The Police & Security Services Are Using Financial Terrorism To Add to My Malicious Prosecution for ‘Terrorism’

It is a Kafkaesque Situation in Which False Allegations are Made to Banks Which They Are Not Allowed to Reveal & I Am Not Allowed to Know

How activists are fighting terror charges for standing up with Palestine, with Tony Greenstein

In theory you are innocent until proven guilty but as the Filton 18 have learnt once the word ‘terrorism’ is uttered the State can lie with impunity and engage in any underhand smear tactics.

They do this with the complicity of the Judiciary who go weak at the knees once the magic words ‘terrorism’ and ‘national security’ are uttered. Those of us with long memories remember Spycatcher, the autobiography of an embittered MI5 agent Peter Wright.

British judges, all the way to the Law Lords upheld an injunction against their publication despite them being freely available in the United States. It was only in October 1988 when the Australian Supreme Court ruled that they should be published that their Lordships saw the futility of upholding their injunctions when everyone outside these shores knew what was in Spycatcher.

National security had become a code word for avoiding embarrassment to the Thatcher government until even Britain’s judges realised that they were like Ethelred the Unready trying to halt the waves. So it is with ‘terrorism’. With the proscription of Palestine Action it merely means a group that the Establishment doesn't like.

Never was the saying that ‘one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter’ more true.

We see this with the false allegations of Iranian money having funded Palestine Action. The Home Office gave anonymous briefings to any journalist willing to act as an unpaid government prostitute. Anyone who knows anything about Palestine Action knows that this is a lie. There is not a scrap of evidence to support it.

But when you have waged a war on the basis of a ‘dodgy dossier’ as happened with Iraq, then lying comes easily. Or as the Cabinet Secretary Robert Armstrong conceded to Malcolm Turnbull in the Australian High Court it is the duty of civil servants and politicians to be ‘economical with the truth’.

All this is by way of introduction. My ordeal began last summer, even before I was charged under the notorious s.12(1A) of the Terrorism Act 2000  with ‘expressing an opinion or belief’ that was supportive of a proscribed organisation.

In 2019 Priti Patel, who had been sacked by Theresa May for lying about her ‘holiday’ in Israel where she met Netanyahu, was brought back into office by that model of probity, Boris Johnson, and she promptly amended the Terrorism Act 2000 to make it illegal to utter any words that might be construed as supporting a proscribed organisation.

Brilliant piece of work by @MadocCairns showing how ministers in parliament at time of enactment of the 2000 Terrorism law explicitly stated it would not be used to define as “terrorist” acts of protest like those committed by Palestine Action https://t.co/2ojR6da8Sm

— David Bergman (@TheDavidBergman) July 4, 2025

The definition of terrorism in the Act is so broad that it could catch anyone out who opposes British foreign policy in some area of the world. Despite being told by Ministers when the original Terrorism Act was passed in 2000 that it wouldn’t be used against protest groups that is exactly what happened against Palestine Action.

In July 2024 my bank account at Nationwide was closed for regulatory reasons, which basically means they don’t have to tell you the reason why they are closing the account. At the time I had believed that the closure of my accounts related to a row between me and Nationwide over their refusal to send payments to the Al Tafawk Children’s Centre in Jenin.

At the time Nationwide insisted that their hostility to transferring money to Palestinians was not the reason for the closure of my accounts. Today it is clear that they had been contacted on behalf of the Police/CPS/Security Services and fed false allegations about me.

At the time I assumed that this was a one-off.  Then in March First Direct, a bank that I had been with for 33 years, suddenly froze my account.  Equally mysteriously they unfroze it two weeks later but without giving any explanation.

Fast forward to today.  Yesterday I had an ‘urgent’ email from them that I should log in to my account, which I did. There was a message that read:

At first direct we conduct regular reviews of our accounts. Having considered our position, we're writing to confirm we're no longer able to provide you with banking products and services.

We cannot provide any further information about the closure decision. However, if you have any other queries, please call us on 03 456 100 100. Lines are open 9am - 5pm Monday to Friday. It is not our intention, or that of any member of the HSBC Group, to provide you with banking facilities in the future and you should not make any such application.

The first paragraph was of course a lie. There has never before been a ‘regular review’ of my account. What had clearly happened was that the Police/ Security Services had provided false information to the bank which I am not allowed to see and they are apparently not allowed to divulge. I can only presume that they are saying that I am suspected of funding terrorist groups.

At least that is what I suspect. Because in the land of Kafka you are never allowed to know what the case against you is. Or to quote Kafka’s The Trial "It's not a matter of what you have done, but of what you are." Because I do not know the allegations that have been made against me so it is impossible to rebut them.

Last night I emailed the CEO of First Direct, Christopher Pitt to explain the situation and got the following response which seems to be much the same as received last time around.

Tony,

 

Hello.

 

Thank you for your e-mail. I’m sorry to hear about your experience.

 

At first direct we always want to deliver great customer service, but as a human-powered digital bank sometimes things can go wrong. I’ve asked the team to have a look at your concerns in more detail and we’ll get back to you within 5 working days once we’ve had the time to review.

 

Feedback like yours is important to us, so thank you again for writing to me. 

Two week’s ago First Direct’s parent bank HSBC closed a joint account I had opened with my wife in February this year. The only purpose of the account was to pay in money for the care of our autistic son but that is irrelevant because the Police and the Security Services had deemed that I was funding Iran’s ballistic missile programme or some such ‘terror’ activity.

When I complained a ‘complaint specialist’ Dave Ridgway (note the informality) explained, in almost identical words to First Direct that:

HSBC periodically reviews its services, products and accounts. This means that sometimes we take the decision to close a customer’s accounts.

Following a recent review, the bank decided that it would no longer be able to provide you with banking services or products. I’m aware that a letter was sent to you on 27th June to advise that your accounts had been closed.

In my response I pointed out, paraphrasing Sir Henry Wotton’s famous phrase, that ‘Ambassadors are sent abroad to lie for their country but it seems that HSBC ‘specialists’ are also trained to lie when they are given the opportunity.’

In fact the original quote is that an Ambassador is ‘an honest man sent to lie abroad for the good of his country’. Honesty is not a quality that HSBC seems to value in their employees.

And just to round it off, Santander is also currently investigating my personal account!  So I think we can assume that none of this is a coincidence. But what it demonstrates is that the Prosecution in my case is determined to do its best to try and unnerve and destabilise me in advance of the case they are bringing, which essentially consists of trying to make it a criminal offence to support armed resistance against the genocidal Israeli war machine.

Of course, as I never hesitate to point out, there is a law on the statute book that makes aiding and abetting a genocide a crime punishable by 30 years in prison. However if that law, the s.52 International Criminal Court Act 2001 were enforced then most of the government, led by Sir Starmer himself would be locked up in Pentonville for a couple of decades.

First Direct also like to boast of their high ratings on Trust Pilot which is ostensibly neutral.  But following an objection to my posting above by FD Trust Pilot took my review down.  It raises the question as to whether or not there is any financial link between the companies being reviewed and Trust Pilot.

The above reply said that they remove 'terrorism related content' and content that 'praises, supports or represents hate groups.'  Neither of these apply.  I said nothing about terrorism other than to point out my forthcoming  prosecution under the TA 2000 and the fact that a protest group had been proscribed as a terrorist group. 

There was certainly nothing praising hate groups or their ideology or denial of hate crimes. It was one long lie so people, when they read reviews on Trustpilot need to bear in mind that anything critical of big corporations has probably already been weeded out.

When I pointed this out Rakash simply repeated himself but didn't deny that my post had been taken down at First Direct's request.

Below are a few email addresses for the relevant banks to those who would like to email them to ask for their reasons for debanking me or to complain.

Tony Greenstein

customerservices.mmx@hsbc.co.uk

complaints.mmx@hsbc.co.uk

24hours@firstdirect.com

fd.customerrelations.mmx@firstdirect.com

Review.Team@nationwide.co.uk

christopher.j.pitt@firstdirect.com CEO of first direct

Expelled, Arrested, Charged: What Happens When You Criticize Power

My Latest Interview is with Thomas Karat of Salt Cube Analytics – Enjoy!

I was pleased to be interviewed for over an hour by Thomas Karat of Salt Cube Analytics. He has interviewed an impressive list of people so I was flattered to be asked to add to his list.

In this time of increased repression coupled with the usual ruling class hypocrisies it becomes increasingly hard to get our message out.

The government along with the BBC are trying to eliminate all dissent from the Daily Mail/Express narrative but are finding it hard to do so. When the BBC decided not to cover Kneecap at Glastonbury they instead stumbled upon Bobby Vylan and his ‘death to the IDF’.   I can only assume that they didn’t know who the IDF were!

But that hasn’t stopped that disgusting creature that goes by the name of Lisa Nandy from calling for heads to roll.  This pathetic worm was once Chair of Labour Friends of Palestine and even came out with the line, when speaking on a PSC platform that ‘If you deny the rights of children anywhere then you deny the rights of children everywhere’.

Well this human turd hasn’t said one word about the deliberate murder of upwards of 20,000 Palestinian children in Gaza. I can only assume that Palestinian children are less than human in Nandy’s eyes.

If she had even an iota of human decency she would resign from Starmer’s government in protest at its supply of weapons to Israel in order that they can continue the genocide. Instead she prefers to cling onto her ministerial  limousine and berat the BBC for not being pro-Israel enough.

Anyway watch the interview and I will let you judge it for yourselves!

Tony Greenstein

High Court Predictably Refuses to Delay the Coming into Effect of The Proscription of Palestine Action As A Terrorist Organisation

Large Demonstration Outside the Royal Courts of Injustice Today Declares 

‘We Support Palestine Action’

We Support Palestine Action Demonstration Outside the Royal Courts of Injustice Today 4 July 2025

At midnight tonight the proscription of Palestine Action as a ‘terrorist’ group comes into effect, the High Court having turned down an application to delay its implementation.

This so-called Labour government has driven a nail through our democratic right to protest by proscribing a protest group, Palestine Action as a terrorist group. In the process it has made the term ‘terrorist’ meaningless.

Instead of terrorism being acts of violence against a civilian population, which is what the Israeli state is, any group which interferes with Police State Starmer’s right to support genocide is liable to also be proscribed.

The old saying that ‘one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter’ has been proven correct. Most people see the Israeli state as a terrorist state but to the war criminals who head our government, murdering hundreds of thousands of people, executing Red Crescent and humanitarian aid workers, bombing hospitals and murdering journalists is merely collateral damage.

In the House of Lords yesterday peers defeated a ‘regret’ motion from the Green Party’s Baroness Jenny Jones by 144-16 though as in the Commons it was the opponents of Starmer’s police state legislation that had the better arguments.

Peter Hain, who in 1970 organised the Stop the Tour Committee against the proposed tour of the Apartheid Cricket Team and the previous Springbok Rugby Tour, told the Lords that if these powers had been in force then they would have been used against campaigners against Apartheid in South Africa.

Hain also drew attention to the fact that the Suffragettes had been branded extremists and terrorists in their time. They had even planned to plant bombs in Lloyd George’s new house.

It is a mark of the degeneracy of Starmer’s Labour Party  that they could introduce a proscription order whose effect is to defend a genocide in Gaza happening before our eyes. There is no principle that this so-called human rights lawyer is not prepared to break in order to appease the United States and the Israel lobby.

What of Palestine Action?  There was a large demonstration of over a thousand people today outside the Palaces of Injustice in The Strand with their mock gothic architecture. For once the Met didn’t try attacking any demonstrators, at least not while I was there.

Predictably enough the High Court turned down the application to delay the implementation of the legislation although it is due to go to the Court of Appeal. However I don’t hold out much hope that this reactionary court will overturn the lower court’s decision.

What next?  Well Palestine Action held a packed 1,000 strong Zoom meeting tonight under the title of The Plan but there was little evidence of such a plan although I was told that this was because of the presence of police and other spies. The meeting itself lasted less than an hour.

It remains to be seen whether or not there will be deliberate attempts to make the legislation unworkable by simply flouting it or whether Palestine Action will continue its work of attacking Elbit factories but not in the name of Palestine Action. One name that has been proposed is Yvette Cooper, the trollope who, as Home Secretary, brought the order forward.

What is certain is that the proscription of a direct action protest group marks a new low for a government led by an empty suit which has attacked claimants, the disabled, parents with more than two children and protesters. It is laying the basis for Farage’s Reform party at the next election which is why the decision of Zara Sultana to resign from the Labour Party is so welcome.

It is to be hoped that Jeremy Corbyn abandons his usual indecisiveness and hesitation and comes out in support of Sultana’s decision. It is also to be hoped that other left-Labour MPs like John McDonnell follow suit.

What is needed however is a broad based campaign to roll back the ongoing attack on democratic rights, not just by Starmer but the previous Tory government too.  It is no surprise that those who are supporting genocide in Gaza are eager to clamp down on democracy at home.

Tony Greenstein

Open Letter to Ben Jamal, Director of Palestine Solidarity Campaign

Instead of Helping Implement the Proscription of Palestine Action You Should Be Doing Your Best to Frustrate It - As Martin Luther King said:

Please note the date is wrong but the link is correct.

It is Friday 4 July 7.30 pm

Register Here

bit.ly/PalActionPlan 

If you want to add your name to this Open Letter please let me know at azvsas@gmail.com

Monday 30 June, 2025

Dear Ben Jamal,

I write as one of the original founders of Palestine Solidarity Campaign although I resigned in 2022 as a result of PSC’s abandonment of anti-Zionism in the new Constitution which you supported.

I have subsequently observed in wry amusement that you now claim to have been anti-Zionist all along. However as long as you don’t call for the replacement of  a Jewish Supremacist state by a Unitary Democratic State it is impossible to consider PSC anti-Zionist.

We are living through the world’s first live streamed genocide in Gaza and the fulfilment of Zionism’s Messianic End Times. US and British imperialism are wedded to supporting Hitler’s Bastard Offspring. Today when genocidal and exterminationist ideas are commonplace in Israel and when nearly half of Israeli Jews support exterminating the Palestinians of Gaza, the last thing we should do is retreat in the face of government threats of proscription. Today the Nazi doctrine of Death by Hunger is the official policy of the Israeli government.

Ben Jamal

Despite the creation of a mass Palestine solidarity movement, both in Britain and internationally, we have not been able to stop the Genocide. At best we have been able to limit the carnage and force Zionism’s mafia bosses in Tel Aviv to admit a bare minimum of aid.

PSC, together with Stop the War Coalition and other groups, have organised impressive demonstrations in London but by themselves they have failed to change British government policy, wedded as it is to NATO and the alliance with the United States. Today we are led by war criminals and we must act accordingly.

A chance was missed in January when the Police banned the march from starting from outside the BBC. The Metropolitan Police adopted wholesale the Zionist smear that the marches offended Jews worshipping in a distant synagogue,. Instead of saying that you would call the march at the BBC regardless of the Police’s attempt at sabotage you meekly complied by rearranging the starting point in Whitehall, which enabled the Police to kettle, harass, arrest and attack protestors.

By way of contrast, one of the most successful groups in the past five years has been Palestine Action.  It has been so successful that the government has been forced to try and proscribe it as a terrorist organisation. This is the first attempt to ban a protest group as ‘terrorists’. This attempt has been met with a wave of opposition from other protest  and civil liberties groups, charities and academics reaching into the Home Office itself.

If anything represented a line in the sand then this is surely the issue – the proscription of a protest group as ‘terrorists’. It is an assault on the most basic of rights of a democratic society, the right to protest and freedom of speech, Articles 10 and 11 of the European Convention of Human Rights.

As you are aware, having often quoted them yourself, protest movements have a long history of defying coercive and repressive laws when democratic rights and basic freedoms were under attack. Slavery abolitionists, trade unionists, Chartists and Suffragettes were prepared to put themselves on the line. As Martin Luther King said in his Letter from a Birmingham Gaol

‘one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. I would agree with St. Augustine that "an unjust law is no law at all."

A law, which is passed, which erodes our democratic rights is an immoral law. This was the position of the Suffragettes, the Chartists and all manner of social movements in the past. This is a law fit for a Police State and yet you insist that PSC branches and members meekly comply. In your ‘advice’ you write

PSC’s position is clear – we will not allow any branch to jeopardise the organisation and the movement by taking such actions in the name of PSC. It is vitally important for all branches to understand this and to act accordingly – ensure that no branch communications profess support for a proscribed organisation, that no events are planned in support of a proscribed organisation, and that no clothing or signs are used which profess support for a proscribed organisation

The Police, the Courts and the State have been implacably opposed to the Palestine solidarity movement.  Why?  Because the West’s alliance with Israel is based on strategic imperialist interests. Israel is the West’s attack dog. This is why Palestine Action has been targeted. To the state Palestine Action’s opposition to Britain’s military co-operation with Israel is no different from that of Hamas. Hence the proposed proscription.

Whereas Western regimes have supported the Zionists the people have supported the Palestinians as opinion polls have consistently demonstrated.  The reception of the audience at Glastonbury to Kneecap and Bobby Vylan’s chants of ‘death to the IDF’ demonstrates who has the ear of the young.

We see this in the decision of the High Court on Monday approving the sale of F-35 components even though the judges knew full well that they will be used to commit genocide.

The Guardian reported on Saturday that ‘concerns about proscribing Palestine Action extended into the home secretary’s own department.’ A senior civil servant was quoted as saying that ‘Home Office staff are concerned about the “absurd” decision to ban Palestine Action under UK anti-terrorism laws.’

 “From desk to desk, colleagues are exchanging concerned and bemused conversations about how absurd this is and how impossible it will be to enforce. Are they really going to prosecute as terrorists everyone who expresses support for Palestine Action’s work to disrupt the flow of arms to Israel as it commits war crimes?

If ever there was a time for civil disobedience it is now. It is fine citing the example of groups in the past which broke the law for the common good but there comes a time when PSC has to decide which is more important – obedience to the law or solidarity with the Palestinians. If PSCrefuses to contemplate civil disobedience it is more of an NGO than a solidarity campaign.

The time to refuse to accede to the proscription of Palestine Action, whilst Zionist genocide groups go unmolested, is now. If thousands of people openly defy the proscription by refusing to accept Police State Starmer’s equation of Protest Groups with Terrorism then the law will  become inoperable.

As it says in Ecclesiastes 3 (and Pete Seeger’s song Turn, Turn, Turn)

‘To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.’

Now is that time but to the leadership of PSC, afraid as you are of your own shadow, the idea of civil disobedience is something you praise in history not something you yourselves participate in. Past heroism is easy to praise. Doing it yourself is something else.

PSC has never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Unlike the Anti-Apartheid Movement of the 1970s it is afraid to build a popular movement that challenges the State’s support for genocide. The vast majority of the population, both in Europe and the United States are utterly sick of the genocide in Gaza yet PSC is afraid of breaking the law. 

Now is the ideal time to put a spoke into the Zionist wheel. Now is the time to defy yet another anti-Palestinian law with both right and public opinion on our side. Yet what do you do?  You instruct members and branches of PSC to fully implement the ban on supporting Palestine Action if the law comes into effect. Let’s be blunt. You are doing the work of the Zionists for them. You don’t know what to do with a mass movement except march them up the hill and down again.

You have no perspective beyond the accumulation of funds and the employment of more staff.  PSC has made over a million pounds from Israel’s genocide in Gaza yet politically you are still as timid as when, in 2022, you took anti-Zionism out of the constitution.

What is your justification? The threat of 14 year prison sentences? I doubt if even Lady Justice Carr, the most reactionary Chief Justice since Lord Denning would dare impose such a sentence but more importantly public opinion would not stand for it. The best way of avoiding prison sentences is mass defiance of the law such that it will be impossible to implement it since it is clear to all that Palestine Action is not a terrorist group. Embedding a lie within the law will not make it true.

A mural was painted in Gaza over a year ago to thank us for taking direct action against Israel’s war machine.

Now, more than ever, Palestinians need us to step up.

Join our workshop tomorrow and #ShutElbitDown: https://t.co/Aw3ubRyNC0 pic.twitter.com/cBqMk5gUuz

— Palestine Action (@Pal_action) October 20, 2023

Your fear of challenging the unjust laws that Yvette Cooper is proposing stems from your fear of upsetting the applecart. To be blunt you are afraid of challenging the undemocratic British state and prefer to sacrifice the Palestinians instead. It was not PSC but Palestine Action that had a mural painted for it in Gaza.  Palestine Action have achieved in 5 years more than PSC have done in 40.

What is the purpose of PSC if not to support the Palestinians?  Palestine Action has closed 3 Elbit factories and premises in its five years of existence. It has posed a challenge to the Israeli state’s operations in this country which PSC with all its staff and resources have not been able to match. Hence its proscription.

I am not at all surprised by your behaviour. When Palestine Action was formed in July 2020 PSC did all that it could to strangle it at birth. Your ‘legal advice’ then was a carbon copy of your advice today. You wrote:

PSC has sought legal advice about the potential liabilities arising from the commission of acts of criminal damage of high monetary levels ... If the value of the damage caused exceeds £5000 a person can be sentenced to a maximum of 10 years imprisonment and/or an unlimited fine.

These liabilities potentially extend to both individuals encouraging or assisting criminal acts (including, for example, providing financial support), and organisations, including PSC branches that offered encouragement or assistance.

These concerns are not raised because PSC, or the BDS Movement is opposed to any form of direct action. Instead, they are raised because of the strategic and legal risks associated with the type of action being conducted by the group.

If supporters of the Palestinians had taken your advice and if members of PSC had gone along with it then Palestine Action would not have existed. You were forced to change course because PSC members and supporters disregarded your advice. Today you write that:

Publicly inviting support, for example through a social media post, wearing clothing which indicates support, or arranging a meeting where a member of a proscribed organisation speaks or a speech indicating support for the organisation is given are all criminal offences which can carry prison sentences of up to 14 years

That is true, theoretically and that is why mass action in defiance of this law is necessary and should be organised, with PSC’s help if possible, without it if necessary. The proscription of Palestine Action can only be challenged by mass defiance, not the timidity of PSC under your tutelage. PSC itself should be taking the lead instead of trying to frighten its members. There is nothing stopping national PSC declaring that its support for PA remains unchanged.

You and the leadership of PSC have always been hostile to PA because you saw it as a competitor. In January 2022 when PA achieved its first victory with the closure of Elbit’s Oldham factory PSC was eager to claim the credit. You issued a statement which said:

We pay tribute to all those who have campaigned since Elbit Systems purchased the site in 2007, including many members of the Manchester PSC branch 

As I wrote at the time:

‘I have to pay tribute to whoever drafted the statement. It must have taken some effort to draft a statement welcoming the closure of the factory without at the same time mentioning the group which was responsible for the campaign that was responsible for this success.

Because British imperialism supports Zionism and Israel there is no legal way to prevent the state supporting Israel short of mass action. That is why defiance of the law is an essential component of any solidarity action. Of course that does not mean we defy the law on any and every occasion but we choose the time and place. This is such an occasion. The classifying of a protest group as a terrorist group breaks new ground. It is a red line for more than just the Palestine solidarity movement. It has united Palestine solidarity supporters with virtually the whole liberal and even not so liberal establishment. It is indefensible. If any issue was likely to be won by a refusal to cowtow to the Police and State this is the time.

Your real reasons for opposing a refusal to implement the law have nothing to do with possible prison sentences for those who defy the law. They have everything to do with your empire building and the cushy salaries that comes with it.

You say that ‘The people of Palestine are depending on us now, during their darkest hour, and we cannot afford to let them down.’ Yet by colluding in the implementation of this law that is precisely what you are doing. You are helping the British state implement this police state law.

Tony Greenstein

Supported by:

Leeds Students Against Apartheid Coalition

Unis Resist Border Controls (URBC)