The Isle of Wight Council’s pension funds must be invested ‘ethically’, a motion declares in response to the ‘continuing genocide in Gaza’.
A vote on councillor Chris Jarman’s appeal to international law and human rights, highlighting the ‘blockaiding of aid’ to Palestinians and their ‘ongoing displacement’, is expected at a Full Council meeting on Wednesday evening.
The proposal has been lodged after the representative for Totland and Colwell told the Local Democracy Reporting Service earlier this month that people were “very keen” for the matter to be taken forward, being a “very emotional topic”.
Call from Palestine Solidarity Campaign
It also follows national organisation the Palestine Solidarity Campaign’s (PSC) issuing of a legal notice to all local authorities across England and Wales overseeing a Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) fund.
The group said the notice, written by legal experts, outlines ‘that they (councils) must take steps to divest from companies enabling and profiting from Israel’s genocide, military occupation and apartheid against Palestinians’, citing international law.
Violence condemned
The Empowering Islanders group leader’s motion first condemns the 7th October 2023, attack into ‘southern Israel’ by ‘Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups’, including the ‘killing of civilians and the taking of civilian captives’.
It then condemns ‘disproportionate attacks by the Israel Defense Forces into the Gaza Strip’ and the ‘subsequent killing of over 60,000 civilians, 70 per cent of whom were women and children’.
It says,
“The Isle of Wight Pension Fund Committee (IWPFC) should engage (in writing) with fund managers to strongly urge them to avoid any direct or indirect investment which may or may be seen to be supporting or enabling the continuing genocide in Gaza, the ongoing displacement of Palestinians in the region, or the blockading of aid to Palestinians.
“The IWPFC should write to the relevant national pension oversight bodies and the UK government urging them to support ethical investment standards across all LGPS funds.”
Councillor Jarman has been approached for further comment.
Full council will meet at County Hall at 6pm Wednesday evening. Watch live by clicking on the link in the agenda just before the meeting.
This article is from the BBC’s LDRS (Local Democracy Reporter Service) scheme, which News OnTheWight is taking part in. Some alterations and additions may have been made by OnTheWight. Ed
