On June 3 in Vancouver Canada, Palestine solidarity activists held a flash action at the Scotiabank Towers on a busy downtown street. They were there to highlight the complicity of Scotiabank in funding the killing of Palestinians due to its status as the largest foreign investor in the Israeli arms company Elbit Systems.

Canadian BDS Coalition groups and other allies are developing a grassroots national action campaign to demand that Scotiabank divest immediately from Elbit. The June 3 protest (which followed an info picket calling for freedom for Walid Daqqah) involved several Coalition member organizations and supporters determined to end Scotiabank’s profiting off Palestinian death.

Scotiabank, short for the Bank of Nova Scotia, is a Canadian multinational financial services company headquartered in Toronto and the third largest Canadian bank.

In October 2022, Scotiabank’s asset fund put $500 million into Elbit Systems Ltd, which amounts to 5% of the company. In April of this year, at the Scotiabank annual shareholders meeting, the ethical investing group Eko presented a petition with 12,000 signatories calling on them to divest from the firm and all deadly weapons companies. According to reports, Scotiabank did not respond directly to questions about Elbit at the meeting, but a bank representative “characterized all fund decisions as being driven by ‘the interests of shareholders’.”

In fact, one of Scotiabank’s asset fund managers and executive David Fingold said in a 2019 interview, while extolling the virtues of investing in Elbit, “…the fact that Israel is in a ‘dangerous neighborhood’ creates a need for Israel to be very creative in defense, and this industry will remain strong here.”

And then bluntly added: “The cycle at Elbit is not connected to the state of the economy, but to the state of global arms procurement, and it can be seen that militaries in both Europe and America continue to arm themselves and in particular need upgrades for their old equipment.”

The campaign by Palestine Action in the UK has drawn public attention to Elbit and its horrific record with its “battle-tested” weapons, especially its killer drones. As Palestine Action notes, “Elbit Systems, based in Haifa, is Israel’s largest private arms manufacturer and security company. Elbit’s largest customer is the Israeli Ministry of Defence, with Elbit providing up to 85% of Israel’s land-based military equipment and approximately 85% of its drones.”

According to Defense for Children International – Palestine, “Israel, the world’s largest exporter of aerial drones, killed at least 164 children in drone attacks” during its 2014 assault on Gaza. And an Elbit drone was reportedly used in the infamous attack that same year that killed four Palestinian boys playing on a beach in Gaza.

Teresa Diewert, a member of BDS Vancouver-Coast Salish, one of the groups involved in the Vancouver picket, stated: “While working people struggle to make ends meet, Banks make massive profits while investing in machines of war and death. Scotia Banks’ investment in Elbit Systems makes them complicit in war crimes against the Palestinian people in particular and Canadians should be demanding that Scotia Bank divest from Elbit Systems now.” 

Samidoun, an initiator of the picket, pointed out: “Palestine Action’s direct action campaign has caused two Elbit locations in Britain to close already, and the campaign is proceeding at additional Elbit sites. Elbit has been divested by a number of banks, including HSBC, and sovereign wealth and pension funds in Australia, Sweden and Norway.”

Investments in Israeli war crimes can never be ethical or socially responsible. Activists are determined that this huge investment by Scotiabank in one of Israel’s leading arms manufacturers must not be allowed to continue. It’s time to #ShutElbitDown in Canada and across the world!

Canada’s Scotiabank is funding Israeli war crimes – Mondoweiss