A retired British couple who are members of a grassroots pro-Palestine organisation which had its bank account frozen have had their joint personal account closed without explanation.
John Nicholson, 70, and Norma Turner, 76, who, as treasurer and chair respectively, were signatories to the Greater Manchester Friends of Palestine (GMFP) account with Virgin Money, said their account with Yorkshire Building Society (YBS) was intended as a nest egg.
In a letter received on 27 September, Nicholson, a retired immigration barrister, and his partner, a former nurse, were told that the account, which they opened about five years ago, would close on the 30th. They were subsequently sent a cheque for the balance.
He said: “Neither of us have never been in financial difficulties, never been in debt, [other than] mortgages, but paid those off. Never had any criminal record, fraud or anything of that sort of whatsoever.
“This is just inexplicable and obviously it’s not inexplicable because it’s to do with Palestine. It’s as simple as that but it’s inexplicable in that this was an amount of money we’ve got from retirement, put into a savings account, rolled it forward in a fixed-term bond, when that finished, rolled it forward in another one.
“They’d accepted it quite happily to be rolled forward (again) as little as a month or two ago, and there were no transactions, no link to any other accounts.
“This kind of behaviour has just never happened in our lifetime of activism before, and is suddenly happening to activists and to organisations and to people. If it isn’t Palestine, then why doesn’t YBS say what reason it is?”
The GMFP account was frozen without explanation – and remains so – on 10 July, five days after Palestine Action was proscribed, despite it having no connection to the banned group, raising fears of a wider clampdown on groups and individuals opposing the Israeli military assault on Gaza.
GMFP’s listed activities include “letter-writing, individual consumer boycotting, through bike-riding, information stalls, leafleting, and our increasing social media output, to widespread protests on the streets and more direct action”.
Nicholson said another signatory for GMFP’s account, which had been open for almost 40 years with various organisations later incorporated into Virgin Money, had also had their personal account closed but did not wish to be named.
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“We’ve absolutely no other idea of why anything could have happened to us other than [our pro-Palestinian activism] because that is pretty much the only thing that we’re doing in our lives at the moment,” said Nicholson. “And then the ban came in on Palestine Action and we know that other people are having their bank accounts frozen – GMFP and Scottish PSC (Palestine Solidarity Campaign).”
Scottish PSC had its account frozen by Unity Trust bank in June, purportedly because it had a button on its website to donate to Palestine Action before the group was banned on 5 July. The button was removed after proscription, yet the account remains frozen.
None of the financial institutions involved would comment on the individual cases.
A spokesperson for YBS said: “We never close savings accounts based on different opinions or beliefs. Accounts are closed only in very rare circumstances, with decisions made on the basis of the specific facts of the case.”
A Virgin Money spokesperson previously said there were “a variety of reasons why we may decide, or be required, to suspend or close an account in order to comply with applicable laws and regulations”.
A spokesperson for Unity Trust bank, which promotes itself as the bank of choice for “socially minded organisations”, said it was “a politically neutral organisation” which operated with integrity.
