Around 50 protesters gathered outside of the Scotiabank branch at Hunter and Water streets in downtown Peterborough on Friday afternoon (March 15) to demand the bank’s asset management arm fully divest its holdings in Elbit Systems Ltd., an Israeli defence contractor.
According to a media release from Nogojiwanong 2 Palestine, which organized Friday’s protest, Elbit Systems provides 85 per cent of the drones and 85 per cent of the land-based equipment used by the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza.
In fall 2022, Scotiabank was reported to have become a major foreign shareholder in Elbit Systems, holding around 5.1 per cent of the weapons producer, valued at around $500 million at the time.
The bank’s holdings in Elbit came under scrutiny even before the Israel-Gaza war, because the weapons company had been accused of manufacturing cluster munitions, which can kill or maim civilians during a conflict or long after it has ended.
At a shareholders meeting in April 2023, a representative of the ethical investing activist group Eko delivered a petition on behalf of 12,000 signatories calling on Scotiabank to divest its Elbit holdings.
The protest in downtown Peterborough was one of dozens at Scotiabank branches across the country on Friday, and follows a similar protest held at Scotiabank’s downtown location in December.
According to filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, earlier this month Scotiabank’s 1832 Asset Management trimmed its holdings in Elbit from 5.1 per cent to 4.3 per cent in the fourth quarter. Scotiabank did not comment on the reason for the reduction in holdings.
“We are not here today occupying space at Scotiabank branches all across the country to ask for a small reduction in Scotia’s genocide profiteering,” said protester organizer Vladimir Cuéllar in the media release. “We are here to stand with the innocent Palestinians in Gaza and demand that Scotiabank put and end to it completely.”
While other Canadian banks own shares in Elbit Systems valued at around $3 million, Scotiabank remains by far the largest non-Israeli shareholder. That made it the target of Friday’s protest, organizers say.
Carrying signs and banners that read “Divest from Elbit” and “End Genocide Profiteering,” Friday’s protesters picketed, sang, chanted, recited poetry, and closed their Scotiabank accounts, organizers say.
The protesters provided leaflets to Scotiabank patrons and passersby notifying them of the connection and encouraging them “to remove their money from banks funding genocide and to reinvest it in more ethical alternatives, such as local credit unions.”
“Clearly, Elbit and Scotiabank are directly profiting from the current genocide in Gaza, as Elbit shares are up 17 per cent over the past year,” said protester organizer Pauline Hwang.
The Gaza conflict has now killed more than 30,000 Palestinians — the majority women and children — and injured more than 70,000 others. Israel’s military claims that around 10,000 of those killed were members of Hamas, which invaded Israel on October 7 and killed 1,139 people and took 250 people hostage.
More than 1.5 million Palestinians who have been displaced from other parts of Gaza during the conflict are now residing in the southern city of Rafah, which Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reaffirmed will be the target of an offensive despite international pressure .
