CORRECTION: In light of Deutsche Bank’s denial that it ever invested in the Israeli company Elbit Systems, this brief, sent yesterday, is being recalled. We recommend you do not run it.
Following pressure from critics, Germany’s largest bank has divested from the Israeli firm that supplies technology for the West Bank security fence.
Deutsche Bank CEO Josef Ackermann announced at Thursday’s shareholder meeting in Frankfurt that the firm now has no shares in Elbit Systems, a major Israeli defense company.
Israeli security officials say the fence, which separates Palestinians from Israelis and juts into West Bank territory, has significantly reduced the number of successful terror attacks since fence construction began in 2002. Palestinians say the fence constitutes a land grab by Israel in the West Bank.
Several years ago, the International Court in The Hague issued a nonbinding ruling saying the security fence violated international law. Over the years, Israel’s Supreme Court has ordered the route altered in some places.
The Deutsche Bank announcement followed pressure from International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and Pax Christi, a Catholic nongovernmental organization that describes itself as a human rights and peace movement.
Deutsche Bank should “not to profit any longer from the violation of human rights and international law through the construction of the Israeli wall on Palestinian lands,” the groups said.
They reported that as of March 31, the bank still had more than 50,000 shares in Elbit, making it one of the Israeli company’s largest shareholders.
In a joint statement released Friday, Pax Christi and the physicians’ group called the divestiture campaign “a major success.”
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.