Netanyahu Postpones Bill Forcing Banks to Serve Israelis Sanctioned by the US

Photo Credit: Amit Shabi/POOL

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has postponed the advancement of a bill that would have forced Israeli banks to serve Israelis who were sanctioned in recent months by the US, the Haaretz daily reported.

The law’s advancement was postponed until after Donald Trump reentered the White House in January.

Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, and Minister Ron Dermer informed the Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday that the advancement of the law will be postponed until the last week of January.

Otzma Yehudit MK Limor Sonn Har Melech / Yossi Aloni/Flash90

According to the bill, submitted by MK Limor Son Har-Melech (Otzma Yehudit), the Israeli banks’ decision not to confront the countries that imposed sanctions on their Israeli clients resulted in them preventing “Israeli citizens from carrying out banking operations that the foreign sanctions regimes were not intended to apply to,” meaning that they took the sanctions a step forward to avoid any possible confrontation with the foreign entities that imposed the sanctions.

In the meantime, Israeli elements have launched to have the sanctions removed as soon as possible a campaign and have contacted Trump’s team with the aim of lifting the sanctions in the first days of the new administration.

Trump is expected to cancel a long list of decisions made by the previous administration upon entering the Oval Office, including sanctions imposed by the Biden administration on right-wing Israeli activists.

The US, the United Kingdom, France, the European Union, Australia, Canada, Japan, and other countries have all imposed various sanctions on Israeli organizations and individuals whose activities they deemed problematic.

These include the leaders of the Tsav 9 organization, which blocked trucks carrying supplies to the Gaza Strip while saying that these trucks were highjacked by the Hamas terror organization and essentially provided it with a lifeline and an ability to maintain its grip on the Strip.

Following the sanctions, Israeli banks and credit companies have stopped providing services to their sanctioned clients, including the freezing of accounts or blocking credit cards.

The banks claim they are forced to comply with the sanctions because of their complete dependence on the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), the system that provides the main messaging network through which international payments are initiated.