Brent and Harrow Palestine Solidarity Campaign have launched a petition to ask Brent Council to divest from companies complicit in arming Israel or enabling illegal occupation.
The petition should be signed only by people who live, work or study in Brent.
THE PETITION
We ask Brent Council to stand on the right side of history and join the growing number of councils and other public bodies and institutions divesting for Palestine.
We, the undersigned, call on Brent Council to:
- Divest all funds administered by the Council, including Local Government Pension Scheme funds, from companies complicit in Israel’s genocide and apartheid against Palestinians. This includes arms companies supplying Israel with weapons and military technology; companies providing infrastructure for Israel’s unlawful military occupation of Palestinian land; and companies conducting business activity in Israel’s illegal settlements on stolen Palestinian land.
- Use its influence as part of London Collective Investment Vehicle (CIV) to publicly lobby it to divest from companies enabling Israel's human rights abuses.
- Commit to end procurement contracts with companies complicit in Israel’s attacks. For example, end any banking arrangements with Barclays, which provides substantial financing to companies supplying Israel with weapons used in its attacks on Palestinians.
Here's why:
Israel’s genocidal assault on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians - almost half of them children. 90% of Gaza’s population has been displaced, many of whom multiple times. Nowhere in Gaza is safe: entire residential neighbourhoods have been levelled, UN schools sheltering the displaced, and hospitals treating the wounded, have been repeatedly targeted.
Palestinians in Gaza are facing famine due to Israel's blockade and its targeting of life-sustaining infrastructure. In June 2024, UN experts declared that “Israel’s intentional and targeted starvation campaign against the Palestinian people is a form of genocidal violence and has resulted in famine across all of Gaza.”
We all have a responsibility to stand with Palestinians in the face of such catastrophic violence and do everything in our power to bring such suffering to an end.
- In January 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the world court, handed down an interim ruling affirming there is plausible evidence Israel is committing genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip. As a State Party to the Genocide Convention, the UK has a binding obligation to employ all means reasonably available to prevent and deter further genocidal acts.
- In June, UN experts issued a statement demanding that both states and companies stop all arms transfers to Israel. In issuing their call, they outlined that financial institutions, such as banks and pension funds, investing in arms companies supplying Israel must cease, writing that financial institutions “failure to prevent or mitigate their business relationships with these arms manufacturers transferring arms to Israel could move from being directly linked to human rights abuses to contributing to them, with repercussions for complicity in potential atrocity crimes.” The council must heed this call.
- In July, the ICJ confirmed that Israel's occupation of Palestinian land and treatment of Palestinians is illegal and amounts to systematic discrimination on racial and ethnic grounds - apartheid. It stated that countries and bodies - like UK councils - must not assist Israel in maintaining it.
The recent defeat of the previous government’s draconian attempts to restrict the right of public bodies to take ethical investment and procurement decisions means that there is no barrier to Brent Council exercising its profound moral obligation not to contribute to Israel’s grave violations of Palestinian rights.
We are signing this petition as residents, workers and students in Brent.
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