Bracknell Forest Council staff and other public sector workers have their pensions paid through the Berkshire Pension Fund.
The fund is managed at the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead (RBWM).
The East Berkshire Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) has been pressing for the fund to divest from companies with investments in Israel, as 17 councils have made commitments to divest from companies complicit in Israel’s alleged violations of international law.
These demands were made at a full council meeting.
Yvonne Hope, a PSC member, said: “Considering the fact that many other councils and organisations have heeded the warnings from numerous experts in international law and are committing to divest from companies that are profiting from or directly supporting the illegal occupation of Palestinian land and the ongoing genocide.
“To that end, could this council consider tabling a motion to the fund to support those statements as other councils are already doing?”
The council is represented on the pension fund advisory panel by councillor Stephen O’Regan (Labour, Binfield South & Jennett’s Park), who was not present at the meeting.
On his behalf, Mary Temperton (Labour, Great Hollands), the council leader, said he has done a lot of research at the fund and would be better placed to answer those questions.
A written answer explained that the fund used asset manager LPPI to manage its investments.
The answer states: “LPPI monitors the fund investments daily against a United Nations list of companies involved in activities related to settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT).
“Currently, the Fund has exposure to just one company on the UN OPT list, representing approximately 0.8 per cent of the fund’s assets.”
The answer went on to state that the fund will be adopting a new responsible investments policy.
Sue Sibany-King the branch secretary of the East Berkshire PSC said: “That’s only a subset of companies that are complicit in Israel’s crimes.
“It only contains companies conducting business activity in Israel’s illegal settlements during a specific time period. Companies supplying Israel with weapons and military technology fall outside of the scope of this list. So stating that the fund only has investments in one company on the UN list sadly doesn’t answer our question. The Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) has a comprehensive list on their website and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign research shows a very condemning involvement in financially supporting the ongoing genocide.”
She then asked whether cllr O’Regan would urge the fund to fully divest from arms companies.
Cllr Temperton said cllr O’Regan would be asked to present these questions of the fund, and reiterated that all information provided in the answer was provided by the fund itself.
The meeting took place on September 10.
