Cabinet approves extension of bank indemnity agreement, strengthening PA for another year

After European powers demanded that Israel continue the compensation for banks in the Palestinian Authority a few hours ago, the cabinet approved the compensation in an urgent phone vote and strengthened the Palestinian Authority for another year.

France, Germany, and the United Kingdom issued a special political statement earlier today, calling on Israel to renew the agreement for compensating Israeli and Palestinian banks, an agreement that allows Arab banks in the territories to conduct international transactions through Israeli banks.

Smotrich has threatened since the beginning of the war that he would not allow the continuation of bank compensation if European countries and the United States continued to impose sanctions on citizens and entities in Judea and Samaria, but now, together with Prime Minister Netanyahu, he has urgently approved the compensation. The only minister who opposed was Minister Ben Gvir.

Without the continuation of the indemnity agreement, the expectation is that the Palestinian Authority will collapse economically within a short time, but now the security cabinet has approved the continuation of the indemnity for an additional 12 months from today.

From Minister Ben Gvir, the only one who opposed in the vote, it was conveyed: "My opposition to compensating Israeli banks for their dealings with the Palestinian Authority is a principled stance! I'm sorry that my friends make statements against the authority but in practice vote differently. In my opinion, we should dismantle the authority and not support or assist it so that it doesn't collapse economically. "