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Under pressure from activists and those of conscience, millions of dollars are flowing out of the US-based Development Corporation for Israel (DCI) an organization responsible for helping fund the siege on Gaza and the invasion of Lebanon by issuing debt securities backed by the Israeli Treasury.
It comes as a reversal of fortune, as according to Mondo Weiss, from the days following October 7th, 2023 to March 2024, “Israel received more than $8 billion through Israel bonds”.
Michigan and North Carolina are among several states where the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel’s apartheid-based domination of the Palestinians has succeeded in getting Israel Bonds off state balance sheets. The activist non-profit Michigan Divest has successfully lobbied the State of Michigan Investment Board to divest from Israel Bonds.
The Board bought $10 million worth of 2-year dated Israel Bonds in November 2023, after the full extent of the IDF’s assault on Gaza was well and truly visible. Maturing this year, Michigan Divest received confirmation that the State Treasurer will not rollover that $10 million, which formed a part of Michigan’s $115 billion state pension fund. 6 months after that decision, public records show that it has not been reversed.
Also last year, Break the Bonds NC was able to achieve similar success in North Carolina, where $6.7 million in Israel Bonds held by the state were sold after pressure from a coalition of 40 organizations.
Such divestments, along with boycotting of Israel companies—referred to as BDS for short—and pressure over public finance has seen Israeli government bonds receive two successive credit downgrades. Moody’s Ratings downgraded Israel’s credit rating to Baa1, three rungs above a “junk” rating, the lowest it has been in 76 years.
In February, 2024, WaL reported that one of the largest firms in all Japan, the Itochu Corporation, ended its partnership with Israeli defense firm Elbit Systems, another aspect of BDS that undoubtedly hurt the country’s financial prospects.
Leading Norway
A huge portion of that downgrade will have come from Norway, which manages one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds of $2 trillion driven from the country’s oil revenues. In 2024, the Norwegian Pension Fund announced that it had withdrawn all of its nearly half a billion dollars worth of investments in Israel Bonds. In August of last year, the country again opened its balance sheets and divested from 11 of 61 Israeli firms linked to the Gaza genocide and the invasion of Lebanon, but not the occupation and settler terrorism in the West Bank.
The fund said it will continue due diligence on the remaining 50 positions, adding that “all investments in Israeli companies that have been managed by external managers will be moved in-house and managed internally”. The fund neither named those positions it divested from, nor chose to divest entirely from the country. It’s currently reviewing 5 Israeli banks for potential divestment.
While activists cheer these BDS decisions as progress, divestment can be difficult to maintain when the petitioning and protesting stops. In southern Italy’s Calabria region, activists are finding just how difficult it can be.
Before a decision in April to suspend the long-standing Italian-Israeli defense cooperation agreement, which includes the exchange of military material, the No Harbour for Genocide campaign, supported by BDS Italy, “raised concerns about a shipment of ballistic steel originating in India and transported on vessels operated by [Mediterranean Shipping Company]” reported Middle East Eye in March.
The shipment was sitting at the port of Goia Tauro, one of the largest in the country, and the complaint prompted Italy’s Finance Police and Customs Agency to search for the steel. Authorities then “launched technical assessments to determine whether the material was intended for civilian use, dual-use applications, or military purposes,” the Eye continued, adding that it prompted a Parliamentary inquiry.
“It was important to keep the spotlight on Gioia Tauro because media attention and public pressure are what prevent these containers from being moved quietly to Israel months later, at night, without anyone knowing—as may have happened in the past without our awareness,” said Peppe Marra, regional secretary of the USB union in Calabria.
USB was one of dozens of labor unions, representing transportation workers and even daycare agencies, to partake of a massive nationwide strike in May in protest of the Gaza genocide and invasion of Lebanon. WaL
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PICTURED ABOVE: Break the Bonds NC protests against state-funding of Israel. PC: Retrieved from Break the Bonds NC.
