The Palestinian Authority (PA) on Tuesday called on the United Nations and other international institutions to impose sanctions on Israeli banks for providing financial facilities to illegal settlement construction.
A statement by the PA Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) referred to a case of an Israeli bank providing funds to a pro-settlement organization to aid in the building of illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.
The MFA condemned in the strongest terms the Israeli government’s participation in the process of granting ‘Amana’ settlements company financial loans from an Israeli bank in return for mortgaging occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank and through explicit guidance from the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Construction and Housing as stated in the Israeli media.
The MFA went on to say that the report revealed the involvement of at least one Israeli bank in granting financial facilitation to support settlements’ construction and colonial occupational associations and companies.
“The ministry follows closely this serious issue with local regional and international specialized forums demanding the United Nations and its institutions in addition to international financial institutions to follow up this blatant violation of international law and impose the necessary sanctions on the Israeli banking system the Israeli banks involved in it and all providers of financial facilities to settlers and settlements’ construction” the statement concluded.
According to i24NEWS site members of Amana have been arrested in the past for involvement in plots to buy land in the West Bank using forged documents and without the consent of the landowners.
The Haaretz daily reported earlier this week that in 2002 the leader of the organization Amana signed two loans with Mizrahi-Tefahot Bank worth a total of NIS five million or the equivalent of $1.05 million at the time.
According to the report the funds were supplied by the Israeli government and used to aid construction of the illegal Amona and Migron outposts.
Amana never had ownership rights of the Palestinian land it was mortgaging said Haaretz.
The Israeli government last week passed the “Regularization Bill” which will retroactively legalize thousands of settler homes built illegally on privately-owned Palestinian lands sparking fierce condemnations from the international community.
