Learn about the history of the Palestinian struggle for freedom, equality and justice by exploring major events in the history of their oppression on this day of the year.
25 February
ISRAELI ARMY ROBBED PALESTINIAN BANKS
On this day in 2004, Israeli soldiers and police raided banks in Ramallah seizing 40 million shekels, “millions of dollars representing hundreds of institutional and personal accounts…” Israel defended the bank robberies as fighting terrorism. Army Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz said the money should be "invested in humanitarian causes for the West Bank Palestinians' welfare." (Mofaz would later cut short a 2015 visit to the UK for fear of arrest and prosecution for war crimes.)
نهب الجيش الإسرائيلي البنوك الفلسطينية
25 فبراير
في مثل هذا اليوم من عام 2004 ، داهم الجنود والشرطة الإسرائيلية البنوك في رام الله ، وصادروا 40 مليون شيكل ، "ملايين الدولارات تمثل مئات الحسابات المؤسسية والشخصية ..." دافعت إسرائيل عن سرقات البنوك باعتبارها تحارب الإرهاب. وقال رئيس اركان الجيش شاؤول موفاز ان الاموال يجب "استثمارها في قضايا انسانية من اجل رفاهية الفلسطينيين في الضفة الغربية". (قطع موفاز لاحقًا زيارته إلى المملكة المتحدة عام 2015 خوفًا من الاعتقال والمحاكمة بتهمة ارتكاب جرائم حرب).
The Age in Australia reported:
"...soldiers covered the banks' security cameras with black plastic bags and herded all the employees together before ordering workers with keys to open the vaults...the Israeli troops brought bank computer experts who had been arrested overnight Tuesday to help guide them through the systems.
Israeli officials defended the operation...as...in line with President Bush's call for action against such ["terror"] funds.
But Amin Haddad, the head of the Palestinian Monetary Authority, called the raid a robbery intended to ''shake our banking system. This is against all laws and norms. They acted like gangs.'' Mr Haddad rejected Israeli assertions that the accounts were linked to terrorism.
Robbing banks wasn't a one-off, reported the BBC.
Israeli troops have raided a bank and the offices of money-changers in West Bank towns...The army said it seized almost $1.5m (£0.8m) in raids on premises in Nablus, Jenin, Tulkarm and Ramallah...Palestinian sources have said that millions of dollars, documents and files were stolen in the raids.
At least eight currency exchange offices and a small bank were destroyed, the Israeli army said, and some 5m shekels ($1.2m; £0.6m) and 170,000 Jordanian dinars ($240,000; £130,000) had been seized.
The Nablus branch of the Jordanian National Bank was destroyed in one of the raids.
New York Times reported that US privately complained about some bank robberies
"In January 2003, Israeli forces took about $7,000 from a branch of the Arab Bank in a Palestinian neighborhood just outside Jerusalem. Officials knowledgeable about the incident said the Bush administration privately rebuked Israel after Jordan complained."
Israeli soldiers don't rob only banks
Ahrar Center for Prisoner Studies and Human Rights said that Israeli forces seized about 70,000 shekels after breaking into home of 52-year-old Ahmed Shubeiri, in Qarboun village, near occupied Nablus. Ahmed is father of Ali Shubeiri, who has been imprisoned for over a year now...Ahrar’s director, Fuad Al-Khuffash, condemned the action, saying that it was actually theft and not the first incident of of its kind among Israeli soldiers.
The Military Police is investigating allegations that soldiers stole pieces of gold worth tens of thousands of shekels from the home of a Palestinian man during a late-night raid in a West Bank village last week.