Ahead of AXA’s AGM, let’s tell AXA: Stop financing Israeli apartheid!

French insurance company AXA will hold its annual shareholders’ meeting on June 30. We need to make sure that divestment from Israeli apartheid is at the top of their agenda. Despite claims of social responsibility, AXA has almost tripled its investment in three Israeli banks that fund Israel’s illegal settlements.

AXA also owns 9.03% of Equitable Holdings, which invests in five complicit Israeli banks and in Israel’s largest private arms company, Elbit Systems, which touts its weapons and surveillance technologies as “field-tested” on Palestinians.

Just recently, the five Israeli banks were named in the United Nations’ list of complicit companies implicated in Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise.

With Israel planning to annex large swathes of the occupied Palestinian West Bank, the need for AXA to end its complicity becomes even more urgent. The three Israeli banks financed by AXA fund the illegal settlements Israel wants to annex. Elbit Systems equips Israel’s apartheid wall that enables land grabs and denial of Palestinian human rights.

Take three actions to ensure AXA’s shareholders hear why they must divest:

Email jam: Use the form on the right side of this page to send an email to AXA CEOs in Europe who will attend AXA’s June 30 shareholder meeting, telling them to divest
Social media storm: Share the call for AXA to divest on social media with these two tweets:
Video divestment call: Follow our social media to see videos from prominent figures calling on AXA to divest, and share them online with the hashtags #AXADivest, #AxaSolidarityResponse or #AXAHeartsinAction (See example below)
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Ghislain Poissonnier, French Magistrate

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Annette Groth, former MP of DIE LINKE (Germany)

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Mona, activist from BDS Switzerland

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Martin Maréchal from the board of directors at CNAPD

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Mario Franseen director of the Manifiesta Festival

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Chiara Bodini, People Health’s Movement

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Thomas from BDS Switzerland

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Code Rouge, artist

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Linda from Solidaires (trade union)

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Paula Polanco from Intal Globalize Solidarity

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Maxime Benatouil from the French Jewish Union for Peace

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Alima Boumediene-Thery - laywer, former parlamentarian and human rights activist

AXA is investing in research to fight COVID-19, but this research doesn’t mitigate the damage from AXA’s investments in Israeli apartheid. Israel continues its brutal repression and theft of Palestinian land despite the pandemic, and it is precisely Israel’s apartheid policies that make Palestinians even more vulnerable to COVID-19.

Our campaigning is having an impact. Since the launch of the campaign, AXA has divested its holdings from Elbit Systems and Bank Hapoalim. AXA has vastly reduced its stake in Equitable Holdings, now an independent company of which AXA owns 9.03%. But AXA’s investments in three Israeli banks have almost tripled! Help us make sure that AXA shareholders hear our message and take action.

Tell AXA to divest from Israeli apartheid!

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WRITE TO AXA's CEOs

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Dear AXA CEOs,

I hope this email finds everyone at AXA in good health.

While I recognize that AXA is investing in research to fight COVID-19, this research doesn’t mitigate nor excuse the damage from AXA’s investments in Israel’s serious violations of human rights. Israel continues its brutal repression of Palestinians and theft of their land despite the pandemic, and it is precisely Israel’s #CoronaRacism and apartheid policies that make Palestinians even more vulnerable to COVID-19.

I’m therefore writing to demand that AXA divest the approximately $7M invested in three Israeli banks that are deeply implicated in Israel’s illegal settlements, a war crime under international law. It is worrying that AXA has almost tripled these investments, according to the latest figures.

The three Israeli banks AXA invests directly in (Bank Leumi, Mizrahi Tefahot Bank and Israel Discount Bank) are all listed in the UN database of complicit companies implicated in Israel’s illegal settlements. The creation and publication of this database was mandated by the Human Rights Council Resolution 31/36 from 2016, which reiterated the long-standing position of the UN that the Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, flagrantly violate international humanitarian law and Palestinian human rights. The resolution called on businesses to respect human rights by abstaining from or terminating their business involvement in these settlements.

AXA’s ownership of a 9.03% stake in Equitable Holdings, which invests over $157M in five Israeli banks financing illegal Israeli settlements and in the Israeli military company Elbit Systems, adds to this complicity.

AXA’s indirect investment in Elbit Systems, which produces cluster munitions used by the Israeli army in perpetrating war crimes, also contradicts AXA’s own policy on cluster munitions, as stated in the AXA Group Policy on Controversial Weapons and in the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

The Israeli government’s plan to annex 30% of the West Bank, including its illegal settlements, in violation of international law, makes even clearer the egregious human rights abuses directly enabled by the Israeli companies that AXA invests in, whether directly or indirectly. The Israeli settlements that Israel plans to annex are financed by the complicit Israeli banks and are demarcated by Israel’s illegal apartheid wall, which is equipped by Elbit Systems.

Seeing that AXA is ignoring the outcry for it to end its complicity in Israeli apartheid, protests and public pressure campaigns that expose AXA’s business involvement in serious human rights violations will escalate until AXA completely divests from the complicit Israeli banks and ends its investment in Equitable Holdings.

Sincerely,

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