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Is your insurance company funding Israeli war crimes?

13 March 2025, Paula Lacey, https://newint.org/arms/2025/your-insurance-company-funding-israeli-war-crimes

A new campaign called Boycott Bloody Insurance exposes the extent of the insurance sector’s financial support for Israel’s assault on Palestine. Paula Lacey reports.

A new report has exposed the extent of the insurance sector’s financial support for Israel’s assault on Palestine.  The newly-launched Boycott Bloody Insurance campaign reveals investments totalling over $1.7 billion, from a range of multinational insurers, into companies supplying military equipment used by Israel since 7 October 2023. 

‘Insurance giants claim to protect communities, but they’re funnelling our money into war, exploitation, and violence,’ says Monika Nielsen, lead researcher at Boycott Bloody Insurance. 

The research details how global insurers such as Allianz, Zurich, AIG, RSA, Aviva and AXA underwrite and fund firms such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Elbit Systems and BAE Systems. Many of these companies are already the subject of national campaigns due to their direct implication in documented war crimes in the Gaza Strip, such as attacks on civilians using white phosphorus and precision guided munitions.

Besides those that explicitly supply weaponry and military equipment, other companies such as Maersk – insured by AIG – provide logistical and shipping support to the Israeli military. The Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) have incorporated the report’s findings into their ongoing campaign ‘Mask off Maersk’. 

‘Insurance, just like logistics, is crucial for arms transfers to oppressive regimes,’ says Yara Derbas of the PYM. ‘Our actions target the corporate complicity enabling Israel’s ongoing crimes. This isn’t just about Palestine – it’s about global justice and ending corporate exploitation.’ 

The Boycott Bloody Insurance campaign calls for urgent civic action against the companies named in the report, as a way of ‘demand[ing] accountability from insurers profiting from human suffering,’ explains Nielsen. Co-ordinated actions across the UK are set to take place on 25 March to urge institutions, charities, and businesses to shift to ethical insurers, incurring reputational damage and financial cost to complicit firms.

This call joins a wider chorus to enact Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions (BDS) against all companies and institutions complicit in the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. PYM stands alongside a number of pro-Palestine organizations in endorsing the report and campaign, along with the Palestinian BDS National Committee and the Watermelon Index. 

This week’s report is the first in a damning series set to be released by Boycott Bloody Insurance over the coming months, with future reports promising similar analyses of the insurance sector’s financial support for harmful industries such as fossil fuel companies, controversial weapons manufacturers and the UK detention industry.

March 30, 2025 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | weapons and war