Dexia Financing Illegal West Bank Settlements

[Cees Binkhorst]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

En ik maar denken dat er rijke Joodse Amerikanen achter zouden zitten.
Toen Madoff ontmaskert werd dacht ik 'dat is er dus één van.' Uiteraard
ook omdat het merendeel van zijn 'beleggers' van Joodse afkomst bleken
te zijn.

Groet / Cees

MIDEAST:  Belgian Bank Financing Illegal Settlements
By David Cronin

BRUSSELS, Apr 10, 2010 (IPS) - Dexia, a major Belgian-French bank, is
continuing to finance Israeli authorities in the occupied Palestinian
territories almost a year after it indicated that it would cease
providing loans to illegal settlements.

In May 2009, Dexia promised that it would not lend any fresh money to
councils representing Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

Although Palestinian solidarity activists regarded the announcement as a
victory for a campaign they had fought against Dexia, they are not
satisfied that all the bank's transactions with Israeli settlements have
been halted.

Intal, a human rights group in Brussels, says it will protest at Dexia's
annual shareholders' meeting next month, because many of the earlier
loans issued to Israeli settlements run until 2017 and are unaffected by
last year's pledge.

"We are calling on Dexia to cut all ties with the occupation (of
Palestine)," Intal spokesman Mario Franssen told IPS. "How they do that
is up to them. We're not asking for a boycott of Israel in this case but
probably the only solution is for them to get out."

Dexia's involvement with Israeli settlements first came to the knowledge
of campaign groups in Europe during October 2008, the same month that
the governments of Belgium, France and Luxembourg agreed a multi-billion
euro rescue package to prevent the bank collapsing. In statements to the
Israeli parliament - known as the Knesset - Dexia had acknowledged
arranging loans to seven settlements and three Israeli-controlled
regional bodies in the West Bank between 2003 and 2007.

Intal is also incensed by remarks made by former Belgian prime minister
Jean-Luc Dehaene, now a Dexia chairman, during 2009. While Dehaene
confessed that Dexia had provided loans worth 5 million euros (6.7
million dollars) to settlements in the West Bank, he stressed that loans
to Jerusalem were not included in that amount because "Dexia Group feels
that Jerusalem is not contested territory."

Dehaene's statements are at odds with several resolutions from the
United Nations. The UN refused to recognise both Israel's annexation of
East Jerusalem in 1967 and its 1980 declaration that Jerusalem is the
capital of Israel. Following the 1980 declaration, the UN's Security
Council insisted that all legislative and administrative measures taken
by Israel to alter the status of Jerusalem would be invalid.

According to Intal's calculations, the combined value of Dexia's loans
to Jerusalem and to settlements elsewhere in the West Bank exceeds 15
million euros.

Dehaene, also a member of the European Parliament, did not respond to
requests for comment. Shir Hever, an economist with the Alternative
Information Centre, a joint Israel-Palestinian organisation, said that
Dehaene's efforts to draw a distinction between settlement activities in
East Jerusalem and the wider West Bank amount to a "clear violation of
European law. This is even more to the right than the United States,
which refuses to make that distinction."

Dexia is refusing to divulge the precise nature of its relationship with
Israeli settlements. During 2009 Dexia won a public contract to finance
a large number of Israeli authorities. When the initial call for tenders
was made in Israel, some 80 authorities were covered by it, including
five based in settlements that are illegal under international law. By
the time the contract was awarded to Dexia, the number of authorities
concerned had been reduced to 54.

Despite giving assurances that bodies working in Israeli settlements
were ineligible for financing, Dexia has refused to publish a list of
the 54 authorities.

Contacted by IPS, a Dexia spokeswoman would not answer questions about
the bank's policies in East Jerusalem. The spokeswoman would only say
that Dexia had acquired the Israeli financial institution Otzar
Hashilton Hamekomi in 2001 and subsequently renamed it Dexia Israel.
"This bank operates on the entire Israeli territory and finances Jewish
and Arab municipalities indiscriminately," the spokeswoman said.

In a message to Dexia shareholders last year, Dehaene tried to downplay
the significance of the bank's lending in Israel and the occupied
Palestinian territories, indicating that the Middle East was not a
priority region. "Don't be surprised if at one point Dexia Group will
sell Dexia Israel," he said.

Since then a plan to restructure Dexia has been approved by the European
Commission, which had conducted an investigation into whether public aid
to the bank complied with Europe's competition rules. The restructuring
plan requires the bank to concentrate on its core markets of Belgium,
France and Luxembourg and end many of its activities in Spain, Italy,
Slovakia and Turkey. Dexia Israel, though, is not covered by the plan.

"Israel is not really the core market for Dexia," said Intal's Mario
Franssen. "But Dexia Israel has never been mentioned (in the
restructuring plan), probably because Dexia is making money there. One
way or another, it appears to be profiting from the occupation."

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