Public Statment
The Israeli occupation authorities made a reprehensible amendment to a military order criminalizing the opening and management of accounts, by banks, for the families of detainees and ex-detainees, which was unfair, threatening to confiscate funds from those accounts. Hence, Palestine Monetary Authority emphasizes the following:
- The rights of the families of prisoners and released prisoners are safeguarded by the banks and the banks will coordinate with the government on ensuring that they continue to receive their dues.
- Palestine Monetary Authority confirms that the Joint Committee, formed by the decision of the Prime Minister, with the participation of the Commission of Detainees and ex-Detainees’ Affairs and the Association of Banks in Palestine and the Ministry of Finance, in addition to Palestine Monetary Authority, began to work on the analysis of the risks to the benefits of detainees’ relatives and the implications of the military order on the operating banks.
- Palestine Monetary Authority is closely monitoring the initiative of some banks to close accounts in order to avoid the consequences of the threat of the occupation authorities and confirms that these measures were carried out without complying with the laws and instructions of Palestine Monetary Authority, which had to be informed in advance. This will be dealt with in accordance with Palestine Monetary Authority Law.
- Palestine Monetary Authority condemns the irresponsible attacks on bank branches and calls on the executive bodies to take deterrent measures against those who do this work. Palestine Monetary Authority also follows the unjustified attack on banks, stressing that Palestine Monetary Authority stands fully to protect the banking system, which it considers a national sector with distinction, and to strengthen its development role in light of the economic constraints that the occupation puts before all of us.
- Finally, Palestine Monetary Authority will not give up its role in protecting the funds of all depositors and in managing the account file for the families of detainees, and calls on everyone to deal very wisely in a way that ensures that the occupation does not confiscate funds from banks, as happened before in 2004 based on the same military order that was recently amended in February 2020.
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