Danish and Norwegian pension and sovereign wealth funds continue to pull out many millions of euros of investments in Israeli banks and bank bonds due to increased concern about Israel’s human rights violations.
Pension Denmark, one of the biggest pension funds in Denmark (with 800,000 members), has now withdrawn all its investments from Israeli banks. According to The New Arab of 26th Feb 2024, ‘the fund confirmed that “a long time before the outbreak of the war on Gaza, we were focusing on the issue of suspicions that Israeli banks were giving loans to illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank,” according to one of the fund directors’ statements on local TV.
In fact, the pension fund began selling its stocks and shares which had been invested in Israeli banks at the start of the year. These amounted to 75 million Krone in value (nearly ten million euros).
Read more here about more Danish funds divestments from Israeli investments.
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, which is the world’s largest such fund, completely divested from Israel Bonds in November based on the war against Gaza and its ethical investment guidelines. This divestment is worth nearly half a billion US dollars and another important impact of the BDS global movement.
Australia’s largest superannuation funds all have investments in Israeli companies and other international companies that have been listed by the UN Human Rights Council as being complicit by trading in Israel’s illegal settlements.
We are calling on all members of superannuation funds in Australia to send a message to their superfunds and take action to pressure them to divest from all companies which are supporting Israel’s apartheid, human rights abuses and breaches of international law.
The ACT territory government moved a hugely significant motion in February 2024 which may result in the government divesting from a number of companies which are profiting from operating in the illegal Israeli settlements.
Mr Andrew Braddock (Greens) moved a motion in the ACT parliament on February 7,2024 titled – HUMAN RIGHTS INCOMPLIANT COMPANIES—DIVESTMENTS which sought to assess the ACT’s investments in nine companies which are operating in the illegal Israel settlements and on the UN Human Rights, list with view to testing these investments against the government’s 2023 Responsible Investment Policy and its ESG controversy assessment process.
The motion was amended resulting in the final motion see link below) which included this clause:
– calls on the ACT Government, following advice from the Investment Advisory Board regarding the current policy settings, to report back to the Assembly by the end of August 2024 on divestments that have or may be undertaken, to ensure that company ESG controversy exclusions fully consider companies involved in, or profiting from, any human rights violations, including the illegal occupation of the Palestinian Territories.
In November legal action was taken in Australia by Palestinian human rights organisations Al-Haq, Al Mezan Center for Human Rights and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) in conjunction with the Australian Centre for International Justice to obtain information on Australia’s arms exports to Israel since October 7, 2023.
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), a founding part of the BDS movement, welcomes the news that PUMA won’t be renewing its contract with the Israel Football Association (IFA).
PUMA has been the target of a worldwide BDS campaign since 2018 over its support for Israeli apartheid oppressing millions of Palestinians. The IFA governs and advocates to maintain teams in illegal Israeli settlements on stolen Palestinian land.
Leaked internal messages revealed that PUMA was under tremendous pressure to drop the contract.
As Israel carries out its unfolding genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in occupied and besieged Gaza, killing over 18,000, including dozens of footballers, the boycott pressure was only increasing.
The years of relentless, global BDS pressure on PUMA and the damage to its image should be a lesson to all companies supporting Israeli apartheid, that complicity has consequences. It is also a lesson to the deeply complicit, Western-dominated FIFA, which continues to shield Israel from accountability despite the settlement teams violating its own statutes.
We thank the hundreds of grassroots solidarity groups, athletes and teams across the world who supported the call from 215 Palestinian teams to boycott PUMA.
This boycott win is a bittersweet victory as Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians continues. But it gives us hope and determination to hold all genocide enablers and apartheid supporters accountable until all Palestinians can live in freedom, justice and equality.
More information on the BDSAustralia Puma campaign here.
GAZA GENOCIDE – NATIONAL BDS CALLS AND ACTIONS – NOV 2023
BDS actions on the UN International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People
After 7 weeks of Israel’s hideous war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza we have witnessed the utter failure of governments and the UN to bring this carnage to an end. A humanitarian pause rather than a complete ceasefire and withdrawal of all Israeli forces from Gaza, is yet another betrayal of humanity and justice for Palestinians.
Given the extremely urgent need to stop the genocide, the BDS movement recommends the following forms of advocacy and mobilization:
Escalating boycott and divestment campaigns against strategic complicit targets
Calling for an international arms embargo against Israel
Challenging/disrupting business-as-usual in states, institutions, and spaces
Join our Social media storm on Wednesday Nov 29, the UN International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, – calling on politicians and govt to apply a military embargo and stop all weapons trade with Israel.
TWITTER/ X: @BDS_Australia INSTAGRAM: bdsinaustralia & bdsyouth_australia FACEBOOK: BDS Australia
Protest at HP head-offices in all states of Australia – calling out HPs complicity in supplying tech for Israeli to maintain its apartheid and persecution of Palestinians. Send us an email if you are keen to participate in or lead a protest in your area: [email protected]
Join protests and rallies and take action to #BlockTheBoats to keep up the pressure on politicians and complicit companies to end their support of Israel. Follow Trade Unionists for Palestine, Palestine Justice Movement Sydney, Free Palestine Melbourne, Justice for Palestine Meanjin, and BDS Australia for updates on this campaign.
We need to escalate global mobilizations to stop the ongoing genocide.
Outcomes
1. There must be an ongoing ceasefire and provision for UN protection for Palestinians everywhere and an end to the unlawful occupation and dispossession and colonisation throughout
2. Forcible transfer of Palestinians within Gaza and out of Gaza must be stopped.
3. There must be targeted and lawful sanctions on Israel, most importantly a comprehensive military-security embargo.
4. Israel must be expelled or suspended from international forums (UNGA, FIFA, International Olympic Committee, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and others, as was done to apartheid South Africa.
5. The ICC must urgently issue arrest warrants for Israeli leaders involved in genocide, in order to help stop it and pursue universal justice by swiftly investigating all Israeli war crimes and crimes against humanity, including apartheid and genocide.
6. Political, military and other leaders of states that have enabled or failed to stop Israel’s #GazaGenocide, should be held legally accountable through, among others, strategic lawsuits in domestic courts or third states’ courts (under universal jurisdiction).
This Resolution was resoundingly passed at the November 11, Port Botany protest in Sydney.
For generations, Palestinians have been crushed by apartheid Israel and have courageously resisted. Now they are undergoing a genocidal assault in Gaza. We will not stand by in silence. Palestinians have called for us to support the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign to challenge Israel’s power. We commit to answering that call.
The ZIM shipping line is a major supporter of Israel and of the Israeli Defence Forces. ZIM ships regularly visit Port Botany.
As working people, union members and community supporters we stand against war, apartheid and colonisation wherever it occurs. There can be no pride in genocide, either in Palestine or here in Australia. Here, that means standing against ZIM.
Today we have come in numbers to show the strength and determination of our movement. We are many, and we are powerful.
We resolve to be here again as soon as we know a ZIM ship has docked. We commit to following the proud tradition of action for justice, peace and equality taken by workers around the world against the bloody forces of war, colonisation and racism, and we undertake to do everything to make that action as strong and powerful as possible.
We will fight to win our demands – no ZIM ships in Port Botany while Israel is carrying out a genocide!
Long live Palestine.
Endorsed by:
Palestine Justice Movement Sydney Australian Unionists for Palestine MUA Sydney Branch
This website is maintained by BDS Australia, which is affiliated with the coalition of Palestinian organisations that leads and supports the BDS movement and by the Palestinian Campaign for Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), a BNC member organisation.
