A call for Pembrokeshire County Council to end its involvement in a pension fund said to have invested millions with companies connected with Israel and the ongoing Gaza crisis, which objectors say makes the authority “complicit in the genocide,” is expected to be heard next month.
Research by the National Palestine Solidarity Campaign found that the Dyfed Pension Fund, which covers Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion and Pembrokeshire collectively holds investments of at least £64m in companies said to have a link to Israel and the ongoing Gaza crisis.
Solidarity with Palestine Pembrokeshire has joined with other Palestine support groups from Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion and has lobbied the Pension Fund Committee meetings, which are held in Carmarthen.
Solidarity with Palestine Pembrokeshire set up a campaign group to lobby Pembrokeshire County Council and to start a petition, calling on Dyfed Pension Fund to initiate the divestment process away from those companies which it says “are complicit in war crimes across Palestine”.
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The petition now has more than 500 signatures.
On Monday, November 18, campaigners handed in the signatures to Pembrokeshire County Council, with hopes that will secure discussion at the next full council meeting, to be held on December 12.
A group of supporters in Narberth collected more than 300 signatures, one of their members stating: “We are determined to succeed in this campaign and have had a lot of local support already. People want their money to be invested ethically, in line with the council’s own ethical principles.”
A Pembrokeshire County Council spokesperson said the petition has been received but needs to be verified before being formally placed on the agenda for the December 12 meeting.
A previous call was heard by the council at its July meeting when two members of the public, in public submitted questions to full council, asked for the council to divest its involvement in the local government pension scheme the Dyfed pension fund, one of which said: “Many of these companies are making arms and weapons being used by the Israeli army in the war on Palestine which makes them complicit in the genocide in Gaza.
“I believe this makes PCC also complicit in that genocide.”
At that meeting, Cabinet member for Corporate Finance, Cllr Joshua Beynon said the scheme, not administered by Pembrokeshire, had “a responsible investment policy which sets out its approach to responsible investing, including human rights,” and “engaging with investee companies is likely to be more effective than divestment in improving desired outcomes and the committee encourages fund asset managers to engage with the companies they invest in”.
He went on to say the engagement was and dialogue was “a more holistic approach than blanket divestment, particularly where a direct causal relationship may not exist between supply and impact”.