Jenin school uses "Palestine pound" as currency (update)

A school in Jenin has been using counterfeit "Palestine pound" notes as rewards for kids who do well, and they can then use them to buy snacks in the canteen and other items.

For some reason this is a big story in Arabic media, saying "for the first time in 67 years, the Palestine Pound is being used as currency."



Not quite. Actually, Palestinian Arabs abandoned the currency pretty soon, with those in illegally annexed Jordan accepting the Jordanian dinar and those in Gaza switching over the Egyptian currency in 1951.

The last people to use the Palestine pound as currency were Israelis. Israel continued to use the Palestine pound for four years before switching fully over to the Israeli pound in 1952. Those currency notes were issued by a bank that later became Bank Leumi.

The first local banks in Palestine's history were Jewish banks that started around 1900. (This comes from a UN site.)

The real question is whether the schoolkids are seeing accurate facsimiles of the original Briitsh Mandate pound notes, or if they erased the Hebrew parts of it, especially the "E.Y" in Hebrew standing for Eretz Yisrael?

UPDATE: Bob Knot found the scrip being used, and they do not erase the Hebrew.