All MLPD accounts terminated. Scandalous deprivation of fundamental rights by Deutsche Bank and Postbank

Today Deutsche Bank and its subsidiary, Postbank, terminated all accounts of the MLPD on the national, land and local level. “This constitutes a massive attack upon the legal capacity of the MLPD. Shortly after the national elections this signifies a new climax in a campaign to criminalize the MLPD and in the politically motivated boycott of the banks“, said Gabi Fechtner, chairwoman of the MLPD.

Already in 1986 and 2009 the Deutsche Bank had terminated the accounts of the MLPD. Subsequently the land court in Essen decided that they had to take back these unlawful terminations.

The current termination apparently goes back to slanderous statements about the MLPD by Benjamin Weinthal and the Jerusalem Post. Weinthal is well-known as a notorious slanderer of every criticism of the imperialist state of Israel. He uses the Jerusalem Post regularly and vilifies any objective criticism of the politics of the Netanyahu government as antisemitism.

In an article of 30 September 2017, using slander and lies which anyone can see are evidently false, he demands of the Deutsche Bank that it terminates the accounts of the MLPD because of its supposed support of terrorists. That is aimed against the MLPD and its solidarity with the Palestinian liberation struggle.

Just today the MLPD received the injunction of the land court of Hamburg against the Jerusalem Post and Benjamin Weinthal. This forbids them to further spread the defamations of the MLPD under the threat of a penalty of 250 000 € or a jail sentence of up to six months. (AZ 324 O 504/17).

The following lies are forbidden in future:

- that the MLPD conducted the donation collections for the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine),

- that it had conducted the national election campaign on a joint list with the PFLP

- and that it had 4.17 million euros available for the national election campaign.

“The Deutsche Bank is apparently taking Weinthal's unlawful defamations as a reason to organize a politically motivated boycott against us, which is just as unlawful.

Any and all defamatory statements which were launched during the national elections regarding our supposed terror connections were found to be without substance and were forbidden in court decisions. We demand that the Deutsche Bank and the Postbank take back the terminations immediately. Otherwise we will take the necessary legal steps.

The democratically-minded public (media) is called upon to take a stand against such a deprivation of the fundamental democratic rights of an authorized party. It is a scandal how the rights of democratic left parties and organizations – as a result of the national government's campaign against „left extremism“ - are being restricted. In the lee of this campaign, ultra-reactionary and fascist forces can become stronger – and that is no coincidence.

In no way will we let this happen, and we will intensify our efforts to build up the Internationalist Alliance against the shift to the right of the government and leading German monopolies and banks.“ That is the quintessence of Gabi Fechtner's statement.