This morning, for the first time, two of Israel’s major banks, Bank Hapoalim and Israel Discount Bank, turned down a request from Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer to transfer funds to the Gaza Strip.
This refusal is the product of a petition filed before the Israel Supreme Court by the human rights organization, Shurat HaDin, against these two banks two weeks ago. According to the petition, money transfers to the Gaza strip were a clear act of terror financing and a criminal offense, violating several laws, including the Terror Financing Act and the Money Laundering Act.
The petition was the culmination of Shurat HaDin’s long struggle against financial transfers to Gaza. It demanded that the Bank of Israel be ordered to stop forcing the two banks to provide financial services and funds to banks in the Gaza Strip. Because the Gaza Strip is controlled by the Hamas terror organization, the transferred shekels automatically end up in Hamas’ hands, and is transferred in the form of paychecks to thousands of Hamas terrorists. Cash transfers to Gaza, therefore, seriously jeopardize the safety of Israeli citizens, especially those living in Sderot, Ashkelon and the Israeli towns surrounding the Gaza Strip.
The petition further clarified that money transfers to the Gaza strip and the continuation of banking connections between the Israeli and Gazan banks subject the Israeli banks and their employees to major civil lawsuits filed by terror victims’ families both in and out of Israel, as well as to criminal proceedings.
As a result of the two banks’ refusal to continue transferring money to Gaza, the Bank of Israel and the Finance Ministry called upon the Post Office Bank to provide financial services to the Gaza strip. The Post Office Bank, however, is demanding that the state guarantee compensation and legal protection against liability in case the money is used to fund terrorism.
According to Shurat HaDin’s director, Att. Nitsana Darshan-Leitner: “it is a grave situation that, even today, when Israel is in a state of war, Stanley Fischer keeps insisting on transferring money to Gaza. Israel Discount Bank and Bank Hapoalim did the right thing by deciding to stop transferring Israeli shekels to the terrorists, and if money transfers are carried out by the Post Office Bank, it will be subject to the same criminal and civil proceedings taken against those that finance and facilitate terrorism. The guarantees the Post Office Bank asks of the State of Israel will not protect it from criminal prosecution or from a civil ruling that it provided financial services to a terror organization.”
(Shurat HaDin / YWN Israel Assignment Desk)
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2 Responses
I’m all for doing “the right thing.” However, when the “right thing” means shooting oneself in the foot – or, much worse, causing mayhem for countless others – then all of a sudden it isn’t the right thing.
If the government will only show stubborn persistence in fighting this war with the “kid gloves off”, and ignoring all the world criticism, they would be able to convince the Gazans that they are fools to keep supporting Hamas.
Killing Nizar Rayan Y”SV and his 4 wives, 4 resha’imlach and 14 neighbors showed real toughness.
But for the Israeli government to keep up the pressure with any “gevurah” they need si’ata di’shmaya… For that we need to be mispallel.