Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar formally appealed to Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, urging him to convene an immediate meeting to discuss his plan to either invalidate all 200 shekel bills or target certain series of bills that have made their way into the Gaza Strip.
This request comes after Sa’ar had already sent a letter over the weekend to the Governor of the Bank of Israel, and subsequently brought up the matter during a Cabinet session.
In his correspondence with Netanyahu, Sa’ar emphasized, “There is an urgent need to advance an economic war against Hamas. If the Bank of Israel persists in refusing to cooperate, I will propose exploring its advancement through a government decision and legislation if needed.”
He further wrote, “I request an urgent discussion under your leadership, with the participation of relevant parties: the Defense Minister, Finance Minister, Bank of Israel Governor, National Security Council, Israel Money Laundering and Terror Financing Prohibition Authority, and Israel Tax Authority.”
In the letter addressed to the Bank of Israel Governor, Sa’ar laid out that the objective behind canceling these notes is to target Hamas’s financial foundations in Gaza. He explained that the terror group relies extensively on cash flow within the territory, which totals billions of shekels, to pay its personnel and impose taxes on businesses. Volunteer financial experts estimated that approximately 80% of that cash exists in the form of 200 shekel notes.
“Denying the funding capabilities of terrorist organizations in general, and Hamas in particular, is a vital component of the war effort,” Sa’ar stated. He argued that voiding specific series of 200 shekel bills that entered Gaza in recent years could deal a “strategic economic blow” to Hamas, severely impacting its ability to govern and recruit.
{Matzav.com}