“Research has uncovered that the constituent funds of the Local Government Pension Scheme invest over £4.4 billion in companies complicit in Israel’s grave violations of Palestinian human rights.”
By Lewis Backon, Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) has called a ‘Divest for Palestine’ day of action on Saturday 31 August. Protests will take place in towns and cities across Britain, with a key demand being that local councils end their complicity in Israel’s genocide by divesting pension funds they administer from companies enabling Israel’s attacks on Palestinians.
The Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS), one of the UK’s largest pension schemes with 6.1 million members, is made up of 86 funds administered by local councils across England and Wales. PSC’s research has uncovered that the constituent funds of the LGPS invest over £4.4 billion in companies complicit in Israel’s grave violations of Palestinian human rights.
LGPS funds are invested in companies producing almost every part of Israel’s arsenal of weaponry used to massacre Palestinians, from its fighter jets to its military fuel, from its snipers to its armoured bulldozers. For example, LGPS funds collectively invest nearly £30 million in Valero Energy, which is the primary supplier of military grade jet fuel to the Israeli military, used to power its fighter jets bombing Gaza. Lockheed Martin, the primary producer of Israel’s F-16 and F-35 fighter jets, receives tens of millions of pounds of investment from LGPS funds, as does BAE Systems, which supplies components for these fighter jets, as well as a range of other weaponry to Israeli forces.
Continuing to invest in companies supplying Israel with the weapons it is using in its genocidal assault on Palestinians is not only immoral, it could have legal consequences. In June, United Nations experts, including Special Rapporteurs, issued a call for states to impose a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel, echoing the longstanding demand of Palestinian civil society organisations, now supported by hundreds of human rights bodies, including the UN Human Rights Council. The UN experts warned financial institutions investing in companies arming Israel that it could have “repercussions for complicity in potential atrocity crimes.”
In addition to investing in companies supplying Israel with weapons, PSC’s research has found that LGPS funds hold shares in companies enabling Israel’s colonisation of Palestinian land. For example, LGPS funds invest in Israeli banks that provide financing for the construction and expansion of Israel’s illegal settlements based on stolen Palestinian land. This includes Hapoalim Bank and Mizrahi Tefahot Bank, both of which have provided a number of loans for the construction of housing units in multiple illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, as documented by independent research centre Who Profits.
Over the past months, campaigns calling on local councils to divest their LGPS fund from companies enabling Israel’s war crimes have been gaining strength. From Greater Gwent to Camden, PSC branches and others are mobilising to demand that councils cut their ties to Israeli apartheid. Slowly councils are beginning to act.
Last month, after a campaign by Waltham Forest for a Free Palestine, the council announced its intention to divest the pension fund from arms companies. The inspiring campaign gained the support of thousands in Waltham Forest, with a petition calling for divestment signed by over 3,000 people. In addition, nearby Islington Pension Fund has agreed to begin a process to divest from companies active in Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise – with campaigners vowing to continue the pressure until the fund divests from all companies enabling Israel’s human rights abuses.
On Saturday 10 August, over 400 people gathered for PSC’s ‘Divest for Palestine’ conference in London to discuss how we escalate our campaigning. One message was delivered again and again: while the Palestinian people continue to resist Israel’s genocidal violence, we must intensify our work to break the ties of complicity linking British institutions and corporations to Israel’s machine of murder and oppression. As Omar Barghouti, co-founder of the BDS movement said, “channel your anger at Israel’s genocide, your grief for its victims, and your support for Palestinian liberation into meaningful forms of solidarity that focus on cutting complicity – divestment is at the centre of that.”
Join your nearest protest as part of the day of action 31 August, and get involved with your local PSC branch.
- Lewis Backon the Campaigns Officer of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC).
- You can find more about the Palestine Solidarity Campaign’s ‘Divest for Palestine – Day of Action‘, which takes place on August 31st, here.
- You can take part in the ‘National March for Palestine – End the Genocide‘ demonstration in Central London on Saturday 7 September, assembling from 12PM.
- You can follow the PSC on Facebook, Twitter/X and Instagram.
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