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Source: http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=284486
Israel: No Review of PA Economic Accords without Political Progress
(Jerusalem Post) Khaled Abu Toameh - Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon on Monday said that Israel will reject Palestinian requests to update the 1994 Paris Protocol, the framework that established economic relations between Israel and the PA, Israel Radio reported. "There is no room to fix it when there is no progress in the political channel, and the Palestinians have huge debts to Israel for transferring gas and electricity," he said. The Paris Protocol set Israeli sea and air ports and border crossings with Jordan and Egypt as paths for Palestinian trade with other countries. Hassan Khreisheh, a Palestinian legislator, said that changing the Paris Protocol has become a popular demand that the PA leadership can no longer ignore. Palestinians continued to stage protests in various parts of the West Bank against the high cost of living. Demonstrations took place in Nablus and Ramallah Sunday, where Palestinians chanted slogans against Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and President Mahmoud Abbas and called for their resignation. Until now, protesters had only demanded the resignation of Fayyad.