Human rights groups have claimed a major victory after HSBC, one of the largest banking and financial services organizations in the world, confirmed that it fully divested from Israeli drone manufacturer Elbit Systems, which sells weapons to the Israeli military used in attacks on Palestinians.
As part of the campaign, over 24,000 people emailed HSBC with concern over its investments in Elbit Systems and other companies selling weapons to Israel’s military. Forty HSBC branches across the UK were picketed monthly to call on HSBC to stop aiding Israel’s brutal occupation and human rights abuse of millions of Palestinians.
HSBC divests from Israeli arms maker Elbit https://t.co/htiDcclSJa
— Electronic Intifada (@intifada) December 27, 2018
Campaigners said that they targeted Elbit Systems because it is one of Israel’s largest arms manufacturers, notorious for its deadly drones used in attacks on Palestinian civilians.
The company prides the deadly use of its arms in operations against Palestinians to market its products abroad as “combat proven”. The company has also manufactured white phosphorous and artillery systems that can be used for cluster munitions.
Elbit Systems has been excluded from pension and investment funds around the world over the company’s involvement in supplying surveillance systems and other technology to Israel’s illegal Separation Wall and settlements in the West Bank. Elbit has also supplied surveillance technology for use along the US-Mexico border.
HSBC divests from Israeli arms maker Elbit https://t.co/htiDcclSJa
— Electronic Intifada (@intifada) December 27, 2018
Along with a number of major arms companies Elbit Systems has become the target of campaign groups over the past few years with notable victories for human rights groups.
“Earlier this year, Israeli military company Elbit won a two-year $68m contract with the EU to provide maritime unmanned aircraft system (UAS) services,” wrote Romana Rubeo and Ramzy Baroud in Al Jazeera earlier this month.
“It will deploy and operate its Hermes 900 Maritime Patrol system, the same one which was used during the bloody Israeli assault on Gaza in 2014. The Israeli military praised the UAS as ‘phenomenal’ and ‘a real asset’ in the war, which killed 2,250 Palestinians, including more than 500 children.”
Last month the University of Leeds made the decision to divest from three companies which were found to be complicit in the violation of Palestinian human rights: Airbus, United Technologies and Keyence Corporation. It was seen as another sign of the growing momentum of the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS).
In this just-published article at Al Jazeera, Italian journalist, Romana Rubeo and I expose a sinister link where Europe is increasingly sharing Israel's racist approach to border security and adopting its deadly technologies https://t.co/eBgUfcyFov pic.twitter.com/k33uxqITq5
— Ramzy Baroud (@RamzyBaroud) December 21, 2018
HSBC’s link with Elbit Systems was first exposed in 2017 in a War on Want report on UK banks’ business dealings with companies selling military technology to Israel. The campaign calling on HSBC to divest from complicit companies received a critical boost when the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and other groups joined, picketing bank branches across the UK over its connections to Elbit and other companies.
In making their case to the bank, campaigners said that HSBC has a “Defense Equipment Sector Policy” which specifies that the bank would not provide financial services to companies involved in the production or selling of cluster munitions. Campaigners pointed out that its involvement with Elbit Systems, even if “on behalf of clients” as the bank long claimed, violated this policy as well as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.
(MEMO, PC, Social Media)
Way to go HSBC! Now this is something to call “social corporate responsibility”, with a chin held up high and without shame.