Two UK pro-Palestine organisations have bank accounts frozen | Protest
At least two pistols in the United Kingdom froze the bank accounts and were afraid of a wider attempt to silence the voices talking about Gaza.
For the Palestinian (GMFP) and the Scottish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (PSC), both peaceful protests and seizures, the Great Manchester Friends was able to access their funds, respectively by virgin Money and Unit Güven Bank, respectively. Guardian understands that a local PSC branch in the UK is also frozen, but cannot confirm directly.
At the beginning of this month, the prohibition of the Palestinian action and the arrest of more than 100 people to support the group and the threatening a peaceful protester to have a Palestinian Flag and a “Free Gaza” sign increased concerns about pressure on Israeli critics.
GMFP’s joint treasurer Owen Cooper said that the group, which lists the bicycle driving between its activities for more than a year and a half without incident or criminal activity, said that the virgin refused to say why the account of the virgin was freezing.
“If we have a Palestine called the bank account, I think this is a very worrying sign, C said Cooper. “It will not only be very worrying, but also to think that a country that values freedom of expression, that is, liberal democracy, can behave like this and conscientiously conscientious, good people are accepted as extremism.
“Could the bank think about what we’re doing?
He said that ice cream means that GMFP cannot send money to Gaza and the West Bank to help those who need it. Cooper said, “They are actually preventing entering Gaza and support and entering for food and medical materials, Co said Cooper. “We do not have access to the F-35 jets we funded or 500 lb bombs.”
Unity Trust Bank says its aim is to bank the preferred bank for all social -thinking organizations in the UK, including charity and tradesmen unions.
However, Mick Napier of the Scottish PSC’s financial committee said he was moving in a shame. Authorized, the reason for the frozen account of the Scottish PSC last month, on the website, a button to donate to the Palestinian action before the group was banned on July 5, he said. However, Napier said the button was removed when the Palestinian action was banned and still not restored.
“Shocking,” he said. “It is absolutely embarrassing to have a campaign like ours [has been treated like this]. We have been working for 25 years. We supported the Palestinian action until it was banned. Blue output [the freezing of the account]And we were very disappointed. We think this is a very bad practice.
“We can never enter our cash. We had to use other tools, very disturbing tools to pay invoices and often operating, it was extremely burdensome.”
Guardian asked both banks for the reasons for freezing accounts and whether there were any external effects. Both said that they could not comment on individual customer accounts.
A Virgin Money spokesman added that “there are several reasons why we decided to suspend or close an account to comply with valid laws and regulations”.
A Unity Trust Bank spokesman said that this is a “politically impartial organization. Our mission and values support our commitment to operate with integrity”.
“There is a various base of customer representing the union representing a wide range of community.”
