Activists target Allied Irish Bank over potential deal with Israeli tech firm

Activists across Ireland have launched a wave of protests against Allied Irish Bank (AIB) over the company’s disgraceful plans to sign a £1.2 million deal with genocide-linked ‘Israeli‘ cybersecurity firm SNYK.

Pro-Palestine group, Your Tech Their Deaths, released a compilation video publicising recent actions against the bank. It shows activists from across the island entering Allied Irish Bank premises.

Highlighting the effectiveness of direct action, in some cases the bank responded by shutting branches down.

Your Tech Your Deaths founder, Jude Farrell, told the Canary that activists from various groups hit 11 Allied Irish Bank branches in the last week. She said:

AIB customers and Irish citizens alike deserve a clear, written response regarding reports that AIB intend to enter into a contract with SNYK, run by three ex-Unit 8200 *israeli soldiers.

Generic replies stating that AIB does not comment on individual suppliers or potential suppliers imply that this is a routine issue, rather than a potential massive breach of AIB’s stated ethical procurement commitments and corporate responsibility policies.

AIB’s refusal to issue a statement only reaffirms concerns that AIB support israel’s genocide of Palestine and see no risk to sharing customer data with israeli soldiers. 

Allied Irish Bank in bed with ‘Israeli’ tech firm

Allied Irish Bank breaking boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) policy and funding genocide is the primary offence, though the matter of data security is also a real concern. Needless to say, it would be unwise to trust anyone in an ‘Israeli’ tech firm to go across the road and buy a pint of milk for you, never mind giving the dodgy fuckers all your data.

So-called ‘Israel’ is an entity that was willing to steal nuclear material from its main ally, the United States. It should be trusted even less in Ireland, a country now making tentative — if inadequate — steps towards sanctioning the illegitimate pseudo-state.

As explained by a statement released by the Bloody Sunday Trust in June, SNYK was set up by three former Unit 8200 soldiers.

In an army known for ubiquitous criminality, Unit 8200 is one of the most sinister branches of the Israeli Occupation Forces. It specialises in cyber operations targeting Palestinians, but are also implicated in the horrific pager attack atrocity in Lebanon that maimed huge numbers of civilians.

Buying so much as one match stick from the Zionist entity is a moral failure, but tech purchases are among the worst ways of backing the terror regime.

The settler-colony squatting on historic Palestine uses Palestinians as human test subjects to experiment on, rolling out its surveillance tech as part of its apartheid web. That tech is then commercialised and sold to states worldwide, who are looking to spy on their own ‘troublesome’ populations.

‘Close your AIB account if SNYK deal proceeds’

Chair of the Bloody Sunday Trust, Tony Doherty, said:

As the signals and cyber-warfare arm of Israel’s military intelligence, Unit 8200 plays a central role in the targeting, murder, blackmail and mass surveillance of Palestinians.

Of relevance to the proposed AIB contract with SNYK Tech, however, are the numerous examples of how the expertise developed in that unit can, and has, been used to create commercial tech platforms that have then covertly harvested data and put consumer security at risk.

He said the trust will close down its Allied Irish Bank account in the event of the SNYK deal proceeding. He advised others to do the same to protect their data and avoid subsidising genocide.

Your Tech Their Deaths advises all those who are anti-genocide to contact the bank from all angles: its head of cyber defence, Eric Barnes, head of media relations, Paddy McDonnell, as well as customer services and via social media.

It beggars belief that Allied Irish Bank is even considering giving business to an ‘Israeli’ firm, more than 1,000 days into a live streamed genocide. Like all corporations, it is clearly only thinking about its blood-smeared bottom line.

It’s up to campaigners to continue ensuring that the costs complicit companies bear for such amoral decisions far outweigh any potential benefits.

*Lower case ‘Israel’ used deliberately

Featured image via Clodagh Kilcoyne/ Reuters

By Robert Freeman