Palestine activists urge Bucks Council to divest pensions from Israel arms suppliers

Palestine activists have urged Buckinghamshire Council to divest its pensions fund from the arms companies supplying Israel.

Protesters from the High Wycombe branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign gathered outside the offices of the unitary authority in Aylesbury on Thursday afternoon ahead of a meeting of the pension fund committee.

Lydia Ndoinjeh of the group handed in a letter to the committee calling on it to reconsider the investment of staff pensions, which are pooled with those of other authorities as part of the Brunel Pension Partnership.

She told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “We are completely opposed to the investment of Buckinghamshire Council into companies that support the genocide in Gaza.”

Through data released under freedom of information laws, the campaign estimates and alleges that the council has more than £20m invested in companies assisting Israel in its ongoing bombardment of Gaza and now Lebanon.

This includes Lockheed Martin, which has provided F-35 fighter jets to Israel and Northrop Grumman, which has supplied parts for aircrafts.

Lydia said: “By our actions here, we are hoping to convince Buckinghamshire Council to move away from investments such as Lockheed Martin.”

She added: “Every night there are more and more people dying, more families, more babies. The scenes that we are seeing are horrific.”

The health ministry in Gaza says that more than 41,500 people have been killed in the enclave since the start of the current conflict almost a year ago.

On October 7 Hamas-led militants entered southern Israel and killed around 1,200 people and took what has widely been reported as 250 hostages to Gaza.

Tim Butcher, the chairman of the pension fund committee said Bucks Council recognised the ‘understandably strong feeling’ about ‘the terrible situation in the Middle East’.

He said the committee regularly reviewed its investment decisions, including ethical considerations and over what he called ‘the war between Israel and Gaza’.

In a statement, he said: “The Buckinghamshire Pension Fund is highly regulated and must act within its legal and fiduciary duty to ensure that members of the pension fund receive the pensions which are promised.

“Investment decisions are based on an assessment of the financial consequence of a number of matters, including investment returns, due diligence, prudent financial reasons and, as stated, environmental, social and governance factors too.”

He added: “We do believe engagement is more effective in achieving positive change than immediately selling investments, potentially to investors who do not operate under the same responsible investment principles.

“Selling our investments to another investor will not necessarily take money away from the company but will reduce our ability to influence that company.”