21/07/2025
Motion on Palestine-Israel and risks to Isle of Wight Pension Fund
Last Friday I submitted the following draft motion to be heard at the Isle of Wight Pension Fund Committee on 29th July 2025. It was published with the committee papers earlier today.
It was drafted following multiple professional advices, input from other Councillors and with the assistance of senior IWC Officers.
Please share and contact your local Councillors if you belive they should support it.
“The Isle of Wight Pension Fund Committee notes:
· The right of Israel and Palestine to exist in peace.
· The ongoing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, including the mass killing of civilians, widespread destruction, and the displacement of the vast majority of the population.
· That credible international bodies and human rights organisations have described the situation as amounting to genocide and crimes against humanity.
This Committee believes:
· The attack of 7th October 2023 by the military wing of Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups from the Gaza Strip into the Gaza envelope of southern Israel and the killing of civilians and the taking of civilian captives during that attack, must be condemned.
· The disproportionate attacks by IDF into the Gaza Strip plus the subsequent killing of over 60,000 civilians - 70% of whom were women and children, the illegal displacement of Palestinians, the use of starvation and withholding of water as a weapon, and the targeting of Palestinian hospitals, emergency workers, public servants, journalists, academics, humanitarian aid workers, UN employees, schools and refugee centres, contrary to international law, must be condemned.
· That pension funds should be invested ethically and in a manner consistent with international law and human rights.
· That continuing to invest in companies complicit in or enabling violations of international law undermines the values of this authority and the trust of scheme members.
This Committee resolves, so far as the legal considerations allow, to:
· Engage (in writing) with fund managers to strongly urge them to avoid any direct or indirect investment which may or may be seen to be supporting or enabling the continuing genocide in Gaza, the ongoing displacement of Palestinians in the region, or the blockading of aid to Palestinians.
· Write to the relevant national pension oversight bodies and the UK Government urging them to support ethical investment standards across all LGPS funds.”
Link to meeting and for submission of questions:
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