IN recent years the term divestment has more often been associated with calls for organisations and pension funds to withdraw their investments in fossil fuel companies.

Climate campaigners have made divestment a key demand of their activism and found some success in doing so.

But as Israel’s conduct in Gaza continues to raise concerns about human rights abuses and the complicity of those funding the arms companies which supply the IDF, divestment is a term increasingly being applied to investments in the arms trade.

Which Scottish pension funds have investments in arms firms?

The Strathclyde Pension Fund is one of the largest pension funds in Europe with over 277,000 members.

However, despite being urged by some members to divest from arms companies, the fund still maintains millions of pounds of investment in firms which make weaponry.

The latest asset lists shows that the fund has investments in British arms company BAE Systems with a market value of £22.2 million, £6.8 million in explosive manufacturer Chemring, and £1.8 million in German company Hensoldt.

But it’s certainly not the only pension fund in Scotland to have investments in the arms trade.

  • Lothian Pension Fund’s latest accounts show it has investments worth more than £95 million in weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin.
  • Falkirk Pension Fund has investments worth more than £7 million in BAE Systems, £2 million in Lockheed Martin and £1.7 million in US company General Dynamics.
  • Fife Pension Fund has investments worth around £9 million in Lockheed Martin, £1 million in General Dynamics and £1 million in Northop Grumman.

Are any of these companies involved in arming Israel?

Lockheed Martin has been arming the state of Israel with military aircraft since the 1970s.

Last year, the company sold 25 F-35 fighter jets to Israel in a deal worth around $3 billion.

However, it wasn’t only company involved in the manufacture of these aircraft.

BAE Systems makes the rear fuselage for every F-35 produced, with Lockheed Martin stating that “the fingerprints of British ingenuity can be found on dozens of the aircraft’s key components”.

READ MORE: The arms firms receiving taxpayer cash in Scotland

Between 2008 and 2021, Chemring was granted 19 licences by the UK Government to export military goods to Israel.

Hensoldt provides Israel with air defence radar equipment.

General Dynamics supplies Israel with a variety of artillery ammunition and bombs, which are often gifted to the country via the US Government’s Foreign Military Financing program.

Northop Grumman is known to supply the Israeli military with missile systems.

It also helps manufacture components for Lockheed Martin’s F-35 jets.

Divestment

Many of Scotland’s pension funds already have policies in place which remove or prevent investments in certain industries, such as fossil fuel or tobacco.

But as public concern over Israel’s conduct in Gaza continues to grow, pension funds could very well face pressure to consider divesting from arms companies, too.

For example, in 2021 Inverclyde Council called on the Strathclyde Pension Fund to stop investing in arms manufacturing.

While the fund continues to hold investments in arms companies, the climate movement has shown that long-term, committed campaigning can yield fruitful results.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about how UK arms sales work

Indeed, in some regards Scotland has led the way when it comes to divestment.

In 2014, the University of Glasgow became the university in Europe to commit to divesting from fossil fuels following an entire year of campaigning from students.

However, according to the Glasgow University Arms Divestment Coalition, the university still has more than £6.8 million invested in arms companies.

The challenge for campaigners is to show why arms companies should be subject to divestment in the same way as fossil fuel giants.