Israel Bonds, sold in the U.S. by the Development Corporation for Israel, has raised billions helping fund violent settlement expansion and other international crimes in Palestine
(Washington D.C., January 10, 2025) — The UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT) should include Israel Bonds and its U.S. underwriter, the Development Corporation for Israel (DCI), in her upcoming report on the involvement of private and corporate actors in international crimes in the Palestinian territory, DAWN, and the Internationalist Law Center urged in a detailed submission. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) also should add Israel Bonds and DCI to its "settlement blacklist" database.
"Israel Bonds are one of the most significant sources of financing for illicit Israeli activities in Palestine, from the violent expansion of West Bank settlements to offsetting the enormous costs of the genocidal campaign in Gaza," said Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man, director of research for Israel-Palestine at DAWN. "The United Nations should include Israel Bonds and the Development Corporation for Israel in its blacklist for illegal settlement businesses so that the world is on notice that buying Israel Bonds means helping pay for Israel's war crimes."
DCI is the U.S. underwriter of debt securities issued by the State of Israel, more commonly known as Israel Bonds. By purchasing Israel Bonds, individuals, private and public companies, city, state and national governments, universities, synagogues, financial institutions, and banks effectively loan funds to the Israeli government that it uses to further its crimes in the OPT. The Israeli government uses the proceeds from the sale of Israel Bonds to supplement its general budget, including to pay for the costs of its settlement expansion and illegal occupation.
DCI states that it has raised over $53 billion by selling Israel Bonds to private citizens, public institutions, and corporations in the United States since its founding in 1951. According to its website, Israel Bonds "ranks among Israel's most valued economic and strategic resources." Israel Bonds serve as a source of economic stability for the country, especially in periods when it becomes more expensive to borrow in capital markets. Such a scenario is currently playing out, with Israel's costs of borrowing likely increasing after major agencies downgraded its credit rating last year.
"Israel Bonds proceeds are inseparable from the funds in Israel's general budget used to fund human rights violations and war crimes," said Lydia Ghuman, legal researcher with the Internationalist Law Center. "Purchases of Israel Bonds implicate our own public officials who invest taxpayer dollars in funding human rights violations in Palestine, all while domestic housing, education, and healthcare needs remain underfunded in our own backyard."
In June 2023 and again in April 2024, DAWN urged the Department of Justice's Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) Unit to investigate DCI/Israel Bonds for failing to register as a foreign agent because it is fully controlled by the Israeli government, its directors are political appointees of the Israeli government, and it acts to advance the discretionary political interests of the Israeli government. The FARA Unit has failed to respond to DAWN's complaint.
In May 2024, the Internationalist Law Center filed a lawsuit against Palm Beach County Comptroller Joseph Abruzzo for investing $700 million of public funds in Israel Bonds. The lawsuit, part of the Internationalist Law Center's "Break the Bonds" campaign, alleges that Abruzzo violated his fiduciary duties under Florida law by making investment decisions based on political considerations and in violation of several investment standards imposed by Florida Statute 518.11 and the Palm Beach County Investment Policy.
In October 2024, the UN Special Rapporteur on the OPT, Francesca Albanese, issued a public call for input for her upcoming report into "the involvement of business enterprises, including financial institutions such as banks, pension funds, insurance companies, universities, as well as private military and security companies and weapons manufacturers, in the commission of international crimes connected to Israel's unlawful occupation, racial segregation and apartheid regime in the occupied Palestinian territory."
Based on their experience and research, DAWN and the Internationalist Law Center submitted a joint communication to the Special Rapporteur focusing on DCI/Israel Bonds for inclusion in her upcoming report on the—direct and indirect—involvement of private actors in ongoing Israeli crimes in the OPT. The communication documents precisely how Israel is using proceeds from Israel Bonds to fund its illegal settlement activities, including war crimes against Palestinian civilians.
In July 2024, the International Court of Justice concluded that Israel's occupation of the OPT is illegal and, in accordance with existing UN General Assembly and Security Council resolutions, urged member states to "to take steps to prevent trade or investment relations that assist in the maintenance of the illegal situation created by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory." In 2012, the United Nations Security Council passed resolution 2334 reaffirming that Israeli settlement in the OPT has "constitutes a flagrant violation under international law."
In 2016, the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) also mandated the High Commissioner for Human Rights to create a database, updated yearly, of business enterprises involved in activity that "directly and indirectly enabled, facilitated and profited from the construction and growth of the Israeli settlements" and "raise particular human rights violations concerns."
OHCHR published its initial list in 2020 but has not publicly and regularly updated it as mandated by the HRC. OHCHR last published an update to the database in 2023, in which it removed 15 companies from the "blacklist" but added none.
DAWN and the Internationalist Law Center urged the Special Rapporteur to request that the OHCHR include Israel Bonds and DCI in the database and to call directly on the OHCHR to publish an updated and expanded database of companies aiding and abetting international settlement-related crimes in the OPT.
