Awad al-Rajoub - Hebron
Sources in the Prisoners' Affairs Authority in the Palestinian Authority confirmed that Palestinian and Arab banks have started to close the accounts of prisoners and martyrs in response to Israeli pressure.
The sources said that two Jordanian banks and other Palestinian banks have already started to close the accounts of the prisoners and martyrs, and asked their owners to sign the closing documents, days before the Israeli deadline for banks to close these accounts ended.
The director of the Prisoners Affairs Authority office in Bethlehem, Munqeth Abu Atwan, said that a number of banks have already closed the prisoners ’accounts at a time when all banks are going to close those accounts, holding the Palestinian Monetary Authority responsible for not obliging the banks to continue their work as they are subject to Palestinian laws and regulations.
Abu Atwan said that what is required of the Monetary Authority is to take a decisive stance towards the banks that have frozen the prisoners ’accounts and dealt with the decision of the occupation authorities, calling on the Monetary Authority - which plays the role of the central bank - to close the banks and not provide concessions and facilities to them.
The commander of the Israeli army in the West Bank decided to consider the salaries that the Palestinian Authority pays for the prisoners in Israeli detention, "prohibited payments."
Palestinian banks were warned not to carry out prohibited operations related to funds related to "terrorism" and the possibility of exposing them to lawsuits, according to Israeli media, explaining that the decision will come into effect on May 9.
According to the Israeli warning, if the banks continue to maintain the accounts of prisoners, estimated at $ 12 million a month, bank directors and employees will be "partners in the crime", thus exposing themselves to a penalty of up to seven years and a heavy fine.
The first bank
and the Arab Bank was one of the first banks to suspend the prisoners ’accounts, and that was several years ago, following the prosecutions that the bank was exposed to in the United States.
A spokesman for the Prisoners' Affairs Authority, Hassan Abed Rabbo, previously told Al-Jazeera Net that the decision of the commander of the military occupation "piracy of Palestinian funds would exacerbate the suffering of the prisoners and their families," noting that the funds of more than fifty prisoners from the occupied interior and Jerusalem were confiscated early this year.
The Spokesman pledged to continue to provide everything necessary for the prisoners and their families within the powers granted to the commission based on Palestinian laws and regulations as if the military decision does not exist, in reference to a study of alternatives to pay the prisoners ’dues.
The Palestinian Authority faced great pressures regarding the file of the prisoners, to the extent that the Authority pays them with clearing funds that Israel collects for the goods imported through the ports and crossings of the occupied territories on behalf of the Palestinian Authority.
And occupies more than five thousand prisoners in the occupation prisons receive prisoners from the Palestinian Authority.