GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Twenty-two years have passed since the Oslo Accord, or the so-called Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements, was signed between the PLO and Israel in 1993. This accord led to the establishment of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and to the creation of a Palestinian political system with a president and ministers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Palestinian passports were issued, and the Palestine Monetary Authority (PMA) was established to serve as a national central bank. Moreover the flag of Palestine was recently raised in the United Nations, on Oct. 13, but one thing has yet to be achieved: an independent Palestinian currency.

Nasr Abdel Karim, an economic analyst and lecturer at the Arab American University of Jenin, told Al-Monitor, “This has been impossible as a result of the Paris Economic Protocol, annexed to the Oslo Accord and governing economic relations. This protocol imposed an Israeli approval for the issuance of a Palestinian currency.”

The Paris Protocol, signed in April 1994, created the PMA to act as a financial and economic official adviser to the PA without having the powers vested in a central bank. The protocol, however, empowered the PMA to turn into a Central Bank and issue Palestinian liquidity subject to Israel’s approval. It determined the Israeli shekel as one of the main legal tenders, in addition to the US dollar and the Jordanian dinar, in the Palestinian market.

Jihad al-Wazir, the governor of the PMA, told the Maan News Agency on June 13 that the World Bank and banks of the world are dealing with the PMA as the sole supervising authority over the Palestinian banking sector. “The promulgation of a Palestine central bank law does not mean that a national currency will be issued, since this requires a national decision,” he said.