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Newry City councillor Killian Feehan has welcomed confirmation that the Northern Ireland Local Government Officers’ Superannuation Committee (NILGOSC) have divested around £700,000 of Israeli government bonds.
Cllr Feehan brought a motion to the monthly meeting of Newry, Mourne and Down District Council calling for the bonds to be sold.
The SDLP recently uncovered that the pension funds of public sector workers were being invested with the Israeli government.
Councillor Feehan said “I was clear at council on Monday evening that councillors and public sector workers across the North would not countenance their pension funds being invested with the Israeli government. Given the shocking scenes that emanate daily from Gaza and the death and destruction that has been wrought over the past year, it was unthinkable that our funds could be used to support the Israeli war machine.
“After the SDLP uncovered this situation NILGOSC have now moved quickly to divest these bonds. While this is welcome, I would question whether or not this action would have been taken had we not worked to bring this information into the public domain. Lessons must be learned around this situation and we must have greater transparency around the way pension funds here are invested. There can be no repeat of this.
“People in Newry and right across the North have shown incredible solidarity with the people of Palestine and I was glad to see my motion passed in council on Monday evening. Our hearts go out to everyone who has been impacted by the conflict in the Middle East, but we can in no way support or be complicit in the actions of a genocidal regime.”
In answer to a Newry.ie enquiry a spokesperson for NILGOSC said "NILGOSC has no holdings in Israeli government bonds." and added "The NILGOSC pension fund invests globally. NILGOSC has a fiduciary duty which typically means acting in the best financial interests and therefore does not divest (or invest) for political reasons."
