McGill Investments: Policy Against Genocide in Palestine

1

Company

Type of Company

Investment (CAD $)
(https://www.mcgill.ca/investments/mipendowment/holdings)

Notable facts

References

2

Lockheed Martin

Weapons manufacturer

515,000

For over 50 years, Lockheed Martin has supplied the Israeli occupation army with weapons used to massacre Palestinians, including the Hellfire 9X missile (2). This missile is designed to shred its human targets using sharp blades. A few days ago, an Israeli drone fired this missile at refugees and patients in Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital (3), causing horrific injury and death. The Hellfire missiles are indicriminately used to kill civilians, complicit in war crimes in Palestine, Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan. Lockheed Martin received 75 billion dollars in Pentagon contracts in 2021 alone and was charged tens of times for bribery to win contracts worldwide.

(1) https://palestinecampaign.org/psc-company/lockheed-martin/
(2) https://man.fas.org/dod-101/sys/land/wsh2011/128.pdf
(3) https://twitter.com/Timesofgaza/status/1723061611269701947
(4) https://news.lockheedmartin.com/2014-04-09-Lockheed-Martin-Opens-New-Office-In-Israel

3

Safran

Military technology

1,507,748

Safran provides equipment to the Israeli police force in the occupied West Bank, which "imposes military law for Palestinian residents while Israeli settlers are governed by civil law" (1). There are more than 10,000 Palestinians, including children, currently detained in the West Bank in deplorable conditions, many held and tortured without charge (2).

1) https://corporateoccupation.org/2013/01/17/sagem-garrett-and-canon-equipment-supplied-to-judea-and-samaria-police/
2) https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/10/21/number-of-palestinian-prisoners-in-israel-doubles-to-10000-in-two-weeks

4

Airbus Aerospace

Military technology

1,547,013

Airbus exports weapons and military technology to Israel. They also directly fund Israeli aerospace, leasing the Heron drones, which are used to surveil the beseiged Gaza Strip. (1) These weapons are advertised as "tested" on Palestinians.

1) https://palestinecampaign.org/psc-company/airbus/
2) https://www.statewatch.org/analyses/2021/border-surveillance-drones-and-militarisation-of-the-mediterranean/
3) https://www.palestineaction.org/palestine-action-shut-down-tamworth/

5

L'Oreal

Makeup

1,494,613

L'Oreal operates a factory in the illegal settlement Migdal Ha'emek, which is built on the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the village of al-Mujaydil. The company markets "Natural Sea Beauty" products made with Dead Sea minerals - one third of the Dead Sea's Western shore lies in the West Bank (1). Each year, L'Oreal donates annually to the Weizmann Institute of Science which develops weapons for the Israeli military (2).

1) https://bdsmovement.net/news/l%E2%80%99oreal-makeup-israeli-apartheid
2) https://www.weizmann.ac.il/WeizmannCompass/sections/briefs/l%E2%80%99or%C3%A9al-unesco-award-to-prof-shafi-goldwasser

6

Thales SA

Weapons manufacturer

1,608,930

Thales manufactures weapons including missiles and drones, advertising the "fastest high velocity missile in the world" capable of "delivering proportional lethality" (1).
Thales also collaborated with the Israeli Elbit Systems to create the Watchkeeper Drone (2), modeled after Elbit's Hermes drone which has been deployed extensively in Gaza to kill Palestinian civilians (3). The Watchkeeper drone cost 1.35 billion dollars to develop. Through development and purchase of weapons, Thales directly funds and profits off of the occupation and genocide of Palestinians.

1) https://www.thalesgroup.com/en/countries/europe/united-kingdom/markets-we-operate/defence/advanced-weapons-systems-uk
2) https://www.army-technology.com/projects/watchkeeper/?cf-view
3) https://www.palestineaction.org/uav-tactical-systems/

7

Chevron Corp

Fossil fuels

1,400,000

On top of being the second largest global polluter in the world and one of the most environmentally destructive corporations ever, is the main fossil fuel extractor for Israel, mainly through the Leviathan Gas Field (1). Chevron is complicit in the illegal transfer of fossil gas to Egypt which crosses Gaza and owes millions in transfer fees to Palestinians.
Chevron also supports the proposed Eastmed pipeline which would travel through Occupied Palestine (2).
Oil extraction is a major incentive for the ongoing genocide in Gaza, with Israel illegally pillaging off-shore gas of the besieged Gaza Strip. In the past week, Israel awarded 12 licenses for oil exploration off the coast of Gaza to international fossil fuel companies (3). While Israel exploits the coast of Gaza, it uses oil exploration to justify denying Gazans the right to swim, fish, or boat in their waters, which they impose with brutal and deadly force (4).

1) https://bdsmovement.net/siemens-and-chevron-stop-fueling-apartheid-and-climate-disaster
2) https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-egypt-idUSKCN1VT07H
3) https://www.timesofisrael.com/amid-ongoing-war-bp-and-eni-among-firms-awarded-gas-exploration-licenses-in-israel/
4) https://www.alhaq.org/publications/8066.html

8

Coca-Cola

Food and drink

UNDISCLOSED

Coca-Cola operates a factory in the Atarot settlement. This settlement is illegal under international law and is built upon the takeover of Palestinian land and forced removal of Palestinian communities (1).

1) https://www.foa.org.uk/campaign/boycottcocacola

9

RBC

Bank

10,600,000

RBC have significant (worth 58 billion US) shares in Palantir, a mass surveillance system that provides Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to the Israeli military for surveillance of Palestinians. These systems "circumvent warrant procedures", providing military and police forces with "vast amounts of information" about civilians (1).

1) https://bdscoalition.ca/2021/12/21/royal-bank-of-canada-colonialism-from-turtle-island-to-palestine/

10

Volvo

Vehicles

UNDISCLOSED

Volvo provides armored buses for illegal Israeli settlements (1). Volvo equipment has also been used to demolish Palestinian homes.
Despite denying accountability for demolition, Volvo is the co-owner of Merkavim Ltd, an Israeli transport company that produced these buses and provides them to settlements in the Occupied West Bank that are illegal under international law. In doing so, Volvo enables settler violence against Palestinians. Throughout 2023 there averaged 3 instances of settler violence per day, which has doubled to 7 per day in the past month (2). Settler violence, which includes setting homes and trees on fire and physically attacking and killing Palestinians, including children, is enabled and supported by the Zionist regime. In the past month, the Israeli defense minister has purchased 10,000 assault rifles to be distributed to settlers (3), who often commit attacks in tandem with the Israeli police force and face no legal reprecussions.

1) https://bdsmovement.net/news/volvo-providing-armored-buses-israeli-settlements
2) https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/west-bank-settlers-violence-israel-palestinians-1.7019263
3) https://www.timesofisrael.com/ben-gvir-says-10000-assault-rifles-purchased-for-civilian-security-teams/

11

Unilever

Food and drink

663,685

After Ben & Jerry's board of directors took a "principled" stance of solidarity by voting to not sell their products in "present-day Israel and its illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT)", Unilever PLC - which owns Ben and Jerry's - sold its interests to Israeli licensee AQP. In this repressive action, the CEO of Unilever wrote “We have never expressed any support for the BDS movement and have no intention of changing that position," (2). In supressing and denouncing BDS, a peaceful form of protest called for by the Palestinian people, Unilever is complicit in the ongoing genocide in Palestine.

1) https://bdsmovement.net/news/statement-unilevers-sale-ben-jerrys-interests-apartheid-israel
2) https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20210728-unilever-rejects-bds-distances-itself-from-ben-jerrys-decision/

12

AXA

French Multinational Insurance Bank

UNDISCLOSED

A 2022 research report of the civil society coalition “Don’t Buy Into Occupation” (DBIO) shows that by May 2021, AXA was also investing a total of $845 million USD in "additional companies involved in illegal Israeli settlements, among them General Mills, Manitou, CETCO Mineral Technology Group, RE/MAX Holdings, Solvay and Terex".
AXA signed on to the UN Global Compact, yet further supports illegal settlements through investment in Israeli banks which finance them. (1)

1) https://bdsmovement.net/axa-divest
2) https://unglobalcompact.org/what-is-gc/participants/1048-AXA

13

Leumi Bank

Israeli Bank

UNDISCLOSED

Leumi is deeply complicit in financing the theft of Palestinian and Syrian land for the construction of settlements in violation of international law.
They also assist settlers in buying properties in illegal settlements and operate branches in occupied West Bank and Syrian Golan Heights colonies.
Israeli banks’ complicity in settlement construction has landed them on the UN’s database of companies profiting from Israel’s war crimes in occupied territory.

1) https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2020-02-12/ty-article/.premium/un-releases-blacklist-of-112-companies-with-ties-to-israeli-west-bank-settlements/0000017f-db11-df62-a9ff-dfd775400000
2) https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/why-human-rights-watch-urging-engagement-israels-banks
3) https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/uae-welcomes-israeli-banks-finance-theft-palestinian-land

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Total

~20M

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1	Institution	Notable facts	References
2	1. Ben Gurion University of the Negev 2. Hebrew University of Jerusalem 3. Technion-Israel Institute of Technology 4. Tel Aviv University	McGill’s complicity is not limited to investments, it extends to the network of exchanges and memoranda of understanding with Israeli educational institutions which are deeply implicated in the atrocities of the Israeli state. Technion Institute and Tel Aviv University are both heavily involved in military research and development (1). According to one professor, “Military R&D in Israel would not exist without the universities. They carry out all the basic scientific investigation, which is then developed either by defense industries or the army.” (1). Tel Aviv University's Greenberg National Institute of Forensic Medicine has for a long time directly assisted in the state's policy of detaining the dead bodies of killed Palestinians (2). Tel Aviv University, has developed weapons (3) and the Dayhiya doctrine, a method of war crime that calls for disproportionate use of force against civilians (4). Technion-Israel Institute of Technology is heavily and openly involved in military research and development (R&D), while Another formal partner of McGill, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, hosts (6) a military intelligence training program, while its very rooftops (7) have been used by Israeli snipers to shoot protesters in the Palestinian neighborhoods of Jerusalem (8).	1) https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ben-white/tel-aviv-universitys-role-settler-run-archaeological-dig-playing-hands-bds-israeli 2) https://secure.avaaz.org/community_petitions/en/to_princeton_university_cfaculty_universities_and__boycott_and_cut_ties_with_tel_aviv_university_the_greenberg_institute_until_ahmed_and_ot/ 3) https://bdsmovement.net/news/academia-weapons-and-occupation-how-tel-aviv-university-serves-interests-israeli-military-and 4) https://imeu.org/article/the-dahiya-doctrine-and-israels-use-of-disproportionate-force 5) https://www.eccpalestine.org/beyond-dual-use-israeli-universities-role-in-the-military-security-industrial-complex/ 6) https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/south-african-academics-call-end-ties-between-university-johannesburg-and-ben-gurion-univers 7) https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2019-04-14/ty-article/.premium/hebrew-university-to-host-israeli-army-base-on-campus/0000017f-dbe6-d856-a37f-ffe6bf330000 8) https://www.972mag.com/palestinian-students-militarization-hebrew-university/
3
4	Courses	Notable facts	References
5	Desautels Faculty of Management: Comparing Startup Ecosystems in Israel & Canada: Finance and OB perspectives (ORGB 434 & FINE 434) Faculty of Engineering: Building a Winning Business Plan (FACC 501)	Both of these courses engage in Techwashing, where tech innovation is portrayed as a neutral force of social progress (1), when in reality, Israel’s high-tech market plays an instrumental role in genocide and settler-colonialism. These courses play a key role in techwashing the genocidal nature of settler colonialism, through the promotion of ‘innovative’ tech startups. One of the companies Desautels students visited is Au10tix, which creates facial recognition technology, the same software that Israeli authorities use to heavily surveil Palestinians throughout the West Bank. Amnesty International states that the function of these tools is “to consolidate existing practices of discriminatory policing, segregation, and [curb] freedom of movement, violating Palestinians’ basic rights.” (6) These courses are also unique at McGill because they are both heavily subsidized by Zionist donors. The Start-Up Nation Experiential learning trip to Israel (FACC 501). course website advertises “Almost all expenses covered by a generous gift from the Gerald Schwartz- Heather Reisman Foundation”(2). These donors also created the Heseg foundation for ‘lone soldiers’, which provides bursaries to foreigners who want to join the Israeli Defense Force (3). Reisman and Schwartz are supporting genocide of Palestinians by funding settler mercenaries (4). The McGill-Israel Entrepreneurship Program: Israel Study Trip is also nearly fully funded by an undisclosed donor (5).	1) https://briarpatchmagazine.com/articles/view/start-up-nation-apartheid-state 2) FACC 501 course description pptx, (https://www.mcgill.ca/mcgillabroad/files/mcgillabroad/facc_501_winter_2024_israel_exchange.pptx) Slide 2 https://www.mcgill.ca/mcgillabroad/facc-501-startup-nation-experiential-trip-israel 3) https://www.heseg.com/?lang=en 4) https://www.cjpme.org/fs_082 5) https://www.mcgill.ca/desautels/files/desautels/isrt23_infosession20230221.pdf, Slide 2 6) https://www.mcgill.ca/mcgillabroad/files/mcgillabroad/israel_exchange_application_form_final_for_winter_2024_.docx 7) https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde15/6701/2023/en/