CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

Senators Balk at Board of Peace’s Bitcoin Grift for Gaza

Photograph Source: The White House – Public Domain

Four senators raised doubts April 17 about Donald Trump’s stratagems for cryptocurrency, aka a stablecoin, in Gaza. Their press release that day makes clear that Oregon’s dem senator Jeff Merkley, Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) quite sensibly fret over the ethics of this shady move “given the fragile ceasefire between Israel and Hamas,” as press aides termed it. Between Israel and Hamas? How about between Israel and Gaza’s residents, whom Jerusalem has been massacring and starving ever since this so-called truce took effect? But hey, half a loaf’s better than none: it’s great that someone in officialdom is calling out this swindle and its relation to atrocious Israeli behavior.

Corruption is the senator’s main concern. However, they also worry that stablecoin use in Gaza will further aggravate the enclave’s separation from the West Bank, where Israeli shekels are the currency. The lawmakers also ask, “Has the ‘Board of Peace’ consulted with the Palestine Monetary Authority on the introduction of this stablecoin? Have Palestinian officials had the opportunity to provide input on the development of this stablecoin? [I would bet no]…Would the stablecoin be used to surveil the transactions of Palestinians?” And they have other questions, as who in their right mind wouldn’t?

Of particular concern to these four lawmakers is the involvement of a former Israeli intelligence official, Liran Tancman, notable for his role in founding the disastrous, blood-drenched Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. The GHF, you may recall, “distributed” food to Gazans, while somehow not preventing 1200 Palestinians from being murdered by the IDF. The senators reference this as “Mr. Tancman’s failed record of privatizing traditional humanitarian functions through GHF.” That’s the understatement of the year. “What is Liran Tancman’s role in the development and implementation of this........

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