Palestinian officials and financial leaders have strongly criticised Israel's military raid on a currency exchange in central Ramallah on Tuesday, saying the large-scale incursion is part of a wider, politically motivated push to destabilise the occupied West Bank by targeting the Palestinian economy.
The rare daytime incursion took place a few hundred metres from the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the occupied West Bank. The Palestinian Health Ministry said 33 people suffered injuries from live ammunition, rubber bullets and tear gas inhalation, including a 13-year-old boy who was shot in the abdomen.
The Israeli military said the target was a currency exchange that “transfers terror funds to Hamas”, and that five people “suspected of terrorist activity” were arrested.
The raid is the latest instance of Israel unilaterally going after Palestinian finances and institutions in the name of stopping money from being transferred to its enemies. Israeli police said on Wednesday that security forces seized roughly 1.5 million shekels ($447,000) of “terror funds” during the raid.
Many Palestinians say these raids are politically motivated attempts to destabilise Palestinian life. Threats to the economy, which has contracted massively since the Gaza war began nearly two years ago, are widely feared to be one of the biggest risk factors for a security collapse in the West Bank.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's office described the raid as a “theft of funds” in which property was destroyed, the news agency Wafa reported. It called on the US to put pressure on Israel to call off attacks on the West Bank.
“The Israeli government is pushing the situation towards a major explosion aimed at forcing Palestinians from their land and displacing them,” it said. “The Palestinian people will neither leave nor relinquish their land and holy sites.”
Footage shot near a major roundabout in Ramallah showed at least five Israeli armoured vehicles and troops on the streets. Wafa reported that Israeli snipers positioned themselves on rooftops as soldiers carried out the raid.
Surveillance footage showed terrified Palestinians seeking shelter in shops. Groups of mostly young men were filmed throwing stones at Israeli forces in response to the raid.
Palestinian businessman and economist Samir Hulileh said he believed the raid was “a way to frighten people and make the economy and all of the West Bank tremble”.
He criticised Israel for deploying the military to deal with financial cases, arguing that Palestinian and Israeli authorities, with international oversight, have long worked on specialist approaches to dealing with monetary crime.
“We have regulated this since the Oslo Accords and the regulations have been valid all the time except during this [Israeli] government,” Mr Hulileh told The National. He said the Palestinian Monetary Authority and Bank of Israel, with the guidance of the US Treasury and International Monetary Fund, have “excellent” procedures to tackle financial crime.
“Of course, a money changer could be doing something wrong, but to tackle the problem properly, you don’t destabilise the market. You don’t raid violently, injuring and killing people,” he said.
The Israeli government “seems not to care very much”, Mr Hulileh said. “Chaos is maybe what they want … what they’re trying to do is dismantle and pressure the PA for political reasons.”
First Person
Richard Flanagan
Chatto & Windus
French business
France has organised a delegation of leading businesses to travel to Syria. The group was led by French shipping giant CMA CGM, which struck a 30-year contract in May with the Syrian government to develop and run Latakia port. Also present were water and waste management company Suez, defence multinational Thales, and Ellipse Group, which is currently looking into rehabilitating Syrian hospitals.
In-demand jobs and monthly salaries
- Technology expert in robotics and automation: Dh20,000 to Dh40,000
- Energy engineer: Dh25,000 to Dh30,000
- Production engineer: Dh30,000 to Dh40,000
- Data-driven supply chain management professional: Dh30,000 to Dh50,000
- HR leader: Dh40,000 to Dh60,000
- Engineering leader: Dh30,000 to Dh55,000
- Project manager: Dh55,000 to Dh65,000
- Senior reservoir engineer: Dh40,000 to Dh55,000
- Senior drilling engineer: Dh38,000 to Dh46,000
- Senior process engineer: Dh28,000 to Dh38,000
- Senior maintenance engineer: Dh22,000 to Dh34,000
- Field engineer: Dh6,500 to Dh7,500
- Field supervisor: Dh9,000 to Dh12,000
- Field operator: Dh5,000 to Dh7,000
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Tonight's Chat on The National
Tonight's Chat is a series of online conversations on The National. The series features a diverse range of celebrities, politicians and business leaders from around the Arab world.
Tonight’s Chat host Ricardo Karam is a renowned author and broadcaster with a decades-long career in TV. He has previously interviewed Bill Gates, Carlos Ghosn, Andre Agassi and the late Zaha Hadid, among others. Karam is also the founder of Takreem.
Intellectually curious and thought-provoking, Tonight’s Chat moves the conversation forward.
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The five new places of worship
Church of South Indian Parish
St Andrew's Church Mussaffah branch
St Andrew's Church Al Ain branch
St John's Baptist Church, Ruwais
Church of the Virgin Mary and St Paul the Apostle, Ruwais
Recipe
Garlicky shrimp in olive oil
Gambas Al Ajillo
Preparation time: 5 to 10 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes
Serves 4
Ingredients
180ml extra virgin olive oil; 4 to 5 large cloves of garlic, minced or pureed (or 3 to 4 garlic scapes, roughly chopped); 1 or 2 small hot red chillies, dried (or ¼ teaspoon dried red chilli flakes); 400g raw prawns, deveined, heads removed and tails left intact; a generous splash of sweet chilli vinegar; sea salt flakes for seasoning; a small handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped
Method
▶ Heat the oil in a terracotta dish or frying pan. Once the oil is sizzling hot, add the garlic and chilli, stirring continuously for about 10 seconds until golden and aromatic.
▶ Add a splash of sweet chilli vinegar and as it vigorously simmers, releasing perfumed aromas, add the prawns and cook, stirring a few times.
▶ Once the prawns turn pink, after 1 or 2 minutes of cooking, remove from the heat and season with sea salt flakes.
▶ Once the prawns are cool enough to eat, scatter with parsley and serve with small forks or toothpicks as the perfect sharing starter. Finish off with crusty bread to soak up all that flavour-infused olive oil.
Classification of skills
A worker is categorised as skilled by the MOHRE based on nine levels given in the International Standard Classification of Occupations (ISCO) issued by the International Labour Organisation.
A skilled worker would be someone at a professional level (levels 1 – 5) which includes managers, professionals, technicians and associate professionals, clerical support workers, and service and sales workers.
The worker must also have an attested educational certificate higher than secondary or an equivalent certification, and earn a monthly salary of at least Dh4,000.
Jigra
Starring: Alia Bhatt, Vedang Raina, Manoj Pahwa, Harsh Singh
