US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen admitted Thursday that she fears a “humanitarian crisis” if Israel follows through on its threat to cut off Palestinian banks’ access to its own banking system, thereby blocking vital transactions in the occupied West Bank.
“I am particularly concerned about Israeli threats to take measures that would cut off Palestinian banks’ access to Israeli banks,” Yellen said at a press conference at the opening of a meeting of finance ministers of the G7 (the world’s seven largest economies). which takes place in Stresa, north-eastern Italy.
“These banking channels are essential for transactions that allow approximately $8 billion (€7.370 million) of imports from Israel, including electricity, water, fuel and food, and facilitate approximately $2 billion (€1,840 million) of exports per year. on which the existence of the Palestinians depends,” he emphasized.
Yellen added that she had already warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about this.
“I believe that cutting off Palestinian banks’ access to their Israeli counterparts would create a humanitarian crisis,” the North American representative insisted, adding that she hoped the issue would be raised during a ministerial meeting of the G7 (a group that includes Germany, Canada, USA, France, Italy, Japan and Great Britain, as well as the European Union).
“I hope that other countries will express their concerns about the impact of such a decision on the economy of the West Bank,” he stressed, continuing: “I think it will also have very negative consequences for Israel.”
Janet Yellen also expressed concern about Tel Aviv withholding taxes it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority and which it must pay under the terms of the Oslo accords signed in 1994.
However, following the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023, Israel stopped paying all these customs revenues, saying it refused to fund the Palestinian Islamist movement, which has been in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007 and which it considers a “terrorist organization.”
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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