The circle is closing on Netanyahu. And the pressure is coming from the business establishment, which fears boycott.
Haaretz: “Settlements prompt European investors to review ties with Israeli banks”:
Three major European pension funds are reviewing their holdings in Israeli banks due to concerns they finance West Bank settlements, the Financial Times reported Sunday.
According to the report, ABP, a Dutch pension fund considered the world’s third largest, Nordea Investment Management, a Scandinavian firm, and DNB Asset Management, a Norwegian company, want more information about the Israeli banks’ involvement in Israeli settlements.
Ynet says boycott is biting in the Israeli establishment:
A hundred of Israel’s leading businessmen and businesswomen will fly to Davos next week, armed with a poignant message for the prime minister: Maintaining a growing and stable economy requires Israel to make peace with Palestinians, the sooner the better.
Leaders and businesspeople ranging from Strauss Group Chairwoman Ofra Strauss to Google Israel CEO Meir Bren and former UN ambassador Dan Gillerman will descend on the Davos Economic Forum to urge Israelis and Palestinians leaders to reach a diplomatic solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
An a-political group of Palestinians and Israelis, which includes names such as Palestinian energy mogul Munib Masri, tech mogul Yossi Vardi, Amdocs founder Maurice Kahan, Bezeq CEO Avi Gabai, industrialist Gad Propper, Israeli low-cost supermarket magnate Rami Levy and former ambassador to the US Prof. Itamar Rabinovich, have signed on an initiative called Breaking the Impasse (BTI)….
According to daily Calcalist, a week ago, some members of the group met Netanyahu in his office in preparation of the Davos meet. During the meeting, they warned him of the looming threat posed by boycotts.
Smadar Barber Tsadik, CEO of the First International Bank of Israel, said at the meeting that “the largest investment fund in Holland has already announced that it will not invest in Israel anymore because of its treatment of the Palestinians – and that’s a problem.”
I recall reading, years ago, that it was lobbying from the business community that helped to end the military government over Israeli Palestinians back in the sixties. At the time the Israeli economy was hurting and the business people needed cheap Arab labor to help them out of it.
This is the most effective way to deal with any government, hit ’em in the pocket book. When rich folk start complaining governments start listening.
“the largest investment fund in Holland has already announced that it will not invest in Israel anymore because of its treatment of the Palestinians – and that’s a problem.”
This is BIG! It is EU talking and what it is saying is, “Boycott Israel”. And the reason for the boycott is NOT the settlements, or even the occupation, but (broadly) the “treatment of the Palestinians”.
One doesn’t know the length and breadth of people’s feelings and determination, but the language is right.
And there is no announcement (yet, or here) of what Israel must do to regain the investment possibilities of “the largest investment fund in Holland”. Grant PRoR? Doesn’t say so, but the exiles of 1948 are an important part of “the Palestinians”.
If I were Abbas, I’d be encouraged to stay the course — to refuse to give in to some meaningless “compromise” from Israel of its ever-outsized demands.
In another report,” An ABP spokesperson said the fund might exclude the stocks “as a last resort” if the banks fail to act. Nordea, meanwhile, is expected to meet the Israeli banks in March and take a decision on a possible withdrawal of investment at a meeting in May.”
It is difficult to see how the Israeli banks can do anything about this, because the economy of the West Bank [now Palestine] is so interlinked with the Israeli economy in fact according to a New Israeli report: Israeli Banks are principal beneficiaries of the illegal settlements. http://pulsemedia.org/2010/10/18/new-israeli-report-israeli-banks-are-principal-beneficiaries-of-the-illegal-settlem Most Israeli Banks also have branches in occupied territory, get out of that.
Yeah, I think the situation right now is that EU companies could get in trouble if they do not differentiate between Israel and the settlements and Israeli companies can get in trouble for doing just that because Israeli law forbids it. So no other way to go for EU companies and I expect a lot of them to get out this year. Plus there is a lot of social pressure on ABP to get out. People don’t like it when their pension funds invest in anything controversial, including weapons, environmentally damaging things or exploitation. Another good thing to come out of the PGGM thing is people realize what is done with their pension funds and write them to voice their opinion. The snowball is starting to roll in the Netherlands.
RE: “As boycott pressure grows, Israeli business leaders plan to confront Netanyahu“
MY COMMENT: Good luck with that!* (Sarcasm intended.)
* FROM JOEL KOVEL, 1-20-13:
SOURCE – https://mondoweiss.mystagingwebsite.com/2013/01/israel-nominaton-hagel.html