Since the pro-Palestinian encampment movement, thousands of students have rallied around the demand that universities divest from companies that contribute to the genocide in Palestine.
They’re disgusted to discover that their tuition fees are being used to buy shares in all kinds of companies complicit in Israel’s heinous crimes (see below).
York, Queens, UBC, McGill and other universities have investments in arms companies that supply Israel, such as Lockheed Martin or BAE, which sell jets to the IDF—jets that are then used to bomb Gaza.
McGill, Dalhousie and others also invest in companies that operate in Israel’s illegal West Bank settlements, such as Nestlé and Siemens. These universities therefore profit indirectly from the theft of Palestinian land.
Still others invest in banks or investment funds, which in turn invest in companies that contribute to genocide. The Université de Montréal, for example, has investments in the Toronto-Dominion Bank, the Royal Bank of Canada and others. These banks do business with, for example, Elbit Systems, Israel’s leading arms manufacturer.
The extent of the links between Canadian and Quebec universities and companies complicit in the genocide is difficult to establish. We present here only some of the links that have been established to date, based on publicly available data. But not all universities disclose this information, and not always exhaustively.
That’s why we’re also calling for the opening of the books. Students, university employees and professors should have full access to their university’s financial data.
Apologists for Zionism have raised the argument that divestment would be unrealistic and impractical because most companies have some form of link with Israel. Obviously, this argument is not really aimed at making the demands of the Palestine solidarity movement more practical, but at disorganizing and silencing it.
However, this argument highlights an important reality. It’s true that the deeper you dig, the harder it becomes to untangle the web of relationships between banks, multinationals, arms companies and the Israeli killing machine. In an opinion piece in the Globe and Mail, the author—who says divestment is “ridiculous and impossible”—points out that “Even owning an S&P 500 index fund, which happens to be the third-largest holding in McGill’s endowment, would violate the divestment logic that student protesters are pushing; the five most valuable companies in the S&P 500 have offices in Tel Aviv.”
This argument actually represents an admission by Zionists that the problem is not confined to a few bad companies, but that the whole system is guilty.
The thousand and one links between corporations, banks, arms companies, universities and murderous regimes like Israel’s—that’s what we call imperialism. Our entire ruling class is complicit in genocide, because it is impossible for them to disentangle themselves from it.
The only way to fully divest from the Israeli war machine is to take control of the banks and big business and place them in the hands of the working class.
U of T
The University of Toronto Asset Management Corporation holds $7.7 billion in assets invested with third-party managers. This allows the university to dodge the question of divestment and avoid accountability. From weapons manufacturers like Lockheed Martin and General Dynamics; companies that work with the Israeli government like Google and Caterpillar; and those that help in the construction of illegal settlements like Booking Holdings and Expedia Group—through one flimsy degree of separation, there’s not a single major corporation that profits off the genocide that UofT is not connected to.
UdeM
The University of Montreal has over $9 million invested in the TD Bank, RBC, the BMO and Scotiabank, as well as nearly $3 million in Manulife. These banks do business with arms companies such as Elbit Systems and General Dynamics, or with companies operating in illegal Israeli settlements. The university defends itself by saying that it “does not select […] the assets it holds one by one”. However, in response to a campaign to divest from fossil fuels, it has already agreed to “withdraw from its Endowment Fund all publicly listed shares of companies active in the fossil fuel sector, held directly or indirectly, by December 2025.”
McGill
According to data compiled by pro-Palestinian activists, McGill holds $20 million worth of investments in all kinds of companies associated with the oppression of Palestinians: arms dealers such as Lockheed Martin, Safran, Airbus and Thales; the Israeli bank Leumi; Volvo, which sells armoured vehicles used to demolish Palestinian homes in illegal settlements; and others such as L’Oréal and Cola-Cola operating in illegal settlements.
UBC
The University of British Columbia has a long list of investments in all kinds of companies criticized for their association with the oppression of Palestinians, with $10 million invested in armaments alone. The list is long: Airbus, Safran, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Raytheon, Thales, Boeing, General Electric, Northrop Grumman, L3Harris Technologies, BAE Systems, Textron, Elbit Systems, etc.
Dalhousie
Dalhousie holds investments of $942.8 million. The publicly-traded securities they use mean that the university is invested in vehicle manufacturer Oshkosh Corp, as well as Boeing, Mercury Systems, and ICL-Israel Chemicals Ltd.; which supply the IDF with vehicles, planes, bombs, chips, and white phosphorous.
