Israeli citizens sanctioned by the Biden administration, last week filed a major lawsuit against five financial corporations, Israel Hayom reported on Monday. The suit comes against the backdrop of presidential orders signed by President Joe Biden over the past year, imposing sanctions on Israeli citizens for allegations of harming PA Arabs. As a result, the plaintiffs’ accounts were frozen by the defendants.
The banks are Bank Pagi (owned by the International Bank), the Max Company, the Paybox Company (owned by Discount Bank), Harel Insurance Company, and Bank Leumi.
The lawsuit, filed through attorneys Tsofia Nahon and Ovadia Avitzur, raises serious legal and ethical questions regarding the enforcement of foreign laws on Israeli citizens. Among the plaintiffs are Ateret Yardeni, the wife of Eitan Yardeni of Maon Farm, who is directly affected by the sanctions imposed on her husband, and Reut Ben Haim, founder of the “Order 9” group who objects to providing humanitarian aid to Gaza while Israeli hostages remain in captivity.
Nahon and Avitzur argued that “Israeli financial institutions, led by the banks, are implementing sanctions that compare a Hamas terrorist who slaughtered, raped, and kidnapped Israeli citizens to an Israeli citizen with no criminal record. The comparison is outrageous in itself.”
Plaintiff Ben Haim said, “I don’t have banking apps, they changed my insurance plan because I’m not allowed to do international transactions. As a business owner, I’m prohibited from doing business with US citizens.”
She says that her husband, who serves in the reserves, is particularly harmed. “I couldn’t send him a salary, nor the reserve pay. Suddenly we found ourselves with a mortgage that we couldn’t pay.”
“The Nukhba terrorists can be represented, but I wasn’t allowed to collect money for the lawsuit,” she added. “Every account we opened – we got calls to close it.”
“The court will be required to protect the small citizen against the giant corporations who have seen appropriate to use their enormous resources and batteries of lawyers to harm the small client, instead of protecting him against these crazy decisions in the US,” say Nahon and Avitzur.
The five banks argued they were merely obeying the law. The court will have to teach them a lesson in civil rights.
