109 Israeli Economists Slam Netanyahu's Crypto Sanctions Plan

A letter signed by 109 Israeli economists, executives and former officials says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's idea of using crypto to get around banking sanctions would do nothing to protect the economy. It was published Sunday.

This is the second big rebuke in two days. The Bank of Israel said Saturday that crypto cannot be a route around sanctions. Now a long list of the country's best-known economists has piled on.

Who signed

The signers include Joel Mokyr, the 2025 Nobel laureate in economics, and Aaron Ciechanover, a Nobel laureate in chemistry, according to Ynetnews and CTech by Calcalist. Former Bank of Israel governor Jacob Frenkel, four former Finance Ministry directors-general and two former bank supervisors also signed, along with Check Point co-founder Marius Nacht.

The letter warns that broad banking sanctions would cause "irreversible damage." It says Israelis could lose the use of credit cards and that exporters and the tech sector could not function. It calls crypto workarounds a method associated with criminal organizations.

Netanyahu hasn't dropped it

Netanyahu raised the idea Friday on an Israeli economic TV channel, saying the country should prepare an alternative system to bypass banking sanctions. On Saturday he said he takes the central bank's objections into account but does what he thinks is right, Middle East Eye reported. Neither Ynetnews nor CTech reported a response from his office to the letter.

Netanyahu framed banking sanctions as a risk, not a reality. The UK and 11 other countries have so far targeted trade in goods from West Bank settlements, Middle East Eye reported.