17 apr 2019
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: [email protected]
SumOfUs and the Coalition to Stop Assistance to Israeli Apartheid welcome AXA’s decision to withdraw part of its investment in Elbit Systems, and call on AXA to end its complicity in full by withdrawing all of its investments in companies complicit in Israel’s occupation.
AXA is quietly addressing its problematic investments following a year of civil society campaigning, demanding the French multinational stop its investments in the arms manufacturer Elbit Systems and five Israeli banks.
The five banks are Bank Hapoalim, Bank Leumi, Bank Mizrahi-Tefahot, First International Bank of Israel, Israel Discount Bank, and they’re involved in the state of Israel’s war crimes.
SumOfUs, an international NGO that acts as a check on the power of big business, launched an international petition in April 2018 that gathered more than 140,000 signatures. It supported the coalition to Stop Assistance to Israeli Apartheid’s demands, in partnership with many organizations that are part of the BDS movement in France, that started the campaign in 2016.
The end of 2018 seems to have marked a new turning point for the unscrupulous investments of banking and financial companies in the arms manufacturer Elbit Systems – sordidly famous for providing cluster munitions banned by international law, and white phosphorus shells, both used against Palestinian civilian populations – a use also condemned by international law.
In December 2018, following a campaign by a coalition of British NGOs against its investments, HSBC decided to divest from Elbit Systems due to its involvement in the production and commercialization of cluster munitions. It is now AXA’s turn to take the path of divestment and we welcome this first step.
AXA Investment Managers (a wholly-owned subsidiary of AXA) sold all its shares in the arms manufacturer on December 31, 2018 and confirmed last week that they “do not invest in cluster munition producers.”
However, AXA remains linked to Elbit Systems through its subsidiary Alliance Bernstein (AB). Last month, we learned that AXA no longer controlled AB – reducing its stake in the company from 65.6% to 31.7%.
While this sale seems to affect the decision-making power of AXA within AB, it does not absolve the multinational of its complicity in the investments maintained by AB in the arms manufacturer and in the five Israeli banks – all of which participate in financing the illegal activities of military occupation and colonization carried out by the state of Israel.
This sale does nothing to diminish the direct investments held by AXA IM in four of the five Israeli banks. AXA continues to deny the legal and moral problem of its investments in the arms manufacturer Elbit Systems and Israeli banks, the insurer.
Leyla Larbi, SumOfUs campaigner, said:
While we welcome the AXA Group’s first decision, it is insufficient to end AXA’s complicity, both direct and indirect, in serious violations of international law and human rights. We are currently working on a report shedding light on the extent of AXA’s investments, which still remains involved in financing these companies on the level of tens of millions of dollars via its subsidiary AXA IM and investments through its subsidiary AB.
We expect the multinational AXA to follow this divestment logic to its conclusion in order to fully comply with international law and to finally respect the principles of investing that it promotes so much.
The campaign against AXA’s problematic investments is not letting up:
Imen Habib, coordinator of BDS France, said:
On this International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian Political Prisoners, the Coalition to Stop AXA Assistance to Israeli Apartheid is organizing actions around the world to call on AXA to divest from companies that violate international law and actively participate in maintaining a violent and illegal regime of oppression against the Palestinian people. We will also be at the AXA AGM on April 24 to ensure that all AXA investors are informed of AXA’s irresponsibility.
Alys Samson Estapé, Europe coordinator for the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), said:
AXA IM’s divestment from Elbit Systems is in line with the global trend whereby more and more institutions, banks and companies are distancing themselves from Israeli apartheid. But for Palestinians living under Israel’s regime of apartheid, colonialism and occupation, AXA’s step is not enough.
Grassroots mobilisation will not end until Axa and other companies totally end their complicity with Israel’s racist regime.
Link to the petition “AXA must stop profiting from the colonization of Palestine“
Sources:
-Fintel financial database reporting the exit of AXA IM from Elbit Systems’ capital.
-Press release from the AXA Group announcing the decrease of its shares in AXA Equitable Holding, the majority subsidiary of the AB Group.
SumOfUs.org is a global movement of consumers, investors, and workers all around the world, standing together to hold corporations accountable for their actions and forge a new, sustainable and just path for our global economy.
Contact: [email protected]
SumOfUs and the Coalition to Stop Assistance to Israeli Apartheid welcome AXA’s decision to withdraw part of its investment in Elbit Systems, and call on AXA to end its complicity in full by withdrawing all of its investments in companies complicit in Israel’s occupation.
AXA is quietly addressing its problematic investments following a year of civil society campaigning, demanding the French multinational stop its investments in the arms manufacturer Elbit Systems and five Israeli banks.
The five banks are Bank Hapoalim, Bank Leumi, Bank Mizrahi-Tefahot, First International Bank of Israel, Israel Discount Bank, and they’re involved in the state of Israel’s war crimes.
SumOfUs, an international NGO that acts as a check on the power of big business, launched an international petition in April 2018 that gathered more than 140,000 signatures. It supported the coalition to Stop Assistance to Israeli Apartheid’s demands, in partnership with many organizations that are part of the BDS movement in France, that started the campaign in 2016.
The end of 2018 seems to have marked a new turning point for the unscrupulous investments of banking and financial companies in the arms manufacturer Elbit Systems – sordidly famous for providing cluster munitions banned by international law, and white phosphorus shells, both used against Palestinian civilian populations – a use also condemned by international law.
In December 2018, following a campaign by a coalition of British NGOs against its investments, HSBC decided to divest from Elbit Systems due to its involvement in the production and commercialization of cluster munitions. It is now AXA’s turn to take the path of divestment and we welcome this first step.
AXA Investment Managers (a wholly-owned subsidiary of AXA) sold all its shares in the arms manufacturer on December 31, 2018 and confirmed last week that they “do not invest in cluster munition producers.”
However, AXA remains linked to Elbit Systems through its subsidiary Alliance Bernstein (AB). Last month, we learned that AXA no longer controlled AB – reducing its stake in the company from 65.6% to 31.7%.
While this sale seems to affect the decision-making power of AXA within AB, it does not absolve the multinational of its complicity in the investments maintained by AB in the arms manufacturer and in the five Israeli banks – all of which participate in financing the illegal activities of military occupation and colonization carried out by the state of Israel.
This sale does nothing to diminish the direct investments held by AXA IM in four of the five Israeli banks. AXA continues to deny the legal and moral problem of its investments in the arms manufacturer Elbit Systems and Israeli banks, the insurer.
Leyla Larbi, SumOfUs campaigner, said:
While we welcome the AXA Group’s first decision, it is insufficient to end AXA’s complicity, both direct and indirect, in serious violations of international law and human rights. We are currently working on a report shedding light on the extent of AXA’s investments, which still remains involved in financing these companies on the level of tens of millions of dollars via its subsidiary AXA IM and investments through its subsidiary AB.
We expect the multinational AXA to follow this divestment logic to its conclusion in order to fully comply with international law and to finally respect the principles of investing that it promotes so much.
The campaign against AXA’s problematic investments is not letting up:
Imen Habib, coordinator of BDS France, said:
On this International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian Political Prisoners, the Coalition to Stop AXA Assistance to Israeli Apartheid is organizing actions around the world to call on AXA to divest from companies that violate international law and actively participate in maintaining a violent and illegal regime of oppression against the Palestinian people. We will also be at the AXA AGM on April 24 to ensure that all AXA investors are informed of AXA’s irresponsibility.
Alys Samson Estapé, Europe coordinator for the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), said:
AXA IM’s divestment from Elbit Systems is in line with the global trend whereby more and more institutions, banks and companies are distancing themselves from Israeli apartheid. But for Palestinians living under Israel’s regime of apartheid, colonialism and occupation, AXA’s step is not enough.
Grassroots mobilisation will not end until Axa and other companies totally end their complicity with Israel’s racist regime.
Link to the petition “AXA must stop profiting from the colonization of Palestine“
Sources:
-Fintel financial database reporting the exit of AXA IM from Elbit Systems’ capital.
-Press release from the AXA Group announcing the decrease of its shares in AXA Equitable Holding, the majority subsidiary of the AB Group.
SumOfUs.org is a global movement of consumers, investors, and workers all around the world, standing together to hold corporations accountable for their actions and forge a new, sustainable and just path for our global economy.
6 apr 2019
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Israeli forces have been using the Great Return March and its thousands of protesters as a sort of testing ground for new forms of weaponry and crowd control, say physicians in the Gaza Strip.
They talk of explosive bullets and an unknown gas that causes severe convulsions and loss of consciousness, among other symptoms. “We are being used as guinea pigs to test new weapons, as the case in past Israeli wars on Gaza,” says Ashraf al-Qedra, MD, spokesperson for the Gaza Health Ministry. Local sources said that Israeli forces used an unknown kind of teargas |
against peaceful protesters on the 53rd Friday of the Great March of Return.
These are new teargas bombs that give off red and yellow fumes and have been used for the first time against the peaceful protestors, and no one knows what they are composed of, the source added, according to Days of Palestine.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza reported that at least 83 Palestinians reached the hospitals on the 53rd Friday of the Great March of Return.
Palestinians participate in these protests every Friday, in an attempt to put pressure on Israeli authorities to break the siege imposed for more than 12 years.
Israel has killed more than 260 Palestinians, injured more than 28,000 others since the beginning of the marches, on March 30, 2018.
These are new teargas bombs that give off red and yellow fumes and have been used for the first time against the peaceful protestors, and no one knows what they are composed of, the source added, according to Days of Palestine.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza reported that at least 83 Palestinians reached the hospitals on the 53rd Friday of the Great March of Return.
Palestinians participate in these protests every Friday, in an attempt to put pressure on Israeli authorities to break the siege imposed for more than 12 years.
Israel has killed more than 260 Palestinians, injured more than 28,000 others since the beginning of the marches, on March 30, 2018.
26 mar 2019
The United Nations Human Rights Council (UN HRC) on Friday voted 23-8 for an arms embargo against Israel and the prosecution of Israeli military officials for war crimes due to Israel’s deliberate targeting of unarmed children, journalists and disabled people during recent protests in the Gaza Strip. Sub-Saharan African nations are among the biggest supporters of the move, with yes votes coming from Angola, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia and South Africa.
Dubbed the “accountability” resolution, the vote in Geneva follows a UN Independent Commission of Inquiry that found the vast majority of Gaza protesters who were killed by Israeli forces - 154 out of 183 people - had been unarmed, and “did not pose an imminent threat of death or serious injury to others when they were shot, nor were they directly participating in hostilities.”
The Israeli government refused to co-operate with UN investigators, and rejected the report’s findings.
The report recommended that UN members consider imposing individual sanctions, such as a travel ban or an assets freeze, on those identified as responsible for the violations of international law and possible war-crimes.
During discussions on this, and other resolutions critical of Israeli human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), African nations defended the Palestinian right to resist occupation through protest, and their right to self-determination.
“Nigeria emphasizes the need for Israel to always exercise utmost restraint and to avoid excessive use of force against innocent civilians exercising their right to protest in resistance to their ongoing occupation,” said Abuja’s representative, Muhammad Isa.
South African representative, Clinton Swemmer, said the report’s findings of possible war-crimes and crimes against humanity were credible, and the South African delegation believes that these “have indeed occurred”.
Seemingly in response to accusations by several European countries that the report did not hold Palestinians responsible, Namibian representative, Penda Naanda said:
“We cannot equate the responsibilities and the accountability of the victims to those of the occupying power….Namibia supports the commission’s request that the current report and the relevant information be submitted to the International Criminal Court.”
Namibia, formerly South West Africa, was occupied by Germany and then apartheid South Africa until 1990.
Speaking on behalf of the 54-member Africa Group at the session, Angola’s Marilia Manuel cautioned that the “the international community cannot continue absolving Israel of its responsibility for its human rights violations against the Palestinians.” Manuel reiterated that the HRC has an ethical and legal obligation to protect the Palestinian people. “African states remain committed to this cause,” she declared.
The accountability resolution was one of several resolutions critical of Israel which the UNHRC approved on Friday as it wrapped up its 40th session.
The resolution on the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination passed 41-3, with two abstentions. The vote on Israeli human rights abuses in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) passed 39-3, with five abstentions. A resolution against illegal Israeli settlements in the OPT passed 32-5, with ten abstentions.
Palestinian ambassador to the UN HRC, Ibrahim Khreisheh, expressed his support for the move.
“Voting in favor of today's resolutions that condemn Israeli abuses of Palestinian human rights and call for effective mechanisms to end them is an evident fulfilment of your legal and moral responsibilities, as members of the international community, towards international law, UN resolutions, and universal human rights.
The State of Palestine will continue to make use of all available diplomatic and legal tools to exercise its long-overdue inalienable rights, protect our people and hold Israel accountable for over half a century of systematic oppression, domination, and violence,” he said.
Meanwhile, South Africa’s Ambassador to the UNHRC, Nozipho Mxakato-Diseko, warned that the two-state solution is clearly being systematically eroded and replaced with the reality of a one-state solution under apartheid.”
Botswana, Zimbabwe, Senegal, and Djibouti also commented during discussions.
- Source: Afro-Palestine News Wire Service
Dubbed the “accountability” resolution, the vote in Geneva follows a UN Independent Commission of Inquiry that found the vast majority of Gaza protesters who were killed by Israeli forces - 154 out of 183 people - had been unarmed, and “did not pose an imminent threat of death or serious injury to others when they were shot, nor were they directly participating in hostilities.”
The Israeli government refused to co-operate with UN investigators, and rejected the report’s findings.
The report recommended that UN members consider imposing individual sanctions, such as a travel ban or an assets freeze, on those identified as responsible for the violations of international law and possible war-crimes.
During discussions on this, and other resolutions critical of Israeli human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), African nations defended the Palestinian right to resist occupation through protest, and their right to self-determination.
“Nigeria emphasizes the need for Israel to always exercise utmost restraint and to avoid excessive use of force against innocent civilians exercising their right to protest in resistance to their ongoing occupation,” said Abuja’s representative, Muhammad Isa.
South African representative, Clinton Swemmer, said the report’s findings of possible war-crimes and crimes against humanity were credible, and the South African delegation believes that these “have indeed occurred”.
Seemingly in response to accusations by several European countries that the report did not hold Palestinians responsible, Namibian representative, Penda Naanda said:
“We cannot equate the responsibilities and the accountability of the victims to those of the occupying power….Namibia supports the commission’s request that the current report and the relevant information be submitted to the International Criminal Court.”
Namibia, formerly South West Africa, was occupied by Germany and then apartheid South Africa until 1990.
Speaking on behalf of the 54-member Africa Group at the session, Angola’s Marilia Manuel cautioned that the “the international community cannot continue absolving Israel of its responsibility for its human rights violations against the Palestinians.” Manuel reiterated that the HRC has an ethical and legal obligation to protect the Palestinian people. “African states remain committed to this cause,” she declared.
The accountability resolution was one of several resolutions critical of Israel which the UNHRC approved on Friday as it wrapped up its 40th session.
The resolution on the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination passed 41-3, with two abstentions. The vote on Israeli human rights abuses in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) passed 39-3, with five abstentions. A resolution against illegal Israeli settlements in the OPT passed 32-5, with ten abstentions.
Palestinian ambassador to the UN HRC, Ibrahim Khreisheh, expressed his support for the move.
“Voting in favor of today's resolutions that condemn Israeli abuses of Palestinian human rights and call for effective mechanisms to end them is an evident fulfilment of your legal and moral responsibilities, as members of the international community, towards international law, UN resolutions, and universal human rights.
The State of Palestine will continue to make use of all available diplomatic and legal tools to exercise its long-overdue inalienable rights, protect our people and hold Israel accountable for over half a century of systematic oppression, domination, and violence,” he said.
Meanwhile, South Africa’s Ambassador to the UNHRC, Nozipho Mxakato-Diseko, warned that the two-state solution is clearly being systematically eroded and replaced with the reality of a one-state solution under apartheid.”
Botswana, Zimbabwe, Senegal, and Djibouti also commented during discussions.
- Source: Afro-Palestine News Wire Service
19 mar 2019
Israel and Greece, as well as Cyprus, have been strengthening military and economic cooperation, including the planned construction of an East Med marine radar system with the estimated cost of $8 billion.
According to Greek news outlets, the Long Horizon marine radar system will be built by Israel and Greece, in eastern Crete.
Sources said that the enhanced coverage of the new surface radar will allow both countries to monitor the Eastern Mediterranean basin.
The cost of the project was disclosed, however, sources added that it is “not insignificant,” especially taking into account Greece’s reduced military budget.
Hebrew-language news outlets also reported that Israel and Cyprus also have numerous shared regional interests, including the security situation in Syria and Lebanon.
Israel and Cyprus have large gas reserves in their territorial waters and a desire to export gas to Europe in cooperation with Greece, an important strategic gateway to the continent.
According to Greek news outlets, the Long Horizon marine radar system will be built by Israel and Greece, in eastern Crete.
Sources said that the enhanced coverage of the new surface radar will allow both countries to monitor the Eastern Mediterranean basin.
The cost of the project was disclosed, however, sources added that it is “not insignificant,” especially taking into account Greece’s reduced military budget.
Hebrew-language news outlets also reported that Israel and Cyprus also have numerous shared regional interests, including the security situation in Syria and Lebanon.
Israel and Cyprus have large gas reserves in their territorial waters and a desire to export gas to Europe in cooperation with Greece, an important strategic gateway to the continent.
15 mar 2019
The Hebrew media said the Israeli army hastened to deploy more Iron Dome anti-missile batteries in different areas of Israel after two missiles fired from Gaza targeted Tel Aviv.
In this regard, Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu decided to convene his security cabinet for a meeting next Sunday to discuss the recent developments on the southern front.
Israel launched a spate of overnight aerial attacks on Gaza after its army claimed two missiles were spotted over the airspace of Tel Aviv on Thursday night.
The air raids caused considerable damage to property and injured at least four civilians in Gaza.
In this regard, Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu decided to convene his security cabinet for a meeting next Sunday to discuss the recent developments on the southern front.
Israel launched a spate of overnight aerial attacks on Gaza after its army claimed two missiles were spotted over the airspace of Tel Aviv on Thursday night.
The air raids caused considerable damage to property and injured at least four civilians in Gaza.
