On video: Settlers attack left-wing activists/photo: Yesh Din
US President Joe Biden on Thursday night signed a special presidential order against four Israelis involved in violent activity against Palestinians in Judea and Samaria: Shalom Zicherman, Yanon Levy, David Chai Hasdai and Einan Tangil. According to the order, the four were involved in crimes of Arson of property that led to injury to human life, threats to Palestinian farmers to leave their homes and physical harm to Palestinians.
The order is considered extremely unusual in its severity and is given mainly to terrorist operatives in war situations, or to their economic engines. The years: the Houthis in Yemen, the Revolutionary Guards in Iran, Russian oligarchs during Russia's invasion of Ukraine and a series of high-ranking terrorist operatives that the USA marked in order to stem their flow of funds.
The cancellation of the order was also done through an order of the president, so for example - President Trump in his time invented the order on the Houthis - and President Biden himself signed the cancellation of the order (and then returned it later).
However, it is not just about blocking the bank account or preventing entry to the US as was first reported, the meaning of the order is blocking access of those people from any financial activity related to the United States in any way. And according to Prof. More: "Almost everything financial makes use of the global banking system.
Almost every company today, including Netflix, Apple, and others use services and are in one way or another in the US. It starts with banks and the financial system but blocks access to SWIFT (a global money transfer system in which more than 200 countries are members = Yeshi ).
These sanctions were applied to them as well."
Prof. Asher Blass/Noam Feiner
According to Blass, as far as the entities on which the sanctions are imposed and what options are available to them, "I assume that if they cooperate in good faith or on the grounds that they are trying to understand the implications, nothing will happen. But if they say that they whistle the terms of the order - it can cause great damage to them - Non-cooperation can cause damage to the Israeli public as a whole."
Blass adds that "If the situation were that these four people were candidates for trial, this would not have happened. This was done when the local authorities did not act. A rather unusual situation when it is applied to an ally and a country with a functioning judicial system.
"What's more, the statement goes against Israel's position, which wants such sanctions They will work: they are being used against Iranians and Houthis."
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US President Biden. The only one who can cancel the order/Reuters
Since Thursday evening, it seems that the financial institutions that hold account holders in Israel are starting to act in accordance with the order.
Bank Leumi has already closed the accounts of some of the activists, following which it was published in Walla!
Yesterday, Bank Hapoalim also intends to do the same.
According to publications, an account in the postal bank belonging to one of the people against whom the warrant was issued was even closed.
On the other hand, Finance Minister Smotrich harshly attacked the decision and said: "If the price is the imposition of American sanctions on me - so be it."
And the truth is, he has a good reason for saying that.
According to the order, even those who cooperate with that "black list" expose themselves to sanctions - and if official bodies in Israel do not stand by the order, this could be interpreted as support for those criminals and complicate the financial systems in Israel that are trying to stabilize themselves in the shadow of the war.
This is how the Bank of Israel stands alongside Bank Leumi and explains in an official response the consequences: "Bypassing the sanctions regimes mentioned above, it has the effect of exposing the banking corporations to significant risks, including compliance risks, money laundering and terrorist financing risks, legal risks and reputational risks", according to the message in full at the end of the article).
This was also the case with Israeli financial entities in the past, when the US imposed large fines and sanctions on Israeli banks following money laundering: "Concerns arose against the financial activity of Israeli banks following accusations of money laundering, and three Israeli banks entered the (not very large) list of banks in the world which is worth considering twice before working with them," explains Prof. Blas.
Settler violence, in this case against left-wing activists/official website, without
The Bank of Israel stated that: "Banking corporations, due to the necessity of their international activities, are required to establish policies and procedures for the use of international sanctions lists and national sanctions lists of foreign countries and for entering into or carrying out operations with parties declared on said lists.
Circumvention of the aforementioned sanctions regimes has the effect of exposing the banking corporations to significant risks and among them, compliance risks, money laundering and terrorist financing risks, legal risks and reputational risks.
Maintaining the proper management and regular activity of the banking corporations in Israel is necessary in order to maintain the regular activity of the economy as a whole, to maintain a proper relationship with the global economy, and finally for its proper functioning of the Israeli economy".
Communications Minister Shlomo Karai stated that "Blocking a citizen's account at the Post Bank due to a scandalous US order is intolerable.
Such abuse of an Israeli citizen without any proper legal process is something that should not be tolerated.
"Unfortunately, as seen by the citizens of Israel, the level of service at the post office is below all criticism and the High Court even blocked the powers of the ministers in the matter.
I have transferred the issue to a legal review, and as soon as I find such authority in my hands, I will order the removal of the block immediately."
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