Boycott Barclays

Of all the UK’s high street banks, Barclays has possibly the most ignoble history. Having played a key role propping up the apartheid regime in South Africa until 1986 (when international pressure finally forced its withdrawal), Barclays now bankrolls many arms companies complicit in Israel’s apartheid and genocide in Palestine. BHPSC have campaigned against Barclays for over 10 years now.

The background

According to a joint 2024 report by Palestine Solidarity Campaign, War on Want and Campaign Against Arms Trade, Barclays Bank owns shares worth over £2 billion – and provides a further £6.1 billion in loans and underwriting – to nine companies which provide weapons and military technology to Israel. These include Caterpillar, which supplies the IOF with D9 bulldozers used to demolish Palestinian homes and essential infrastructure in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Raytheon meanwhile produce huge ‘bunker buster’ bombs which have wrought devastation against civilian targets in Gaza.

Unbelievably, Barclays has increased its bankrolling of these merchants of death by 55% since 2021. The bank is actively arming, supporting and profiting from Israel’s genocidal violence against the Palestinian people.

Our campaign

BHPSC members and supporters have been campaigning regularly against Barclays since Israel’s 2014 51-day assault on Gaza.

Initially, the national Boycott Barclays campaign focused on awareness-raising and pressuring the bank through its customers.

The campaign has now escalated. We’re calling on people of conscience to boycott all Barclays services. In 2024, 5000 people closed their Barclays accounts as part of PSC’s continuing mass account closure days. We hope many more will follow suit.

Successes

While Barclays is still a key financier of many companies directly implicated in Israel’s war crimes and genocide in Gaza and across the occupied Palestinian territories, the campaign has seen some successes. Most recently, in late 2024, research by Palestine Action found that Barclays had divested its entire shareholding (over 16,000 shares) in Israel’s largest weapons company Elbit Systems Ltd.

The Boycott Barclays campaign continues…