Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I commend Senator Norris for taking the initiative to propose the motion. It has been my pleasure to co-sign his motion as leader of the Labour Party group. I strongly support the motion. It is good to see cross-party support for the principle behind the motion that is to condemn Bank of Ireland for its arbitrary and undemocratic decision to close the accounts of the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign group.

Like Senator Black I condemn all violence in the Middle East, particularly the targeting of civilians. I have been a longstanding supporter of the Palestinian cause and the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Other Senators have already explained the reasons Senator Norris's motion deserves support. It is of real concern that the account of an organisation and NGO with a long track record of campaigning here in Ireland, is well established and supported by many people here, should have its accounts closed unilaterally in this way.I echo the words of those many writers and others who wrote to the newspapers on 5 November condemning Bank of Ireland's unilateral closure of the accounts and setting out the reasons why this action of the bank should be condemned. They pointed out that the bank has thus far refused to offer any reason for the closure except to say that the IPSC, which had banked with the Bank of Ireland for 15 years, no longer met the bank's risk appetite. As others have said, that is not good enough as an explanation.

The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign is a voluntarily-run group. It advocates for Palestinian human rights within international law and is in fact in keeping with UN resolutions which have condemned actions of the Israeli Defence Forces in particular and breaches of the human rights of Palestinians. The IPSC is a legally constituted, fully-audited and transparent organisation and it is widely respected in Ireland as a civil society body. The signatories of the letter of 5 November included authors like Dervla Murphy and Seamus Deane, academics like Ronit Lentin, solicitor Michael Farrell, Ruarí McKiernan, Honor Heffernan, Donal Lunny, Betty Purcell, Robert Ballagh and many others. We are going to have cross-party support. I hope we can unite on this motion.