Second Session: Immediate Challenges in the Wake of Destruction and Volatility

Financial Inclusion and Exclusion – Managing Banking and Money under Occupation,

This session examines the severe vulnerabilities of the Palestinian banking sector amidst the ongoing war and escalating Israeli policies of de facto annexation in the West Bank. The widespread destruction in Gaza has devastated banking infrastructure, disrupted payment systems, and severely limited residents’ access to funds, intensifying the suffering caused by loss of life, displacement, hyperinflation and starvation. Coupled with Israeli threats to terminate correspondence banking relations, these factors are sending ripples throughout the economy, placing it on the brink of a potential systemic collapse and highlighting the fragility of banking under occupation.

Palestinians are at a critical juncture in a long history marked by dispossession, misery, and inadequate international response. The life and future of Palestinians is at stake. This moment calls for decisive interventions to support Palestinian steadfastness and safeguard economic—and human—rights amidst rising Israeli violence and arbitrary restrictions and policies. While previous and ongoing efforts to support the banking sector must continue, a new approach is urgently needed—one that centers citizens and communities in planning, policymaking, and intervention to ensure they can withstand and emerge from crises.”