Photo: Shutterstock. The ABP is a retirement fund for government and education employees. Activists call on the fund to cease its investments in businesses facilitating the occupation of Palestinian territories. The ABP keeps a low profile for now.
‘The ABP pension fund has invested 2.5 billion euros in the Israeli occupation of Palestine’, says The Rights Forum, an organisation defending Palestinian rights.
The investments include businesses such as Israel Discount Bank, Booking Holdings, Expedia, Airbnb and Motorola. According to The Rights Forum, ABP has been petitioned to cease such investments for a decade now. The website has posted a standard letter that supporters can email to the ABP.
The Netherlands deems the settlements in Palestinian territories illegal, the letter states. The United Nations and the European Union have done the same, which is why the ABP has until 29 February to cease its investments in businesses that facilitate human rights violations.
Sad and disconcerting
The pension fund comments: ‘ABP considers the situation in Israel and Gaza Isad and disconcerting.’ There are, indeed, investments in businesses ‘that supply products used all over the world and, hence, possibly also in Israel or Gaza’. Moreover, ABP invests in several Israeli businesses.
The pension fund subjects its investments to four criteria: returns on investment, risks, costs, and ‘the score on sustainability and corporate responsibility.’ However, the fund declines to divulge more. ‘We cannot share information on how precisely businesses score on these criteria due to the sensitive nature of this information for competitors.’
ABP discloses information on how its investment portfolio is made up on its website. ‘With a delay of one quarter for reasons of business confidentiality’, the clarification states. If the Hamas attack and subsequent continued bombing of Gaza have prompted an alteration in the fund’s course, it will not yet be visible. The fund checks whether investments remain sustainable and responsible in the event of ‘new developments’.
Human rights
The ABP severed ties with two Israeli banks earlier due to construction projects in Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The banks lacked a human rights policy, says the fund.
Protests can be successful. Amidst persistent criticism from climate activists, the pension fund announced it is to cease investments in oil, gas and coal.
The ABP manages the pension funds of some three million Dutch citizens employed by the government or semi-public institutions. It is one of the world’s largest retirement funds.
