New campaign planning action against insurance companies with links to genocide

A new campaign targeting insurance companies with links to Israel’s genocide in Gaza launched on 10 March. It is seeking to hold them accountable for their actions. It’s urging people to ‘boycott bloody insurance’ – and will be taking direct action as well.

Boycott Bloody Insurance

Boycott Bloody Insurance released a report showing how “major global insurers actively enable Israel’s ongoing assault on Palestinians”. In a press release, it explained that “insurers including Allianz, Aviva, AXA, Zurich, and RSA” have been investing “over $1.7 billion in companies supplying military equipment used by Israel since 7 October 2023”. The latter include “Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Elbit Systems, and BAE Systems”, which Boycott Bloody Insurance said have a direct link to Israel’s war crimes, “including attacks on civilians in Gaza using white phosphorus and precision-guided munitions”.

Lead researcher Monika Nielsen criticised the insurance companies “profiting from human suffering” for:

funneling our money into war, exploitation, and violence

This new campaign comes at a time of increasing state repression of dissent in Britain on behalf of Israeli war criminals, and a growing movement of resistance.

Adding to a flourishing movement against complicity in war crimes

Direct action group Palestine Action has had numerous successes against organisations complicit with Israeli war crimes. And because it has targeted insurance companies with links to Israel, Allianz and Aviva are now seeking legal action to stop the resistance. Palestine Action has asserted that its campaign “will not cease until their links with the Israeli weapons trade” do.

The Palestinian Youth Movement, meanwhile, has now “integrated the finding that AIG is the insurer of global logistics company Maersk into their ongoing “Mask Off Maersk” campaign”. The movement insisted it is “not waiting for a decision from the top to stop the flow of weapons to Israel, but we are demanding from the bottom”. It is targeting global logistics company Maersk – “one of the most profitable companies on earth” – for shipping “military cargo that facilitate Israel’s genocide”. The Palestinian Youth Movement’s Yara Derbas said:

Insurance, just like logistics, is crucial for arms transfers to oppressive regimes. Our actions target the corporate complicity enabling Israel’s ongoing crimes. This isn’t just about Palestine—it’s about global justice and ending corporate exploitation.

Ahead of Maersk’s Annual General Meeting on March 18, the Palestinian Youth Movement has called on “executives and shareholders… to end the transportation of military cargo to Israel”, and has asked

people around the world to join us in showing Maersk that staying in business with a pariah state is a long-term liability.

A plan for coordinated actions

Boycott Bloody Insurance has the endorsement of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, the Watermelon Index, and the Palestinian BDS National Committee. And it seeks to bring together pro-Palestinian activists with people fighting for “climate justice, migrant rights, and anti-war organising”.

A Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy spokesperson insisted on the importance of spreading the word about insurance companies complicit in genocide, saying:

Policyholders must know how their money is being misused and demand immediate divestment.

Boycott Bloody Insurance says there is a plan for “coordinated actions across the UK” on 25 March to encourage organisations to dump insurers profiting from war crimes and “shift to ethical insurers”.

In April, meanwhile, the campaign will also release “three additional reports exposing the insurance industry’s ties to fossil fuel companies, controversial weapons, and the UK detention industry”.

Featured image supplied