With investments of more than 9.6 billion in what is described as “genocide economy” in Gaza, the Quebec Deposit and Placement Caisse (CDPQ) is directly referred to by the most recent report of the United Nations made public on 1is July.
“Clearly, for some, the genocide is profitable,” said the United Nations special rapporteur in Geneva on Thursday on the human rights reporter in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, Francesca Albanese. My report exposes a system, something so structural, so widespread and so systemic that there is no possibility of repairing and straightening it. It must be dismantled. »»
Under the unequivocal title From the occupation economy to the genocide economythis third report of Mme Albanese pinning a total of 48 companies involved. Three of them, the manufacturer of arms Lockheed Martin and the companies under construction Caterpillar and HD Hyundai, received investments totaling 9.6 billion from the woolen wool of Quebecers “despite its sustainable investment policy and its human rights policy”.
In addition, underlines in its report Mme Albanese, between 2023 and 2024, the CDPQ “almost tripled its investments in Lockheed Martin, quadrupled its investments in Caterpillar and increased its investments in HD Hyundai”.
It was not possible to collect the reaction of the CDPQ when publishing these lines. In addition to the cash register, the report mentions the fact that “sovereign funds and pension funds are also large donors”, specifically appointing “the largest sovereign fund in the world, the Government Pension Fund Global in Norway”, which held on December 31, 2024 121.5 billion US investments in the 48 companies cited in the report.
“Crime scene”
In her 39 -page report, the United Nations special rapporteur describes at length the involvement of these 48 companies not only in the war in Gaza, but in all the colonization by Israel of the Palestinian territories. In addition to armaments, these companies provide technical infrastructure. We mention in particular Google, Amazon, IBM, BNP Paribas, Chevron, Volvo and even Airbnb, which offers the rental of properties and hotel rooms in Israeli colonies.
“Palestine is a crime scene, on which there would be the fingerprints of all of us,” illustrated in Francesca Albanese press conference. She noted at the outset that in the last 20 months, the capitalizations on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange had increased by 213 %, generating gains of more than 220 billion US (300 billion CAN). “It is a fiction to believe that there is a line of demarcation, a gap that separates good Israel within Israel and bad Israel in the occupied territories,” says Mme Albanese. No, Israel’s economy is one and only, and it encompasses the colonies. »»
This is not the first time that the United Nations special rapporteur has used the term “genocide” to qualify the military intervention of Israel in Gaza. On March 26, 2024, she published a report believing that there were “reasonable bases” to believe that Israel had violated three of the five criteria establishing that a genocide was being perpetrated.
“The profits that these companies are in the process of making are the measure of their involvement in this genocide,” added Mme Albanese Thursday. This investigation that I conducted shocked me so much […]. It is important that everyone becomes aware of this reality. We don’t even have the capacity to absorb the criminal design that is behind all this. We have to stop it all. »»
According to an analysis carried out by the Coalition of Quebec Emergency Palestine, which brings together 52 groups including the Federation of Women of Quebec (FFQ), the League for Rights and Freedoms (LDL) and Québec Solidaire, the involvement of the CDPQ goes even further, with investments of 27.4 billion on December 31, 2024 in 76 companies “Complicates of the crimes of Israel in Palestine”. “While their planes, bulldozers and other equipment is used directly for the implementation of the genocide in Gaza, these companies choose to maintain, or even increase their contracts with Israel, said by press release Raymond Legault, spokesperson for the coalition. It is our common responsibility to release our money, that the cash register manages, crimes in Palestine. »»
Download the third report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur
