By
Hana Salah
Since
the Gaza Strip branch of the Palestine Islamic Bank launched a service in June
to provide direct transactions via sign language, it has become easier for
people with special needs to bank without a mediator.
Amina
Ziyara, who suffers from a hearing impairment and works at the Atfaluna Society
for Deaf Children, previously had to have a friend interpret for her at the
bank whenever she wanted to withdraw or deposit money, or even to receive her
monthly salary. This situation has changed, however. The Palestine Islamic Bank
now offers a service for people with special needs and has trained its staff to
use sign language in their direct dealings with the disabled without needing a
mediator to interpret for them.
In
the same context, Amina expressed her gratitude for the service that will
enable her to directly deal with the bank's employees.
A
Palestinian first
The
direct sign language banking service launched by the Palestine Islamic Bank is
the first of its kind in the Palestinian territories, according to bank
officials.
Aziz
Hammad, manager of the bank’s Gaza branch, told Al-Monitor, “We have trained
more than 50 of the bank's employees on the use of sign language, and all our
branches in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip can now operate in it.”
“This
service will make it easier for people with disabilities to deal with the
banks, giving them access to the operations carried out by ordinary people.” He
explained that people with disabilities will be able to withdraw loans and make
internal and external transfers upon their direct request.
In
addition to this service, the bank issued a CD that translates banking terms
into sign language in a bid to increase banking awareness among the disabled.
The bank intends to launch a new service for people with visual disabilities
right after Eid al-Fitr.
With
this new service, blind people will deal with Braille printers that allow them
to deposit and withdraw money and open accounts.
Astounding
statistics
Ihab
al-Madhoun, a sign language interpreter at Atfaluna Society for Deaf Children,
told Al-Monitor, “Many deaf people have expressed their happiness that sign
language services have been adopted by the banks,” adding, “We support and
welcome the idea that goes hand in hand with our goal of deploying sign
language in all public and private facilities of the community.”
Madhoun
is also in charge of spreading knowledge of sign language among Gaza Strip
associations. He added that about 50% of the society’s staff deal with various
Palestinian banks. The Palestine Islamic Bank, however, was the only bank to
adopt the service.
According
to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the number of disabled people
in the Palestinian territories totaled about 113,000 in 2011. In the Gaza
Strip, this amounted to 39,877 individuals, which is 2.6% of the population,
21,000 males and 18,000 females, according to the census of disabled people in
the Gaza Strip in 2012.
The
number of people with special needs aged 18 and above is 27,750, while the
number of individuals under 18 with disabilities amounted to about 12,096 in
the Gaza Strip. People with special needs in the Gaza Strip are divided into
five major types: visual, physical, hearing, memory and concentration, and slow
learning.
Calls
to expand service
The
director general of the General Union of People With Disability in the Gaza
Strip, Awni Matar, stressed to Al-Monitor the need to expand the application of
the service in all Palestinian banks operating in the West Bank and the Gaza
Strip.
“Using
this language in banks is a sign of progress, but the fact remains that people
with disabilities carry out financial transactions outside of banks as well.
Thus, there is a need for more efforts to deploy sign language in Palestinian
society,” he said.
Matar
noted that the proportion of disabled people to the total population in
Palestine is the highest across the Middle East, if not the world, amounting to
7% of the total population. This is due to repeat Israeli attacks against
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, as well as genetic factors
caused by the high proportion of marriages within the same family, Matar added.
Spreading
the idea
Khaled
al-Bohaisi, an economic researcher and professor of banking studies at the
Islamic University of Gaza, expects other Palestinian banks to make haste in
introducing this service based on the principle of competition.
“Banking
is a competitive market in which banks rush to offer better services to all
segments of the society,” he told Al-Monitor, pointing out that there are no
provisions that deal with the transactions of people with special needs in the
Banking Act related to the founding conditions of the Palestinian Monetary
Authority (PMA).
But
officials in the Palestinian Islamic Bank clarified that the bank is equipped
to receive people with special needs, according to the licensing terms for banks
set out by the PMA. Al-Monitor tried to reach the PMA concerning its role in
facilitating banking operations for people with special needs and the
possibility of applying the service in other banks, but its staff refrained
from commenting on the subject.
It
should be noted that the PMA takes on the role of the central bank by
protecting the banking business. It does not, however, practice the power of
using monetary and fiscal policies, as per the Paris Protocol, which is an
economic supplement to the Oslo Agreement.
[Hana
Salahis a Palestinian financial journalist based in Gaza, and has previously
worked with Palestinian newspapers and Turkey's Anadolu News Agency.]