Occupied Jerusalem- Before the Nakba, the city of Jerusalem was an important center for financial transactions, and contained branches of a number of local and international banks, within an advanced banking system.
Director of the Jerusalem Center for Social and Economic Rights, Ziad Al-Hamouri, told Tel Aviv Tribune Net, “The financial transactions sector in Jerusalem was advanced,” noting the presence of several banks at that time, including the Egyptian Land Bank, the Palestinian German Bank, and the Ottoman Bank.
Al-Hamouri added that the most prominent Palestinian bank in Jerusalem was the Arab Bank, founded by the Shoman family of Jerusalem, and today it has transformed into a global banking network.
For his part, Majid Haider Al-Husseini, the son of a former employee at the Arab Bank in the 1950s, says that the Arab Bank began in 1930 with 7 shareholders, and a capital of 15 thousand Palestinian pounds.
He stated in his interview with Tel Aviv Tribune Net that the main branch of the site was west of Jerusalem, but with the Nakba in 1948 it was moved to east Jerusalem, then with the occupation of the east of the city in 1967, it was closed, and the headquarters remains closed to this day.
