Divestment and Pressure Campaigns

Divestment and Pressure Campaigns

Given the ongoing geopolitical conflicts, divestment and pressure campaigns might be worth keeping on the investor radar.

Social movements can sometimes lead to a change in consumer choices and divestment. 

“The earliest mention of divestment that I could find was in about 1783 when Quakers urged their members to divest their holdings from the slave trade,” said David S. Meyer.  professor of sociology at the University of California, Irvine, and the author of, “How Social Movements (Sometimes) Matter.”

In the 1960s, Nelson Mandela was sentenced to an indefinite detainment that led to a global outcry, opposition to apartheid in South Africa and divestment in South Africa. 

Barclays faced significant pressure to withdraw its operations in apartheid South Africa. Shell and General Motors were all targeted for divestment campaigns in South Africa.

These divestment and pressure campaigns are frequently deep-rooted in serious human rights violations that prick the conscience of decent human beings

The Gaza Strip bombardments, indeed a collective prick of conscience, have rallied people around pressure campaigns, leading to boycotts and potential divestment in Israel. 

Divestment and pressure campaigns start with public awareness and legal action

In May, The International Criminal Court ICC prosecutor sought arrest warrants for Israeli PM and Hamas officials for war crimes against humanity. Two months later, The International Court of Justice’s landmark ruling, 19 July 2024, declared that Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is unlawful.

Even Israel’s staunch ally, the UK, has imposed a partial arms ban and suspended 30 licenses out of 350 for arms exports to Israel. 

In September, UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy said, “The assessment I have received leaves me unable to conclude that any other that certain arms exports to Israel there does exist a clear threat that they could be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of humanitarian law.” 

But the UK’s partial ban could be a day late and a dollar short with an estimated 70,000 tons of explosives already dropped on the Gaza Strip, the world’s most densely populated civilian population, primarily women and children. To put this 21st-century horror into perspective 16,000 tonnes of TNT was released over Hiroshima in WW2.     

People are starting to understand that it is not a war but genocide. 

Israel is being hit with divestment and pressure campaigns to end the slaughter of Palestinians. 

Calls are being made to act now against these companies profiting from the genocide of the Palestinian people.

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement uses the historically successful method of targeted boycotts inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement, the US Civil Rights movement, and the Indian anti-colonial struggle, among others worldwide. 

The Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund, with over US $1.71 trillion in assets, champions an ethical investment policy where it makes divestments in companies profiting from human rights violations. 

Saudi Arabia, the second-largest sovereign wealth fund with approximately $1 trillion in assets, most likely is banking rolling BDS.    

The divestment in companies profiting from the massacre could be unprecedented, along with capital flows out of Israel if the massacre doesn’t stop and public awareness keeps growing.