Skip to main content

Investment in Elbit Systems

screenshot of website with three young people's photos

The repression of pro-Palestinian protestors is shocking. The British government is allowing prisoners on hunger strikes to die, simply for asking for their rights as prisoners (e.g., a fair trial). Their crime: protesting an arms manufacturer. 

This arms manufacturer, Elbit Systems, get plenty of money from Canada as well. 

So, it's time for a letter! Here's my edits to Just Peace Advocates' letter for Canadian banks and pension plans.


I am writing today in horror over your institution’s investment in Elbit Systems. 

Elbit Systems is an Israeli weapons manufacturer. 

Israel is verifiably committing genocide. 

According to international law, any state or financial entities aiding and abetting a state committing genocide is complicit. 

Stop it. 

Elbit provides ground equipment and unmanned aerial vehicles for the Israeli military. It also produces tank shells, rockets, drones, electronic warfare systems, and observation / information processing systems. They also are the leading developer and supplier of systems for armoured combat vehicles. This is just a short list, there are countless types of weapons and technology that Elbit Systems provides to the Israeli military, specifically for its use in the bombardment of Gaza. Elbit has also provided technology to enforce the illegal 20 year blockade and siege of the Gaza Strip. 

Despite all of that, your institution continues to invest in Elbit Systems. 

For shame! 

In other words, your company is financing the death of Palestinians. This is not hyperbole. 

Shame on you!

Corporations can be held accountable under domestic and international law for enabling genocide and war crimes. There are plenty of Canadians watching this who will be only to eager to make sure you face legal and financial ramifications for your actions. To avoid facing criminal and/or civil prosecution, it is imperative that your company end all investments in Elbit Systems (and other complicit companies). 

History will not look fondly on those who financed genocide. You still have the chance to make a change. It will not bring back the lives of those already murdered, but it will help prevent more lives from being stolen. 

I demand you end investments in Elbit Systems today!


You can also send a letter to Canada Procurement

And here's Prisoners for Palestine's letter for British decision makers

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

What happened to the pledge?

To the 20 (re-elected) Liberal MPs who signed the Vote Palestine platform.  You signed the Vote Palestine platform.   The time to fulfill your pledge is now.  Gaza is facing mass starvation. This isn’t food scarcity. This is intentional blockage of food as a tool of genocide. Canada’s joint statement with 25 other nations called on all the parties to “uphold the obligations of international humanitarian law.”  But Israel has been flagrantly violating multiple obligations of international law almost daily since October 8, 2023 and certain on every day since Canada’s statement was released. There is no need to wait, to give Israel the benefit of the doubt to do the right thing.  “We are prepared to take further action”, the statement reads. So do it.  Canada must immediately impose a true arms embargo on Israel – a two-way arms embargo – and it must actually put it into force and close all loopholes.  Canada must immediately levy sancti...

Letter writing success

Last week, several sources linked to a letter appealing to venerable Canadian scientist and nature advocate David Suzuki to withdraw from a supposed climate prize due to its deep ties to an unbashedly colonlialist Israeli organization. The JNF's claim to fame is planting trees in Israel. Pine trees. Non-native trees. Trees that are susceptible to wildfires. Trees intentionally planted atop forcibly-emptied Palestinian villages to try to erase their memory.  The letters worked. Suzuki withdrew. I hadn't gotten around to writing before I got the news. So when a follow up letter to other participants in the prize hit my inbox, I rushed to put my own spin on the letter and sign it. Send your own here I urge you to join David Suzuki in withdrawing from the upcoming Climate Solutions Prize (CSP) festival. CSP was instigated by the racist Jewish National Fund (JNF) of Canada with support from the Israeli government. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennet announced the launch of CSP...

Broken people...

After reflecting with one coworker on how often churches in all their forms really mess up and hurt a whole bunch of people in the process -- and how "we gotta do better" -- I stumbled into another conversation with a coworker which highlighted our brokenness, and I suddenly realized what was wrong with my take in the first. I wanted the church to be better at fixing our mistakes, or better yet, at not making them in the first place. But maybe this "fix-it" attitude is partly the reason we keep blowing it again and again! My friend recollected an experience when a church community was in a terrible place: compounded mistakes, hurts, and frustrations had blown up, spewing pain all over all parties. (I'm sure anyone with a long history in the church can think of one, if not several, such occasions in their past.) A new Christian who observed all these goings on responded in an unexpected way. Instead of "you people are a bunch of screw-ups! How could this pos...