Quebec’s pension giant pauses new Israel investment after UN accusations
Controversial UN report fuels the decision. The fund insists accusations are unfounded, but says future deals are off the table for now.
The Quebec government’s investment fund, which manages a portfolio worth hundreds of billions of dollars, has announced that it will stop investing in Israeli companies. By doing so, the fund is yielding to a high-profile smear campaign that claimed, based on a disputed UN report, that it was investing billions of dollars in companies enabling genocide in the Gaza Strip.
“We are troubled by the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the plight of the Palestinian population throughout the Israeli Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT),” wrote the fund’s President and CEO, Charles Emond, in a letter published last week. “It has prompted us to take action: currently, no new investments in Israel or the OPT are authorized at La Caisse. Few institutional funds around the world have made a similar commitment. La Caisse made this move because it adheres to the highest standards and because it was the right thing to do given the current context.”
The Quebec fund, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, known as La Caisse or CDPQ, was established in 1965 to manage the pension savings of Quebec residents. Today, the fund manages the pensions of six million Quebecers, with assets totaling $328.9 billion. In 2015, the fund joined Charles Bronfman's Claridge investment company to launch a joint venture investing in Israeli startups, although it later withdrew from the partnership.
About two weeks ago, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, published a report titled From Economy of Occupation to the Economy of Genocide. The report listed various entities that, in the rapporteur’s view, contribute to the Israeli economy, and allegedly to genocide in Gaza, and named CDPQ among them. According to the report, the fund invests $6.67 billion in companies that it claims facilitate Israel’s military operations in Gaza.
This report sparked intense pressure from BDS and other anti-Israel activists, prompting CDPQ to respond in a statement published last week. Much of the letter rejected accusations that CDPQ funds genocide in Gaza (although the fund did not directly address the underlying question of whether genocide is occurring).
“Earlier this month, we were one of only two pension funds targeted in a report claiming that we are deliberately investing in companies that contribute to the annihilation of the Palestinian people,” Emond wrote. “This statement is false, and it is disappointing to have these intentions attributed to us and to be singled out in this way. These investments are rather in multinationals such as Booking.com, Airbnb and Google, which have a global footprint, but have very small operations in this region. Furthermore, these securities are held by nearly all major investors and individuals as soon as they invest in the stock market. It stands to reason that it would be quite a stretch to imply that a family using Airbnb for their holidays or a company using Google encourages and finances what is happening in Gaza.”
Google was named in the report because of its involvement in the Nimbus cloud project in Israel; Airbnb and Booking.com because they list accommodations in West Bank settlements, described in the report as “Israeli colonies.” The report also criticized CDPQ’s investments in Caterpillar and Hyundai, companies alleged to supply Israel with equipment to demolish Palestinian homes, and Lockheed Martin, which provides F-35 fighter jets to Israel. CDPQ countered that only 0.025% of its total funds are invested in Lockheed Martin and noted that Caterpillar equipment is widely used in major infrastructure projects worldwide.
Regarding direct investments in Israel, the fund stated that these represent just 0.05% of its portfolio, about $164.45 million, and are held by a small number of external managers. According to the fund’s new policy, it has no intention of divesting these existing holdings, but until further notice it will not make new investments in Israel or the occupied territories.
Although CDPQ’s direct exposure to Israel is marginal, its decision reflects a capitulation to the anti-Israel campaign that has gained momentum in recent weeks amid the severe humanitarian crisis and deepening famine in Gaza. According to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, 10 people have died from hunger in the past 24 hours alone, bringing the total since the start of the war to 111.
However, critics of Israel and CDPQ’s statement fail to acknowledge the broader context: the October 7 massacre in which about 1,163 people, mostly Israelis and foreign nationals, including infants, children, women, and the elderly, were murdered. Hamas and other terror groups continue to hold 50 hostages, dead and alive, out of 251 kidnapped that day. Hamas’s role in prolonging the conflict is rarely mentioned; only today (Wednesday), the group’s latest response pushed back ceasefire negotiations. Instead of grappling with this complex reality and forming a balanced ethical stance, the Quebec fund appears content with vague language and symbolic gestures.
“Our investments necessarily involve healthy and nuanced internal debates so we can make the best possible decisions, in a world that has become infinitely complex,” Emond wrote. “Today, supply chains are deeply integrated, and it is extremely difficult to draw a straight line between companies with clear policies and the way their customers ultimately use the products.”
