Activists call for Welsh pension investments in Israel to end

Martin Shipton

More than 100 activists turned out to lobby members of the Wales Pension Partnership at Swansea’s Guildhall to urge them to end their investments in fossil fuel and the oppression of Palestinians.

That includes divesting the pensions of local authority and some other public sector employees from arms companies such as Israel’s Elbit Systems and the UK ‘s BAE Systems.

It was the first such lobby of the WPP, but those taking part said that as the Palestine solidarity movement grows, their call for justice would only grow louder.

Delegation

A delegation of eight Welsh local government pension scheme members went into the WPP meeting. None was allowed to speak and a letter sent from PSC Cymru and signed by multiple organisations has yet to draw a response. The Human Rights and Climate Impact reports are discussed behind closed doors.

Cllr Elwyn Williams, chair of the WPP, which has eight local government pension fund schemes as constituent members, started the meeting with a statement highlighting the importance of environment, social and governance (ESG) factors.

Zahid Noor, interim convenor of PSC Cymru, said the WPP was “obviously under pressure”. He added that the WPP’s approach of engagement and stewardship rather than divestment was difficult and not fit for purpose. He said: “Take arms companies – how can you engage with them? It’s very problematic. Unless there’s an element of enforcement or divestment, companies won’t take it seriously.”

Speakers included pension scheme members, pro-Palestine campaigners, CND Cymru, Stop the War and Climate Cymru activists, as well as faith representatives and Swansea students. They all called on the WPP to end their “collusion in genocide and war crimes”, and said that as different movements coalesce and combine their strengths, the pressure on pension fund managers was going to grow.

Bomb

The rally outside the Guildhall heard how a Palestinian family had witnessed one of their children killed in front of them as he got into a car that was attacked by a bomb fired from a drone. The speaker recounted how drone operators regard their activities as games as they hunt down Palestinians, including women and children, to attack.

Mr Noor said: “Our question from PSC Cymru to WPP is: How do you sleep at night when you engage with companies that manufacture such agents of death? It makes a mockery of your ESG promises to ‘constructively engage’ rather than divest. The only decent thing is to end investments in companies making and funding the manufacture of such indecency and outrage.

“We will not rest until you do and we will see you at your next quarterly meeting in September.”