Many of us have banked with the Co-op for years. We do so not because of their financial wizardry, but because of their reputation as an “ethical bank”. We need to think again.

Over recent weeks, the Co-op has decided to close accounts connected with Palestine.

In Sheffield, the PSC account, the Yorkshire Palestine Cultural Exchange account and the Sheffield Palestine Women’s Scholarship Fund (a Registered Charity) have all been given notice of closure.

Across the country, twenty accounts belonging to groups which support the Palestinian cause are to be closed, including national PSC. PSC’s legal challenge to the Co-op is in the pipeline.

The Co-op has decided to define accounts which support legitimate, morally valid work for justice as incompatible with their “risk appetite”. There is more than one kind of risk for a bank. What if all of us who currently bank with Co-op decide that their business is incompatible with our “ethical appetite”?

Use this guide to act now

The Scholarship Fund have issued this press release

 

In the face of increasing colonialist violence, Palestinians continue to resist the occupation and ethnic cleansing. Shallow reporting in the main press ignores the illegality of the occupation and portrays the conflict as one between people of equal strength and rights.

Abut 70 people from Sheffield and Rotherham gathered at Sheffield Town Hall today in solidarity with the Palestinian people in the face of this renewed onslaught.