Palestine solidarity campaigners in west Wales are drawing attention to Dyfed Pension Fund’s (DPF) hundreds of millions in investments linked to Israel’s war crimes. They are collecting signatures for a petition that calls on the DPF to quit these investments and end its complicity.
Dyfed Pension Fund: complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide
On Thursday 15 May, campaigners will lobby the Board Meeting of the Dyfed Pension Fund (DPF) at County Hall in Carmarthen. There, they will hand over letters requesting the fund to divest. The lobbying action will coincide with the 77th anniversary of the Nakba, the day when the Israeli state evicted some 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and land, and killed many others. Nakba means ‘catastrophe’ in Arabic.
Then, on Monday 23 June, campaigners will once more pressurise the DPF Pension Committee at County Hall in Carmarthen. They will present a petition containing over 1700 signatures from the public in Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire to the Committee Chair. A Pembrokeshire petition with 672 signatures was previously handed over to the Committee in March. It is understood that the committee will commission a report, but campaigners are unclear what the report will be about.
£235m invested in Israel
The Dyfed Pension Fund (DPF) is one of eight local government pension funds in Wales. It manages the pensions of just over 50,000 past and present employees.
Carmarthenshire County Council administers the DPF on behalf of Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, and Pembrokeshire county councils and other bodies such as Dyfed-Powys Police, Mid & West Wales Fire & Rescue Service, local colleges, town and community councils.
The chair of the DPF Committee is Elwyn Williams, a Plaid Cymru councillor who represents the residents of Llangunnor ward. He is also chair of the Wales Pension Partnership, which administers in a pool the eight local government schemes in Wales on their behalf.
Carmarthenshire also provides the administrative support for the Wales Pension Partnership. So, Carmarthenshire County Council, through Cllr. Williams and senior staff, wield a great deal of influence.
The Palestine Solidarity Campaign’s research proves that DPF has invested £235m in Israel. This is despite the DPF originally telling activists that the sum only amounted to £1.3m.
End genocide complicit pension fund investments
Israel’s war crimes against the Palestinian people in Gaza and the Occupied West Bank has galvanised campaigners across west Wales. In the last 20 months Israel has killed tens, if not hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. It has destroyed Gaza’s life sustaining infrastructure, including hospitals, water sanitation facilities and agricultural land. Now Israel is deliberately starving the 1.9 million who remain. It has allowed no food in for two months. Children, the sick, and vulnerable are already dying.
The International Court of Justice has ruled that Israel is in breach of international law. Yvonne Redfern of the Carmarthenshire Palestinian Solidarity Campaign said:
Therefore, councils must avoid procuring from, or investing in, companies that facilitate Israel’s lawbreaking. These include companies producing weapons and military technology used by Israel in its attacks on Palestinians; financial institutions providing investment and loans to these arms companies; and companies conducting business activity in Israel’s illegal settlements on stolen Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank.”
The campaign demands that Dyfed Pension Fund (DPF):
- Remove investments from companies included in the UN Human Rights Office’s list of business enterprises active in Israel’s illegal settlements (A/HRC/43/71).
- Publish procedures to ensure the fund is not complicit in the Israeli government’s violations of Palestinian human rights and international law. This includes outlining what robust time-limited engagement practices are in place where complicit companies are identified, and what subsequent action can be taken if companies do not respond to engagement processes.
- Implement a robust investment strategy statement/statement of investment principles, to ensure that the DPF cannot be invested in companies that contribute to a breach of international law or are complicit in human rights abuses.
A lack of ‘democratic accountability and transparency’
The campaign includes the Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion branches of the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign, Solidarity with Palestine Pembrokeshire, Palestine Solidarity Aberystwyth, Palestine Solidarity West Wales, and the Narberth Gaza Support Group.
Groups began the campaign with the launch of petitions across west Wales in October 2023, soon after Hamas’s attack on 7 October. Since then, they have written letters to leaders of the three councils, emails sent to councillors, council employees engaged, street stalls and film showings held to highlight what is being done to the Palestinians.
However, campaigners and pensioners are angry that the councils say they have no influence on how the Dyfed Pension Fund (DPF) manages its money.
Activists asked to make a presentation and hand over a petition to Pembrokeshire County Council, which said it was not an issue for them.
Dinah Mulholland of Ceredigion PSC said:
Activists are unhappy with this seeming lack of democratic accountability and transparency. The three county councils in west Wales are partners in the pension fund. The councils represent workers and former employees who have paid into the pension fund. But both present and future beneficiaries of the fund don’t appear to have much say over how their pensions are invested.
Notably, the DPF has said its investment decisions follow the advice of Robeco, an independent asset management company. However, the groups believe the fund is using Robeco as an excuse to hide behind and to avoid ethical decisions on investments that support Israel.
The fund has said it had no provision for members of the public to make presentations or to accept petitions. But at the March committee meeting, Cllr Williams did accept the Pembrokeshire petition and at the next meeting in June, campaigners from Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion intend to present their petitions too.
This response also contrasts with the response from pension funds. Elsewhere, campaigners in have formally met councillors to make the case for divestment. Some pension funds in England have already agreed to change their investment policies, such as on weapons manufacture and arms sales.
Featured image via the Canary
