1. Israel and the genocide in Palestine
Israel’s military assault on Gaza and its actions in the Occupied Palestinian Territories amount to a plausible risk of genocide, according to the International Court of Justice[i]. Statements made by multiple Israeli leaders, quoted in the ICJ case, have shown clear intent, and preparation for of these actions. In Gaza, tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians have been killed by a widespread campaign of bombing and ground-based assault. There has been a systematic destruction of homes, businesses, schools, universities, hospitals, religious sites and cultural institutions, resulting in around 2 million people fleeing their homes and moving into refugee camps, which themselves have then been attacked. Food, water and medical assistance have been blocked by Israel. In the Occupied Palestinian Territories there has been an expansion of the killing of Palestinian civilians by Israeli soldiers and settlers, and an increased theft of land and property[ii].
Western governments have provided Israel with large-scale military and technological support over decades, and support Israel’s current actions, politically and via continued military assistance and supply of weapons. Financial institutions such as banks and pension funds provide support for Israel’s military actions and illegal theft of Palestinian territories via investments in weapons companies and in businesses that profit from the occupation. USS is no exception as we describe in the following.
2. USS investments in companies supplying weapons to Israel that are used in Palestine
Israel spends more per capita on its military than any country in the world apart from Qatar[iii]. Three-quarters of Israel’s military imports come from the US, and most of the rest from Germany. Other suppliers are the UK, Canada, France and Australia.[iv]
These imports are supplied by many companies, but the largest ones predominate. The quaker-based American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) has provided a list of 47 of the leading suppliers of weapons that are being used in the attacks on Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territories.[v] More information on these and other companies is also available from Workers in Palestine[vi], Who Profits[vii] and the Database of Israeli Military and Security Export.[viii]
From the latest data available, dated September 2023[ix], USS has investments in 14 of the leading corporate military suppliers to Israel identified by the AFSC. We are unable to state how much USS has in each company as this data is not provided by USS. The companies are BAE Systems, Caterpillar, Ford, General Dynamics, General Electric, General Motors, Hyundai, L3Harris Technologies, Mercedes, Palantir, Rheinmetall, RTX (formerly Raytheon), Textron and Toyota. Here are examples of the weapons that some of these companies supply, drawn from the AFSC report (sources for the quotes and information below may be found there):
BAE Systems
The world’s seventh largest weapons manufacturer, BAE manufactures the M109 howitzer, a 155mm mobile artillery system that the Israeli military has been using extensively, firing thousands of 155mm shells into the Gaza Strip. Some of these shells are white phosphorus bombs, the use of which is forbidden in densely populated civilian areas and potentially amounts to a war crime. BAE also manufactures electronic missile launching kits and other components for Israel’s F-15, F-16, and F-35 fighter jets, which the Israeli Air Force has used extensively in its attacks on Gaza.
General Dynamics
This is the world’s sixth largest weapons manufacturer, which supplies Israel with artillery ammunition and bombs for attack jets used in Israel’s assault on Gaza. The company developed the F-16 fighter jet, and is the only company in the U.S. that makes the metal bodies of the MK-80 bomb series, the primary weapon type Israel uses to bomb Gaza. It is also the only company in the U.S. that makes 155mm caliber artillery shells, which have been used extensively to attack Gaza. One source reported that, by Nov. 25, one Israeli brigade fired some 10,000 such shells using BAE’s M109 howitzer. Their use by Israel, according to Oxfam, is “virtually assured to be indiscriminate, unlawful, and devastating to civilians in Gaza.”
L3Harris Technologies
This company is the world’s ninth largest weapons manufacturer, and makes components that are integrated into multiple weapons systems used by the Israeli military in Gaza, including Boeing’s JDAM kits, Lockheed Martin’s F-35 warplane, Northrop Grumman’s Sa’ar 5 warships, ThyssenKrupp’s Sa’ar 6 warships and Israel’s Merkava battle tanks.
Palantir Technologies
This is a high-tech mass surveillance company that has been providing its AI-powered tools to the Israeli security forces. Since Oct. 7, it has been “seeing high demand from Israel for new tools,” and has been providing Israel with more products than before. In January, it entered a “strategic partnership” with Israel’s Ministry of Defense to “help the country’s war effort.” Palantir CEO Alex Karp said in November, “I am proud that we are supporting Israel in every way we can.”
RTX (formerly Raytheon)
This is the world’s second largest weapons manufacturer and largest producer of guided missiles, and supplies the Israeli Air Force with guided air-to-surface missiles for its F-16 fighter jets, as well as cluster bombs and bunker busters, which have consistently been used against Gaza’s civilian population and infrastructure. RTX subsidiary Pratt & Whitney manufactures engines for F-15 and F-16 fighter jets. As part of a joint venture with Israeli state-owned weapons manufacturer Rafael, RTX makes interceptors for Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system, which have been part of the U.S.’s recent weapons shipments to Israel.
Textron
This is a US-based military contractor known for its Bell, Beechcraft, Cessna, and Hawker aircraft brands. The Israeli Air Force 100 Squadron, which has supported Israel’s military ground troops in Gaza, uses multiple Textron aircraft, including the Beechcraft King Air, Queen Air, RC12-D Guardrail, and Bonanza A-36.
Rheinmetall AG
This is Germany’s largest weapons manufacturer, which is providing Israel with 10,000 rounds of 120mm precision tank ammunition.
General Electric
This is the world’s 25th largest weapons manufacturer, and makes T700 Turboshaft engines for Boeing’s Apache helicopters.
Caterpillar
For decades, Caterpillar has been supplying Israel with the D9 armoured bulldozer, which the Israeli military routinely uses to demolish Palestinian homes and civilian infrastructure in the occupied West Bank and to enforce the blockade of the Gaza Strip (see section below). Armoured D9 bulldozers have been crucial in the Israeli military’s ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, accompanying combat troops and paving their way by clearing roads and demolishing buildings. D9 bulldozers were also used in raids of Palestinian cities in the occupied West Bank. Israel placed an urgent order for dozens of D9 armoured bulldozers during the current attacks. Some of Israel’s D9T bulldozers have been converted into remote-controlled or semi-autonomous vehicles so that they can operate without a driver in “complex,” “high-risk areas.”
3. USS holdings in companies profiting from and supporting the illegal and expanding occupation of Palestinian territories by Israel
Israeli settlements on Palestinian territory continue to expand in number and size. These are illegal under international law and constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (Rome Statute), the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Hague Regulations of 1907. Israeli settlements also exhibit clear and systematic discrimination against Palestinians as a people, with a civil administration for settlers residing and working in the illegal settlements, and a military administration for Palestinians across the occupied territories.[x]
The UN Human Rights Council has assessed business enterprises involved in ten “listed activities” in the occupied Palestinian territories that raised particular human rights concerns[xi]. These covered the supply of equipment for demolishing existing Palestinian homes and settlements and the construction of illegal Israeli ones; the provision of utilities and banking and other services for maintaining and expanding Israeli settlements; the supply of surveillance equipment for Israeli settlements, the wall and checkpoints; the appropriation of existing natural resources by settlements and transfer of settler waste to Palestinian villages; practices that systematically disadvantage Palestinian enterprises; and the reinvestment of benefits from settler activities in supporting and expanding illegal settlements.
A review in December 2023 has identified 51 leading businesses that are actively involved in illegal Israeli settlements, together with the top investors and creditors in those businesses[xii]. This report summarises the UN listed activities that each company is involved with, which support the maintenance and expansion of illegal Israeli settlements.
Based on the latest available data (September 2023), USS holds shares in 23 of those 51 companies[xiii]. These are Airbnb, Bank Leumi, Altice, Bank Hapoalim, Bezeq, Booking Holdings, Carrefour, Caterpillar, Cisco Systems, CNH Industrial, Expedia Group, Heidelberg Materials, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Israel Discount Bank, Motorola Solutions, Mizrahi Tefahot Bank, Siemens, Solvay, TUI Group, Vinci/Semi, Volvo Group and WSP Global.
USS also held shares in 9 of the top 10 creditors providing loans and underwriting to those 50 companies, and 5 of the top 10 investors in those companies. These holdings are BNP Paribas, HSBC, Société General, Deutsche Bank, Barclays, Santander, Crédit Agricole, UniCredit, ING, Legal and General, Nordea and Allianz.
Some examples from the report give insight into how these companies support the illegal occupation.
Airbnb advertises hundreds of listings of properties for rent in the illegal settlements. These generate significant profits for the hosts and help financially support the settlements.
Altice International is a telecommunications company whose subsidiary, Hot Telecommunications Systems, provides cable and telecommunication services to the illegal settlements, including building infrastructure on confiscated Palestinian land. The company pays royalties to the settlements.
Bank Hapoalim has provided financing for multiple construction projects in Israeli settlements as well as loans to regional settlement authorities, and provides financing for the Jerusalem Light Rail project which connects the illegal settlements in the occupied eastern part of Jerusalem with the western part of the city.
Booking Holdings and Expedia provide booking services for a range of hotels, guesthouses, and holiday apartments in the occupied West Bank, Israeli settlements in the illegally occupied territories, including the eastern part of Jerusalem.
Caterpillar. Heavy machinery manufactured by Caterpillar is extensively used by the Israeli military, including wheel loaders, armoured excavators, mini-loaders, and armoured bulldozers, which have been used for unlawful operations such as large-scale house demolitions and land-clearing missions in Palestinian towns.
Cisco provides IT network hubs in the Sha’ar Binyamin Industrial Zone in the regional council of the Mateh Binyamin settlement and the Shomron region council in the occupied West Bank, with plans for additional hubs in the Modi’in Illit, Kiryat Arba and Beitar Illit settlements.
CNH industrial heavy equipment has been used repeatedly during the last ten years in the construction of illegal Israeli settlements, industrial zones and related infrastructure in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Heidelberg Materials The company’s subsidiary Hanson Israel supplies building materials such as concrete to Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Motorola Solutions has been involved in Israel’s illegal settlements for more than 10 years. The company designed and manufactured the surveillance system “MotoEagle”, which is used in dozens of illegal settlements in the West Bank, in the wall around Gaza and in Israeli military base.
Siemens traffic control systems have been installed on Roads 5 and 443 in the occupied West Bank, as part of an Israeli road system, on which Palestinians are forbidden from travelling. The company has a €1.1bn contract with Israel Railways. The trains operate most services on the A1 Fast Train line which crosses the Green Line into the occupied West Bank in two areas, using appropriated Palestinian land for an Israeli transportation project for the exclusive benefit of Israelis. WSP Global managed the electrification project for part of the A1 train line.
Solvay provides materials for Elbit unmanned aerial vehicles. Drones are used for surveillance by the Israeli military in the occupied territories of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, as well as in military operations in the Gaza strip.
TUI Group subsidiaries offer guided tours that are solely branded as visiting Israel, but include sites in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank and the occupied Syrian Golan.
4. Conclusion
As described above, USS is investing in companies that are supplying weapons to a country whose actions amount to a plausible risk of genocide according to the International Court of Justice. They also invest in companies both profiting from the occupation of Palestinian territories, and directly supporting the maintenance and expansion of those settlements. These investments are quite clearly supporting acts which violate multiple human rights laws.
Amongst USS documents such as their policies on Responsible Investment or their Stewardship Code Reports we have been unable to find direct reference to policies on investing in illegal activities. USS have stated in their Modern Slavery Act report[xiv] that “We are committed to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business dealings and relationships”. This is clearly inconsistent with investing in companies which are profiting from and supporting actions violating international laws In Palestine.
USS’s response to criticisms like those above is the same as its response to critics of its investments in fossil fuels – it quotes legal advice that USS “can only take non-financial factors into account where they do not create a material risk of a negative financial impact on an investment and it has good reason to believe that the Scheme’s members share each other’s views.”[xv] USS’s statement on the Middle East situation in November[xvi] argued that divesting from companies with links to armed conflict would “substantially restrict our ability to diversify and invest.”
One might conclude from the above that, in plain words, investing in illegal activities is acceptable as long as it is profitable. Even if this means supporting what the International Court of Justice has described as a “plausible” risk of genocide in Palestine.[xvii] We understand USS has to generate profits from its investments in order to pay members’ pensions. However we believe that these profits should come from companies that uphold human rights and not from companies that are profiting from the suffering of the people of Palestine. We urge the trustees of USS to urgently review their investment policies and make a new and clear statement on these investments to members.
DivestUSS
27th February 2024
[i] International Court of Justice, Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip, South Africa v. Israel. https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20240126-ord-01-00-en.pdf
[ii] Peace Now, A Good Year for Settlements; A Bad Year for Israel: Summary of Settlement Activity in 2023, 15th February 2024, https://peacenow.org.il/en/a-good-year-for-settlements-a-bad-year-for-israel-summary-of-settlement-activity-in-2023
[iii] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/11/how-big-is-israels-military-and-how-much-funding-does-it-get-from-the-us Al Jazeera 11th October 2023
[iv] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/15/which-countries-have-stopped-supplying-arms-to-israel Al Jazeera 15th February 2024
[v] American Friends Service Committee, The Companies Profiting from Israel’s 2023-2024 Attacks on Gaza https://afsc.org/companies-2023-attack-gaza
[vi] Workers in Palestine, Who Arms Israel? https://www.workersinpalestine.org/who-arms-israel/
[vii] Who Profits? The Companies Supplying Weapons to Israel’s Attack on Gaza Dec 17th 2023 https://www.whoprofits.org/publications/report/170?the-companies-supplying-weapons-to-israel-s-attack-on-gaza
[viii] Database of Israeli Military and Security Export https://dimse.info
[ix] What are Public Market investments? USS data for 30th September 2023.
https://www.uss.co.uk/how-we-invest/where-we-invest/public-market-investments
[x] UN General Assembly 14th September 2022. Seventy-seventh session Item 69 of the provisional agenda. Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/coiopt/2022-10-19/Report-COI-OPT-14Sept2022-EN.pdf
UN General Assembly Agenda item 68 (c) 21st September 2022, Report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese, and references therein. https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/country-reports/a77356-situation-human-rights-palestinian-territories-occupied-1967
[xi] UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, 30th June 2023.https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session31/database-hrc3136/23-06-30-Update-israeli-settlement-opt-database-hrc3136.pdf
[xii] European Financial Institutions’ Continued Complicity in the Illegal Israeli Settlement Enterprise,Don’t Buy Into The Occupation, December 2023. https://dontbuyintooccupation.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/2023_DBIO-III-Report_11-December-2023.pdf
[xiii] What are Public Market investments? USS data for 30th September 2023.
https://www.uss.co.uk/how-we-invest/where-we-invest/public-market-investments
[xiv] Statement on slavery and human trafficking, USS 4th September 2023. https://www.uss.co.uk/modern-slavery-act
[xv] Responsible investment – what must USS do and how far can it go? Legal advice to USS from CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang LLP 23 August 2023, Para 1.7. Accessible from https://www.uss.co.uk/how-we-invest/responsible-investment
[xvi] USS statement 16th November 2023, Responsible investment: our approach and our legal obligations as a pension fundhttps://www.uss.co.uk/news-and-views/views-from-uss/2023/11/11162023_responsible-investment-our-approach-and-our-legal-obligations-as-a-pension-fund
[xvii] International Court of Justice, Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in the Gaza Strip, South Africa v. Israel. https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20240126-ord-01-00-en.pdf
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