UK media is reporting that Friends of Al-Aqsa is yet another in a growing list of organizations tied to the Global Muslim Brotherhood and/or Hamas that has had its bank accounts canceled in the UK. According to the Third Sector report:
Friends of Al-Aqsa has written an open letter to the Co-operative Bank, which closed the organisation’s account after ten years because it ‘did not meet our requirements’
Co-op Bank: criticised by NGO The pro-Palestinian non-governmental organisation Friends of Al-Aqsa has written to the Co-operative Bank, accusing it of a ‘clearly political’ decision to close its bank account.
In the letter, Friends of Al-Aqsa urges the bank to re-open the accounts, accusing it of turning its back ‘on the ethical principles that the Co-operative Bank has strongly stood by for so long’.
The NGO says it does not send or receive money from abroad and has not contravened any laws and regulations.
The letter says that the account held by Friends of Al-Aqsa, which has been open with the Co-operative Bank for 10 years, has never been overdrawn nor incurred any penalties.
Friends of Al-Aqsa is one of a number of pro-Palestinian organisations that have had their bank accounts closed by the Co-operative Bank in recent months, including the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
In a statement, a Co-operative Bank spokesman said the bank did not comment on individual accounts and decisions to close accounts were not statements on the work of NGOs or the causes they supported.
Read the rest here.
The Israeli Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC) has published a profile of the Friends of Al-Aqsa. The profile begins:
August 31, 2011 Friends of Al-Aqsa (FOA): a pro-Hamas British organization based in Leicester which advocates Israel’s elimination. The organization takes part in all aspects of the campaign to delegitimize Israel in Britain: boycotts of Israel, dissemination of anti-Israel propaganda, involvement in convoys and flotillas for the Gaza Strip, and anti-Israel demonstrations in London.
1. Friends of Al-Aqsa (FOA) is an anti-Israeli NGO established in Britain in 1997. The organization is based in the city of Leicester (home to a large Muslim population) and has branches in London and other British cities. Self-described as anti-Zionist, the FOA qualifies Israel’s policy as “apartheid”, supports Hamas and the “resistance” (i.e., terrorism), and seeks to put an end to Israel’s existence as the state of the Jewish people under the title of “liberation of Palestine”. Similarly to other organizations taking part in the delegitimization effort, the FOA t attempts to conceal and play down its real objectives by fine-tuning its rhetoric for Western ears and using such terms as “peace in Palestine”, “respect for international law”, “respect for human rights”, and “implementation of UN resolutions”.
Read the rest here.
The FOA frequently acts in coalitions with the UK. Muslim Brotherhood.
In July 2014, the GMBDW was the first to report on HSBC account closings when we reported that UK Muslim Brotherhood leader Anas Altikriti had said that HSBC Bank had closed his accounts and the accounts of all of his family. In July 2015, we reported that a UK journalist and supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood has complained that the Global Muslim Brotherhood Daily Watch (GMBDW) is being used as a source by a Reuters database to screen banking clients for links to terrorism. Just Monday we reported that Islamic Relief UK was the latest group to have its accounts closed by the HSBC bank over alleged fears of terrorist financing.