Israel Bonds:
New Jersey’s Division of Investment pension system, the State Investment Council (the “SIC”), currently holds two Israel bonds equaling $25.1 MILLION. This is a $5 million reduction from last year in the state’s investment in this unrestricted slush fund to the Israeli government and military, a reduction that was the result of organizing by the Break the Bonds NJ coalition. But our goal is full divestment!
Unfortunately, the bonds are not liquid and can’t be sold before $10.1 million of the total matures in 2028 and $15 million matures in 2031. However, we aren’t waiting. We are meeting with state representatives to line up sponsors to introduce a bill to REPEAL the statute that authorizes, encourages and underpins the purchase of Israel Bonds, N.J.S.A. 52:18A-89.8 that was enacted in 1995. This statute effectively permits Israel to be the only foreign nation (aside from neighboring Canada) in which New Jersey holds sovereign debt by exempting Israel bonds from meeting mandatory investment criteria found in New Jersey regulations.
Palantir
The NJ Pension system, which includes the SIC and the separate Fire & Police Retirement System, has > $130 MILLION invested in Palantir, the private giant AI tech surveillance and warfare company.
- Internationally, Palantir has facilitated the genocide in Gaza by generating “kill” lists that were used by the IDF to massacre thousands of civilians in Gaza, maim and kill civilians in the Lebanon beeper attacks, and massacre school children in Iran. Palantir continues to partner with the Israeli military and the US security administration in Palestine and thus shares responsibility for Israel’s and the US’s violation of international human rights. It also holds a permanent seat on Trump’s “Board of Peace,” assisting in the ongoing genocide and occupation of Gaza under cover of a “ceasefire” that is a ceasefire in name only.
- At home, in the U.S., Palantir’s technology is the backbone of ICE operations to target and kidnap our neighbors, terrorize communities, tear apart families, and invade everyone’s privacy. It is Palantir’s surveillance technology, which is embedded in many of our public institutions and government agencies and is responsible for violations of our civil liberties
Break the Bonds NJ will continue to pressure the State Investment Council to drop the investment of our pension funds in Palantir. In addition, along with allies in the immigrant rights and labor movements, we are bringing it to the NJ state legislature. S.470, sponsored and introduced by Sen. Brian Stack (and co-sponsored by Sen. Mukherji) , and A6001 sponsored by Asw. Annette Quinjano (and co-sponsored by Asw. Haider) prohibits state pension and annuity fund investments in companies that use AI to infringe on individuals’ data privacy to determine immigration status. We are working to add language to this bill to include companies that use AI data to create kill lists of non-combatants. This is an active initiative!
Campaigns in Development
PROHIBITING INVESTMENT IN ENTITIES THAT FACILITATE HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS:
At this time, the State Investment Council is governed by statute, regulations and guidelines, specifically, the Environmental, Social and Governance Policy (often referred to simply as the ESG Policy), which was adopted by the Council in September 2018. Under this policy, the SIC is permitted to consider “human rights violations” when selecting equities, bonds or other debt instruments in which to invest. The ESG Policy is not mandatory nor specific. We at Break the Bonds are working on language to make this policy more specific, and are considering initiating a Petition for Rulemaking to ask the SIC to make this aspect of the ESG Policy mandatory as part of their fiduciary duties.
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If you’re ready to plug into work on any of these initiatives please email us directly at breakthebonds4p@gmail.com
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