After months of public sector strikes due to nonpayment of salaries in
light of the US-led blockade, now banks are striking. Following an
Attack against the Arab Bank, it planed is shorter however, expected to
last just one day in order to make a statement.
With the general economy nearly destroyed, and that of the Gaza Strip having reached a humanitarian crisis as reported by the United Nations Relief Works Agency, Gaza City's Arab Bank was attacked at dawn on Friday. In protest, all banks will close their doors tomorrow.
Lawlessness, security chaos, and insecurity are terms that have been used to describe the internal Palestinian situation that has come about as a result of the political and economic blockade and the in-fighting that it has created. This year has faced some of the ugliest internal fighting in history.
The perpetrators of the bank attack are being described as “not from the Palestinian womb.” The Association of Banks calling the strike say that this is an act of treason against the freedom and independence that the people are struggling for.
The Arab Bank has branches throughout the Gaza Strip and West Bank, and was founded in Jerusalem in 1930. The bank has already been subjected to a vicious assault by Israeli forces which confiscated millions, and then there were the threats from the United States upon imposition of the blockade.
The Palestinian Monetary Authority stressed that targeting the bank is “totally incompatible with the national interest,” pointing out that the banking system is considered one of the few Palestinian sectors that is still operating with a measure of efficiency, considering the circumstances. It is all that is left of the economic backbone of the country, as some describe.
The Palestine News Network learned on Saturday that the Arab Bank is in urgent contact with President Abbas and investigations into earlier attacks on the bank have been reopened.
