ANZ KiwiSaver divest from illegal Israeli settlements or we switch!

Israel is only able to maintain its apartheid regime and to expand its illegal settlements because of material support from the international community, including through unethical investments by global financial institutions (including ASB and other New Zealand banks and funds).

Mindful Money’s 2025 research showed that 91% of the New Zealand public want to avoid investments that violate human rights. However,many of our KiwiSaver funds are invested in companies that are involved in Israel’s illegal occupation, meaning that through our retirement savings we are inadvertently helping to finance of Israel’s system of apartheid, the expansion of illegal settlements in the Westbank and East Jerusalem, and the genocide of the people of Gaza. 

According to research by Mindful Money, KiwiSaver funds' investments supporting Israeli settlements in Palestinian occupied territories almost doubled from March 2024 to March 2025 from $92 million to $179 million.  In April 2026, KiwiSaver investments in Motorola Solutions alone totalled $61 million. . 

With the ASB KiwiSaver win we’ve shown that people power works! We need to keep the  pressure on our KiwiSaver providers to divest from Israeli apartheid. It’s time to get ANZ to  to stop financing Israel’s apartheid, ongoing colonisation and genocide and divest from the illegal settlements. Together we can get them to do the right thing, again! 

Boycott action works - and is a powerful tool we can use to make big companies realise the cost of doing business with an apartheid state. 

Of all of New Zealand’s KiwiSaver funds, ANZ has the most investments in Motorola Solutions Inc. 

https://www.whoprofits.org//writable/uploads/old/uploads/2018/06/old/bab_al_shams_-_ahmad_al_bazz.jpg

Motorola Solutions Inc provides telecommunications, surveillance and military technology to the Israeli military and illegal Israeli settlements - effectively operating as the IDF’s technology arm and enabling the maintenance and expansion of these settlements. The company also provides technology for operating Israel’s checkpoints and separation wall, two key pieces of Israel's apartheid infrastructure.[1]

Motorola Solutions Inc. have been included in the UN List businesses involved in activities that help maintain/enable Israeli settlements, which are illegal under international law. [2]

ANZ has $18 million invested in Motorola Solutions Inc., making their KiwiSaver fund one of the biggest investors in the occupation in the top 10 KiwiSaver providers.

The International Court of Justice – the world’s highest court – recently declared that states, international organisations, investment corporations and all other institutions must not assist in maintaining the illegal situation created by Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.[3]

In April this year the NZ High Court ruled that the NZ Super Fund’s decision to invest in Motorola Solutions (amongst other companies) were unlawful. [4]

ANZ is currently complicit in Israel’s violations of human rights and international law through its investments in Motorola Solutions Inc. To avoid being an accomplice to this illegal activity, ANZ must divest from Israeli apartheid.

In calling on ANZ to divest from Motorola Solutions Inc. we are taking the lead from the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions as a form of non-violent pressure on Israel.

Both globally and here in Aotearoa, companies are realising that the investments in companies that sustain Israel's apartheid are unethical and are divesting. KiwiSaver providers Simplicity and ASB, Ireland’s sovereign investment fund and French Insurance giant AXA have all divested from services due to their role in illegal settlements. Public pressure works!

We won with ASB. We can win with ANZ, and we won’t stop there…

ANZ and other New Zealand banks and KiwiSaver providers continue to maintain investments in other companies directly or indirectly involved in the maintenance and extension of the illegal settlements, listed in the UN database.

So we are also calling on ANZ and all other New Zealand banks and KiwiSaver providers to adopt policies that prohibit investments in the companies identified by the UN and get rid of any existing investments in these companies. These financial institutions are on notice that we don’t want our money invested in Israel’s discrimination and colonisation. If they continue to bank on apartheid, we’ll stop banking with them!

It is more urgent and important than ever that our voices are heard loud and clear by decision-makers and to encourage others to join our growing movement.

References: 

[1] https://www.whoprofits.org/companies/company/3808

[2] OHCHR update of database of all business enterprises involved in the activities detailed in paragraph 96 of the report of the independent international fact finding mission to investigate the implications of the Israeli settlements on the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the Palestinian people throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem [30 June 2023].

[3] Legal Consequences Arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem (Advisory Opinion) [2024].

[4] Nazzal v Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation [2026] NZHC 681, at [7], [97] and [100].

Photo credit: Motorola communication device used by the Israeli Police during the dispersal of a Palestinian demonstration Bab Al Shams, E1 Area | Jan 2013 | Photographed by Ahmad Al-Bazz, Activestills.