Waltham Forest for a Free Palestine say Waltham Forest Council has been agonisingly slow in progressing on its commitment to divest its pension fund from arms companies linked to Palestinian harm
In July last year, Waltham Forest Council became one of the first in the UK to announce a commitment to divest its pension fund from arms companies.
It came several months after our campaign group, Waltham Forest for a Free Palestine, mobilised thousands of our neighbours to sign a petition demanding the council divest from any company involved in arming Israel and making its system of apartheid and colonialism possible.
It’s been 18 months since that win and there’s been little progress from the council on their commitment. They have, at least, divested from arms companies like L3Harris who create parts for F-35 fighter jets and the construction company Caterpillar, who we argued should be regarded as an arms company on the basis that they create military bulldozers and vehicles used to destroy Palestinian homes.
We welcome these changes to the council’s investments as important wins in disarming Israel and reducing our complicity. Unfortunately, they still invest hundreds of thousands of pounds in companies like Barclays who the council also chooses to bank with – who finance the Israeli government and contribute to the most climate destruction across the world of any major bank – and Checkpoint Software, one of Israel’s largest companies working closely with the military.
The national Palestinian BDS committee singles out the technology company, Cisco Systems as a complicit target for its longstanding partnership with the Israeli occupation forces. Waltham Forest’s pension fund invests over £1 million pounds in Cisco, according to the latest Freedom of Information data we have seen.
The technological infrastructure which enables Israel’s crimes against Palestinians to continue is just as important as arms investment which is why as a campaign group we are pushing to end any and all investment in technology companies which benefit the Israeli military. That includes Palantir, who sell AI technologies and software to the Israeli military which enable its targeted killings of Palestinians, and benefit from £160,000 worth of investment through the pension fund.
These investments are an embarrassment to a council who prides itself on having an ethical investment policy and being the first in the UK to divest from fossil-fuels. The leader of the council, Grace Williams, and the chair of the pension committee, Johar Khan, tell us these investments are complex and that divestment is a long process. They blame their fund manager, the London Collective Investment Vehicle, which in turn blames its external fund managers. It seems there’s always someone else to blame, because everyone with power is shirking responsibility.
In the meantime, local residents across the borough are still turning up to meetings, protests, councillor surgery hours and emailing their local councillors to let them know we do not support this Labour government’s imperialist position on Palestine.
Palestine, it seems, is an issue the Waltham Forest Labour-run council thinks it can ignore. As the local council elections loom in 2026, we will continue to connect with pressure groups and local residents who are fighting for a fairer Waltham Forest. For us, that means connecting Palestine, the housing crisis, migrant rights and access to public spaces which can’t be bought, sold or co-opted by the council and its many vested interests.
To get involved email us via [email protected] or follow us @walthamforest4p.
On Wednesday 26th November at 6pm we are holding a protest outside Waltham Forest Town Hall, anyone can attend.
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