Somerset County Council is currently complicit in Israeli Genocide and Apartheid through the investments the council makes in their pension fund.

This amounts to over £114 Million Pounds [1] in companies complicit in the genocide. It is unacceptable that our council allows this and we urge for the council to divest these funds.

This money accounts for under 5% of the total value of the Pension fund, which reported a value of over £3 billion in 2024 [2]. We are not asking people to risk their retirement, we are asking for their pensions to not be funded through Genocide.

The Somerset Pension fund is used by employees of the county council, as well as various town councils and certain police schemes of the Somerset and Avon Police [3]. Local government should not rely on genocide to fund these pensions and  it doesn't have to.

If you live in Somerset Council jurisdiction, this effects you. Please sign the petition, and urge your local town councils to pressure the county council to divest these funds.

All the information behind this petition is publicly available, see the sources below:

[1]https://lgpsdivest.org/lgps-investments/

[2]https://somersetcc.sharepoint.com/sites/SCCPublic/Council%20Finances/Forms/AllItems.aspx?id=%2Fsites%2FSCCPublic%2FCouncil%20Finances%2FPension%20Fund%20Annual%20Report%20and%20Accounts%202023%20and%2024%2Epdf&parent=%2Fsites%2FSCCPublic%2FCouncil%20Finances&p=true&ga=1

[3]https://www.somerset.gov.uk/finance-performance-and-legal/pensions/#Pension%20Fund%20Accounts