On 25.03.2024, our account at Berliner Sparkasse was blocked with immediate effect. In a letter, the Sparkasse informs us that it has taken this step as a precautionary measure and that we should submit numerous association documents by April 5 to update our customer data. As a public corporation, the Sparkasse is bound by public law and may not arbitrarily block accounts without giving reasons, which it has not done. It is also unusual that the requested documents include a list of our members with their full names and addresses.

 

Why should this information be important to Berliner Sparkasse? It sounds more like a question from the LKA or the police, who have been politically persecuting us as a Jewish organization for some time. Our former account at the Bank für Sozialwirtschaft was closed in 2019 because of our BDS support. This happened after agitation by Israeli journalist Benjamin Weinthal and pressure from the Central Council of Jews in Germany.

 

This pressure and political persecution will only increase as Israel and its apartheid policies in the State of Israel and the West Bank, and now its genocidal policies in the Gaza Strip, lose support around the world. Germany is one of Israel’s last loyal allies, and German policy is cooperating with Israel’s apartheid and genocide, even though over 80% of the German population supports the policy of Israel.

The Palestine Congress will take place in Berlin in mid-April and will feature a wide range of international speakers, including former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis. The closer the congress gets, the more persecution takes place; it has been defamed for weeks in the tabloid media and local politics in shrill tones, for example as a „hate summit“ to which „thousands of anti-Semites“ will be traveling. Because the journalists can’t write anything factual about it, they try to delegitimize the congress through contact guilt.

 

However, because the organizers are independent of politics, the usual means such as cancellation or eviction do not work. The congress is financed by ticket sales and donations; we, the Jewish Voice, have made our account available for this purpose – which is why it has now been blocked. We will not be intimidated by this, even if we lose this account: Our position on genocide is derived from our Jewish values and does not depend on financial resources. Our membership grows with every day and every reprisal. Those who are members know it for themselves. It is none of the banks‘ business. We are taking legal action against the arbitrary, politically motivated blocking of our account, which is untenable in a constitutional state.

 

first published here: https://juedische-stimme.de/berliner-sparkasse-sperrt-konto-der-jüdischen-stimme

 

We are publishing this article in solidarity with the „Jewish Voice for Just Peace in the Middle East“.