After Bank of Israel rejects his plan, Sa’ar asks PM for urgent meeting on ‘economic war on Hamas’

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar asks Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to convene an urgent meeting on his proposal to have the Bank of Israel cancel the NIS 200 note in order to deprive Hamas of much of its funds.

“There is an urgent need for an economic war on Hamas,” says Sa’ar in a letter to Netanyahu. “As long as the Bank of Israel persists in its refusal to cooperate with the move, I will propose to examine its advancement through a government decision and legislation, if necessary.”

Sa’ar said last week that a volunteer team of experts estimates that 80% of the Hamas treasury — a stockpile of billions of shekels in cash — consists of NIS 200 notes, with which it pays its members and which it recoups as “taxes” on merchants.

The Bank of Israel summarily dismissed his call, saying there was no “sufficiently well-founded professional justification” for such a move.

In his letter, Sa’ar proposes the participation of Defense Minister Israel Katz, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, Bank of Israel Governor Amir Yaron, and representatives of the National Security Council, the Tax Authority, and the Israel Money Laundering and Terror Financing Prohibition Authority.