NatWest has issued an apology to the UK branch of Israel’s national Holocaust museum, Yad Vashem, after the charity's bank account was unexpectedly closed in what the bank described as an “administrative error.”
A NatWest spokesperson told MailOnline: “We have apologized to the customer as this was an administrative error, and we will continue to bank Yad Vashem UK. We are taking steps to ensure something similar does not happen again and are sorry for the distress caused.”
Yad Vashem UK chairman Simon Bentley expressed his dismay to the Mail, calling NatWest’s actions “shocking.” He added, “Yad Vashem is an apolitical registered charity dedicated to Holocaust education, especially amid rising levels of anti-Semitism here in the UK and worldwide. We have been a model customer with NatWest for many years, consistently keeping our account in credit with substantial deposits.”
Both the Board of Deputies and the Campaign Against Antisemitism have called on NatWest to provide a more thorough explanation of how Yad Vashem UK ended up being debanked.