The Palestinians are *not allowed* to have their own currency.

That’s not all. The Paris Protocol, which became part of the Oslo accords, controls every aspect of the Palestinian economy.

It ensures the Palestinian economy is dependent on that of Israel and that Israel controls all borders for imports and exports.

The necessity of obtaining Israeli approval to conduct trade leads to substantial economic loss to Palestinians whenever Israel imposes a comprehensive closure on the Occupied Territories and cancels all the relevant permits, as was often the case between 1994 and 1997 (during Oslo).

The agreement also gave Israel sole control over the external borders and collection of import taxes and V.A.T., thus enabling Israel to delay transfer of taxes that it collected for the Palestinian Authority, or threaten delay in transferring the monies, as a means of pressure or punishment. Israel employed such a measure several times since the protocol was signed, severely undermining the functioning of public services in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

For long periods over the last ten years, for example, Palestinian teachers and government employees were not paid on time, and sometimes had their salaries delayed for months, because Israel held back taxes from the Palestinian authority as punishment for policies Israel didn’t like.

The Paris agreement was supposed to be a temporary five year interim agreement when it was originally signed in 1994, but it remains in effect to this day.