The second-largest pension fund in The Netherlands has ended its boycott of Israel.
NIW reported the following (Google translated from Dutch):
The boycott that PGGM issued in February 2014 against five Israeli systemic banks has been withdrawn today.
The names of the banks are no longer on the ‘black list’ of the pension fund. The boycott was issued in 2014 following an advice from PGGM’s ‘ethics committee’, in which the opinion of Professor Cees Flinterman, member of the Advisory Council of BDS organization The Rights Forum, had weighed heavily.
Flinterman is also a member of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. He spoke at the time at Nieuwsuur before joining Saudi Arabia to that committee, a country that is not particularly known for the free attitude towards women. While Flinterman therefore thought inclusive of that oppressive oil state, he considered it ethical to put Israeli banks on the PGGM boycott list. This included the pension giant under the leadership of the former CEO and former PvdA politician Hans Alders. That decision caused a boom of indignation. Customers of PGGM wanted to leave the pension giant, but that seemed practically practically impracticable.
The boycott was considered a major victory for BDS organizations. Today, the bank decided to withdraw the boycott. The banks in question are no longer on their ‘black list’.
