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Twilight Zone / Hitting them in the pocket By Gideon Levy Tags: Israel Next to an improvised stall in Manara Square in the heart of Hebron, crowded and bustling, just like in its better days, stand two young men holding piles of bills, changing money. Dinars, Saudi riyals, Gulf currencies, dollars, shekels, euros - all of these change hands. Behind the stall is the shop of Fadel Abdeen, the biggest money changer in Hebron. A large and colorful sign, showing a vulture with wings spread, one touching an American dollar and the other a Jordanian dinar, hangs above the entrance to the shop, but the place is locked. An injunction was issued for a half-year's closure, on orders of the head of the Israel Defense Forces Central Command. Signs on the shop direct the customers to the phone numbers of other branches of the network, which remain open. Now money changer Abdeen is standing in the noisy street and observing from a distance as his sons run an improvised stall, a substitute for a substitute. The IDF says that this money-changing agency was friendly to terror organizations that used it to transfer money. Abdeen denies this accusation out of hand. He says that the Palestinian Authority supervises all movement of money so that it is not transferred to Hamas and its ilk. Whatever the case, the money is gone. The soldiers and police came at night and confiscated everything. Abdeen is not alone. Last week, on the night between February 11 and 12, the forces raided most of the cities of the West Bank, shoving their hands into the bulging pockets of the money changers and taking whatever they found. They took even the small change in their wives' purses. In Hebron alone they raided six agencies. The chair of the city's bureau of commerce, Hashem Natsheh, says that this is a serious blow to the economy of his city. "The damage will harm both nations," he says, measuring his words. Advertisement Velvet armchairs and heavy curtains, glass cases filled with souvenirs, photos on the walls, carpets on the floor, Ismail Haniyeh on television, elegant and old-fashioned decor - this is a room on the second floor of the chamber of commerce in the heart of Hebron. The main street downstairs is bustling with people and cars. The hundreds of shops are filled with all the best products from Israel and abroad. Seated is a group of men, wearing ties and conservatively dressed, with portfolios of documents in their hands. These are not our usual interlocutors, not refugees, not the disabled; there's no bereavement or hunger evident here. Only a few wealthy businessmen into whose pockets Israel shoved a crude hand in the middle of the night, removing sums that could support a refugee camp. After a few polite words, coffee, tea and cakes, we go to a more modest and practical room at the far end of the offices= suite, together with three of the biggest money changers in Hebron, victims of the night of confiscation: Abdeen, 53, the biggest of the money changers, with a network of five shops in Hebron, Ramallah and Bethlehem; Mohi al-din Natsheh, 46, with two shops; and Sharif Wuswus, 46, with one. Abdeen talks most of the time. In terms of business, the competition among them, he says, is fair. Now they are also sharing their troubles. They are the economic oxygen of the flourishing city, which since the clampdown on and ruin of Nablus, has become the economic center of the West Bank. In the banks the service charges are higher and the bureaucracy is more complicated, and therefore most clients, both households and businesses, prefer the banking services of the money changers: exchanges and transfers, everything in cash, on the spot. Each changer says he handles sums of at least $100,000 a day. Everything is recorded, everything is written down, they say. On Monday night last week, Abdeen went to bed as usual, and awoke suddenly at midnight, to the sound of the loud ringing of his doorbell. A large number of forces, perhaps 15 military vehicles, were standing at the entrance to his house. The soldiers asked him to get dressed and bring an ID card and the keys to the shops and the safes. They took all the members of the household out into the street and conducted a search all over the house. They didn't miss a drawer or a bill. What did they take? Here is the list, in scrawled handwriting: 1,640 dinars, NIS 6,145, $200, 5 pounds sterling, an Egyptian lira and a Cypriot lira. The shekels were in coins. They took them. The small change from his wife's wallet as well. They didn't miss a cent. Of course the army took all the computers in the house, including those of Abdeen's children, and all the papers, including his certificates of ownership of his land. They even took the trophy he once received from the local sports club. They handed him a search warrant from the IDF, which was simply a photocopied piece of paper, at the end of which was written: "Money changer, be aware that transferring money to terror activists and/or giving any assistance to terror activists is a serious offense punishable by 10 years' imprisonment." Afterward they blindfolded Abdeen, handcuffed him and put him into one of the vehicles. When they arrived at the shop the soldiers removed the blindfold and the handcuffs and began the work of confiscation. From security cameras to computers, they took everything. And, of course, the contents of the safes and the papers, packing everything into cardboard boxes. At the end they gave Abdeen his six-month closure order. "By virtue of my powers as commander of IDF forces in the area and in accordance with my powers, as per paragraph 91 of the security regulations ... and also in accordance with the rest of my powers as per all security laws and legislation, and since I believe that this act is necessary for the security of the region, the security of the IDF forces and maintenance of proper administration and public order, and because of the need to fight against the terror infrastructure, including all its various components, organizations and bodies - I hereby order the closure of this place," writes Major General Gadi Shamni, commander of IDF forces in the Judea and Samaria region." That is the text of the carelessly written and copied document, bearing the signature of the major general, which could have provided quite a good text for the literature or satire columns. "The reasons for the injunction: In this place there was money-transfer activity for the benefit of the Palestinian terror organizations and terror activists, and opening the place will endanger the security of the region, the security of IDF forces and the public order." That same night, at exactly the same time, the army also raided the homes of Wuswus and Natsheh. The scenes were repeated. They took the members of the household outside, conducted a search, confiscated, handcuffed, took, went to the shops, searched, packed, confiscated. From Wuswus they took money worth $100,000 in cash, from Natsheh $90,000; they also confiscated 58 post-dated checks with an overall value of about NIS 1 million. Natsheh, who had opened his new shop only three days earlier, investing in it money from land he had sold, received a closure order for a year; they didn't close Wuswus' shop at all. Natsheh has a handwritten memo from Staff Sergeant Moti Kapuya of the Israel Police: "Today in the course of army activity in Hebron together with the policemen Amihai + Nevo + Sami, we arrived at the offices of the suspect Mohi al-Din Natsheh ... In the safe located on the first floor of his office the following money was found: NIS 105,300 + 32,460 Jordanian dinars + $210. All the abovementioned money, after it was counted in the presence of the suspect and by him, we placed in sealed bag No. 40008378 ... The entire process was filmed and recorded on video cameras by a military photographer." Only at first light were the men permitted to return home. They left Wuswus in the cold rainy street; his cell phone had been seized and he turned to the night watchman near one of the bank branches and asked to phone his home, so relatives would come pick him up. The three men claim they are not political people at all, neither Hamas nor Fatah, only businessmen. They also claim that the authority that supervises movement of Palestinian currency is very strict about overseeing transactions, and that several money changers who dealt with Hamas have already been detained and interrogated by the PA. There is a blacklist of groups and institutions with whom it is forbidden to trade, on orders of the PA. All their transactions are recorded, the men say. They all add that they would not endanger their flourishing businesses for a handful of forbidden dollars. The most veteran among them, Abdeen, adds that he has been in the money-changing business for 37 years and has always been careful not to endanger it. The three confirm that there has been a large increase in the amount of money they handle, but they provide many economic reasons for that - unrelated to terror - from the rise in the price of gold that is sold in Jordan through them, to the increase in Israeli exports to Arab countries, the payment for which is also sometimes handled by them. And how does Hamas get its money? "Ask them." Why did they confiscate your shops and not others? "Because we're the most famous in the city." They have already hired the services of attorney Dr. Mati Atzmon from Jerusalem. He sent a letter to Major General Shamni: "Honorable Major General: We hereby protest the abovementioned injunction for the following reasons: 1. The abovementioned office is used solely for money changing; 2. The office has no connection with terror organizations, and has not had any in the past; 3. No activity of money transfer for the benefit of any terror organizations took place in this office; 4. This office has already existed for years and serves solely as a business that provides a livelihood ... In light of the above, the honorable major general is requested to annul the closure order that was served on this place and to order that the money that was taken be returned. I would like to point out that to the best of my knowledge, the sums that were seized in the business are not, with all due respect, earmarked for 'funding terror.'" As far as we know, the "honorable major general," in the words of the learned attorney, has yet to reply. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Deadly shelling B'Tselem slams IDF decision not to indict troops over errant strike that left 21 civilians dead. Reaching boiling point Gaza residents are told to boil drinking water as purifying chlorine runs out.   1.   Ach! Himmelswollen! 14:20  |  Jim 23/02/08   2.   Confiscating=pc term for stealing. 14:39  |  Eleni 23/02/08   3.   Jessy James 21:04  |  Baz Mann 23/02/08   4.   Thank you Gideon 22:01  |  Janice 23/02/08   5.   HaAretz HaBoged 00:02  |  Jack 24/02/08

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