Supporters of the petition gathered outside Brent Civic Centre were joined by some councillors
The presentation and response
Supporters of the campaign to 'Divest for Palestine' gathered outside Brent Civic Centre yesterday afternoon ahead of the presentation of a 2,000 petition calling on the Council to divest its local government pension fund from any companies deemed complicit in the current attacks on the Palestinian people, Israel's illegal occupation and the apartheid system.
They were joined by a number of Labour councillors and a small pro-Israel Government counter demonstration was joined by Cllr Michael Maurice.
Apart from a battle of loudspeakers the demonstrations were peaceful.
There was some heckling by the pro-Israel supporters when the petition was presented and more serious disruption when people began to leave after the presentation.
In her response to the Brent and Harrow Palestine Solidarity Campaign petition, Cllr Mili Patel siad the Council did not 'activelyinvest directly' in UN considered occupied territories nor does it 'actively invest directly' in arms companies.
She has asked the Council's Chief Finance Officer to conduct a full audit of all the Council's allocations in line with the UN's principles for responsible investment.
The phrase 'actively invest directly' recognises that that may be indirect investment via fund managers or the London Collective Investment vehicle. The need to trace those investments was encapsulated in the similar Camden campaign with their slogan 'Disclose, Divest'.
The response did not include a commitment from Brent Council to work with other London councils in putting pressure on the London CIV.
When the Palestine Solidarity Campaign asked Brent Council recently to list its investment they responded that they were unable to do so.
They did supply details when PSC made a similar request in 2020. These were the top five of their complicit investments at the time and a check on whether they still have such investments would be a starting point:
HSBC £4,663,056
HSBC invests over £830million in, and provides financial services worth up to £19billion for, companies arming Israel. These investments include up to £100million worth of shares in the company Caterpillar, who supply the Israeli army with bulldozers which are weaponised and used to demolish Palestinian communities, build Israel’s illegal settlements and apartheid infrastructure including the apartheid wall and military checkpoints. For more info: https://www.palestinecampaign.org/campaigns/stop-arming-israel/
Barclays £1,252,342
Barclays is a British multinational bank and financial services company. Barclays hold approximately £1,167.6 million of investments in companies that are known to supply the Israeli military. This includes Babcock, BAE and Boeing, Cobham and Rolls Royce. More information available in War on Want’s 2017 ‘Deadly Investments’ report.
BAE Systems £970,233
According to CAAT, “BAE Systems is the world’s fourth largest arms producer. Its portfolio includes fighter aircraft, warships, tanks, armoured vehicles, artillery, missiles and small arms ammunition. It has military customers in over 100 countries. BAE has a workshare agreement with Lockheed Martin producing the US F-35 stealth combat aircraft. Israel, for example, took delivery of its first F-35 in 2016. According to Investigate, a project by the American Friends Service Committee, BAE has worked in cooperation with Lockheed Martin and Rafael to produce and market the naval Protector drone used to maintain the siege of Gaza along the Mediterranean coast.
Smiths Group £316,811
According to CAAT “Smiths Group is a global technology company with five divisions: John Crane, Smiths Medical, Smiths Detection, Smiths Interconnect and Flex-Tek. Smiths Connectors is part of Smiths Interconnect and comprises Hypertac, IDI and Sabritec brands. Products include connectors used in fighting vehicles, unmanned vehicles and avionics systems.” They have applied for a number of military export licences to Israel.
Rolls Royce £294,535
Rolls-Royce is a British manufacturer that produces military aircraft engines, naval engines and cores for nuclear submarines. Despite arms comprising only 26% of its total sales, it is still the world’s 17th largest Arms trade. In 2014, the year of Israel’s arial bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza, which killed over 2,200 civilians, nearly a quarter of them children, Rolls-Royce was granted export licenses for engines for military aircrafts to Israel.
