The action carried out this Saturday morning on the Grand-Place did not go unnoticed. At the call of the France-Palestine Solidarity Association (AFPS) and the local Attac committee, around fifty people demonstrated in Lille in front of a BNP Paribas agency behind a large Palestinian flag and a banner “Israel assassin, BNP complicit “. The AFPS accuses the bank of participating in the financing of Israel in its war against Hamas by “raising funds from Israeli banks or investment companies in the settlements”.
In an email sent to AFP, BNP Paribas denied its accusations. “BNP Paribas is not involved in any way in the conflict in the Middle East. We refute the allegations made against us, it is defamatory to assert that BNP Paribas is financing this conflict in any way,” the French bank said. “We share the feeling of horror at the situation and the dramatic impacts on civilian populations,” added the financial institution.
BNP already targeted at the end of October by Action Justice Climat
At the end of October, activists from the Action Justice Climat association had already carried out a series of actions against Parisian branches of BNP Paribas to urge the bank to “put an end to its activities linked to the State of Israel”. According to Action Justice Climat, the leading French bank has “committed $2 billion to a bond issue by the State of Israel”.
According to data from the financial agency Bloomberg, this issue itself took place in March 2024. “We neither financed nor invested” in this operation, BNP Paribas had already reacted, specifying that it had participated as intermediary, alongside three other international banks.
France
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