In a resounding victory for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, the French multinational insurance company AXA has sold its investments in all major Israeli banks and divested from Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems.
The news was confirmed by a new report published by the corporate accountability group Ekō, which is part of the coalition that’s been pressuring AXA to divest for nearly a decade.
“BDS pressure works. The confirmation of AXA’s divestment from all Israeli banks and Elbit Systems is a major milestone for the movement that follows years of strategic BDS campaigning,” said BDS Movement Europe Coordinator Fiona Ben Chekroun in a statement.
“Corporate criminals try to sear into our consciousness the impossibility of prevailing over them, but BDS works and we have prevailed over AXA and many other much larger companies,” she continued. “We surely can prevail in many more corporate accountability struggles in pursuit of freedom, justice and equality.”
#BDSworks!
— BDS movement (@BDSmovement) August 21, 2024
Activists have forced French multinational insurer @AXA to divest from Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer, and from ALL major Israeli banks. These banks are the backbone of Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise on occupied Palestinian lands. pic.twitter.com/AM4Iq5sjX1
According to the Ekō report, AXA held over 2.5 million shares, worth $20.4 million in Bank Hapoalim, Bank Leumi, and Israel Discount Bank until last September. However, the new data reveals the company “engaged in clear, fast, and intentional divestment from these complicit banks” and by June 2024, its shares in the banks had effectively dropped to zero.
In 2020 the UN Human Rights Council listed all three of those banks in the UN database of businesses connected to Israel’s illegal settlements.
Last year pro-Palestine protesters in Ireland occupied AXA offices in Dublin calling on people to boycott the company.
The AXA news comes just days after the Cambridge Day reported that Elbit Systems have effectively stopped operating its office in the Massachusetts city. The building has consistently been targeted by protesters for months.
“We will continue organizing until Elbit Systems leaves Cambridge. Should Elbit leave their current offices at 130 Bishop Allen Drive, we advise other local real estate companies that Elbit is a difficult tenant. Where Elbit goes, disruptive community protests follow, as Intercontinental Real Estate Corp. has learned over the past year,” said BDS Boston in response to the story.
“Two incredible wins to celebrate from Massachusetts to Paris thanks to BDS and Gaza protests,” tweeted journalist Rafael Shimunov.
The BDS National Committee celebrated the news in a press release, but noted that the campaign was not ending.
“AXA is not off the hook, though,” it reads. “Amidst Israel’s live streamed genocide in Gaza against 2.3 million Palestinians, the coalition will continue to monitor AXA’s investments to make sure it is not complicit in the ongoing genocide.”
“The BDS movement, with its intersectional partnerships worldwide, calls for intensifying pressure on all financial institutions profiting from oppression and injustice,” it continues. “Investing in apartheid Israel has always been unethical and illegal. With Israel’s economy in steady decline, it’s now also really reckless.”
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