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An urgent request - please ask East Sussex Pension Fund to divest from all companies complicit in Israel's abuses of Palestinian Human Rights
East Sussex County Council has approximately £132,085,000 invested in 64 companies complicit in Israel's war crimes. Source
The East Sussex County Council will be holding its next Full Council meeting (virtually) on Tuesday 7 July. We are asking as many people as possible to email them about this issue. Below we have prepared a draft you can copy and paste into the body of your email. They have to respond to these questions and include both your question and their response in their minutes. The deadline for you to email your question is 4pm on Monday 29 June so there's no time to lose.
Send an email to democratic.services@eastsussex.gov.uk with the following text (feel free to amend and personalise as you see fit) and the subject line: Question for the 7 July 2020 Full Council meeting.
'Please find below my question for the Full Council meeting on 7 July 2020:
INSERT YOUR QUESTION HERE (see below)
YOUR NAME
YOUR ADDRESS
YOUR PHONE NUMBER'
Here is a question that can be asked. Feel free to amend or to send any question of your choice that you feel will influence the committee in divesting from complicit companies:
Dear Chair
I am deeply concerned to see the research published by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), which has shown that the East Sussex Pension Fund has approximately £132,085,000 invested in 64 companies complicit in Israel's abuses of Palestinian human rights.
Israel is engaged in grave violations of Palestinian human rights and international law. This includes the illegal military occupation and settlement of Palestinian land in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, as affirmed by the UN Security Council, and the UK government; the inhumane land, sea and air blockade on Gaza, deemed a flagrant violation of international human rights and humanitarian law by UN experts; the denial of the fundamental human right of dispossessed Palestinian refugees to return to the land from which they, or their family members, were expelled, in violation of UN Resolution 194.
Of particular concern are the investments in 4 companies that the United Nations has recently highlighted in its list of companies involved in Israel's illegal settlement economy. This is a database of companies involved in Israel's settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
Israel's settlements on occupied land are illegal under international law and the International Criminal Court prosecutor has decided to investigate their construction as a war crime. The 4 companies are Bank Hapoalim, Paz Oil Company, Israel Discount Bank and Bezeq. Another company causing particular concern is Elbit. This company is Israel's biggest private arms manufacturer. The firm constructs the drones used by Israel to bombard Palestinian civilians to death during its successive wars against the population of the Gaza Strip. In its major assault in 2014, Israel killed more than 2,200 Palestinians there, including 550 children. Surely any ethical investment fund can never have any association with companies that are complicit with such breaches of international law. Can you assure me that you will investigate these companies and take action to divest from them?
I will also ask if you have any other companies in your portfolio that:
supply the Israeli military with weapons and other technology used to oppress Palestinians,
provide technology and equipment used to maintain Israel's infrastructure of military occupation, such as its checkpoints and the apartheid wall,
provide investment and other activity in Israel's illegal settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, based on stolen Palestinian land.
Please divest from any such company.
I wish you the best in ensuring that public service workers have decent pensions - but not at the expense of some of the most oppressed and vulnerable people in the world.
Yours Sincerely,
Name
Notes
Please CC your email to info@hastingspalestinecampaign.org so that we know that you've sent it.
They will only accept your question if you include your address and phone number, but they won't include these in their minutes.
Background
UN's list of companies profiting from Israeli war crimes
The 64 complicit companies include 4 published on the UN list of companies involved in Israel's illegal settlement economy. The publication of this list is a very significant step in pinpointing companies that pension schemes need to divest from.
Bruno Stagno of Human Rights Watch: "The long-awaited release of the UN settlement business database should put all companies on notice: To do business with illegal settlements is to aid in the commission of war crimes."
The companies on the UN list that the ESPF has shares in are:
Bank Hapoalim (£116,000). Israel's largest bank and is partnered with at least three known construction projects in Israel's illegal settlements.
Paz Oil Company (£171,000). The company has 17 filling stations in the occupied Palestinian territory and annexed Syrian Golan Heights. Paz Aviation Services, a fully owned subsidiary of the company, has a Ministry of Defense tender for outsourcing refuelling services in seven air force bases.
Israel Discount Bank (£171,000). The company provides financial support for construction projects in the occupied Palestinian territory. This includes construction projects in the west of Gilo settlement neighborhood in occupied East Jerusalem and in the south of Neve Ya'akov settlement neighborhood in East Jerusalem.
Bezeq, the Israel Telecommunication company. (£58,000). The company provides telecommunication services to all Israeli settlements, army bases and checkpoints in the occupied West Bank and to Israeli settlements in the annexed Syrian Golan Heights.
In addition to these companies the ESPF has shares worth £25,000 in Elbit. This company is Israel's biggest private arms manufacturer. The firm constructs the drones used by Israel to bombard Palestinian civilians to death during its successive wars against the population of the Gaza Strip. In its major assault in 2014, Israel killed more than 2,200 Palestinians there, including 550 children.
We hope to see ESPF divesting from all 64 companies complicit in Israel's crimes. As a start, the ESPF should divest from these 5 companies.
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