Rejecting Sa’ar’s request, Bank of Israel says it won’t cancel 200 shekel note

Responding to Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar’s request that it take the 200-shekel note out of circulation to cripple Hamas’s finances, the Bank of Israel says it has no plans to do so.

“The governor has not yet been presented with a sufficiently well-founded professional justification for canceling any banknote,” the central bank says in a statement to The Times of Israel.

“The proposals put forward on the subject by various parties do not meet any professional standard, there is no feasibility for their implementation, and they were not presented in an orderly manner to the governor and were not coordinated in any way with the Bank of Israel.”

“We emphasize that the NIS 200 banknote in circulation, like the other banknotes and coins, continues and will continue to be used as usual,” says the central bank.