RAMALLAH: Updated research report reveals, for the 3rd year in a row, billions of US dollars worth of loans, underwriting ($164.2 billion), shares and bonds ($144.7 billion) of 776 European financial institutions in 51 companies are involved in grave violations of human rights and illegal activities according to international law, according to a report by the Don’t Buy Into Occupation (DBIO) coalition. The findings cover the period from January 2020 to August 2023.
The report’s publication comes at a time when Israel is perpetrating genocidal acts in the besieged and occupied Gaza Strip, killing over 18,000 Palestinians and forcibly displacing 1.9 million Palestinians. The intensity and ferocity of the indiscriminate military attacks have inflicted deliberate large-scale destruction to civilian infrastructure and wreaked an unfathomable humanitarian catastrophe in a revengeful attack. The attention of the international community on the unfolding genocide in Gaza has enabled the intensification of annexation,
repression, collective punishment and settler violence in the occupied West Bank, said the report.
For the past two months, the Israeli government has been facilitating the arming of Israeli settlers and civilians, and since the beginning of the military offensive alone, 265 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces and armed settlers in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem. In addition, more than 3,260 Palestinians including 200 children have been arrested by the Israeli occupation forces in violent nighttime raids, and Palestinian families have been entirely expelled from their villages due to settler terrorism.
Within this backdrop, and since the publication of the 2nd DBIO report, the Israeli government together with private actors, continue to advance settlement and land theft unabated in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, further cementing its domination and apartheid regime over the occupied Palestinian people and its land colonization.
The new report from the DBIO coalition reveals that hu
ndreds of European financial institutions remain heavily invested in companies shoring up illegal Israeli residential, agricultural and industrial settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Company activities include settlement construction, service provision, demolition of homes, and surveillance.
For years, the coalition has warned that business enterprises, that are directly or indirectly involved in the Israeli settlement enterprise, run a high risk of complicity in grave violations of international humanitarian law, war crimes and crimes against humanity, and contributing to human rights violations. This includes financing, insuring, and trading with partners, suppliers, and subsidiaries that have ties with and proven links to the construction, expansion and maintenance of Israel’s illegal settlements. Such a risk is not limited to production and trade relationships but extends to financial institutions as well.
Settlements continue to deny Palestinians a myriad of their human rights, including
freedom of movement, liberty and security, an adequate standard of living, self-determination and sovereignty over natural resources. State-sponsored settler violence against Palestinian communities, involving killing, other forms of physical violence, and intimidation, torching of homes, fields and livestock, is alarmingly on the increase and has driven entire indigenous Palestinian communities to be forcibly expelled.
‘The ongoing terror and takeover by illegal settlers over the occupied West Bank, with the clear intention of the Israeli apartheid regime and settler organizations to erase and ethnically cleanse Palestinians from both Gaza and the West Bank can only stop if international companies and funding to the illegal settlement enterprise cease. European financial institutions have a big responsibility’ said Inès Abdel Razek of Palestinian NGO, PIPD, a DBIO coalition member.
The companies identified in the report still have a responsibility to use their leverage to prevent, mitigate, and address pot
ential adverse impacts due to their involvement in violations and grave breaches of international human rights and humanitarian law that may amount to international crimes.
The 51 companies identified include prominent names such as Airbnb, Carrefour, Cisco Systems, IBM, Puma, Siemens, and Volvo Group, all involved in activities raising human rights concerns, whereas some have already been listed in the UN database of businesses linked to Israeli settlements.
‘Financial institutions should conduct heightened human rights due diligence on all business relationships, especially those in occupied territory and conflict-affected areas, and accordingly, take action to end financial support for companies that are linked to unlawful actions or situations such as Israel’s illegal settlements. On the other hand, business enterprises should responsibly cease all activities and relationships with illegal settlements,’ said Maha Abdallah, DBIO coordinator.
Noteworthy among the findings are the top creditors providing
$116.55 billion in loans and underwriting, led by BNP Paribas (France) with $22.19 billion, and the top investors contributing $66.36 billion in shareholdings and bond holdings, led by the Government Pension Fund Global (Norway) with $13.16 billion.
‘The failure to hold international corporations and financial institutions accountable for complicity in international crimes including those related to the settlements, is fueling the continuing and deteriorating situation on the ground, entrenching Israel’s illegal occupation, annexation and colonization of Palestine, maintained by war crimes, crimes against humanity, and acts of genocide. This report puts companies on notice of their failures to carry out the required enhanced due diligence, and calls on those companies to divest and responsibility disengage from the occupied Palestinian territory,’ said Susan Power of Palestinian NGO, Al-Haq, a DBIO coalition member.
Don’t Buy Into Occupation’s findings unveil how very few financial institutions are putting
in place investment policies to align with human rights and international law, as well as policies that specifically include ‘involvement in the settlements in occupied territories’ as an exclusion criterion. Even then, those remain insufficient and at times overlooked when conducting activities in practice. Particularly at a time when the failure to hold Israel accountable is facilitating a genocide, financial institutions and business must urgently end their involvement and operation, said the coalition.
Source: Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA