European financiers extensively funding cos linked to Israel’s 'illegal' settlements

By Giulia Barbos*

Updated research reveals, for the third year in a row, billions worth of loans, underwriting, shares and bonds of 776 European banks, asset managers, insurance companies and pension funds in 51 companies that are involved in violations of human rights and international law.
European financial institutions held a significant USD 144.7 billion in shares and bonds in the 51 companies, while providing USD 164.2 billion in lending and underwriting to such companies. The findings cover the period from January 2020 to August 2023.
The new report from the Don’t Buy Into Occupation (DBIO) Coalition reveals that hundreds of European financial institutions remain heavily invested in companies shoring up illegal Israeli residential, agricultural and industrial settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Company activities include settlement construction, service provision, demolition of homes, and surveillance.
While these companies also conduct activities outside of the illegal settlement enterprise, financial institutions – regardless of their size or the proportion of the financial flows going into the settlement industry – still have a responsibility to use their leverage to prevent, mitigate, and address potential adverse impacts due to their involvement in violations and grave breaches of international human rights and humanitarian law that may amount to international crimes.
The 51 companies identified include prominent names such as Airbnb, Carrefour, Cisco Systems, IBM, Puma, Siemens, and Volvo Group, all involved in activities raising human rights concerns, whereas some have already been listed in the UN database of businesses linked to Israeli settlements.
The Israeli government persistently promotes, facilitates and enables the expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, further solidifying Israel's control over the Palestinian population and annexation of occupied territories.
Israeli settlements – which are illegal under international law and amount to a war crime and crimes against humanity – rely for their maintenance and expansion on the extensive appropriation of Palestinian land, the unlawful population transfers in and out of occupied territory, and the unlawful exploitation of natural resources, namely land and water.

Settlements deny Palestinians a myriad of their human rights, including freedom of movement, liberty and security, an adequate standard of living, self-determination and sovereignty over natural resources, among others. State-sponsored settler violence against Palestinian communities, involving killing, other forms of physical violence, and intimidation, torching of homes, fields and livestock, is alarmingly on the increase and has driven entire Palestinian communities to be forcibly displaced.
Noteworthy among the findings are the top creditors providing USD 116.55 billion in loans and underwriting, led by BNP Paribas (France) with USD 22.19 billion, and the top investors contributing USD 66.36 billion in shareholdings and bond holdings, led by the Government Pension Fund Global (Norway) with USD 13.16 billion.
This year’s report shows BNP Paribas, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, and Société Générale to be the largest lenders to companies supporting the construction and maintenance of Israeli settlements illegally built on occupied Palestinian land. This is a key driver of conflict which demands urgent attention.

These banks must stop fuelling Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians, and take appropriate action to address and prevent further human rights violations from taking place.
The DBIO reports have shown that financial institutions and business enterprises aren't able to meet their responsibilities under international law and human rights frameworks, including in occupied territory. In addition, the DBIO III report unveils how financial institutions are putting in place investment policies to align with human rights and international law, as well as policies that specifically include “involvement in the settlements in occupied territories” as an exclusion criterion.

However, those remain insufficient and at times overlooked when conducting activities in practice.
---

*Human Rights Campaigner and Policy Researcher, BankTrack

Comments

Was Netaji forced to alter face, die in obscurity in USSR in 1975? Was he so meek?

By Rajiv Shah This should sound almost hilarious. Not only did Subhas Chandra Bose not die in a plane crash in Taipei, nor was he the mysterious Gumnami Baba who reportedly passed away on 16 September 1985 in Ayodhya, but we are now told that he actually died in 1975—date unknown—“in oblivion” somewhere in the former Soviet Union. Which city? Moscow? No one seems to know.

Love letters in a lifelong war: Babusha Kohli’s resistance in verse

By Ravi Ranjan* “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” Bertrand Russell’s words echo hauntingly in our times, and few contemporary Hindi poets embody this truth as profoundly as Babusha Kohli. Emerging from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Kohli has carved a unique space in literature by weaving together tenderness, protest, and philosophy across poetry, prose, and cinema. Her work is not merely artistic expression—it is resistance, refuge, and a call for peace.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Asbestos contamination in children’s products highlights global oversight gaps

By A Representative A commentary published by the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS) has drawn attention to the challenges governments face in responding effectively to global public-health risks. In an article written by Laurie Kazan-Allen and published on March 5, 2026, the author examines how the discovery of asbestos contamination in children’s play products has raised questions about regulatory oversight and international product safety. The article opens by reflecting on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that governments in several countries were slow to respond to early warning signs of the crisis. Referring to the experience of the United Kingdom, the author writes that delays in implementing protective measures contributed to “232,112 recorded deaths and over a million people suffering from long Covid.” The commentary uses this example to illustrate what it describes as the dangers of underestimating emerging threats. Attention then turns...

Echoes of Vietnam and Chile: The devastating cost of the I-A Axis in Iran

By Ram Puniyani The recent joint military actions by Israel and the United States against Iran have been devastating. Like all wars, this conflict is brutal to its core, leaving a trail of human suffering in its wake. The stated pretext for this aggression—the brutality of the Ayatollah Khamenei regime and its nuclear ambitions—clashes sharply with the reality of the diplomatic landscape. Iran had expressed a willingness to remain at the negotiating table, signaling a readiness to concede points emerging from dialogue.

Authoritarian destruction of the public sphere in Ecuador: Trumpism in action?

By Pilar Troya Fernández The situation in Ecuador under Daniel Noboa's government is one of authoritarianism advancing on several fronts simultaneously to consolidate neoliberalism and total submission to the US international agenda. These are not isolated measures, but rather a coordinated strategy that combines job insecurity, the dismantling of the welfare state, unrestricted access to mining, the continuation of oil exploitation without environmental considerations, the centralization of power through the financial suffocation of local governments, and the systematic criminalization of all forms of opposition and popular organization.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

The kitchen as prison: A feminist elegy for domestic slavery

By Garima Srivastava* Kumar Ambuj stands as one of the most incisive voices in contemporary Hindi poetry. His work, stripped of ornamentation, speaks directly to the lived realities of India’s marginalized—women, the rural poor, and those crushed under invisible forms of violence. His celebrated poem “Women Who Cook” (Khānā Banātī Striyāṃ) is not merely about food preparation; it is a searing indictment of patriarchal domestic structures that reduce women’s existence to endless, unpaid labour.

The price of silence: Why Modi won’t follow Shastri, appeal for sacrifice

By Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey* In 1965, as India grappled with war and a crippling food crisis, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri faced a United States that used wheat shipments under the PL-480 agreement as a lever to dictate Indian foreign policy. Shastri’s response remains legendary: he appealed to the nation to skip one meal a day. Millions of middle-class households complied, choosing temporary hunger over the sacrifice of national dignity. Today, India faces a modern equivalent in the energy sector, yet the leadership’s response stands in stark contrast to that era of self-reliance.

Search This Blog