First Santander now Kent Reliance Have Frozen The Accounts of the Brighton Trust, a Registered Charity

 In Order That We Can Meet Our Commitments to Grantees, Including the Al Tafawk Centre & Brighton’s Palestine House, I am asking you to contribute to Our Emergency Appeal

Is This a State Backed Bank Robbery?

  Emergency Appeal    THE BRIGHTON TRUST

https://chuffed.org/project/190193-emergency-appeal-the-brighton-trust

On 2^nd June Santander froze the bank accounts of The Brighton Trust, a registered charity. Eight days later they contacted me to explain that they couldn’t tell me why they had frozen them.

Not only did they freeze the accounts of the Brighton Trust but they froze the accounts of Brighton and Hove Unemployed Workers Centre, two personal accounts and an account belonging to my son, which I administer, via a Lasting Power of Attorney.

Debanked: How Regulations Are Hurting Innocent UK Bank Customers

Last Monday, Kent Reliance or One Savings Bank also froze accounts belonging to my family and also accounts containing money belonging to the Brighton Trust. Again they refused to say why they had frozen the accounts.

In the past two years I have been debanked by Nationwide building society (which contrary to belief is an anti-Palestinian bank), HSBC and First Direct. The only conclusion I can reach is that this is because I am being prosecuted under the Terrorism Act 2000 for allegedly inviting support for a proscribed organisation, Hamas.

These are not the first attacks on the Brighton Trust. In 2022 and again in 2025, the Charity Commission has conducted investigations of the Brighton Trust. These investigations were almost certainly triggered by Zionist charities such as UK Lawyers for Israel and/or the Campaign Against Antisemitism.

The freezing of our accounts is being done under either The Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (POCA) or The Terrorism Act 2000. It is most likely to be the latter however it is impossible to know for certain.

It would seem that some government agency, either the National Crime Agency or the Counter-Terror Police, is deliberately feeding false and malicious information to those I bank with informing them that I am involved in money laundering and/or terrorism financing.

I wrote to the NCA asking if they had anything to do with the bank closures and they wrote back to say they do not instruct banks as to what they do but it is clear that they do supply the misinformation that causes banks to freeze and debank people.

The use of ‘regulatory’ pretexts has been used by financial payment services such as Wise and Payoneer to completely cut off people in Gaza from their money. These are literally life and death decisions made by faceless and anonymous bureaucrats.

Banks are notoriously ‘risk averse’. They act first and ask questions later. Or rather, they don’t even bother asking questions. They either freeze or close accounts or both.

Ironically the increased use of money laundering legislation and counter-terrorism legislation has made no difference to criminal gangs but it has impacted on political groups and vulnerable people, which one suspects was the original intention.

When Nigel Farage had his accounts closed by the Royal Family’s banker, Coutts it was headline news but when ordinary people or campaigning groups have their accounts closed it is ignored.

The legal provisions are contained here.

We are not the only ones this has happened to. Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign has had £20,000 frozen by Unity Trust Bank, which is owned by the trade unions, for a year now.  So has Greater Manchester Friends of Palestine. This is in addition to debanking individual Palestine solidarity activists.

Both the National Crime Agency—answerable to the Home Office—and counter terrorism police declined to answer the Guardian’s query about which agency took the decision to freeze the GMFP’s bank account.

And then there is the decision of Lloyds Bank to freeze and debank The Canary, the radical alternative news organisation. This is a straightforward political decision by corrupt bankers. The Canary isn’t racist like Farage so the BBC and the rest of the media have had nothing to say.

We don’t know whether Lloyds is going to use ‘regulatory’ reasons as the pretext to debank The Canary but it may be that direct action will cause the bank to cough up since being polite has had little effect so far.

What is happening is that legislation passed for one purpose – terrorist financing or money laundering – is being used for entirely different purposes, namely to crack down on organisations that are campaigning against the genocide in Gaza.

The Brighton Trust provides the majority of funding for the Al Tafawk Centre, a kindergarten in Jenin in the Occupied West Bank of Palestine.

We went undercover to EXPOSE Israeli settlers

We also agreed earlier in the year to two year funding, £25,000 per year, towards the rent of The Old Palestine House in Brighton. All of this has been put in jeopardy by the decision of Santander.

In addition on 6 July Kent Reliance (One Savings Bank) froze £70,000 belonging to Trustees of The Brighton Trust and intended as grant aid to a number of radical community groups.

The Brighton Trust was established in 2016 as the Trust for Unpopular Causes. We have given hundreds of grants to Palestinian groups, campaigning organisations and people, as well as numerous other radical causes. See here for details of the last 3 years of grant giving.

The precedent for all this was set by the United States which has sanctioned and frozen the accounts of UN Raporteur Francesca Albanese and the judges of the International Criminal Court. We have in the Trump Administration the political equivalent of the Mafia.

US issues sanctions against UN investigator probing abuses in Gaza • FRANCE 24 English

What the NCA and the Counter-Terror Police have not done is to freeze the funds of Zionist organisations involved in sending money to illegal settlements in the West Bank. 32 charities according to Melanie Ward MP have sent £28 million to illegal West Bank settlements without so much as a murmur from the NCA or Counter-Terror Police.

Indeed the Charity Commission has approved the sending of money by Zionist charities to West Bank settlements.

We are therefore appealing for donations to fulfil existing commitments and to enable us to continue to make small grants to radical organisations as well as seeking to bring legal action against the banks and/or the state bodies involved in these attacks.

Either we confront what the state is doing now or we will allow them to continue to target activists and campaigns they don't like, especially those connected with Palestine.

Brighton's Old Palestine House

Politically the banks, which didn’t hesitate to come running to the State, i.e. taxpayers after the banking crash of 2007/8, need to be taken into public ownership. They were given handouts because they were ‘too big to fail’. They are too powerful. Banking is an essential requirement of modern society and the banks cannot be allowed to use their own reactionary politics to impose censorship on civil society.

Banks are too important to remain in the private sector. They are candidates for nationalisation. See

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

UK Labour government oversees decision to freeze bank accounts of pro-Palestinian organisations

Two UK pro-Palestine organisations have bank accounts frozen

STOP The Banks & National Crime Agency from targeting Palestine Solidarity activists

Dozens of UK groups call for unfreezing of pro-Palestine group's bank account

Unions and charities call for pro-Palestine group to have bank account restored

Charities in England and Wales ‘donate millions to illegal Israeli settlements

After 8 Days Santander Finally Contact Me To Say They Can’t Tell Me Why They Have Frozen Our Accounts

 According to the National Crime Agency It’s a Crime to Send Money to a Palestinian Kindergarten but Not A Crime to Fund Settlements Built on Stolen Land

Please Sign This Petition

STOP The Banks & NCA from targeting Palestine Solidarity activists

https://tinyurl.com/2mcfw34f

Tony Greenstein on Crispin Flintoff Show 

On 2 June Santander froze not only my personal accounts but the accounts of a registered charity, the Brighton Trust, for the crime of sending money to a Palestinian kindergarten, the Al Tafawk Centre in Jenin.

The most obvious culprit is the National Crime Agency which is a law unto itself. The key personnel leading the NCA are Graeme Biggar, its Director General who works alongside Rob Jones: Director General (Operations), James Babbage: Director General (Threats), Wendy Clark: Director General (Capabilities) and Steve Rodhouse: Director General (Strategic Projects).

British State sanctions silencing dissent with Tony Greenstein on The World Today.

I received, after 9 days, a letter from Tracey Flynn, Senior Complaints Manager which said precisely nothing as to why they had frozen the accounts. If this is part of a criminal investigation it is surprising that no one has sought to interview me in connection with any alleged criminal offences. The assumption must therefore be that this is a pure case of harassment, probably relating to my impending trial at Kingston Crown Court on 18 August under s.12(1) Terrorism Act 2000 for inviting support for a proscribed organisation, viz. Hamas.

The Jewish activist Tony Greenstein, whose opposition to the Gaza genocide will see him on trial in August for "supporting terrorism", is now being hounded – like other prominent Palestine solidarity activists – with a freeze on his bank accounts.

This is being directed by the…

— Jonathan Cook (@Jonathan_K_Cook) June 6, 2026

Nonetheless I haven’t been idle. On Sunday I gave an interview on the Crispin Flintoff Show and on Monday I gave an extended interview with the World Today, an Australian broadcaster.

US issues sanctions against UN investigator probing abuses in Gaza • FRANCE 24 English

s.12 of the Terrorism Act 2000

It is clear that the Starmer Junta and their Police State Operatives are using legislation designed for the purpose of tackling serious crime in order to undermine Palestinian protest organisations and activists.

As imperialism goes on the rampage in the Middle East with its war on Iran, which as most people know is based on a series of lies, so dissent at home must be squashed.

Later today the four defendants who were convicted of criminal damage at the Filton 6 trial will know if they are going to be sentenced as ‘terrorists’ by the Intelligence Agencies former barrister Injustice Jeremy Johnson. Trials are being turned into rubber stamps as judges seek to exclude any context for the actions of those before them.

The harassment I am experiencing must be seen in this light. Despite professing support for a two-state solution in Palestine Starmer, Cooper and Mahmood are doing their best to stop any and every support for those living under Israel’s vicious military rule in the West Bank, to say nothing of the genocide in Gaza.

My Rental Payment Failed Because of Santander's Misinformation

Absolutely.

The same Cooper who outlaws Palestine Action would surely have done the same to the Suffragettes if she had been around in the years leading up to WW1. https://t.co/ZB4XiwMWbN pic.twitter.com/pbuJUMjURT

— Transform Politics 🦋 (@tf_politics) June 24, 2025

We are seeing a full spectrum attack on our democratic rights and that was the reason Palestine Action was banned last summer though it didn’t turn out quite as Yvette Cooper, the ‘fragrant’ and hypocritical feminist who turned up in the colours of the suffragettes, purple in the House of Commons the very day of the banning, presumably oblivious to the fact that the Suffragettes bombed and burnt their way across Britain in support of universal suffrage.

In the meantime it will be useful if people contact Santander by email at these addresses to let their views be known

santander@service1.santander.co.uk, ukbbusinesscomplaints@santander.co.uk, ceo@santander.co.uk, ConsumerService@santander.co.uk, ExecutiveCommunications@santander.co.uk, ExecutiveCommunications2@santander.co.uk, complaint@santander.co.uk, 

You could also ask Graeme Biggar of the National Crime Agency for an explanation as to why he uses money laundering legislation to attack Palestine solidarity groups and activists. He can be contact at the following email addresses:

communication@nca.gov.uk, central.recruitment@nca.gov.uk, digitalcommunications@nca.gov.uk, ukmpu@nca.gov.uk, communication@nca.x.gsi.gov.uk,public.enquiries@noms.gsi.gov.uk, central.recruitment@nca.gov.uk, nationalcrimeagency.complaints@nca.gov.uk, 

Tony Greenstein

Yesterday I Learnt That Santander has Frozen My Accounts – No Reason Given – No Reason Needed – Opposition to Israel’s Genocide in Gaza is Enough

The British State’s Attack & Banks’ Complicity in Attacking Palestine solidarity Activists is Financial Terrorism

You Can Donate Here 

Update

It would be useful if people email Santander to protest at their outrageous behaviour and ask them if they are happy depriving the Al Tafawk Children’s Centre of vital funding. Email addresses I have for the bank are:

ukbbusinesscomplaints@santander.co.uk, ceo@santander.co.uk,

ConsumerService@santander.co.uk,

ExecutiveCommunications@santander.co.uk,

complaints@santander.co.uk, 

Nearly a year ago I wrote about how the Police and the Security Services were using money laundering legislation, introduced to stop serious crime, to target Palestine solidarity supporters, including myself.

As is normal these days with the Terrorism Act 2000, legislation introduced for one purpose is being used for another purpose, in this case attacking peaceful direct action groups and opponents of Genocide.

It is Financial Terrorism because it is intended to frighten and deter people from taking action against the British State which is actively complicit in the Genocide in Gaza. The State faces an uphill battle to convict me in a trial starting at Kingston Crown Court on August 18^th for ‘inviting support for a proscribed organisation (Hamas)’. This despite the fact that we have a hostile Judge Plashkes KC presiding over it.

Ironically I Received This From Santander Today!

Hence the attempt to intimidate me. The question that springs to mind is whether those responsible for contacting the banks are engaged in trying to pervert the course of justice.

The message I get when I log on

In the past two years I have been debanked by three banks – Nationwide, which is an anti-Palestinian bank, HSBC and First Direct. No reason has ever been given but it’s not hard to work out what was going on. The Financial Ombudsman Service, to which I complained, has proved itself a completely toothless lapdog.

I Received This Yesterday From Santander!

The Police and the National Crime Agency have decided to attack the finances of Palestine solidarity groups. Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Greater Manchester Friends of Palestine have both had their bank accounts frozen because of an alleged link to Palestine Action, even before the  latters unlawful proscription.

Unity Trust Bank, which is supposed to be a progressive bank, since it’s owned by the trade unions, confirmed at a meeting with Scottish PSC that the freezing of their account was at the behest of the NCA. It seems that ‘serious crime’ today is not robbing a bank, money laundering or human trafficking – it is opposing Genocide in Palestine.

The NCA is one of these organisations that are accountable to no one but wield a great deal of power because their remit is serious crime. However Palestine solidarity has been redefined as ‘anti-Semitism’ and ‘terrorism’ so the NCA has become the State’s instrument of choice in the attempt to criminalise solidarity with the Palestinians.

It is not only in this country that the State is employing financial terrorism. Francesca Albanese, the UN Rapporteur for Palestine, has been a target of the Trump regime. Her bank accounts, credit cards and finances have been frozen, all because she has been an outspoken critic of the West’s role in financing and arming Israel’s genocide.

Albanese’s reaction to US sanctions sums up my attitude – ‘What a mafia. But they will not break us.’ The Trump and Starmer regimes are just that – mafia bosses in suits. At least though Trump doesn’t claim to be a human rights lawyer unlike Starver.

The Judges of the International Criminal Court were also targeted by Trump’s sanctions, which include travel bans, asset freezes and denial of services from US companies, for having had the temerity to press war crimes charges and issue a warrant against Netanyahu, the Hitler of our age. The idea of indicting war criminals is not one that our leaders take very kindly given that they may be next in line.

As Ashifa Kassam wrote in respect of Kimberly Prost, a Canadian Judge at the ICC:

For years, she has sat as a judge at the international criminal court, weighing accusations of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity; now she is on the same list as terrorists and those involved in organised crime. “It really was a moment of a bit of disbelief,” she said.

And that is the reality of the financial sanctions that I and others face in Britain. A government which had an iota of morality or principle, would have condemned outright the US sanctions on Albanese and ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, which the Trump Junta imposed in February 2025.

Starmer and the ‘Labour’ Government said nothing and quietly went along with everything Trump decreed, ending up with Charles Mountbatten being sent to Washington to flatter Trump.

Capitalism is now run by politicians who owe more to Al Capone than Thomas Paine and the Rights of Man. This is the context in which I have once again been faced with anonymous allegations, the nature of which I am not allowed to see or know, being used to freeze my accounts and those of the charity of which I’m a trustee.

For the past year Santander has intermittently carried out 3 investigations into the accounts of the Brighton Trust and related organisations. It found nothing but I always suspected that their justification of ‘getting to know their customer’ was simply a pretext.

I first found out what was happening when Stripe, who handle payment processing for the Chuffed crowdfunder which we set up to appeal for donations to the Al Tafawk Children’s Centre in Jenin sent me a cryptic message saying that ‘A recent payout to your connected bank account failed’. It soon became clear why it had failed.

Without any warning Santander had frozen a total of 8 accounts. The only one spared was that of my son, which I administer. When I contacted the bank no one would speak to me from the department in question.

It was not until June 5, three days after the freezing of my accounts that they sent me an email, which said nothing other than that ‘We will arrange for a specialist complaints manager to contact you at their earliest opportunity.’ They still have not contacted me.

It is as if they were too ashamed to even try to defend their decision.

It means that I have had to take emergency action to ensure that funds raised for the children of the Al Tafawk Centre are secured. To attack the ability to operate of a charity raising funds for a children’s centre is despicable. They suffer enough at the hands of the terrorist IDF without facing the terrorism of the British state acting via its banking system.

The faceless men who run the National Crime Agency in conjunction with tame bankers are, like their counterparts in the Metropolitan Police, devoted to supporting the Genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing underway in the West Bank.

I am taking legal advice over my next steps and without giving anything away I will not hesitate to challenge the freeze in court if necessary. I intend to force Santander to justify their actions and to release the money. To do this I will need to raise money so I ask people to contribute to my Legal Crowdfunder. As Chuffed is based in Australia it is beyond the reach of Starver’s mafia and his police state mates.

However this whole debanking exercise needs to become a political issue. Banking is essential for anyone to function in the modern economy. To take peoples’ banking facilities away because they don’t conform to the state’s expectations is financial terrorism. Banks need to be forced to justify any attempt to debank someone.

The ideal solution would be for the banks to be nationalised. They are too important to be left in the hands of the private sector. When they get into trouble, as was the case in 2008, then they come running to the state to bail them out. If they are ‘too big to fail’ which is how they were able to secure billions of pounds from the state in a bailout, then they are too big to be owned by private shareholders.

Ivor Caplin caught by a sex sting

I have no doubt that these dirty tricks tactics by the state are intended as a prelude to my trial at Kingston Crown Court. But whilst the Secret State is targeting my bank accounts and those of other opponents of genocide, paedophiles like Ivor Caplin – former Defence Minister and former Chair of the Jewish Labour Movement go scot free.

Caplin was the subject of a sting in January 2025, when he tried to liaise with a young boy for the purposes of sex. 18 months later he still has not been charged. Of course the police have form over this as Jimmy Saville might testify. As do Sussex Police which turned a blind eye to Saville and another prominent paedophile and Charles Mountbatten’s friend, the Bishop of Lewes Peter Ball.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYKYkhRwzU8

Ivor Caplin arrested for attempt to meet 15 year old boy

However Sussex Police did arrest a friend of mine, Greg Hadfield, a former journalist on the Sunday Times and Daily Mail, for exposing Caplin’s predeliction for hard core pornography and sex with young boys on Twitter.

Jeremy Scahill on Sky TV About Israel's Burning Alive of Children

It can't be often that a Perjurer is Given a Police Award!

Hadfield was the subject of a complaint by a leading Brighton Zionist Fiona Sharpe, friend of Sussex Chief Constable Jo Shiner, who was awarded a top police award. Sharpe cannot but have been aware of Caplin’s extra-mural activities as he advertised them on X. Another who clearly knew was his ex-boyfriend and now Trade Minister, Peter Kyle the MP for Hove. Corruption

But whatever dirty tricks the Police and National Crime Agency get up to between now and my trial they will not deter me. As should be obvious from my arrest at the Nakba demonstration for defying Mark Rowley’s ban on the use of the words Globalise the Intifada.

So when we hear of two-tier policing we should remember that the Police and the Crown Prosecution Service, have always protected the rich and the powerful. That is why Andrew Mountbatten was able to get away with raping trafficked girls without as much a whisper from the Metropolitan Police. Their only concern is leaked documents.

But we should never forget that this is about the British State continuing to support war crimes such as the burning alive of people in tents as Israel bombs them mercilessly or the targeting of hospitals in Lebanon - three of which have been attacked in the last week. Attacking a state’s health facilities is a speciality of the barbarous ‘Jewish’ state.