Europe 1 with AFP / Photo credit: Dimitar DILKOFF / AFP
8:41 p.m., October 24, 2024
On Thursday, the Action Justice Climat association carried out a series of actions against several Parisian branches of BNP Paribas. Their goal is to urge the bank to cease its activities in connection with the State of Israel.
Activists from the Action Justice Climat association carried out a series of actions against BNP Paribas' Parisian branches this week to urge the bank to “end its activities in connection with the State of Israel”, said Thursday the NGO in a press release. The BNP Paribas agency on rue Vivienne, overlooking Place de la Bourse in central Paris, was sprayed with bright red paint on Thursday.
Accusations regarding financial ties to the State of Israel
In January 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) admitted the existence of a “real and imminent” risk for the Palestinian populations of the Gaza Strip and called on Israel to prevent any act of genocide in its war against Hamas after the unprecedented Hamas attack on October 7, 2023. Around ten Parisian branches of BNP Paribas were targeted this week by the association, which claims that the leading French bank has “committed up to 2 billion of dollars in a bond issue of the State of Israel” opened in the summer of 2023, according to the press release.
BNP Paribas' response and legal consequences
“We neither financed nor invested” in this operation, BNP Paribas responded to AFP, specifying that it participated as an intermediary, alongside three other international banks. “It is defamatory to assert that BNP Paribas is financing this conflict in any way,” said the bank, announcing that it had “immediately filed a complaint” following these “acts of vandalism”. According to the Paris prosecutor's office, these damages have led to seven arrests since the start of the week.
