Scotiabank’s most recent filings reveal that it has fully divested from Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems. They currently have zero shares in the company.
In early 2023, work from corporate accountability group Eko and reporting from The Intercept revealed that Scotiabank was Elbit Systems’ largest foreign shareholder, possessing a stake of more than 2.2 million shares. This represented a value of over $500 million. The Canadian BDS Coalition began their work against the bank in response, and by November, nationwide pressure campaigns from multiple groups escalated to branch sit-ins, rallies, and mass cancellations of accounts. At the end of the year, a disruption of the Scotiabank-sponsored 2023 Giller Prize’s live broadcast ensured that the company’s hand in the genocide of Palestinians was burned into public consciousness. The No Arms in the Arts coalition continued that work through Scotiabank’s many arts sponsorships. From disruptions, to counter-programming, to the eventual boycotts of the Giller Prize and Scotiabank Photography Award, artists across disciplines refused to let their work be used to bolster Scotiabank’s brand.
Elbit Systems is Israel’s largest weapons company, and provides weapons and infrastructure to carry out the genocide and occupation of Palestine. But the tide has been turning against Elbit, with the public making it clear they will not tolerate its murderous participation in Israel’s regime. The UK group Palestine Action targeted Elbit factories with direct actions, resulting in their proscription as a “terrorist group.” Thousands of people participated in the successful campaign to challenge Palestine Action’s proscription. The momentum was also felt in the financial sector. In October 2024, Barclays (UK) divested its shares from Elbit, stating they were doing so in accordance with “international human rights principles.” Norway’s largest pension fund also banned investments in Elbit on similar grounds, and Japan’s Itochu Corporation cancelled a contract with the company in 2024 citing the International Court of Justice’s ruling “recognizing potential genocide” in Gaza. Despite all this, Scotiabank held onto its stake — making it clear that it was only sustained pressure across the country, and internationally, that eventually forced them to drop Elbit.
Scotiabank became a strategic and sustained target across multiple sectors, and we chose it for being uniquely overindexed in Elbit Systems compared to Canada’s other “Big 6” banks. Scotiabank’s subsidiary 1832 Asset Management is managed by David Fingold, who by his own admission is disproportionately invested in Israeli funds. Combined with Scotiabank’s sensitivity to its public reputation, this made the company’s investment vulnerable to coordinated pressure campaigns, no matter how much profit it was making from Palestinian death.
This divestment does not exonerate Scotiabank, which maintains investments in arms and extractive capital. Its CEO Scott Thomson has been a loud advocate for the American “Trump doctrine” of foreign military interventions, as well as the “Global Defense Bank,” a proposed hub for military financing. In this context, the campaigns against Scotiabank set a critical precedent for what is deemed a permissible investment by supposedly “neutral” investors. Nationwide organizing in Canada ensured that Scotiabank’s Elbit stake became a liability.
As our government exploits the façade of a ceasefire to normalize Israel’s siege on Gaza, this divestment is a reminder of what becomes possible when we collectively refuse complicity. But while Scotiabank may have fully divested from Elbit Systems, Canada’s financial, state and charitable institutions remain invested in the genocide. Since the “ceasefire” was declared, Israel has killed over 600 Palestinians and violated the agreement over 1,620 times. We must not relent, and instead stay focused on dismantling financial and political support for Israel. The lessons from the past three years will inform the battles ahead for a free Palestine.
Statement by: No Arms in the Arts and Just Peace Advocates
Press Release
SUBJECT: Scotiabank Fully Divests from Elbit Systems Following Sustained Pressure Campaign
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Scotiabank Fully Divests from Elbit Systems Following Years of Coordinated Pressure Campaign
No Arms in the Arts and Just Peace Advocates highlight sustained organizing that made bank’s stake in Israeli weapons manufacturer untenable
TORONTO, ON – [Feb 16, 2024] – No Arms in the Arts and Just Peace Advocates are responding to confirmation that Scotiabank has sold all remaining shares in Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer, Elbit Systems, following more than two years of sustained organizing that made the bank’s investment a liability. The bank once held a stake in Elbit 60 times larger than Canada’s other major banks, making Scotiabank Elbit’s largest foreign shareholder.
“Scotiabank’s divestment from Elbit Systems signals that investment in companies complicit in Israeli war crimes has become too risky to sustain, yet 2025 data showed the ‘Big Five’ Canadian banks holding over $182 billion in companies operating in the occupied Palestinian territory—a clear contradiction of Canada’s stated opposition to illegal settlements that demands immediate government action to align policy with practice,” said Karen Rodman of Just Peace Advocates.
In August 2024, Elbit CEO Bezhalel Machlis acknowledged to Globes that “some investors experienced political pressures of some sort and decided to sell,” specifically referencing Scotiabank’s then-partial divestment as having “pushed the share price down.”
“This news comes after years of sustained pressure across the country, with thousands protesting at Scotiabank branches, hundreds of artists refusing to let their work whitewash the bank’s complicity, and many more closing their accounts. Against our government’s attempts to use the façade of a ceasefire to normalize Israel’s siege on Gaza, this demonstrates our collective power to define what we find morally unacceptable and force real change,” said Jody Chan of No Arms in the Arts.
The disruption of the November 2023 Giller Prize broadcast ensured that Scotiabank’s hand in the genocide of Palestinians entered broader public consciousness, leading the Giller Foundation to end its title sponsorship with Scotiabank in 2025.
This divestment sets a critical precedent for what constitutes a permissible investment by financial institutions. However, Canada’s financial, state, and charitable institutions remain deeply invested in Israeli apartheid and genocide. Since the ceasefire was declared, Israel has killed over 600 Palestinians and violated the agreement over 1,620 times.
Read our full statement here
Media Contact:
Michael DeForge
No Arms in the Arts
Email: michael.deforge@gmail.com
About No Arms in the Arts:
No Arms in the Arts is a coalition of artists and cultural workers—including Artists Against Artwashing, Canlit Responds, Writers Against The War On Gaza – Toronto, Film Workers For Palestine, and Musicians Against Artwashing—that rejects arts funding tied to the ongoing displacement and death of Palestinians. The campaign recognizes artists as cultural workers with labor power and uses cultural boycotts as a strategy to identify leverage within creative industries to disrupt complicity in Israeli war crimes and occupation. www.noarmsinthearts.com
About Just Peace Advocates:
A Canadian-based independent human rights organization promoting Just Peace/Paix Juste through the rule of law and respect for human rights in Canada and around the world for the Palestinian people and those that stand in solidarity for the human rights of the Palestinian people. Just Peace Advocates also has a specific focus on the realization of the self-determination of the people of Kashmir. www.justpeaceadvocates.ca
