Frome Friends of Palestine - Gaza Vigil and Discussions with Lloyds

somerset | peace | news report Saturday January 10, 2009 14:18 by Innocent Dave - Frome Friends of Palestine

Local activists in Frome, Somerset, held a vigil for the innocent victims of the Gaza strip today, raising awareness and support for the opposition to this horrific massacre. Several of us also visited the local branch of Lloyd's Bank to discuss their plans to shut down Palestinian charity Interpal.

The vigil was well attended, with early estimates of around 30-40 people participating a various times - similar to the first vigil, last saturday. A variety of homemade placards, a peace flag, and a large banner expressed our views on the unfolding crisis*, and a large number of members of the public stopped to sign our petition for a ceasefire and withdrawal of troops, take leaflets and discuss the issues with us.

Whilst on the vigil, a member of the group made the rest of us aware LLoyds TSB's plan to shut down Palestinian humanitarian charity Interpal despite the Charities Commission describing them as carrying out "important work in a part of the world where thee is great hardship and suffering" (more info - https://publish.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/01/417700.html). In response, half a dozen of us visited the local branch with placards and banner. We explained our demands to the acting manager (That Lloyds cease this action and reinstate full banking facilities to the charity), and requested that they be passed along to Head Office on our behalf. Despite attempted obstructions by the aforementioned acting manager, ("really, we can't change anything here..."), our message was passed along to the Regional Office, and we withdrew to the vigil as agreed.

We encourage local groups across the country to join us with similar actions - enough calls from branches with hippies in the lobby could well get this decision turned around!

Frome Friends of Palestine will be holding another vigil at 11.30 on saturday 17th, at the bottom of Cheap Street, Frome. Vigils are being held around the area, in Bath, Bradford on Avon, and others, and are being met with a surprisingly enthusiastic response.

Solidarity!

*We're against it, in case you were wondering...