"UK’s biggest private pension fund dumps £80mn of Israeli assets", August 8 2024

Britain’s biggest private-sector pension fund has sold £80mn of Israeli assets, joining a wave of global retirement funds retreating from the conflict-ridden region following public pressure.

The £79bn Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), which has more than 500,000 members, has “materially” reduced its exposure to Israeli investments including government debt and Israeli currency in the past six months, said two people with knowledge of the matter....

USS declined to comment.

The move followed sustained pressure from the pension fund’s members, concerned over Israel’s human rights record in occupied Palestinian territories since the start of the war with Hamas last year.

USS’s members are largely higher education sector workers, including lecturers at prestigious universities such as Oxford and Cambridge.

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In the UK, public sector pension plans with cash tied up in groups supplying weapons to Israel are under pressure to dump their holdings. However, the conflict has also presented opportunities for some investors to scoop up assets in the conflict-ridden Middle East region. In May, the Financial Times reported that local municipal councils in the US were among the most enthusiastic recent buyers of Israeli bonds. Israel Bonds, the official underwriter for the debt, said at the time that, since the start of the war on October 7 last year, it had sold more than $3bn of the debt worldwide, three times the annual average.