Alexi Dimond makes the case for councillors pushing to ensure their councils aren't complicit in Israel's crimes
Alexi Dimond is a Green Party councillor in Sheffield and member of Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Greens for Palestine
Sheffield has many proud legacies, but perhaps the one that makes me most proud to be a Sheffield city councillor is our tradition of internationalism.
In 1981, the city was the first in Britain to declare itself an “apartheid free zone”, pledging to end ties with apartheid South Africa, including boycotting goods, divesting pension funds, and banning sports teams. Two years later, Sheffield was home to the founding conference of the Local Authorities Action Against Apartheid – an initiative to use the levers of local government to challenge the grave injustice 6,000 miles away.
When Nelson Mandela visited Britain after his release, he paid tribute to local authorities for their campaigning, celebrating the role they had played in the global anti-apartheid movement. As distant as they may have seemed to the struggle in South Africa, he knew they had helped to bring an end to the apartheid regime just a few years before.
Today we need that spirit of internationalism more than ever. Despite the so-called ceasefire, Israel’s genocide in Gaza continues, with Palestinians murdered on a daily basis; Israel continues to accelerate its ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, and there is no respite to the apartheid that Palestinians suffer across their historic homeland.
That is why, as a Green councillor, I am proud to make the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC)’s Councillor Pledge for Palestine, vowing to take all appropriate steps to (1) uphold the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, (2) stand up to Israel for its crimes of genocide and apartheid, and (3) ensure my council is not complicit in Israel’s grave crimes.
But while Green councillors continue to champion the internationalism that brought my city to the forefront of the anti-apartheid campaign, the same cannot be said for all elected representatives in the city.
The Green Group of councillors in Sheffield, working with Sheffield PSC and other members of the Sheffield Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid, have been making the case for again declaring the city to be an apartheid free zone. But the move has been blocked by Sheffield Labour and the Liberal Democrats. The Labour Leader of Sheffield City Council even says he opposes taking the same action as the council did against apartheid South Africa.
Despite this, we have had some success. In September of this year, South Yorkshire Pensions Authority – the Local Government Pensions Scheme (LGPS) that covers Sheffield, and our wider pensions pool Border to Coast – sold all holdings in Israeli government bonds, a tacit acknowledgement of the risk of complicity in Israel’s crimes. But we need to go much further.
PSC’s research has found that the South Yorkshire Pensions Authority (SYPA) invests almost £500 million in companies complicit in Israel’s crimes. It’s far from alone: PSC’s research has found that nationally LGPS funds invest more than £12.2 billion in complicit companies.
When I raise this at SYPA and call for action, they object based on a flawed and narrow definition of the fiduciary duty – ignoring the UK’s legal duty not to aid or assist Israel’s grave violations of international law. According to legal advice obtained by PSC and written by experts at Doughty Street Chambers, fund administrators are legally required to heed such duties and take steps to divest from companies complicit in Israel’s crimes.
PSC wrote to LGPS Administering Authorities to inform them of this, prompting the body that advises them, the Scheme Advisory Board (SAB), to ask the government for guidance on investments. In the letter the SAB admitted that it was “not well placed to determine whether a line has been crossed in the recent conflict, or the status of the on-going legal and diplomatic processes being pursued through United Nations bodies and the International Criminal Court.”
More than two months on, the SAB still hasn’t received a reply. It is hard to escape the conclusion that this is because the Labour government knows that it is aiding and assisting Israel’s serious breaches of international law but does not want to implicate itself.
This should come as no surprise. The Labour government hasn’t just been deeply complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza, but has used it as a pretext to attack democratic rights here in Britain. It has further curtailed the right to protest, proscribed Palestine Action, and right now is ignoring the plight of brave hunger strikers who are being held on remand and denied bail on blatant political grounds.
The scale of these horrors may make local government seem insignificant. But in Sheffield, we know that’s not true. From the trailblazing role this city played in the fight against apartheid in South Africa, we know local authorities can and must play that leading role again.
As the Labour government upholds genocide abroad and assaults democratic rights at home, the famous words of Mandela have never been more apt.
“Our freedom,” he said, “is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”
Green councillors, indeed all councillors, should heed this lesson and Pledge for Palestine today.
Write to your local councillors to ask them to make the pledge by following this link. Councillors can make the pledge themselves by following this link.
Image credit: Scotgunn – Creative Commons
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