Moody’s has finally downgraded apartheid Israel’s credit rating outlook from “positive” to “stable” due to the agency’s recognition of a “deterioration of Israel’s governance” and a “weakening of institutional strength and policy predictability.”
Moody’s warned that Israel’s credit rating could come “under downward pressure” if its current political and judicial crisis is prolonged. This would worsen the current trend of vanishing capital inflows into the important high-tech sector and the relocation of Israeli firms abroad.
“Investments in Israel in recent months have almost disappeared” due to “a poor appetite for investments on the part of foreign [and Israeli] investors,” according to senior Israeli experts.
Capital flight from Israel, especially in the high-tech sector, has risen sharply, with billions of dollars already withdrawn from Israeli banks and transferred abroad. Riskified, for instance, is moving out $500 million & investing in a new R&D center in Portugal, fearing “a meaningful and prolonged economic downturn in Israel.”
Israel’s Chief Economist, Shira Greenberg, estimated that a reduction in credit rating, as Moody’s warned yesterday, would eliminate half of Israel’s GDP growth over the next five years.
Since the new government came to power, Israel’s stock market investors have lost over $25 billion. Former chair of Israel’s National Economic Council, Prof. Eugene Kandel, predicted 2 scenarios for Israel’s economy, “a heart attack or cancer.”
Recent revelations about ideological commitment to Zionism and Israel motivating major investments in the country’s high-tech, banking and even military firms confirm human rights defenders’ analysis.
Social responsibility, human rights and ideology aside, many investors are finally starting to see the writing on the wall. Apartheid Israel is increasingly becoming a #ShutDownNation. Time to divest?