Protest Held Over Borough's Pension Fund Investments
Call to sell holdings in companies 'complicit' in war crimes
Pro-Palestine protesters outside Hammersmith and Fulham Full Council
July 15, 2025
A coalition of groups including union members and pro-Palestine campaigners protested outside Hammersmith and Fulham Council last week calling for the local authority to divest its pension fund from companies ‘complicit’ in Israel’s war with Gaza.
The collective was holding a variety of banners aloft as members assembled for Full Council emblazoned with messaging such as ‘Ceasefire Now’.
Imogen Tranchell, a resident speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) on behalf of Hammersmith and Fulham and Kensington and Chelsea Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), urged the local authority to “move all of the pension fund investments away from companies complicit in Israel’s grave breaches of international law”.
Cllr Rowan Ree, Cabinet Member for Finance and Reform, said while no-one witnessing the attacks on Palestinian people “can be anything other than alarmed and appalled”, claims that pension fund holdings in shares of companies such as McDonald’s and Airbnb “is an investment in ‘Gaza Genocide’ is wrong, ill-judged and deeply insulting”.
He added the council’s Pension Fund Committee will continue to follow its fiduciary duty “while aligning with its high ethical principles”.
Local authorities across the UK have come under growing pressure to move investments from companies seen to be connected to the war between Israel and Gaza, in particular those in the weapons industry.
Last November, Hammersmith and Fulham Council’s Pension Fund Committee was presented with a report providing an overview of its exposure to the weapons sector as of 30 June.
It found such exposure across its £1.37 billion portfolio was 3.5 per cent, in companies such as BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman.
Officers had recommended no divestment action be taken, adding there was no evidence of asset managers breaching international laws and that it is “not appropriate” for political preference to take precedence over the fund’s fiduciary duty.
At the meeting, Chair Cllr Ross Melton said the committee would not make a commitment to divest there and then, though confirmed the question will be considered by members as a potential priority within the fund’s investment principles.
Cllr Adam Lang added the committee is not complacent around issues such as geopolitical events and that everything will be kept under review. “Ethics is key to all of us in this room,” he said.
Since then, pressure has only increased on the council from some quarters to divest its pension fund from companies seen as connected to Israel and the war effort. Kingston Council recently agreed to look into its pension investments to address any links to alleged human rights violations in Palestine.
An open letter, published online and backed by Hammersmith and Fulham and Kensington and Chelsea PSC, Hammersmith and Fulham UNISON, North West London Stand Up To Racism, Hammersmith and Fulham NEU and the Hammersmith and Fulham Green Party, is calling on the local authority to take action.
Set up in the last few weeks, it claimed research by the PSC showed Hammersmith and Fulham has more than £54 million invested in companies ‘complicit’ in the war.
These include the Israel-based arms company Elbits System but also international organisations such as Airbnb, Ford and McDonald’s.
The reason given for featuring McDonald’s is due to its Israeli franchisee providing “free meals to Israeli soldiers during the genocidal assault on Gaza, while McDonald’s Malaysia filed a lawsuit against BDS Malaysia to silence solidarity activism”.
For Airbnb, PSC wrote its inclusion was due to it having properties listed in illegal Israeli settlements, such as in the West Bank.
Protesters deny 'choosing instead to chant and wave banners' instead of addressing concerns at meeting
The open letter claimed council staff “did not feel that the previous statements made on the situation in Gaza, Palestine sufficiently represent the loss of life, suffering, and persecution that innocent people have endured”.
It continued: “Given there is significant support amongst the electorate locally and nationally, and amongst pension fund members against the ongoing genocide, it is increasingly difficult to understand why you have not taken action available to you – to divest from companies involved with Israel and their actions in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.”
At the last Pension Fund Committee meeting at the end of June Cllr Melton responded to the letter. He said: “As all attendees should be aware, we have one duty for which I’m personally and legally responsible. [It] is for the fiduciary responsibility to support our pension fund members ensuring that they can have a safe and secure retirement.”
He added that where there is no conflict with its primary duty, the committee has however prioritised investments that make a positive global impact, with highlights including its industry-leading commitment to decarbonise the pension fund.
“The LBHF pension fund remains committed to ensuring that we are investing for good, continually reviewing and enhancing the ethics of our investments,” he said. “While I can understand the urgency of some of the members of the public’s calls for action, it would be inappropriate for the LBHF Pension Fund Committee to make a decision affecting the pensions of our 17,000 members without the adequate information. Our legal duty is clear. We must think of our pensioners first.”
Following last week’s protest, Ms Tranchell told the LDRS, “Our council’s pension fund is still invested in many of these complicit corporations. The Council and Pension Fund Committee are rightly proud of the work and success of their disinvestment from the fossil fuel industry.
“We ask that they use the skills and knowledge, learnt from that work, to now move all of the pension fund investments away from companies complicit in Israel’s grave breaches of international law. This is something that they can and should do urgently.”
Rana Aria, Chair of Hammersmith and Fulham UNISON, also demanded the council divest.
She said, “We want our pension fund to make a commitment to begin a process to divest its funds from companies enabling human rights abuses (e.g. arms companies supplying Israel). Other councils like Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest, Islington, Lewisham and Kingston have already called for divestment; it is increasingly difficult to understand why Hammersmith and Fulham have yet to make this commitment.”
Responding to the protest and the coalition’s letter, Cllr Ree said: “Hammersmith and Fulham Pension Fund has a long record as an ethical investor, including divesting entirely from fossil fuels. On the wider point, the local authority takes an ethical approach to all its activities which is why it stands out on a number of fronts such as: being the only UK council to fly its social workers to refugee camps to rescue child refugees; the only council in England to provide free home care; it is one of the leading councils funding of charities; and it is the council that pioneered free breakfast for all school children.
“Protesting plays an important part in our democracy but in these challenging times it is important that those organising any protest get their facts and the language they use right.”
Cllr Ree also said that on 25 June, protesters attended the meeting of Hammersmith and Fulham’s Pension Fund Committee.
He added, “they were invited to discuss their concerns but regrettably they declined, choosing instead to chant and wave banners,” though Ms Tranchell has contested this point.
“Hammersmith and Fulham’s Pension Fund Committee will continue to follow its fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of its 17,000 members while aligning with its high ethical principles,” Cllr Ree said.
Israel launched its assault on Gaza in response to the Hamas-led attack on 7 October, 2023, in which militants killed around 1,200 people and took 251 others hostage.
The death toll from Israeli attacks in Gaza is estimated to be more than 58,000 according to the health ministry, with recent reports claiming hundreds being killed while queuing for food aid.
Ben Lynch - Local Democracy Reporter