On This Day

Learn about the history of the Palestinian struggle for freedom, equality and justice by exploring major events in the history of their oppression on this day of the year.

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14 January

co op bankCO-OP BANK SHUTS DOWN PALESTINE ACCOUNTS
On this date in 2016, the Co-op Bank acted on the threat it had posted two months earlier to close down the bank accounts of campaigning and humanitarian groups involved in supporting the Palestinian people, including educational scholarship funds. The letter to SPSC and others said the Co-op Bank was “changing its risk appetite” which “determines if we are able to provide customers with banking services". This followed the acquisition of the Bank by a US hedge fund in 2013.

 

البنك التعاوني يغلق الحسابات البنكية الخاصة لدعم الفلسطينيين

14 يناير 

في هذا التاريخ من العام 2016م، نفذ البنك التعاوني تهديده الذي أطلقه قبل شهرين باغلاق الحسابات البنكية الخاصة بالمجموعات النشطة والإنسانية التي تشارك في دعم الشعب الفلسطيني، بما في ذلك صناديق المنح التعليمية. وقد ذكر البنك في خطابه إلى حملة التضامن مع الفلسطينيين في اسكتلاندا ومنظمات أخرى، أن البنك التعاوني بصدد "تغيير شهيته في مجال المخاطرة". التي "تحدد ما إذا كان باستطاعتنا تقديم الخدمات المصرفية للعملاء". وقد جاء ذلك عقب استحواذ البنك من قبل أحدى صناديق المضاربات في الولايات المتحدة في عام 2013م.

 

Support for Palestinian freedom is suspicious:

"The Co-op explained that for customers who operate in, or send money to high risk locations throughout the world, advanced due diligence checks are required by all banks to ensure that funds do not inadvertently fund illegal or other proscribed activities."

SPSC is the latest UK organisation supporting Palestinian causes to have had its account closed by the Co-op. Friends of Al-Aqsa and other Palestinian-affiliated groups – including the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (PSC) based in England – also received letters recently from from Co-op Bank advising that their accounts would be closed.

The Co-op also closed the Cuba Solidarity Campaign’s account and closed or denied the accounts of another 20 organisations that support Palestinians. These included PSC branches in Abergavenny, Bristol, Cambridge, Norwich, Nottingham, Oxford, Plymouth, Sheffield, West Midlands and York.

Other groups affected include the Boycott Israel Network, International Women’s Peace Service Palestine and Yorkshire Palestine Cultural Exchange.

The bank never contacted SPSC to ask for any assurances, or even basic information, but investigative website The Ferret reported: "The Co-op Bank claims to have conducted extensive research into the groups affected and has concluded that they 'did not meet its requirements or allow the bank to fulfil its obligations.”'

The Co-op Bank joinED in the effort to cut off support for Palestine at the same time that UK arms sales to Israel surgeD. Immediately after the summer 2014 massacre  of 2,200 Palestinians British arms sales to Israel began to rise, increasing tenfold between by 2018.

The effort to force a change of policy on the Co-op Bank failed, but campaigns against other Banks' threats to close accounts were successful. See here, Section 9

  1. 2005 SPSC and MAB (Scotland) responded to an appeal from Friends of Al Aqsa following an ultimatum from a subsidiary of RBS announcing the closure of the FoA bank account. A threatened programme of protests outside the RBS Headquarters in Edinburgh led RBS to retreat from their decision and pay FoA compensation.
  2. 2008 Lloyds TSB announced the withdrawal of banking facilities from Interpal, a UK-based charity supporting the Palestinians under occupation. A militant campaign spread from Scotland to Newcastle, Bristol and beyond until a solution was reached involving the Bank of England whereby Interpal continued to have access to banking services.