UK / PNN - Today in the United Kingdom the Bristol-branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign is hosting information stalls and looking for additional support for an ongoing boycott of Israeli goods.

Yesterday there were scenes of chaos on Bristol’s Corn Street as police and security guards failed to hold back a surge of chanting protesters from reaching the doors of Lloyds-TSB Bank.

The bank is accused of increasing the number of Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip by preventing the transfer of charitable donations.

Bristol filmmaker Ed Hill said on Friday, “At a time like this, when people across the country want to help, and many of them are busy raising money. Anything that gets in the way of the money getting through to where it is desperately needed is an outrage.”

In the face of some 60 nonviolent demonstrators demanding to see the manager, police and security guards hurriedly closed the doors and kept them that way for the remainder of business Friday.

Demonstrator Jo Benfield of the RESPECT Party said, “We contacted the union beforehand to send a message to the staff that we had no argument with them. Our protest is aimed at the bosses of Lloyds-TSB Bank who are cow-towing to American pressure to cut off donations to Gaza at a time that it’s so desperately needed.”

The vociferous Gaza campaign called to discuss the “Early Day Motion” currently being circulated in British Parliament accusing Lloyds Bank of blocking funds from reaching Gaza.

At Friday’s event the Imam of St. Marks Road Mosque, Assad Ali Shah, said, “The people of Gaza are suffering now - women, children, and the elderly. They have shortages of food, medicine, and all the basic necessities of life. The people of the world, for humanitarian reasons, are reaching out to help them. How can it be, that charities working on the ground like Interpal, have their work obstructed by Lloyds-TSB closing their accounts. This is a moral crime. This extra suffering for the people in Gaza will be on the shoulders of those who made these callous decisions.”

When no reply was received to the request to discuss the issue, protestors laid out boxes of dolls wrapped in blood-stained shrouds on the steps of the Bank to represent the extra deaths which will have occurred in Gaza due to Lloyds-TSB action.

Lloyds-TSB recently ordered the Islamic Bank of Britain which it owns, to close the accounts of Interpal, a highly respected international humanitarian relief charity working in occupied Palestine. Interpal has already undergone a thorough investigation by the UK Charities Commission following malicious complaints by the US government.
 
The respected UK charity was ordered to cease operations, generating protest including that of Friday in front of Lloyds-TSB.

Originally Lloyds-TSB denied any hand in the affair. However it has now transpired that Lloyds-TSB, acting as a clearing bank, severed ties with Interpal’s bank, the Islamic Bank of Britain.

On 8 October 2008 IBB received s letter stating: “We are writing to you to give you notice that…we do not wish you to transfer, receive, process or in any way deal with any funds, or in any way whatsoever (acting either as banker or agent on behalf of the Customer) be involved with any type of banking arrangements for Interpal.”

Organizers of the Gaza campaign in Bristol say that this is uncharacteristic behavior for even a Goliath like Lloyds-TSB.

Jeremy Clarke of Bristol Stop-The-War-Coalition noted yesterday, “Interpal is amongst only a handful of charities able and daring to work in such a politically sensitive area. By denying them banking facilities, Lloyds TSB have played a part in preventing humanitarian aid reaching people who are in the grip of a catastrophe through no other fault than being born Palestinian.”
 
Cliff Hanley of the Bristol Palestine Solidarity Campaign said, “As most are aware, the beleaguered Palestinians have been the victims of sixty years of human rights violations at the hands of the Israeli Government - condemned by 69 United Nations resolutions and almost every country in the world. This suffering has been described by former US President Jimmy Carter as ‘one of the greatest human rights crimes on earth’ and by the great Nelson Mandela as ‘apartheid.’”
 
Text of the “Early Day Motion” currently being circulated in British Parliament follows:

Early Day Motion
EDM 98
LLOYDS TSB PLC AND BRITISH CHARITIES
03.12.2008
 
Corbyn, Jeremy
That this House notes the excellent work of the British charity Interpal in helping the Palestinians with £40 million worth of humanitarian aid development since 1994; acknowledges that Lloyds TSB Group Plc has served notice to the Islamic Bank of Britain to discontinue its services to Interpal or subsequently to face closure itself without offering any reason; further notes the wide distress that this has the potential to cause, in both the local Muslim community and the wider Arab world, since both hold the charity in particularly high regard; further notes that Interpal has withstood three previous investigations by the Charity Commission; and calls upon the Government to note the precedent this will lay down regarding any other charities Lloyds may choose to target and to ensure that this bank which is in receipt of enormous state benefit be pressurised to behave in a socially responsible manner.

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