Calls for Hertfordshire County Council to ‘divest for Palestine’ and ‘stop funding genocide’
Almost 250 residents have so far backed calls for Hertfordshire County Council (HCC) to ensure its pension fund does not invest in companies that campaigners say are “complicit” in Israel’s “human rights abuses against Palestinians”.
The Hertfordshire Local Government Pension Scheme has more than 40,000 members, including employees of the county council’s schools and other organisations. According to the latest published data, the pension fund has a total value in excess of £6 billion.
Campaigners from the Herts Palestine Support Coalition (HSPC) claim the fund has £95m invested in companies they say are “complicit in Israel’s illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories”.
On January 27, they launched a petition calling on the council to divest the pension scheme “from companies complicit in Israel’s well-documented human rights abuses against Palestinians”. As of 5.30pm on Friday (March 7), 248 Hertfordshire residents have ‘signed’ the petition.
On Monday (March 3), organisers took steps to highlight their calls by demonstrating in advance of a meeting of the council’s pension committee.
Following the meeting, a spokesperson for HCC confirmed that the petitioners had asked the council to divest from a number of companies.
“The Hertfordshire Pension Fund Committee has a fiduciary duty to invest responsibly and in the best interest of pension scheme members,” said the spokesperson.
“We insist that our investment managers invest ethically, and investments will continue to be made in line with our financial responsibilities.
“We note that while the petitioners will have strong views, the beneficiaries of the pension scheme themselves may hold a different view as to where their retirement savings are invested.
“The pension fund committee will continue to maintain a responsible investment policy where the stewardship of assets will remain paramount as they are there to enable the payment of pensions.”
The petition – which is on the county council website at www.hertfordshire.gov.uk – runs until April 24. By that time, organisers hope they will have obtained the 1,000 signatures they need in order to address a meeting of the full county council.
Making the case for divestment, the petition states: “The International Court of Justice (ICJ) recently confirmed that Israel’s 57-year occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza is illegal.
“The same goes for Israel’s settlements in the West Bank, which are home to some 700,000 Israelis living with the support of the Israeli state on illegally-occupied Palestinian land.
“There is also widespread consensus – including from ICJ judges, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Palestinian NGOs, UN experts and Israel’s own leading human rights organisations – that Israel’s treatment of Palestinians amounts to the crime of apartheid under international law.
“On top of this, Israel has recently mounted an assault on Gaza so brutal that it led to Israeli politicians being charged by the International Criminal Court with crimes including murder, persecution, intentionally attacking civilians and using starvation as a weapon of war.
“There is now strong agreement among experts – including Amnesty International, senior UN human rights officials and leading Israeli scholars of genocide studies – that Israel’s campaign in Gaza is a genocide.”
The petition calls for the county council “to commit to divesting the Herts Local Government Pension Scheme from companies complicit in Israel’s well-documented human rights abuses against Palestinians”.
And it calls on the county council to “refrain from any such investments in future through implementation and review of its Responsible Investment Policy”.
After the pension committee meeting, representatives of the Herts Palestine Support Coalition attended a meeting with Cllr Andrew Williams, chairman of the pension committee, Cllr Bob Deering, HCC’s cabinet member for resources, and head of pensions Patrick Tovey.
