Since 2005, the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement has been calling on the world to strategically utilize financial pressure to hold Israel accountable and bring about justice and liberation for the Palestinian people. We have an opportunity here in Louisiana to snatch millions of dollars out of Israel’s coffers, and we have to take it. Now is a critical moment for educators, parents, and all people of conscience to demand that our state treasury not reinvest in Israel.
Realistic estimates of the current and future death toll in Gaza set it at at least 100,000. But it doesn’t seem to matter how many times Israel violates international humanitarian law, since the violence continues not only unchecked, but also actively abetted and subsidized by every level of U.S. government. This includes our Louisiana State Treasury, which invests $40 million from two state education trust funds in Israel Bonds, the collective term for the various bonds sold by the Development Corporation for Israel, a fact confirmed through FOIA requests for the funds’ quarterly investments.
In some ways these bonds function like any other nation’s, selling a “share” of the nation’s welfare and economic stability for a small return. Any individual or institution who purchases an Israel Bond is loaning Israel money for a fixed length of time. At the end of this time period, the bond matures and the bondholder can cash out. It is only at this point that the bondholder can choose whether to re-invest their money in Israel Bonds, or to invest it elsewhere.
But there are also characteristics that set Israel Bonds apart. For one, they work more as war bonds than, say, a U.S. Treasury bond. War bonds are bonds levied by governments in times of war to raise funds without raising taxes. They are sold not only to raise money but as a direct appeal to patriotism, as war bonds do not necessarily produce high returns. A Duke University paper investigating how Israel Bonds have functioned since October 7 explains how these war bonds are strategically marketed to the Jewish diaspora, taking advantage of Jews’ identification with Israel to purchase these bonds even at a personal financial loss. As the writers put it, “The hope is that members of the diaspora, because of their loyalty to the homeland, will lend the country funds in a foreign currency at a lower than market rate.”
This leveraging of Jewish identity and solidarity with the Zionist project—and the dangerous conflation of the two—is another characteristic aspect of Israel Bonds. “Israel Bonds the corporation is very clear in their marketing that when you buy a bond it brings you closer to the Jewish homeland and that it’s a mitzvah, which, in Hebrew is a good deed or literally a commandment from the Torah,” Jewish Voice for Peace New Orleans member Zach Kopkin told me. “Like it’s a mitzvah to give, so [buying an Israel Bond] is seen as an act of charity much more than an act of investment, and it’s kind of just an unquestionably good thing to do as a Jewish person.” Kopkin speaks from experience, having received an Israel Bond as a wedding present from a relative who used the gift explicitly as a reminder of Jewish identity.
Launched in 1951, a few years after the 1948 Nakba marked the creation of the state of Israel, Israel Bonds have raised more than $50 billion, and are marketed as a way to be a part of the Israeli “success story.” Individuals, institutions, and political entities like cities and counties can all purchase (or be gifted) these bonds. The vast majority of Israel Bond investment is made by entities in the United States. The single largest holder of Israel Bonds in the world is Palm Beach County, Florida, where, directly after October 7, county comptroller Joseph Abruzzo increased the county’s $40 million holdings by $660 million, calling Israel “our greatest ally.”
The Palm Beach County case underscores how Israel Bonds are not only a morally repugnant investment, they are also a bad financial investment. Unlike U.S. Treasury bonds, they have virtually no secondary market, meaning they can’t be sold at a higher rate, thus foreclosing potential gains for investors. Furthermore, since October 2023, Israel’s credit rating has been downgraded by all three major credit rating agencies and its financial outlook declared “negative,” making Israel Bonds riskier investments compared to other available fixed rate bonds.
Louisiana’s investments in Israel Bonds are made with public money from the Louisiana Education Quality Trust Fund and Education Excellence Fund/Millennium Trust, funds created with proceeds from an oil and gas royalty settlement with the federal government and a tobacco settlement, respectively. Both of these funds provide money in the form of grants to Louisiana’s public education system, which desperately needs it. These Louisiana investments are currently being used in Israel to bomb schools full of starving Palestinians who have been displaced over and over again, instead of investing in the future of Louisiana’s youth.
The time to end our state’s investment in Israel is now. Our current state treasurer, John Fleming, is vehement in his support of Israel: $15 million of our current $40 million in Israel Bonds investments were purchased after October 7. Five million of these dollars were purchased in October 2023 and $10 million more in April 2024 (An additional $10 million were re-invested in August 2024, but as these were not new purchases they didn’t change the overall amount Louisiana has invested in Israel Bonds). Fleming characterized it as “[an honor] to offer assistance for Israel as it fights this evil.”
We must unequivocally demonstrate to him and the Louisiana community as a whole that investment in these bonds is morally, financially, and politically untenable. Universities such as Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand); pension funds, including the U.K.’s largest private pension fund; and cities around the country, including Portland, Maine, have decided not to re-invest in Israel Bonds for both moral and financial reasons. And on February 1, $5 million of Louisiana’s investments will mature, meaning we have an opportunity to act. Since Israel Bonds can’t be sold prior to their maturation, this February 1 maturation date is our chance to demand that these funds be invested in entities other than Israel.
There are numerous ways you can join your voice and energy to this fight, from signing the Break the Bonds petition (at change.org) to participating in our weekly phone zaps to the Treasury to helping set up a teach-in for communities you’re a part of. For the most up-to-date information about how to get involved in demanding that these funds be invested in ways that truly benefit the children and teachers of Louisiana, not in genocide, check out the Jewish Voice for Peace New Orleans Linktree: linktr.ee/jvpnola.
illustration by Sadie Wiese
