The Israeli government continues to press ahead with its grosss violations of international law including continuing with the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land and practising a system of apartheid against Palestinians from the Jordan River to the Mediteranean Sea. Israel can only maintain its repressive system because of the support it receives from companies and financial institutions around the world. This includes Hackney Council.
Hackney’s Local Goverment pension fund holds investments companies involved in the illegal occupation of Palestinian land. They supply materials that support the illegal settlements and the military repression of Palestinians. Tell Hackney it must STOP investing in this apartheid regime!
Email your local councillors (find out their names and email addresses via this link), our Mayor Phil Glanville at mayor@hackney.gov.uk and the Chair of the Pension Committee Rob Chapaman at robert.chapman@ hackney.gov.uk.
Here are some things that you might want to include in your email:
Hackney’s investments include Elbit – the largest Israeli private weapons manufacturer which manufactures killer drones, weapons systems and ammunition. Elbit’s Hermes 450 and 900 drones have been used repeatedly to target the civilian population in Gaza. This includes during Israel’s 2014 aerial bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza. During the assault, Israel conducted over 6,000 airstrikes in Gaza, killing 2,251 Palestinians, of whom 1,462 were civilians and 551 were children. In addition, Elbit produces controversial/banned weapons that violate International Humanitarian Law, due to their inability to distinguish between civilians and combatants. This includes weaponised white phosphorus, cluster bombs, and flechette projectiles.
In February 2021 East Sussex Pension Fund revealed that it has divested its funds from Elbit Systems. Several institutional investors have excluded Elbit Systems from their portfolios for ethical reasons. This includes the banks HSBC, AXA and ABN Amro, and a range of European pension funds, including in Norway, Holland and Sweden.
Hackney Council’s Pension scheme also invests in Raytheon which produces the Bunker Buster Bombs used in Gaza, Israeli banks such as Bank Hapolim and Bank Leumi which resource Israel’s occupation, Caterpillar and Cemex whose products are used in house demolitions and in the construction of illegal settlements and BAE Systems who sells advanced weapon systems to Israel.
British Foreign and Commonwealth Office guidance states there are “clear risks related to economic and financial activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories”.
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and a large number of Palestinian and Israeli human rights organisations have provided clear evidence that Israel operates an apartheid state inside its borders, in the occupied Palestinian territories and in the Gaza Strip. If Hackney wants to call itself an anti-racist council it must divest from this racist regime.
