The Canadian financial sector is deeply engaged in supporting Israel’s unlawful occupation of Palestine, bankrolling Jewish colonization, apartheid and genocide there, along with internationally wrongful Israeli acts in Lebanon and the illegally annexed Syrian Golan Heights.
That’s the finding of a new report released on April 9 by the Canadian human rights group, Just Peace Advocates.
Over a hundred Canadian financial institutions have invested half a trillion US dollars in Israeli activities deemed unlawful by the International Court of Justice and other human rights bodies, the report reveals. Among these: eleven Canadian pension funds, eight banks, seven insurance companies, and 85 fund managers.
Canadian investments are tied to the development and manufacturing of lethal weapons, population surveillance and control systems, construction equipment used to demolish homes and property, and to the systematic plundering of Palestinian natural resources, the Just Peace Advocates report says.
Among the corporations benefiting from Canadian investment largesse: Israel’s notorious weapons manufacturer Elbit systems, Lockheed-Martin, the manufacturer of the F-35 jet fighter, and the population surveillance and spyware company Palantir, leader in the emerging techno-fascist sector.
Disclosure gaps mean total Canadian investments in Israeli settler-colonialism, apartheid and genocide are likely higher. The Carney government must oblige Canadian corporations to divest, the report says.
The GPM spoke Just Peace Advocates campaigner Becca Steckle. Listen to our conversation in today’s podcast. Click on the play button above, or go here.
Over a hundred Canadian financial institutions have invested in Israel’s occupation of Palestine – to the tune of over a half trillion US dollars – and are therefore complicit in Israeli policies and practices judged to be unlawful by the International Court of Justice and other human rights bodies.
Of course, they’re playing with the dollars of individual Canadians. Do people have the power to control how their dollars are invested? The GPM spoke about this with Peter Larson.
Peter Larson is an independent researcher and blogger based in Ottawa, Canada. He was the founding Chair of the Middle East Study Group of the Canadian International Council (National Capital Region), a board member of the National Council on Canada Arab Relations, and the first chair of its National Education Committee on Israel/Palestine. Peter is the long-time chair of OFIP – the Ottawa Forum on Israel-Palestine.
Listen to our conversation in today’s podcast. Click on the play button above, or go here.
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