The Don’t Buy into Occupation (DBIO) coalition welcomes the publication of a landmark report by the UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese, which directly calls on European financial institutions to stop funding and normalizing Israel’s military occupation, apartheid, and genocide against the Palestinian people.
The report, released this week, represents a watershed moment in the push for corporate accountability. Drawing on DBIO’s research, the Special Rapporteur identifies financial institutions as enablers of Israel’s displacement-replacement economy in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT), with banks, pension funds and asset managers continuing to underwrite and bankroll occupation and genocide. The Special Rapporteur warns that financial institutions and their executives could face criminal prosecution, including before the International Criminal Court (ICC), for enabling violations of international law.
“This report is a global wake-up call,” said DBIO member Piet Ruig from FairFin. “It not only further validates years of our work but escalates the legal and moral urgency: European financial institutions are complicit and they may be criminally liable under international law.”
The financial institutions profiting from illegal occupation
The report explicitly names several financial institutions previously highlighted in DBIO’s reports. Among them is BNP Paribas, which continues to finance arms companies supplying the Israeli army. Barclays, one of Europe’s largest banks, remains invested in military technology suppliers whose equipment has been used in airstrikes on Gaza and in surveillance of Palestinian civilians.
The Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global, often cited as a model of ethical investment, is identified for holding shares in corporations tied to the occupation infrastructure. AXA, the French insurance giant, is also called out for maintaining financial relationships with companies complicit in apartheid policies, home demolitions, and population control systems.
“Despite repeated warnings from civil society organisations, legal experts and international authorities on human rights, these institutions have failed to undertake adequate human rights due diligence and continue to profit from illegal occupation and violence. That might change with the publication of this report,” said Mette Nord, President at Fagforbundet, the Norwegian Union of Municipal and General Employees.
A milestone for accountability
The Special Rapporteur’s report dispels any confusion about the degree of corporate culpability/complicity, making clear that the financial sector’s unchecked involvement has directly fueled the escalation of violence. The report explicitly emphasises that “had proper human rights due diligence been undertaken, corporate entities would have long ago disengaged from Israeli occupation.”
She makes it clear that commercial actors and executives can no longer hide behind layers of abstraction or claim ignorance, stating that “recent judicial developments leave no room for doubt that corporate engagement with any component of the occupation is connected with violations of jus cogens norms and international crimes.”
This report –amid growing calls for corporate accountability internationally, — is an official confirmation that corporate involvement in Israel’s crimes should never be dismissed as business as usual.
Time to divest
The DBIO coalition fully endorses the report’s strong recommendations for corporate entities to face accountability for their involvement in serious violations of international law, as well as to cease all business activities and terminate relationships directly linked with, contributing to, and causing human rights violations against the Palestinian people.
The DBIO Coalition calls on all European banks, pension funds, and asset managers to immediately disclose their investment portfolios and to divest from all companies complicit in the occupation and genocide of the Palestinian people. We also call on European governments and regulatory bodies to implement binding legal frameworks to stop both public and private funds from supporting violations of international law.
“This report says what civil society has been demanding for years: stop funding the illegal occupation,” said Piet Ruig. “Divest now—or be held accountable.”
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