On Wednesday 27 October 2010, the Palestinian Monetary Authority (PMA) announced that it has reached an agreement with the Israeli National Insurance Institute (INII) on a mechanism to transfer the allowances from the INII to hundreds of Gazan disabled persons who were injured during their employment in Israel in the past.
  This development comes after more than a year since a petition was submitted to the Israeli Supreme Court on 27 August 2009 against the Israeli decision that stopped the transfers of  these allowances to the beneficiaries in Gaza.
Since the beginning of 2009, about 500 Gazan former workers who are entitled to insurance allowance have not received their allowances because the Bank of Israel decided to stop all dealings with banks in the Gaza Strip; a policy that is linked to the Israeli siege of Gaza.
  Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights, Adalah, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, the Labor's Voice and other organizations with six victims submitted a petition to the Israeli Supreme Court against the Bank of Israel’s decision.
The Israeli authorities and the PMA had negotiations for a long time and have finally reached to agreement on a mechanism for transferring the delayed allowances, and then trsnafer monthly allowances regularly.
  In its response to the petition, the INII informed the Court that a “mechanism has been found with the agreement of both sides - the Israeli side and the Palestinians.
However, technical matters remain unresolved, but we foresee that they will be solved very soon”.
According to the PMA, at the end of this week, “the first payment of allowances will be transferred for most of the beneficiaries and, therefore, the suffering of those entitled to allowances, who are mainly persons who were injured while working in Israel, will be over”.
  According to information given to Al Mezan by Mr.
Riyadh Shihada, the director of Monitoring and Inspection Department at the PMA, “an agreement for resuming the transfer of the allowances to the Gazan beneficiaries had been signed between the INII and the PMA.
The agreement came into force today 27 October 2010 and 100 Gazan beneficiaries will receive their allowances in their bank accounts”.
He added that the rest of beneficiaries would receive their allowances tomorrow, Thursday 28 October 2010.
  Al Mezan Center for Human Rights is pleased with the resolution of this problem.
It appreciates the efforts of the PMA, which has contributed to undermining the Israeli pretexts that led to the halt of the transfers of the allowances for long time.
  Al Mezan asserts that it will continue to follow this problem up with its partners to ensure that the insurance beneficiaries receive their allowances.
  Ends