Foreign Minister Timmermans says that the biggest obstacle to a peaceful solution is the Israeli occupation of Palestine. Yet Dutch pension money is invested in Israeli banks that perpetuate this occupation! After massive public pressure Directors of ABP pension fund are meeting to discuss whether to withdraw tens of millions of Euros of Dutch pension money from these banks. PGGM/PFZW has already pulled out. If ABP acts now it will send a clear signal that the Netherlands will no longer finance banks that fuel conflict, other companies will follow - and the whole war dynamic could change.
We have just 24 hours to act! We already have ABP’s attention - more than 1.7 million Avaaz members - over 40,000 in the Netherlands - have already called on them to divest, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu has lent his support. But ABP claims that they still don’t know what Dutch pension fund holders want them to do. Let’s create an urgent mega call for peace from the Netherlands directly to the ABP Board before they meet!
Send a personal message to the ABP Board using the form on the right. Feel free to use the talking points below and share this with everyone you know:
- I am a Dutch pension holder
- I am an ABP pension holder
- At your board meeting on August 28th, please make a decision to withdraw ABP funding from investments in the Israeli banks Banks Leumi, Hapoalim and Mizrahi-Tefahot.
- I do not want my pension fund, or any Dutch funds, to fuel conflict and violence.
- I do not want Dutch pension money to be invested in initiatives that are in defiance of international law.
- I expect ABP to live up to its ethical investment policy.
- Israeli policies in the occupied Palestinian territories are deemed illegal under international law.
- Despite the carnage, Israel assumes corporations like yours will keep investing -- there is currently no economic cost to the violent status quo.
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