Choosing to divest

Charlotte Grimshaw, (Diary, September 13) highlights how Norway, with its vast resources, is starting a process of divestment from Israeli industry as a likely effective move against the horrendous conflict with Palestinians. This has come into focus with the war of retribution on Gaza, although it has been going on for decades as Palestinian villages and homelands have been demolished.

- Alan Broom (Auckland)

Sanctions and divestments have been proven as an effective tool of action against wars and injustice. But worldwide, billions are being made out of the current wars by arms manufacturers. How many New Zealanders know whether their KiwiSaver funds are supporting arms manufacturing? This is increasingly the case because there is money to be made there, albeit lives are lost in the process.

My guess is most of us would not want our savings supporting weaponry manufacture, whether of mass destruction or on a smaller scale. But the “market” does not have a moral code. It just sniffs out the money.

The charity Mindful Money last month cited a 41% increase in arms manufacturing investments in the past year by KiwiSaver in New Zealand. But we, too, can participate in divestment from human misery by calling our fund managers and requesting withdrawal from such investments.

Alan Broom (Auckland)

SEEKING ANSWERS

"Quiet complicity", Nadia Madill's Upfront column (September 6), ends by asking, "Can we be angry about where things are at without being accused of being anti-Semitic?"

The answer is no, unfortunately, because many people confuse an anti-Israeli or anti-Zionist stance with anti-Semitism. However, Israel is a state while Judaism is a religion.

Madill also asks, "Are we, by our silence, complicit in the destruction of a people?" To this the answer is yes. On August 11, Foreign Minister Winston Peters announced that our government would weigh up whether or not to recognise a state of Palestine. I hope the decision - due any day - is not influenced by a desire to please the US, which long ago abandoned its moral authority.