PSC Writes to Chair of Every LGPS Committee Calling on Them to Take Action

Following our victory in the Supreme Court, upholding the right of Local Government Pension Funds to take ethical investment decisions, we have written to the chair of every local government pension fund committee, calling on them to live up to their ethical responsibilities, and ensure their funds are not invested in companies complicit in Israel’s grave violations of international law and Palestinian human rights.

The letter states “Israel can only maintain its grave violations of Palestinian human rights because of products, equipment and services it receives from a range of complicit companies. These companies are complicit through:

• Supplying the Israeli military with weapons and other technology used to oppress Palestinians.
• Providing technology and equipment used to maintain Israel’s infrastructure of military occupation, such as its checkpoints and the apartheid wall.
• Investment and other activity in Israel’s illegal settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, based on stolen Palestinian land.

It therefore calls on them to “Reassure pension holders concerns by publicly outlining what procedures are in place to ensure the scheme is not complicit in Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights and international law. This includes outlining robust time-limited engagement practises where complicit companies are identified, and what subsequent action can be taken if companies do not respond to engagement processes. Secondly, to continue to engage with scheme members’, their trade unions and Palestine Solidarity Campaign to ensure members concerns around the investment of their money in companies violating Palestinian human rights are recognised and acted upon as a matter of urgency.”