Barclays: divestment from Elbit, finally

Starting just over one year ago, Palestine Action’s campaign saw activists undertake 54 actions against Barclays premises nation-wide. Smashing branch windows, spraying them in blood-red paint, many of these actions put Barclays sites out of operation for weeks, actions which sought to raise the costs associated with dealing with Elbit:

In the latest U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, Barclays owned 0 shares in Elbit Systems Ltd (ELST), down 16,345 since the previous filing, 15 May 2024, worth over $3,400,000.

Until then, recent filings had showed Barclays’ Elbit shareholdings at record high quantities, having steadily increased from zero ten years ago. The most recent SEC filings and NASDAQ data record an immediate total sale of Barclays’ ELST shares, abruptly sold just when Palestine Action’s campaign hit them hardest.

Initial research published in July 2022 by Campaign Against Arms Trade, War on Want, and Palestine Solidarity Campaign showed the bank held shareholdings worth over £1.5billion in companies complicit with Israeli apartheid. Palestine Action adopted the campaign in October 2023 due to the bank’s investments in Elbit Systems — the group’s primary target.

A sustained campaign by Palestine Action

Palestine Action’s 11-month long campaign against Barclays reached its peak on 10 June 2024, when 20 branches had their windows smashed, drenched in red paint, in a co-ordinated nationwide overnight action:

Four days after, Barclays CEO CS Venkatakrishnan penned in the Guardian that the bank is concerned about “overall suffering” in the region, and is very accepting of the type of “peaceful protest” seen in multiple years of campaigning up until this year. But, in a media campaign co-ordinated with former Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, Venkatakrishnan complained of Palestine Action’s disruptive actions against the bank.

Inadvertently, Barclays CEO affirmed Palestine Action’s strategy, which is to make the cost of dealing in genocide, occupation, and apartheid exceed the potential to profit from it. Throughout this year-long campaign, several activists were arrested:

During questioning, police claimed that many actions caused damage between £250k to £500k in value. Most actions forced bank branches to close for weeks at a time, contributing to the financial disruption to the bank.

There are still many complicit institutions

These actions were taken as part of Palestine Action’s four-year campaign against the premises of Elbit Systems, and against the financial and industrial partners which support them like Barclays.

Elbit Systems is a major supplier of the Israeli military, its contributions including the vast majorities of Israel’s drones, along with mortuary munition and artillery rockets currently being used in Gaza.

The campaign has seen two of Elbit’s weapons factories forced to permanently shut down in Britain, and has forced a number of partners to halt relations with Elbit. Recently, activists have struck at over a dozen premises in Britain of Allianz a major shareholder in and insurer of Elbit.

A Palestine Action spokesperson said of the Barclays decision:

Through a focused strategy, direct action has achieved multiple successes and forced the hands of many complicit institutions. We will remain committed and focused to the task at hand and target any and all institutions and businesses which enable Israel’s biggest weapons firm to maintain their genocidal operations.

That means, if Barclays does reinvest into Elbit Systems in the future, Palestine Action will come knocking again.