On Wednesday 5th supporters of justice for Palestine packed the council public gallery to demand that the council terminate its contract with Barclays, a direct investor in Israeli government bonds, and be much more forceful about its approach to South Yorkshire Pension funds investment over which, the council claims, it has no control.
Points were also raised about support for the arms industry in Sheffield which will in turn be providing Israel with weapons. These statements were read out to show support for a Green Party motion “Opposing Sheffield Council Taxpayers Investments In Israel, Weapons Manufacturing and Fossil Fuels” which you can read in full at item 11 on this page.
One statement read out was as follows:
We believe that the Council has greater powers than it chooses to exercise. Not using your powers fully leads to citizens’ disillusionment with public institutions.
For example: Strategy and Resources dismissed a 7,500 strong petition asking that the Council declare Sheffield an Israeli Apartheid free Zone, using the legal considerations put forward by Officers, whose job is to be risk aware. However, the CEO said – very clearly – that Councils can make such political statements and some have.
Similarly, there has been a long campaign to ensure that Sheffield’s Ethical Procurement Policy uses all its powers of Discretion to avoid dealing with any company “guilty of grave professional misconduct, which renders its integrity questionable” Public Contracts Regulations say unequivocally that the authority can use “any appropriate means” to demonstrate a company’s questionable integrity. Yet the Council insists that a “court ruling must provide cogent evidence”.
When asked to take the minimal step of writing to Barclays bank raising concerns about its being the UK primary dealer in Israeli Government bonds, about its investments in, and financing of, arms dealers complicit in genocide, nothing was done.
We call on you to exercise moral and political powers fully on today’s Divestment motion.
Due to Labour and Liberal party blockers much of this motion was thrown out .
Tell The Truth website has uploaded videos of some statements by supporters (see below) and detailed what has been removed from the original motion. You can read more details about our campaign to have a council that divests from Israel here
Prior to this meeting we had asked supporters to write to the council leaders and thier councillors. As below
Divest for Palestine: update!
🇵🇸 On Wed. 5th we need to pack the public gallery for the council meeting. Arrive at the Town hall by 1.30 pm and give your name to Town hall staff in the foyer to indicate that you wish to attend the meeting. There will also be questions and statements from supporters during the first hour of the meeting. Please see below for where to write in advance to your councillor to urge them to support the motion
Dear supporter
The ceasefire is not the end of the road for justice for Palestinian people. Far from it. We must insist that our representatives recognise that the occupation of Palestine is illegal, that in the war on Gaza we saw a genocide and perpetrators must be brought to justice and the power we have in the UK to to cut all links with Israel, in particular economic links.
So, today we are asking you to write urgently to your local councillors, to request that they support the divestment motion which will be proposed by Sheffield Green councillors at the Council meeting on Wed. 5th Feb.
In November 2023 Sheffield Councillors came together to unanimously call for a ceasefire. The first Council to do so. And on November 29th last year, after a lot of pressure from the community, they flew the Palestine flag on the UN’s Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people.
They need to come together now to take forward the divestment campaign. We know that boycott and divestment campaigns work. Now, more than ever, we must escalate our campaign in support of freedom, justice and equality for the Palestinian people.
The motion (see item 11 of the agenda) commits the Council to:
- review it’s ethical procurement policy to ensure it will no longer sign contracts with companies like Barclays, which support Israel’s war crimes;
- write to South Yorkshire Pensions Authority opposing it’s investment of Council taxpayers’ money in arms companies and fossil fuel companies profiting from and facilitating Israel’s genocide in Gaza;
- end support for the production of weapons which enable Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people.
Please write today to:
- your councillors to demand that they support the motion on 5th Feb. Ask for a reply, and if necessary write again.
- the Council leader and the lead for the Greens and the Liberal Democrats. They need to know the strength of feeling across the city!
You can find details of your three ward councillors at this link:
https://democracy.sheffield.gov.uk/mgFindMember.aspx or here https://www.writetothem.com/
The emails of the party leaders are as follows:
- Labour: tom.hunt@councillor.sheffield.gov.uk,
- Lib Dem: Shaffaq.mohammed@councillor.sheffield.gov.uk,
- Green: Douglas.johnson@councillor.sheffield.gov.uk
