{"id":131576,"date":"2024-06-17T07:25:13","date_gmt":"2024-06-17T04:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/news\/israels-economic-war-chokes-occupied-west-bank\/"},"modified":"2024-06-17T07:25:13","modified_gmt":"2024-06-17T04:25:13","slug":"israels-economic-war-chokes-occupied-west-bank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/news\/israels-economic-war-chokes-occupied-west-bank\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel\u2019s \u2018economic war\u2019 chokes occupied West Bank"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mp_wrapper\">\n  <div class=\"mepr-unauthorized-message\">\n    <p>You are unauthorized to view this page.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n  <div class=\"mepr-login-form-wrap\">\n            \n<div class=\"mp_wrapper mp_login_form\">\n                  <!-- mp-login-form-start -->     <form name=\"mepr_loginform\" id=\"mepr_loginform\" class=\"mepr-form\" action=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/\" method=\"post\" data-trp-original-action=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/\">\n            <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_username\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n                              <label for=\"user_login\">Username<\/label>\n        <\/div>\n        <input type=\"text\" name=\"log\" id=\"user_login\" value=\"\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_password\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n          <label for=\"user_pass\">Password<\/label>\n          <div class=\"mp-hide-pw\">\n            <input type=\"password\" name=\"pwd\" id=\"user_pass\" value=\"\" \/>\n            <button type=\"button\" class=\"button mp-hide-pw hide-if-no-js\" data-toggle=\"0\" aria-label=\"Show password\">\n              <span class=\"dashicons dashicons-visibility\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span>\n            <\/button>\n          <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n            <div>\n        <label><input name=\"rememberme\" type=\"checkbox\" id=\"rememberme\" value=\"forever\" \/> Remember Me<\/label>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n      <div class=\"submit\">\n        <input type=\"submit\" name=\"wp-submit\" id=\"wp-submit\" class=\"button-primary mepr-share-button\" value=\"Log In\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"redirect_to\" value=\"\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131576\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_process_login_form\" value=\"true\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_is_login_page\" value=\"false\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n    <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"trp-form-language\" value=\"en\"\/><\/form>\n    <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n    <div class=\"mepr-login-actions\">\n        <a\n          href=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/?action=forgot_password\"\n          title=\"Click here to reset your password\"\n        >\n          Forgot Password        <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n\n      \n    <!-- mp-login-form-end --> \n  <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"smart_content_wrapper\">\nPalestinian teenagers bounced on trampolines and jumped through hoops inside a towering tent on the outskirts of Ramallah, the financial hub of the occupied West Bank. But the circus students weren\u2019t the only ones bending over backwards in the pavilion: the school\u2019s director faced financial hurdles to buy the tent from Europe and trampolines from Asia. \u201cWe are suffering with international payments,\u201d said Mohamad Rabah, head of the Palestinian Circus School, describing a bureaucratic process that could delay equipment delivery by up to a month.<\/p>\n<p>Banking in the Palestinian territories is challenging, with the Palestinian Authority (PA) under scrutiny for potential terror financing, hindering transactions.Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, with strong economic ties allowing two Israeli lenders to serve as correspondent banks in the Palestinian territory.But this may change if Israel\u2019s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich carries out threats to sever a vital banking route next month. Since Hamas\u2019s October 7 attack triggered the Gaza war, Israel has imposed economic curbs on the PA, withholding tax revenues it collects on its behalf.<\/p>\n<p>Smotrich said this week he had redirected $35 million in PA tax revenues to families of \u201cterrorism\u201d victims, a move condemned by the United States.After three European countries recognised Palestinian statehood in May, Smotrich told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu he would not extend indemnity to banks that transfer the funds from the end of June. Israel\u2019s Bank Hapoalim and Israel Discount Bank need protection, expiring on July 1, to avoid sanctions for dealing with Palestinian lenders. Israel\u2019s central bank and finance ministry declined to comment when contacted by AFP.<\/p>\n<p>The banking channel used to pay for West Bank imports \u2014 including essential goods like water, fuel and food \u2014 handles $8 billion yearly. Palestinian businesses receive nearly $1.7 billion annually for exports, according to the Palestine Monetary Authority.\u201cFor us, because our economy is dependent on the Israeli economy, because Israel is controlling the border, the impact will be high,\u201d said PMA governor Feras Milhem. The Palestinian economy is largely governed by the 1994 Paris Protocol, which granted sole control over the territories\u2019 borders to Israel, including the right to collect import duties and value-added tax for the PA.<\/p>\n<p>Palestinian livelihoods have also been hurt by bans on labourers crossing into Israel and by a sharp downturn in tourism in the territory, including a quiet Christmas season in Bethlehem. The United States has urged Israel to improve conditions, warning that severing the banking route would have a dire impact on the West Bank economy. \u201cI believe it would create a humanitarian crisis in due course if Palestinian banks are cut off from Israeli correspondence,\u201d US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said last month. Western governments fear Israel\u2019s economic policies could destabilise the West Bank. \u201cThe banking system may collapse and therefore the PA may collapse as well,\u201d a European diplomatic source in Jerusalem told AFP on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.digitaljournal.com\/business\/israels-economic-war-chokes-occupied-west-bank\/article\">Read more&gt;&gt;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source: <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.digitaljournal.com\/business\/israels-economic-war-chokes-occupied-west-bank\/article\">DJ<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/csr-news-en\/israels-economic-war-chokes-occupied-west-bank\/\">Israel\u2019s \u2018economic war\u2019 chokes occupied West Bank<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\">Vastuullisuusuutiset.fi<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[555,14952,1684],"class_list":["post-131576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-csr-news-en","tag-economic-war","tag-israel"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131576\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}