Despite public relations efforts to burnish their image, banks are hard-pressed to refute allegations that they are greedy and heartless. This issue grabbed the headlines in Israel about a decade ago, when a persistent social activist named Barak Cohen launched a “non-violent resistance” campaign to shame major banks into modifying their policy regarding debt payment.
Cohen, a lawyer, accused them of predatory practices and branded them as “criminal organizations.” He focused his wrath on Bank Leumi, Israel’s largest financial institution, and on its chief executive officer, Rakefet Russak-Aminoach, whom he likened to a Russian oligarch.
Their titanic clash unfolds in Eliav Lilti’s hard-driving documentary, The Bankers Trial, which is now available on the ChaiFlicks streaming platform.
It revolves around Cohen, who found himself in debt to Bank Leumi after purchasing a BMW vehicle. What really irked him was the bank’s shabby treatment of his girlfriend after she incurred a debt. Its procedures regulating debt so incensed Cohen that he began denouncing banks as “thieves” and “usury gangs.”
Lilti sympathizes with Cohen, and his anti-bank attitude is fully reflected in the film. Working on the assumption that banks are the villains, he makes virtually no attempt to be evenhanded.
In this partisan spirit, he documents the lengths to which Cohen and his associates went to harass Russak-Aminoach and other chief executive officers of banks. Claiming he was exercising his right to free speech, Cohen believes that “shaming” banks was a perfectly legitimate “political tool” at his disposal.
Cohen’s tactic worked. The bank offered to cancel his debt if he ceased his protests. Dismissing its offer, he escalated the dispute by embroiling Russak-Aminoach’s mother and 17-year old daughter in the case.
In 2016, Cohen settled his debt, but continued pestering the bank, prompting Bank Leumi to issue a restraining order.
There was a price to pay for his activism. Police detained him for questioning.
The impasse between Cohen and Russak-Aminoach eventually reached a courtroom. Complaining he had crossed all red lines, she said he had defamed her by virtue of the fact that the word “thief” appears next to her name in Google searches. She also pointed out that, in 90 percent of debt cases, the services of courts and collection agencies were not required.
But in an embarrassing aside, she confirmed that Bank Leumi had assisted American depositors to evade taxes in the United States and had paid a penalty of $400 million to the U.S. government to settle the case.
Their court encounter had tangible consequences. Russak-Aminoach resigned, while the Israeli government introduced regulations designed to better shield borrowers from banks indulging in rapacious practices.
As far as Cohen and his disciples are concerned, they won an important victory in the battle to protect debtors. The Bankers Trial drives home that point unambiguously, proving that ordinary people can bring about positive change.