Bank Leumi Explains Why It Froze the Israeli Accounts of UNRWA and of Settlers Sanctioned by Biden

Bank Leumi recently froze the local Israeli bank accounts of both UNRWA and settlers sanctioned by the Biden administration. Today (Monday), they explained these decisions to Globes.

Regarding UNRWA, Bank Leumi said that they had identified multiple bank transfers which could not be easily traced in terms of purpose and destination. The answers UNRWA gave the bank were unsatisfactory, and thus based on the suspicion that the money was being used for terrorist purposes, the bank froze the account.

Regarding the sanctioned Israeli settlers, the bank said that the very existence of an executive American sanction was sufficient for them to have to freeze local assets, regardless of the facts of the case. The penalties for ignoring sanctions are severe and include being barred from doing business in the US and even being cut off from the SWIFT payments system.