Bank of Ireland Shuts Down Israel Boycott Accounts

The Jerusalem Post reports: The Bank of Ireland – the country’s oldest financial institution—shut down the accounts of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC).

The termination of the pro-BDS group’s accounts took place in Ireland and Northern Ireland in late September, according to a Sunday account in the Irish news outlet RTÉ.

A spokesman for the Bank of Ireland wrote The Jerusalem Post on Monday saying that they “cannot comment in relation to customer accounts.”

According to the RTÉ, the PSC said the bank closed its accounts because it defined transfers to Palestinian Territories as high-risk. The PSC said its transfers funds to a factory in the West Bank. The plant produces Palestinian scarves that the PSC buys to promote solidarity, wrote the RTÉ. PSC had held accounts at the Bank of Ireland for 15 years.

The Irish pro-Palestinian group opened a new account with the Allied Irish Banks (AIB). A Post press query to the AIB was not immediately returned on Monday. According to RTÉ, the PSC believes it is vulnerable to a new closure.