Below are just a few examples of people and organisations in Hertfordshire explaining why they support divesting from companies complicit in war crimes, apartheid and occupation.
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We’re continually adding further testimonies to this page – so please watch this space.
To contribute a testimony, please send a short quote to hertspsc@gmail.com. By helping to illustrate the breadth of support for divestment, you’ll be doing an important service.
Pension scheme members
UNISON Hertfordshire, the key organisation representing members of the pension scheme administered by Hertfordshire County Council, passed a motion in June 2025 calling for the council to stop investing its pension funds in grave human rights abuses against Palestinians:
“This Branch believes
That the Hertfordshire Pension Fund represents scheme members’ money and should be invested in scheme members’ interests.
That scheme members are concerned that their pensions should not be invested in companies involved in the occupation and the violation of Palestinian human rights.
This branch resolves to campaign for Hertfordshire Pension Fund to:
Begin the process of divestment from companies complicit in Israel’s war crimes, including companies supplying weapons, components, and military technology to Israel.
Begin the process of divestment from companies listed on the United Nations database of business enterprises involved in or with the illegal settlements.
Commit to not invest in any companies enabling Israel’s grave violations of international law, including crimes against humanity.
Commit to not invest in any companies listed on the United Nations database of business enterprises involved in or with the illegal settlements.”
“I share with neighbours I have spoken to in my street, horror and outrage at the crimes that have been inflicted on the Palestinian people by Israel. There can be no justification for Hertfordshire County Council to continue investing in companies complicit in the near total destruction and genocide that has taken place in Gaza.”
— Michael Ritchie, St Albans resident and member of the Hertfordshire Pension Fund
“I am a Local Government Pension Scheme member. My future shouldn’t be at the expense of other people’s lives. Those who are responsible for the administration of the scheme are complicit in the genocide, occupation and apartheid of the Palestinian people.”
— Jamie Southwell, Hertfordshire resident and member of the Hertfordshire Pension Fund
“As someone in receipt of pension payments from the Hertfordshire County Council Pension Scheme, it pains me that the fund continues to invest in companies that do business in illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land, and in a state whose military has slaughtered tens of thousands of civilians in Gaza, including children. These investments need to end if we are to achieve a peace which gives Palestinians justice, equality and self-determination.”
— Adrian Bentley, Hertford resident and member of the Hertfordshire Pension Fund
“I believe the international community must put real pressure on Israel to end its assault on Gaza, which has caused devastating civilian suffering and worsened an already dire humanitarian crisis. There must be an immediate ceasefire and meaningful steps towards a just, lasting peace that upholds the rights and dignity of both Palestinians and Israelis. That means tackling the root causes of the conflict—such as the illegal occupation, settlement expansion, and the blockade of Gaza. I care deeply about human rights and justice, and I want to see a future where everyone in the region can live in safety, with equality, dignity, and the freedom to shape their own lives.”
— Steven Watson, Green Party councillor on Hertfordshire County Council
“I want to make it clear that I am in support of the divestment of council funds – including pension and other investments – from companies that resource or profit from Israel’s grave human rights abuses against Palestinians. Our local funding should reflect our values, and it’s vital that we do not indirectly contribute to violations of international law or human rights abuses. We must advocate for accountability, justice, and a peaceful resolution that upholds international law and the dignity of all people involved.”
— Matt Fisher, Green Party councillor on Hertfordshire County Council
“I have long been concerned about Israel’s illegal occupation over the Palestinian people and have consistently supported them in their struggle for freedom, justice and equality. I therefore, as a local councillor, wholeheartedly endorse this campaign to ensure that Herts. County Council ends its £95 million pension fund investments in companies complicit in Israel’s apartheid regime, amounting, as Amnesty International has proven, to genocide in Gaza.”
— Jill Weston, independent councillor on Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council
“Multiple organisations, both in the UK and abroad, have recognised Israel’s actions in Gaza to be criminal and genocidal. It is shocking that the pensions of council workers could be, unbeknownst to them, funding such actions in Palestine. As a councillor, educator and trade unionist, I am fully in support of this campaign and urge Hertfordshire County Council to divest now.”
— Matthew Hobbs, Labour councillor on Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council
“The International Court of Justice has stated that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory is illegal. It has further ruled that third states must do nothing to aid or assist Israel’s illegal actions. In light of this, Hertfordshire County Council – indeed all levels of Council in Hertfordshire – should, to comply with international law, immediately divest all investments from firms connected to the occupation in any way. To do otherwise, as we witness war crimes, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and genocide perpetrated by Israel is absolutely unconscionable.”
— Martin Butcher, independent councillor on East Herts District Council
“Money is said to be the root of all evil; yet I see it as where and what money is spent on is where the evil creeps in. This is why I call for Hertfordshire County Council to stop funding companies complicit in the human suffering inflicted on the Palestinian people.”
— Lucy Musk, Labour councillor on Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council
“To continue these investments is to be complicit in the genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestine. That’s why divesting is so important.”
— Martin Stears-Handscomb, former Labour councillor and leader of North Herts District Council
“There is a point of principal here. As world citizens we have a duty and obligation to protect each other. This does not have to be entirely altruistic; I support Palestinian rights because if I don’t, one day I could face the same treatment.”
— Nick Cox, Green Party councillor on East Herts District Council
“I come from a Jewish Zionist family and I went to Israel in the late 1970s and was completely shocked by what I saw. When I got back, I committed to working for Palestinian rights and I’ve been doing that now for 45 years. We need to get county councils withdrawing investments from the pension fund that actually abuse human rights and oppress Palestinians. So I urge everyone, please support this campaign.”
— Peter Segal, chair of St Albans Friends of Palestine
“Amnesty International released a report in December 2024 concluding that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. The Watford Amnesty Group is fully committed to supporting this campaign on the back of that report and strongly believes Hertfordshire County Council should divest now.”
— Watford Group of Amnesty International
“As a local resident in St Albans and a member of a Jewish anti-occupation and apartheid organisation called Na’amod, I am deeply concerned about Hertfordshire County Council’s investments in companies that in any way aid the illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. I am also a trustee for Jewish charity the British Shalom-Salaam Trust that supports a range of small Palestinian and Israeli groups and seeks to promote equality and justice for all communities. The reports we receive regularly of the suffering incurred by Palestinians are unbearable. The Council must not be complicit in the continued genocidal onslaught on the Palestinian people. I support this campaign and urge the Council to divest now.”
— Stephen Fox, St Albans resident, trustee for the British Shalom-Salaam Trust and member of Na’amod
“As someone who has worked in the occupied territories and has seen first-hand the ongoing brutality of the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine, I wholeheartedly support the call for Hertfordshire County Council to divest from companies complicit in this. The latest episode in terms of Israeli war crimes and probable genocide in Gaza mean this divestment has never been so urgent.”
— Chris Dunham, Bishops Stortford resident and former volunteer in the West Bank with the International Solidarity Movement
“Jewish Voice for Labour is a Jewish voice committed to the application and enforcement of international law. We condemn Israel’s drive towards becoming an ethnonationalist state, running an apartheid regime, waging a genocidal war in Gaza, and encouraging the ongoing savage, lawless attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank designed to force them to leave their lands.
In the face of all this we support a policy of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions as a way of exerting non-violent pressure on the Israeli regime to force it to abide by international law. BDS enables everyone appalled by developments in Israel/Palestine to express their opposition to and campaign against them in support of human rights.
We are delighted to hear of the work of the Herts Palestine Support Coalition and its campaign to divest for Palestine and wish to express a Jewish voice in support of that campaign.”
— Jewish Voice for Labour, which has members in Hertfordshire
“I joined the West Bank olive harvest in 2009 and worked in two villages near Nablus. Untreated sewage from a nearby settlement polluted the village well, at night olive groves were set on fire, in the daytime marauding settlers attacked the village school while the IDF stood by. I am in touch on a daily basis with local news and learn that what we hear here is only a fraction of the true reality. In his masterly address to the International Court of Justice last March, in proceedings on the illegality of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian Territories, UCL academic and international law expert Ralph Wilde used the terms subjugation, dispossession, aggression, genocide, apartheid and torture. The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement has had many significant successes. I support it. I am a Hertfordshire rate payer and co-founder of a registered charity which supports local schools in the Occupied West Bank.”
— Rev. Dr. Peter G. Liddell, former Priest-in-charge of Kimpton and Ayot St. Lawrence and Director of Pastoral Counselling, Diocese of St. Albans, Canon Emeritus
“As a Christian minister, I have seen at first hand the devastation caused by Israel. When I was Rector of Beirut, I visited the devasted Sabra and Chatila. I also saw the massacre of the Shi’ites at the UN post in Qana. When visiting Palestine I watched the apartheid wall being built and saw Christian as well as Muslim communities separated and destroyed economically. Since then the lawlessness of the Israeli state has become unimaginable. War crimes, ethnic cleansing and a very plausible case for genocide are now apparent to anyone with a moral conscience. My own family (through my wife, Basma) have been exiled, arrested, dispossessed and murdered.
Disinvestment is the least that can be done. This is not virtue signalling; it is the minimum, the beginning of a movement to force the Zionist state to reckon with the consequences of its actions. Nor is it antisemitic. Rather, it is in the best interests of Israel to make a just and generous peace with the Palestinians. Hertfordshire County Council needs to lead the way and not be complicit in evil.”
— Revd John Chitham, Rector of Standon, the Mundens and Sacombe
“Guided by our testimonies, Quakers have a long history of working for peace in Palestine and Israel. The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) set up the first refugee camps in Gaza in 1949, and British Friends were engaged in relief and peace work throughout the 20th century. Quaker connections to the region go back even further with the establishment of Ramallah Friends School in the West Bank in 1869. Palestinian Quakers still gather for worship at the historic Friends Meeting House in Ramallah.
Quakers in Britain have their own discerned positions on Palestine and Israel. This includes discernment to boycott Israeli settlement goods, divest from all companies profiting from the occupation, and recognise that Israel is maintaining a system of apartheid over Palestinians in occupied Palestine. Quakers recognise there is a plausible risk that Israeli actions in Gaza have constituted genocide.
Guided by our witness, Quakers advocate publicly for an end to violations of international law, an end to the unlawful occupation of Palestine, and a just peace for all Palestinians and Israelis. We encourage Friends to take meaningful action for peace in Palestine and Israel.”
That the Hertfordshire Pension Fund represents scheme members’ money and should be invested in scheme members’ interests.
That scheme members are concerned that their pensions should not be invested in companies involved in the occupation and the violation of Palestinian human rights.
This branch resolves to campaign for Hertfordshire Pension Fund to:
Begin the process of divestment from companies complicit in Israel’s war crimes, including companies supplying weapons, components, and military technology to Israel.
Begin the process of divestment from companies listed on the United Nations database of business enterprises involved in or with the illegal settlements.
Commit to not invest in any companies enabling Israel’s grave violations of international law, including crimes against humanity.
Commit to not invest in any companies listed on the United Nations database of business enterprises involved in or with the illegal settlements.”
— Motion passed in June 2025 by UNISON Hertfordshire, which represents employees of Hertfordshire County Council and is therefore the key organisation advocating for members of its pension scheme
“As local trade unionists we are determined to give our solidarity to the Palestinian people in the face of the murderous assault on Gaza and the illegal occupation of the entire Palestinian Territories by the Israeli state. Stevenage and District Trades Council are in full support of this campaign to stop the Herts County Council workers’ pension fund being used to help support and finance war crimes, apartheid and occupation.”
— Stevenage and District Trades Council
“Watford Trades Union Council is proud to support the campaign for disinvestment by Herts County Council in businesses complicit in occupation, war crimes and apartheid. We have frequently supported our local Watford Palestine Solidarity Campaign in trying to raise awareness of the genocide committed in Gaza by the IDF with the support of the British Labour government. We are now confronted with US President Trump’s plans to ethnically cleanse millions of Palestinians from their devastated homeland. This would constitute a second Nakba for the Palestinians. We urge trade unionists, workers and students to get behind the disinvestment campaign in the towns and villages of Hertfordshire. Collect signatures in your streets, workplaces and colleges. Viva Palestina!”
— Jon Gamble, retired Watford resident and Treasurer of Watford TUC
“Luton NEU condemns Israel’s aggression in the West Bank and Gaza, and extends their solidarity to the people and educators of Palestine. The NEU has a long and proud history of working closely with the General Union of Palestine Teachers (GUPT). Luton NEU expresses solidarity with the campaign calling for Hertfordshire Pension Fund to divest their pension funds from companies complicit in Israeli human rights violations in Palestine as well as companies involved in the arms trade worldwide.”
National Education Union Luton branch, which has members resident in Hertfordshire
“This group condemns the genocide and other atrocities being inflicted on the Palestinian people. We request that HCC divest its pension funds from companies that are complicit in these violations.”
— Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield Trades Council
“The rail union TSSA has played its part in calling for solidarity with the Palestinian cause. Since 2003 when we sent our first union delegation to Gaza and the West Bank and saw first-hand Israeli apartheid brutality against Palestinians, we have repeatedly strengthened that voice including the demand for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. We must continue to show and mobilise solidarity to fight for Palestinian human rights and justice in the face of Israel’s genocidal actions in Gaza. Demanding divestment from companies that profit from illegal settlements, the occupation and construction of the Apartheid Wall is essential not to be complicit in Israel’s war crimes.”
— Dave Barnes, St Albans resident and chair of the Network Rail London South branch of the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association trade union
“As a Hertfordshire resident and if elected as Hitchin North councillor, I fully support a commitment to divest Herts Local Government Pension Scheme from the arms trade and in particular companies complicit in Israel’s genocide against Palestinians, and ecocide in Palestine.”
— Deolinda Eltringham, Green Party candidate for Hitchin North
“As a representative of Watford Green Party, we truly believe that to live in a fair and equal society, we must speak up on behalf of those who cannot be heard. One of those voices is Palestine. Everyone on the political spectrum, whether it be local or parliamentary, can fight to give a voice to Palestinians who are fighting against their own genocide.”
— Jake Mitchell, Green Party candidate for Woodside Stanborough
“As the Transform candidate for Hemel Hempstead Town division, I believe that this campaign is something tangible I can support. We can make a material difference for the people of Palestine. HCC divest now!”
— Gary Ruff, Transform candidate for Hemel Hempstead Town
“I just cannot believe that Israel still gets the support of certain councils and from the UK government. As a Palestinian who lives in Hertfordshire and has travelled to Palestine last year and seen the horrors that the people face over there, it does amaze me that Hertfordshire County Council is not taking any steps to stop this genocide. What happened to humanity?”
— Hertfordshire resident
“I have been living with my wife and three children and working as a doctor in North Hertfordshire for the last 30 years. I was born in Palestine and after the 1967 war, my family and I were forced to leave and were displaced in the neighbouring country Jordan. Since my childhood I suffered traumatic experiences due to the devastating armed conflict. The recent war on Gaza created a wakeup call for the whole world when they have witnessed the genocide crimes against the Palestinians. As a resident in North Herts, I call on the County Council to terminate the Pension Fund’s investments in companies working in occupied territories where settlements have been built to terrorise the local population and to steal their land.”
— Dr Mohammed, Hertfordshire resident
“I work and teach in mental health. I am part Palestinian, part British, part Jordanian and part Lebanese… The decisions that those in power are making have challenged my faith in humanity… As humans, we don’t seem to be learning from history. Trauma continues in real time. Witnessing brutality and experiencing loss and injustice is incredibly painful, and at times it feels excruciating. As a fellow human being of Palestinian descent, I urge you to stop funding the inequality and ongoing atrocities of ethnic cleansing.”
— Hertfordshire resident
“I have for many years been aware of the brutal military occupation of the Occupied Territories, the inhumane siege of Gaza and the injustice suffered by Palestinians living in the State of Israel. This system of apartheid, which has been imposed by Israel for decades, must surely be dismantled in the same way that we would oppose it anywhere in the world where it exists. As a Quaker, I object to Herts County Council making investments in bodies that maintain and facilitate such practices.”
— Mary B, Letchworth resident and Quaker
“As a resident of Hertfordshire, I object to Hertfordshire County Council’s involvement in companies that maintain and fund this genocide. Shame on you.”
Herts Palestine Support Coalition 