{"id":1244,"date":"2025-06-11T09:51:01","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T09:51:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/israels-smotrich-could-paralyse-palestinian-economy-by-ending-bank-waiver\/"},"modified":"2025-06-11T09:51:01","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T09:51:01","slug":"israels-smotrich-could-paralyse-palestinian-economy-by-ending-bank-waiver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2025\/06\/11\/israels-smotrich-could-paralyse-palestinian-economy-by-ending-bank-waiver\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel\u2019s Smotrich could paralyse Palestinian economy by ending bank waiver"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Israeli finance minister ends waiver that Palestinian banks rely on to operate after Western sanctions announced.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Israel\u2019s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has cancelled a waiver that Palestinian banks rely on to operate hours after five Western governments announced he faced sanctions, along with fellow ultra-nationalist Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, for inciting violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n

Warnings have previously been raised that Israel\u2019s ending of the waiver could have devastating consequences for the Palestinian economy, which is dependent on the Israeli banking system as the Palestinian Authority (PA) does not have its own central bank or currency.<\/p>\n

\u201cFinance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has instructed Accountant General CPA Yali Rothenberg to cancel the indemnity provided to correspondent banks dealing with banks operating in Palestinian Authority territories,\u201d Smotrich\u2019s office said in a statement on Tuesday, announcing the changes.<\/p>\n

The statement also directly linked Smotrich\u2019s decision to the PA\u2019s international advocacy against the establishment of illegal settlements in the occupied territories, which the minister\u2019s office described as the \u201cdelegitimisation campaign against the State of Israel internationally\u201d.<\/p>\n

Smotrich\u2019s decision to end the waiver came hours after Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Norway and the United Kingdom announced sanctions<\/a> against him, as well as against Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir for their \u201cincitement of violence\u201d against Palestinians.<\/p>\n

The sanctions were not publicly linked to Smotrich\u2019s targeting of the PA, which governs parts of the occupied West Bank and represents Palestine at international forums, including the United Nations and the International Court of Justice (ICJ).<\/p>\n

However, Smotrich has a history of blaming the PA and punishing the 2.7 million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in retaliation for international condemnation of Israel\u2019s illegal occupation.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor every country that unilaterally recognises a Palestinian state, we will establish a settlement,\u201d Smotrich said<\/a> in July 2024, as he announced that Israel was \u201crecognising\u201d five illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank after five more countries \u2013 Norway, Spain, Ireland,<\/a> Armenia and Slovenia \u2013 announced they were recognising Palestinian statehood.<\/p>\n

He has also called for Israel to annex<\/a> the occupied West Bank if the ICJ ruled that Israeli settlements are illegal.<\/p>\n

\u2018A humanitarian crisis\u2019<\/h3>\n

The end of the waiver could have a devastating impact on the finances of Palestinians, particularly in the occupied West Bank, which has already suffered multiple economic blows<\/a> over the past two years.<\/p>\n

The overwhelming majority of exchanges in the West Bank and Gaza are in shekels, Israel\u2019s national currency, because Palestine is not allowed to have its own central bank or print its own currency, which means that Palestinian banks are reliant on Israeli banks to operate.<\/p>\n

But Israeli banks only continue to work with the Palestinian banks because of the government waiver, which protects them from potential legal action relating to transactions with their Palestinian counterparts.<\/p>\n

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s government has repeatedly threatened to end the waiver in the past, prompting rebukes from even Israel\u2019s closest allies.<\/p>\n

Janet Yellen, the United States Treasury Secretary in former President Joe Biden\u2019s administration, warned in May last year that \u201cto cut Palestinian banks from Israeli counterparts would create a humanitarian crisis\u201d.<\/p>\n

In July, G7 countries urged Israel to \u201ctake necessary action\u201d to ensure the continuity of Palestinian financial systems.<\/p>\n

The UN has also warned that \u201cunilaterally cutting off Palestinian banks from the global banking system would be a violation of the fundamental principles of international law\u201d.<\/p>\n

Under this pressure, the Israeli government has agreed to extend the waiver for short periods. However, far-right ministers like Smotrich and Ben-Gvir have always objected.<\/p>\n

After one vote in November last year, Ben-Gvir, who has been convicted in Israeli courts<\/a> of possessing a \u201cterror\u201d organisation\u2019s propaganda material and supporting a \u201cterror\u201d organisation, wrote in a post on X that he had a \u201cprincipled objection\u201d to indemnifying the Israeli banks.<\/p>\n

The Palestinian Authority should be completely cut off and \u201ccollapsed\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Israeli finance minister ends waiver that Palestinian banks rely on to operate after Western sanctions announced. Israel\u2019s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, has cancelled a waiver that Palestinian banks rely on to operate hours after five Western governments announced he faced sanctions, along with fellow ultra-nationalist Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, for inciting violence against Palestinians in … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}