Australian National University invest more than half a million in blacklisted Israeli companies

The Australian National University has disclosed shares in a number of United Nations-blacklisted businesses who do business in illegal Israeli settlements in the Palestinian occupied territories like the West Bank and East Jerusalem. 

In response to a freedom of information request submitted by the University of Sydney Disabilities Collective, the ANU confirmed that the University has several shares in companies listed under the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ (OHCHR) database of businesses operating in illegally occupied Palestinian Territories in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. 

The ANU also revealed that it sold shares in Israel’s largest banks between December 2023 and January 2024, Bank Leumi and the First International Bank of Israel. Bank Leumi is Israel’s largest state-owned bank and was founded by Theodor Herzl in London as the colonial Anglo-Palestine Bank and was the first Zionist bank. 

The First International Bank of Israel was founded in 1970 and finances illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank and the Golan Heights. 

Motorola produces “perimeter surveillance systems” that detect human movements around settlements and military camps in the West Bank. 

The ANU refused the vast majority of the Disabilities Collective’s broader application on the grounds that the request constituted an “unreasonable diversion of our agencies’ resources”.

In a statement to Honi, the ANU did not directly address its investments in businesses connected to the illegal settlements nor the recent ICJ decision, instead pointing to an ongoing investment policy review process conducted by a working group of “subject matter experts and representatives” from the staff and student body. 

The University also sidestepped Honi’s questions on why it divested shares from Bank Leumi and the First International Bank of Israel. 

“As part of the review process, ANU held a general townhall for ANU staff and students on Tuesday 16 July. The townhall provided an opportunity for ANU staff and students to hear how the socially responsible investment policy and investments at ANU work, as well as ask questions about these processes.

“The feedback will be collated and synthesised by [a] working group to support the development of any updates to the policy,” a spokesperson said.

In 2021, Norway’s largest pension fund KLP divested from the First International Bank and other blacklisted companies following the publication of the UN’s list in 2020, citing “an unacceptable risk that the excluded companies are contributing to the abuse of human rights in situations of war and conflict through their links with the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank”. US investment firm Morningstar divested its stake in Motorola for similar reasons in 2023.

This revelation follows ANU Students Against War’s analysis of the University’s disclosure logs and freedom of information request detailing just over $1 million of investments in arm manufacturers including Lockheed Martin, Thales, and Northrop Grumman. 

One week ago, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivered a scathing advisory opinion on Israel’s occupation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The region operates on an unequal two-tiered legal system with Israel applying civil law to Jewish settlers and military law to Palestinians living under the Palestinian Authority that has been recognised by the ICJ as constituting a form of “apartheid”. 

It also held that Israel breached Article 3 of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in segregating Palestinians and Jewish Israelis, including by expanding illegal settlements in Palestinian lands. 

“The Court observes that Israel’s legislation and measures impose and serve to maintain a near-complete separation in the West Bank and East Jerusalem between the settler and Palestinian communities. For this reason, the Court considers that Israel’s legislation and measures constitute a breach of Article 3 of CERD” the court said

Earlier this week, the federal government, in a joint statement with Canada and New Zealand, called for an “immediate ceasefire” and imposed sanctions on a small number of extremist Israeli settlers. 

The Australian National University Students’ Association (ANUSA) was contacted for comments and has yet to issue a response at the time of writing. 

[Top image: A photograph of Al Aqsa Mosque. Image Courtesy of CNN]

Disclaimer: Khanh Tran is one of the University of Sydney SRC Disabilities officers.