taxes, even though without the sewing machines Mr. Rishmawi’s factory has had to close down.
“We will just have to help each other now,” he said. “This is not tax collection. It’s Mafia work. And I think the Israeli learned. We will not pay.”
But in a statement released , the army said, “Some of the taxpayers paid their debts willingly.” And as a result of the Beit Sahur siege, the army added, dozens of reluctant taxpayers in other parts of the West Bank came forward to pay their taxes, too.
The military government “places great importance on this,” the statement said, “because the taxes collected finance government services for Arab inhabitants in the territories, such as health, education and welfare.”
But Mr. Abu Aita said that what “they’ve really done with this kind of collective punishment of an entire city is draw people into the intifada who have never been in it before.”
