Ahead of the recent Group of Seven summit, United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, in a rare rebuke of Israel, warned that its plans to cut off Palestinian financial institutions from the global banking system would threaten the West Bank’s economic stability.
But her warning may have come too late to stop Israel’s far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, who seems bent on undermining the last vestiges of the already limited self-governance of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank.
The sanctions that Smotrich wants to impose — specifically, revoking the waiver that allows Israeli banks to facilitate transactions with Palestinians without fear of legal action — are in response to Ireland, Norway and Spain formally recognizing a Palestinian state. Ironically the PA is on the verge of collapse, owing to Israel’s actions and the world’s inaction.