Today Just Peace Advocates and No Arms in the Arts has released this statement, as well as a press release.
Scotiabank fully divests from Elbit Systems
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.
“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.
Read more
Stay tuned for Just Peace Advocates’ full report regarding sectors such as financial institutions, pensions, insurance companies, universities, and their investment in war crimes and genocide. Report planned for March 2026.
