Campaigners keep pressure on ESCC ahead of Full Council
From Hastings Online Times:
Hastings & Rye Palestine Solidarity Campaign has called on supporters, as a matter of urgency, to send questions to East Sussex County Council’s Full Council meeting on 1 December demanding divestment of its pension funds from companies “complicit in Israel’s war crimes.” The deadline for submitting questions is 4pm on Monday 23 November.
In response to questions naming several such companies submitted to the Full Council meeting in October, the ESPF chair, Cllr Gerard Fox, said that the pension fund committee was in the process of reducing its investments in passive index, or tracker, funds, which represented its complete exposure to these companies. This exposure, he said, amounted to just under £1.8m, plus a further £16,000 in Elbit Systems, the private Israeli arms manufacturer.
H&RPSC, which is campaigning together with Brighton and Hove PSC, is encouraging supporters to keep the campaign growing. At the Full Council meeting in June, 13 relevant questions were tabled, and 26 in October. “The more people who write in, the bigger the pressure on the fund,” they say. “Together we can bring about real change.”