THE Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) has invested over £12 billion in firms complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide, new research by campaigners revealed today.

Palestine Solidarity Campaign’s (PSC) freedom of information requests have found that LGPS funds, administered by local councils across Britain, invest more than £450 million in BAE Systems, which manufactures components used by Israel’s F-16 fighter jets.

More than £80m is invested in Caterpillar, which produces bulldozers used by Israel to demolish Palestinian homes, schools and hospitals.

And more than £90m is invested in RTX Corporation, formerly Raytheon, which produces bombs used by the Israeli military.

Investments in Amazon and Google’s parent company Alphabet, purveyors of cloud computing infrastructure to Israel’s intelligence-gathering Project Nimbus, totals £4.7bn.

The research also shows that LGPS funds hold more than £28m in Israeli government bonds.

Lewis Backon of PSC said that the scale of LGPS fund investments in companies “complicit in Israel’s grave abuses of Palestinian rights is shocking.”

He said: “The deferred wages of millions of local government workers are going into companies enabling Israel’s war crimes — without their consent.

“But workers and residents are making it increasingly clear that they won’t accept their pension funds being used to fund companies complicit in genocide and apartheid.”

Campaigns led by scheme members and unions calling for divestment from complicit firms have been gaining momentum, according to the movement.

“We’re only one month into 2025 but already Tower Hamlets Council has committed to divest from arms companies, while Bristol City Council has voted to call on Avon Pension Fund to divest from companies enabling Israel’s crimes,” Mr Backon said.

“This year will see the LGPS Divest campaign grow as a force for justice for Palestine — divestment from Israel’s crimes is a moral and legal imperative that cannot be ignored.”

This week, Labour-led Sheffield City Council voted to break with the party’s national policy by voicing their support for the campaign in a motion to “to end contracts and investments in Israel, weapons manufacturers and fossil fuel companies profiting from conflict.”

The motion on Thursday evening also called for an assessment of “all remaining licences” for arms sales and their suspension if breaching international law.

Council leader Tom Hunt told the chamber that “in recent months, the council has taken a number of steps to signal its solidarity with the people of Palestine and to support those who are affected by the appalling conflict.”

He confirmed that the council “has no relationship… with any of the companies identified by the UN human rights council as enabling or supporting the construction or continued existence of illegal settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories.”

Sheffield City Council was the first local authority to call for a ceasefire and end to arms sales in November 2023 and, in 2019, was the first city authority in Europe to recognise Palestine as a sovereign state.

The approach is markedly different to the Labour government’s, with Deputy Leader Angela Rayner stating that the party “opposes a policy of boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel.”

Local Government Secretary Lisa Nandy previously claimed that Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) “offers no meaningful route to peace.”