Activists from the Action Justice Climat association carried out a series of actions this week against the Paris branches of BNP Paribas to urge the bank to “end its activities linked to the State of Israel,” the NGO said in a statement on Thursday.
The BNP Paribas agency on rue Vivienne, overlooking the Place de la Bourse in central Paris, was sprayed with bright red paint on Thursday.
Activists from the Association for the Fight for Climate and Social Justice also hung posters on their walls that said “genocide on credit” and “complicit ecocide.”
In January 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) admitted the existence of a “real and imminent” risk to the Palestinian populations of the Gaza Strip and called on Israel to prevent any act of genocide in its war against Hamas after the unprecedented attack by Hamas. Attack on October 7, 2023.
“Defamatory”
A dozen Paris branches of BNP Paribas were attacked this week by the association, which claims that the main French bank “has committed up to $2 billion in a bond issue of the State of Israel” open in the summer of 2023, according to the release.
The actual issuance took place in March 2024, according to data from the financial agency Bloomberg.
On August 30, six organizations, including the League for Human Rights (LDH) and the CGT, had already pointed out “the involvement of BNP Paribas in a bond issue by the State of Israel.” The joint statement reminds the French bank of its “duty of vigilance regarding the consequences of its operations in terms of respect for human rights.”
Action Justice Climat also accused BNP Paribas of being “among the banks that most finance companies that arm Israel,” in reference to its financial ties to defense company Elbit Systems.
According to the Paris prosecutor’s office, this damage has led to seven arrests since the beginning of the week.
Source: BFM TV