Palestinian currency

This article is about the currencies that are used by Palestinian Arabs in the State of Palestine.

History

Prior to First World War, the entire region was part of the Ottoman empire. At that the time Ottoman lira was used. When the empire began to disintegrate, there was a gradual move towards usage of the Egyptian pound. In 1920 the region of Palestine was assigned as a Mandate to Great Britain. In 1927 the British Mandate for Palestine introduced the Palestine pound, which had equal value to the Pound sterling.^[1] After the termination of the British Mandate for Palestine in 1948, the currency was replacted by the Israeli lira (in Israel), the Jordanian dinar (in the West Bank) and Egyptian pound (in the Gaza Strip). Since the Six day war in 1967, the Israeli currency (then, the Israeli lira) began being used in the West Bank and the Gaza strip.^[2]

Modern

The most commonly used currency in the West Bank today is the Israeli new shekel. Jihad Al-Wazir, governor of the Palestinian Monetary Authority, has in an interview discussed plans to "develop a “Palestinian pound,” a unique currency." This, he notes, is a careful process that will take time to implement and planning.^[3]

References