Some tax resistance continued in Beit Sahour after the end of the tax strike there, as this article from the Manila Standard shows:
Palestinians question Israeli taxes
Beit Sahour, West Bank — Kamal Abu Saada lost his supermarket, his car and most of his money because he refused to pay taxes to Israeli authorities occupying the West Bank.
Taxmen flanked by soldiers seized his property, forcing his eldest son to drop out of school to help feed the family.
But Abu Saada and 90 Palestinian businessmen like him have had enough of what they call the militarized tax system Israel applies to people in the occupied territories.
In a rare move, they have petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court to find out why they pay more than Israelis and where the money goes. The Palestinians also are protesting at the use of force in tax collection.
“They ask us to pay heavy taxes, even more than the Israelis pay, yet we do not see anything in return,” said Elias Rishmawi, a Beit Sahour pharmacist who is the main petitioner in the suit.
“We want to know what do they do with our money,” he added.
The lawsuit is the first legal challenge to the Israeli tax system in the occupied territories since Palestinians in Beit Sahour openly defied the authorities in .
Israel cracked down hard on the tax revolt. Soldiers besieged the town for 40 days and confiscated millions of dollars worth of property.
Today, even Palestinians who keep records and pay taxes complain of harassment. Taxmen with army escorts regularly raid stores, seize property at gunpoint and threaten those who refuse to pay with military trials or imprisonment.
Palestinians say the taxmen pull assessment figures out of the air, forcing people to try to bargain their taxes down.
The army-run Civil Administration says West Bank taxation is based on Jordanian laws. Israel captured the territory from Jordan in .
