Friday 29 March 2024 
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UN urges pension funds to divest from firms linked to Israeli settlements

The United Nations is urging local government pension schemes (LGPS) to divest from companies linked to illegal Israel’s settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Professor Michael Lynk, the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in occupied Palestinian territories, says that even investing in firms with “indirect” links to the settlements would “violate” the pension schemes’ ethical obligations.
 

The LGPS – which are responsible for the pensions of hundreds of thousands of Scots council workers – say they take human rights issues “seriously” and have a policy of engagement with companies rather than divestment. The funds are legally bound to get the best returns for investors.

 

The Ferret previously revealed that Strathclyde Pension Fund (SPF) and Lothian Pension Fund (LPF) had links to companies listed by the UN for involvement with  Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. The UN’s  blacklist named 112 companies acting in violation of “internal law and UN decisions”. 
 

Both the SPF and LPF currently invest in Booking Holdings Inc, whose Dutch subsidiary, Booking.com, has business links to the occupied territories. Both council funds have been criticised for investing in arms companies trading with Israel.
 

Now Professor Lynk, an expert appointed by the UN Human Rights Council to monitor the human rights situation in Israeli settlements, has claimed that “85 per cent of LGPS funds whose investments could be ascertained have holdings in enterprises included in this UN Database.”

In a letter sent to LGPS the associate human rights professor at Western University, Canada, said that pension funds should “extricate themselves from any direct and indirect involvement with the settlement economy”. 

 

He added: “Pension funds have a duty to act ethically and not to be involved in social harm. Pension investments with companies that are engaged, directly or indirectly, with the illegal Israeli settlements on occupied Palestinian territory violate these ethical duties and entrench an unjust situation.”




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