La Deutsche Bank s’est retirée de cette société.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (NDLR)

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Dear all,

please see below- this is a major victory...

Clearly, Deutsche Bank is anything as clean as what they officially stated yesterday ....we’ll have to get into this as a second stage. Our German partners have already said they’ follow up the case. Pax Christi and IPPNW - great job done !

For now, Deutsche Bank publicly distancing themselves from Elbit and pointing out that it does not fit their ethical commitments is GREAT news !!

Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National
Committee (BNC)
www.BDSmovement.net

Deutsche Bank announces divestment from Elbit

May 27 2010
For more information contact :

In Palestine :
Jamal Juma´,
BNC Secretariat, Stop the Wall Coordinator
+972-598921821
global@stopthewall.org
In Europe :
Michael Deas
BNC Europe Coordinator
+447794678525
bnc.europe@bdsmovement.net

·Deutsche Bank announces divestment from Israeli arms manufacturer
Elbit Systems after campaign from German human rights organisations
·Elbit Systems supplies Israeli military and provides components for
Apartheid Wall ruled illegal by International Court of Justice
·Deutsche Bank´s divestment follows similar steps by banks and pension
funds in three Scandinavian countries.

Occupied Palestine - Germany´s biggest bank Deutsche Bank has divested the
bank´s 2% stake in Elbit Systems, an Israeli arms company that supplies the Israeli
military and provides components for the Apartheid Wall in Occupied Palestinian
Territory that was found to be in violation of international law by the International
Court of Justice.[i] The announcement at the Bank´s AGM today follows a concerted
campaign from German human rights organisations.

As part of a long term campaign, Pax Christi and International Physicians for the
Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) asked Deutsche Bank shareholders to vote
against a routine motion of confidence in the board of directors because of their
failure to divest from Elbit Systems, and activists held a lively demonstration outside
the AGM in Frankfurt am Main.

In response, Deutsche Bank chairperson Josef Ackermann told the AGM, « Deutsche
Bank is out of Elbit ». Ackermann went on to explain that the bank could not invest in
Elbit because of its commitment to voluntary codes of conduct such as the UN
Global Compact and even went as far as to deny that Deutsche Bank had ever held
shares in Elbit, in direct contravention to figures published by Nasdaq.com.[ii]

Wiltrud Rösch-Metzler, Vicepresident of Pax Christi Germany, said, « The end of the
investment in Elbit is a huge success. Deutsche Bank assured us that they do not have
investments in Elbit. They went out of their way to list numerous standards and
international ethical commitments to which the Bank is party to, highlighting how
Elbit investments would violate them all. This statement is a landmark position that
should guide other German, European and global finance institutions », she said.

In a passionate speech, Rösch-Metzler had earlier told the AGM : « Do you still
remember the days of apartheid in South Africa ? Palestinians call it an Apartheid
Wall, because it surrounds them, closes them in, shuts them into enclaves ; because
this Wall creates Palestinian Bantustans. How can Deutsche Bank profit from the
oppression of Palestinians ? If obvious human rights and international law criteria are
violated, will the Deutsche Bank continue to be co-responsible for this ? »

The chain of divestments from Elbit started when Stop the Wall, the grassroots
Palestinian anti-apartheid wall campaign and a long term partner of IPPNW and Pax
Christi, moved together with its Norwegian partners to persuade Norway’s Minister
of Finance Kristin Halvorsen to announce that the Norwegian State Pension Fund
had sold its shares in Elbit, worth $5.4 million. Inspired by this, campaigners in other
countries started pressuring finance institutions on the issue. Danske Bank and PKA
Ltd, two of the largest Danish pension funds, Folksam, Sweden’s largest asset
manager and ABP, a Dutch asset manager, have all divested their funds from Elbit
Systems.[iii]

A spokesperson for the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), a wide
coalition of the largest Palestinian mass organisations, trade unions, networks and
organisations, said : « Palestinian civil society warmly welcomes the principled
decision taken by Deutsche Bank´s to end its complicity in Israel´s oppression of the
Palestinian people. This decision by a bank of the clout and size of Deutsche Bank,
particularly following similar steps by a number of Scandinavian financial
institutions, shows that social and ethical responsibility cannot be ignored in
conducting international business. The BNC calls on all people of conscience and
supporters of universal human rights in Germany to continue their efforts and to
ensure that other German institutions follow the example of Deutsche Bank and
divest from Elbit and every other company, Israeli or international, that profits from
Israel’s occupation and apartheid. »

ENDS

Notes

a.As of March 312010 Deutsche Bank still owned 2% of Elbit Systems and
was the 5th biggest investor in the company. See :
http://www.nasdaq.com/asp/holdings.asp?symbol=ESLT&selected=ESLT

b.Elbit Systems is an Israeli weapons company that provides electronic
detection fences for use in the Israeli Separation Wall in Occupied Palestinian
Territory. The company supplied UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) to the
Israeli army, which are in operational use in during combat in the West Bank
and Gaza.[iv]

c.The International Court of Justice ruled in 2004 that the construction of the
wall is illegal under international law and that all states have a duty to ensure
that Israel complies with international law.[v]

d.Pax Christi International is a non-profit, non-governmental Catholic peace
movement working on a global scale on a wide variety of issues in the fields
of human rights, human security, disarmament and demilitarisation, just
world order and religion and violent conflict.

e.International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) is a
non-partisan federation of national medical organizations in 62 countries,
representing tens of thousands of doctors, medical students, other health
workers, and concerned citizens who share the common goal of creating a
more peaceful and secure world freed from the threat of nuclear annihilation.
This year´s annual General Assembly of the German section has called on the
Deutsche Bank to end its investment in the Israeli arms corporation Elbit.
Deutsche Bank has 2% of the arms company and is the fifth biggest investor
in Elbit. IPPNW is a long term partner of Stop the Wall.

f.Stop the Wall is a grassroots Palestinian campaign against the apartheid wall.
The Palestinian grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign is a coalition of
Palestinian non governmental organizations and popular committees that
mobilize and coordinate efforts on local, national and international levels.
These efforts are focused upon stopping and dismantling the Apartheid Wall,
and resisting Israeli occupation and colonization. A call for a coordinated,
popular, and grassroots effort to tear down the Wall came out of Jerusalem on
the 2nd of October 2002, from the office of the Palestinian Environmental
NGOs Network (PENGON).

g.The Palestinian BDS National Committee is a broad alliance of Palestinian
political parties, trade unions and NGOs. In 2005, Palestinian civil society
issued a unified call for a campaign of Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions
against Israel until it complies with international law and Palestinian rights.

[i][i] http://www.icj-
cij.org/docket/index.php ?pr=71&code=mwp&p1=3&p2=4&p3=6&case=131&k=5a

[ii] http://www.nasdaq.com/asp/holdings.asp?symbol=ESLT&selected=ESLT

[iii] http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11084.shtml
http://www.kibush.co.il/datapage.asp?lang=1§ion=7&yr=2010&mn=2

[iv] http://whoprofits.org/Company%20Info.php?id=554

[v] http://www.icj-
cij.org/docket/index.php ?pr=71&code=mwp&p1=3&p2=4&p3=6&case=131&k=5a

End of forwarded message -------