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Hi all, As you know, children in Gaza are freezing -- to death. Now a CA bank is illegally trying to release funds from a CA-based charity organization that is sending aid! Call their management! - Amith ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: FPM Newsletter <newslet...@freepalestinemovement.org> Date: Thu, Feb 19, 2015 at 10:47 AM Subject: [fpm.news] Keep calling the Banksters. Your actions are helping To: FPM News <fpm.n...@lists.riseup.net> Cc: Karen Nelson <karen.nel...@bankofthewest.com>, " tanya.ka...@bankofthewest.com" <tanya.ka...@bankofthewest.com>, Tom Nelson < zigzag...@gmail.com> Keep calling the Banksters. Your actions are helping. Yesterday we received a call from Tanya Kazak, the Vice President and Compliance Manager for Bank of the West within 15 minutes of posting our appeal for your action. She had already received five calls and by the time we finished talking, she had received twelve. Karen Nelson at the local branch was routing her calls to the 800 number, but here is a new number for her: +1 510 235 2981. Here also is the text of a message that we sent after hours to Ms. Kazak after consulting with our attorney. It explains further actions that we intend to take. Your suggestions are welcome, and if you learn anything that might be of use, please send it to us. Tanya Kazak Vice President, Compliance Manager Bank of the West 925-843-1060 Ms. Kazak, Our legal counsel advises us that Bank of the West is illegally withholding our funds and that you have provided no justification to demand the information that you are asking. He advises not to provide that information until and unless you demonstrate the legal necessity to do so, and he invites you to call him to discuss the matter further. His name is Tom Nelson and he can be reached at xxx-xxx-xxxx or xxx-xxx-xxxx. Until now, Bank of the West has steadfastly refused to state that Bank of New York Mellon requires the requested information as a condition of releasing the funds to be returned to the Association. In addition, Bank of the West refuses to state in writing what the consequences will be if the Association refuses to provide the requested information by your deadline of 4:00 p.m. PST, Feb. 18, 2015, which has now passed. In the absence of such statements, we conclude that the demand is frivolous, malicious and insincere, and made in violation of the law but under the assumption that law enforcement will not act to protect our rights for a sum of money that would be within the jurisdiction of small claims court if we were an individual and not a corporation. Clearly, BNY Mellon and/or Bank of the West consider themselves to be too powerful to abide by the law and the amount too small for theft statutes to be enforced. However, we have other means of defending our rights, and we intend to pursue them. These include state and federal banking authorities and public officials. We also have the power of our supporters and human rights advocates everywhere, whom we can ask to demand from you directly and through public demonstrations and the press to honor our rights. We can bring attention to your immoral and arrogant practices, and we can encourage the public to boycott your bank. Please do not think that we are without recourse merely because our accounts do not represent a major part of your business. Let me remind you that Bank of the West chose to use BNY Mellon for the subject transaction. You may have business with them, but our business is with you and we hold you responsible for the return of our funds, regardless of your interaction with BNY Mellon. Please do the right thing and return our funds without delay. What you can do: 1. Keep calling Tanya Kazak at +1 925 843 1060 and tell her to return our funds immediately. If Bank of the West wants to use their own funds to reimburse us, we have no objection, and we will then allow them to keep any funds returned to them by Bank of New York Mellon. Call Karen Nelson at +1 510 235 2980 and +1 510 235 2981 with the same message. Perhaps sequential numbers above and below those two numbers will also work. 2. Send the same message by email to tanya.ka...@bankofthewest.com, karen.nel...@bankofthewest.com and nicky.da...@bankofthewest.com. 3. You may wish to call Bank of New York Mellon at (212) 495-1784. We have had no direct dealings with them, but you can perhaps ask the operator to direct you to the compliance section of the international wire transfer division. You can tell them that it is in reference to a cancelled wire transfer in the amount of $3720 from the account of the Association for Investment in Popular Action Committees, sent from the Bank of the West, El Cerrito, California branch to the Charitable Association for Palestinian Relief in Lebanon on January 26, 2015. They are not authorized to give you any information, but your purpose is to deliver the message to release the funds that they are illegally holding even after the transaction was cancelled. Let us know about your experience. 4. If you bank at Bank of the West, find a new bank, and let us and them know. This kind of pressure makes a big difference. Thank you for all your help. The essence of the Palestinian struggle is that we won't be bullied. ------------------------------ *From:* FPM Newsletter <newslet...@freepalestinemovement.org> *To:* FPM News <fpm.n...@lists.riseup.net> *Cc:* Karen Nelson <karen.nel...@bankofthewest.com> *Sent:* Wednesday, February 18, 2015 1:01 PM *Subject:* US Banks are refusing to release the funds you sent for freezing Palestinians in Gaza US Banks are refusing to release the funds you sent for freezing Palestinians in Gaza It's true. You sent us nearly $5000 and now the banks are refusing to release the funds. We tried to send the first $3720 of that amount from our account at Bank of the West to the Charitable Association for Palestinian Relief in Lebanon. For this transaction, Bank of the West used the international banking services of Mellon Bank in New York. Mellon stopped the transaction and requested further information. By that time we were in the process of changing banks, so we cancelled the transaction and asked them to return the money to our account so that we could send the money from the new bank (and add additional funds received). In addition, the information requested made no sense (for example, the personal details of Syrian ex-president Hafez al-Assad, who died fifteen years ago). Now they are threatening to confiscate the funds permanently at 4:00 p.m. TODAY Pacific time (7:00 p.m. Eastern). We do not believe they have the legal right to do this, but we also do not want to spend a lot of money on legal services. PLEASE CALL and tell them to release the funds. They have no right to keep our money if we have canceled the transaction. We do not know what will happen after 4:00 today, but we suggest continuing to call daily for as long as is takes to release the money. We will update you whenever we have more information. PLEASE CALL and tell them to release the funds for freezing Palestinians. And don't bank at Bank of the West or use the services of Mellon Bank. Tanya Kazak, Vice President, Compliance Manager, Bank of the West +1 925 843 1060 Karen Nelson, Customer Service Manager, El Cerrito Branch, Bank of the West +1 510 235 2980 ------------------------------ *From:* FPM Newsletter <newslet...@freepalestinemovement.org> *To:* FPM News <fpm.n...@lists.riseup.net> *Sent:* Thursday, January 15, 2015 9:53 AM *Subject:* [fpm.news] Infants in Gaza are freezing to death. Please help. The Free Palestine Movement asks you to help Palestinians in Gaza by donating to our sister organization, the Palestine Children's Welfare Fund. Infants in Gaza are freezing to death. Please help. <http://www.thepcwf.org/?p=44> [image: Adel al-Lahham, frozen to death in Gaza] <http://www.thepcwf.org/2015/01/15/infants-in-gaza-are-freezing-to-death-please-help/> Adel al-Lahham, less than one month old, is one of three infants that have frozen to death in Gaza this winter. The *New York Times* reports <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/13/world/middleeast/bitter-cold-claims-more-lives-in-gaza.html?_r=0> that Adel and two others died from the cold and lack of adequate shelter. Adel’s family is among the roughly 200,000 Palestinians in Gaza that have been homeless since Israel destroyed a tenth of Gaza’s housing last summer. Israel is refusing to allow materials to rebuild the housing. Israel permits only a few hours per day of electricity and refuses reconstruction of Gaza’s only power plant, also destroyed by Israel. It has permitted 50,000 liters of diesel fuel to power small generators. This equals two tablespoons of fuel per person. The *Palestine Children’s Welfare Fund* asks for your help to provide blankets and food baskets for the people in greatest need. In order to make these provisions available as quickly as possible, we will buy them on the local market, which also helps the local economy. Please send your US tax-exempt donations by check to *Palestine Children’s Welfare Fund *405 Vista Heights Road El Cerrito, CA 94530, USA or use our PayPal button: <https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=M558L53R62E2N> The Palestine Children’s Welfare Fund, EIN 20-5516191, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation authorized by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service to receive tax exempt funds for human rights advocacy. To unsubscribe from this list send a blank email to fpm.news-unsubscr...@lists.riseup.net. For more options or help visit https://help.riseup.net/en/lists/list-user/subscribing. To unsubscribe from this list send a blank email to fpm.news-unsubscr...@lists.riseup.net. 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