Halifax UK apologizes after Tel Aviv listed as being part of ‘Occupied Palestinian Territory,’ blaming ‘human error.’
By World Israel News Staff
A British bank has issued an apology after it labelled Tel Aviv as being part of “Occupied Palestinian Territory” in a mailer, The JC reported.
David Bender, 75, has been a customer of Halifax UK, a major bank in Britain, for 20 years.
He now lives in Tel Aviv, and recently received a credit card offer from the bank. He was stunned to see his return address listed as: Tel Aviv, Israel, 6525502, Palestine Territory, Occupied.
Halifax UK is a division of Bank of Scotland PLC, a subsidiary of Lloyds Banking Group.
The bank has over 500 branches across the United Kingdom, although at least 40 have been closed this year, with dozens more on the chopping block.
Upon receipt of his letter, Bender contacted The Halifax immediately.
He was told by bank staff that they would look into the matter. Mr. Bender supposed that, with the UK’s high Muslim population and the recent anti-Zionist unrest in Britain, a “rogue individual” who worked at the bank may have intentionally added the offensive term.
The bank apologized to Bender and informed him that they would investigate.
After looking into the matter, the bank maintained that the inclusion of the loaded geo-political term was the result of human error.
Evidently, an employee mistakenly entered the wrong country code from a database. This resulted in the printing error, which they have since corrected.
It remains to be learned whether the terminology of the data base was corrected as well.