Bradford Council administers the West Yorkshire Pension Fund (WYPF) which serves 32,000 workers across the region including employees of all the five local councils.  The funding comes from deductions from the pay packets `deferred wages', topped up by employers' contributions. 

In the last available accounts (31 March 2024) WYPF investments include £995 million in companies identified as complicit with human rights violations, apartheid and genocide in Palestine. 

In January 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) handed down an interim ruling affirming there is plausible evidence Israel is committing genocidal acts against Palestinian people in the Gaza strip. In July 2024, the ICJ issued an advisory opinion ruling that Israel's military occupation of the Gaza Strip and West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is unlawful and must end, and that Israel is in breach of the international prohibition of the crime of apartheid.  

Other councils for example Waltham Forest, Leeds, Bristol, Manchester City, Lewisham, Islington and Tower Hamlets have taken steps to divest from companies enabling Israel's war crimes against Palestinians as a result of grassroots campaigning and we are aiming to do the same with this campaign.

We demand that WYPF divest now from all complicit companies instead of profiting from genocide, apartheid and death.

Please support our petition (Bradford residents only) which will be presented to a future meeting of Bradford Council.