AXA DIVEST

Elbit Systems became Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer in 2018 and one of the largest clients of the Israeli military. For years, Elbit’s weapons have repeatedly been used against Palestinians, resulting in numerous casualties by apartheid Israel and the mass destruction of homes and civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, and water and electric systems, as well as mass arrests and extrajudicial executions of Palestinians. 

Elbit’s weapons have also contributed to the forced displacement of thousands of Palestinian Bedouins in the Naqab and the surveillance of the illegal apartheid wall between the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Israel’s wall around the Gaza Strip.

Elbit Systems uses its sales to the Israeli army to market its weapons for export as “field-proven” – which means used against Palestinians. Elbit operates in or sells its weapons to at least 51 countries, fueling colonialism, structural oppression, and climate change globally. 

AXA has a “Group Policy on Controversial Weapons,” which says that it has taken steps to terminate business ties with manufacturers of cluster bombs, cluster munitions, chemical and biological weapons, and makers of their components. Elbit Systems makes cluster bombs and has supplied the Israeli army with white phosphorus, which it used illegally against Palestinian civilians, including in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. 

Note: AXA fully divested from Elbit in 2019 and has not reinvested in it since then.

Reports by human rights organizations have confirmed that all Israeli banks are involved in the Israeli settlement industry. They provide special loans for companies, government and individual projects in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem (OPT). For example, Bank Hapoalim, one of Israel’s largest banks, finances the construction of housing projects in illegal Israeli settlements in the OPT. It also acts as a guarantor and provides loans to major contractors and construction companies that build in the OPT.

The bank guarantees state loans to the companies that built the Jerusalem Light Rail. This illegal project is designed to connect settlements in illegally occupied East Jerusalem. The bank also provides mortgages to homebuyers and financial services to local authorities in illegal Israeli settlements. Bank Hapoalim also discriminates against Palestinian citizens of Israel, refusing to transfer accounts of Palestinian citizens to branches located in what they consider “Jewish populated areas.” The other banks pursue similar practices and are also part of the backbone of the Israeli settlement enterprise and the associated violations of international humanitarian law and the human rights of Palestinians

Since 2020, all main Israeli banks have been listed in a UN database for their complicity in Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise.

Note: AXA divested from all major Israeli banks in 2024 following intensifying BDS pressure.

Recent international law developments concerning Israel’s atrocity crimes against Palestinians have made clear that corporations that are implicated in the commission of international crimes connected to Israel’s genocide, unlawful occupation, racial segregation, and apartheid regime - within or beyond the Palestinian territories occupied in 1967 - are all complicit and must be held accountable. Direct complicity includes military, logistical, intelligence, financial, and infrastructure support. The corporations and their boards of directors and executives may face criminal liability for this complicity.

Recent developments include: 

• In January 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found Israel to be plausibly committing genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza and ordered provisional measures to protect the rights of Palestinians under the genocide convention. In November 2024, the UN Special Committee found Israel’s warfare methods in Gaza to be consistent with genocide, including the use of starvation as a weapon of war.
• In July 2024, the ICJ issued an  Advisory Opinion finds Israel’s presence (military occupation and settlements) in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, to be unlawful and determined that Israel is violating the prohibition against apartheid in the International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD). 
• In September 2024, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution with an overwhelming majority adopting the ICJ Advisory Opinion and calling on States to impose a military embargo and trade sanctions.  
• In November 2024, referencing the ICJ rulings and UNGA resolution, the Arab-Islamic summit called for sanctions against Israel, while the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHRP) passed a resolution, the first on Palestine in 24 years, calling on Member States to end complicity and uphold their responsibility to prevent genocide, refrain from aiding or abetting crimes against humanity, including apartheid.
• Several other authoritative bodies, including the UN Human Rights Council Commission of Inquiry, UN human rights experts, and the UN special rapporteur for human rights in the OPT, have affirmed the obligation of states and corporations to uphold their responsibility under international law as set by the ICJ rulings. 

A new investigative report shows that as of 30 June 2024, French multinational insurance giant AXA held $150.43 million—US$78.87 million in shares and US$71.56 million in bonds—in eleven companies arming Israel during its #GazaGenocide. These are Rolls-Royce, GE Aerospace (formerly General Electric), Honeywell Technologies, Textron, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, RTX (formerly Raytheon Technologies), L3Harris Technologies, and BAE Systems. 

The report is based on research by the corporate accountability group Ekō and the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and data commissioned from the independent research organization Profundo by the “Stop AXA Assistance to Israeli Apartheid” coalition.

According to the report, AXA has investments amounting to $173.62 million in at least 14 weapons manufacturers, with $134.91 million allocated to 13 companies that produce controversial weapons such as depleted uranium, nuclear arms, and white phosphorus. 

The report highlights AXA’s investments in Boeing and General Dynamics, the world’s fourth and fifth-largest weapons manufacturers. Both companies have supplied arms to Israel since the beginning of the genocide in October 2023. Their weapons have been directly linked to Israeli attacks on Palestinians in Gaza, including mass killings, such as the bombing of the Tel al-Sultan refugee camp in Rafah on 26 May and the recent 10 September bombing of Palestinians sheltering in al-Mawasi, which Israel had designated as a “safe zone.” 

AXA could face legal liabilities under international law, including exposure to prosecution for facilitating war crimes, genocide, and violations of human rights principles outlined by the UN Global Compact and OECD Guidelines. According to a recently published expert legal opinion commissioned by Palestinian human rights organization Al Haq and the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations SOMO, not only AXA as a company could be held criminally liable for violating international law, but its board members, managers, and senior employees could also be held liable.