ISRAEL LAW CENTER CONTINUES TO SUE ISRAELI BANKS DELIVERING CASH TO GAZA
Israeljustice.com
Date added:
1/5/2009
TEL AVIV -- Israeli attorneys, who sued Israel's Poalim and Discount Banks for delivering cash to the Palestinian Authority in Gaza, have said they will sue any bank that agrees to the government's demand to supply money to the PA, amid the war with the Hamas regime.
Officials, who said the government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has been seeking banks to transfer the cash, has directed the Postal Bank to send the money to the Gaza Strip. They said about $20 million would be used to pay the salaries of the Palestinian Authority employees, jobs now controlled by the Hamas regime.
"We are under international obligation to transfer cash to Gaza banks," an official said.
Officials said the driving force in the Israeli decision was Bank of Israel Gov. Stanley Fischer and Finance Minister Roni Bar-On. Fischer was said to be close to the PA, which has urged Israel to facilitate transfers to banks in the Gaza Strip.
In December 2008, two leading Israeli banks said they would end cash transfers to the Gaza Strip. Bank Discount and Bank Hapoalim have been sued in an Israeli court on allegations of supporting the Hamas regime, regarded
as a terrorist entity by Israel and the United States. On Jan. 1, the two banks refused a request by Fischer to transfer an unspecified amount of money to the Gaza Strip.
"The transfer of cash to Gaza, therefore, gravely endangers the security of Israeli citizens, and especially that of those who live in Sderot, Ashkelon and the communities around Gaza," the suit against the banks by the Israel Law Center said.
Israel Law Center director Nitsana Darshan-Leitner said the Postal Bank faces a lawsuit in both Israel and abroad should it comply with the government directive. Ms. Darshan-Leitner said the Postal Bank was being forced to support the Hamas regime.
"It is very grave that even now, during the war with Hamas, Stanley Fischer continues to insist on the transfer of money to Gaza," Ms. Darshan-Leitner said. "The guarantee it requested from the government won't
save it from criminal trials or from a court ruling that it provided banking services to a terrorist organization."
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