That is where the banks come in: all payments to any merchant happen when a Palestinian bank sends money to its Israeli counterpart. “Israeli banks would stop accepting cash shipments from Palestinian banks, and they wouldn’t accept electronic transfers either.”That last part is what threatened to unravel the Palestinian economy. Israeli banks were already being directed to refuse cash payments from Palestinian banks before Smotrich made his announcement, but were still able to receive electronic transfers. “The prices were being jacked up for electronic payments specifically, because more and more retailers were trying to pay electronically to adapt to the new situation,” Mashriqi explained. “It’s something that should have been invested in to make us less vulnerable to Israeli banking whims.”“The e-payments would still be subject to going through Israeli banks,” he clarifies.