We, the constituents, residents, community groups, and workers of the state of North Carolina, petition you to divest our state pension and municipal funds from all Israeli government bonds and holdings, which financially support and profit from war and occupation in Palestine. We demand that you uphold your office’s stated duty “to preserve, protect and sustain the state’s pension and healthcare plans and generate investment returns in excess of comparable public pensions” by divesting from the Israeli Government Bonds immediately.

The people of North Carolina do not want a retirement fund invested in genocide, occupation, and apartheid. For more than 18 months, Israel has been bombing hospitals, schools, and refugee camps, leading to the deaths of at least 54,800 people–including at least 17,400 children–and the displacement of nearly all 2.3 million people in Gaza. In 2024, the International Court of Justice ruled that the Israeli occupation of the Gaza strip and the West Bank violates international law. Amnesty International concluded that Israel is committing an ongoing genocide. Blocking medical supplies, food, and clean water from entering Gaza is one horrific facet of Israel’s genocide. According to the World Health Organization, “The entire [2.3] million population of Gaza is facing prolonged food shortages, with nearly half a million people in a catastrophic situation of hunger, acute malnutrition, starvation, illness and death. This is one of the world’s worst hunger crises, unfolding in real time.” Even before Israel’s latest genocidal violence against Palestinians, Human Rights Watch concluded (in 2021) that Israel is committing “crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.” We have an ethical and moral obligation to end our financial support of this violence immediately.

In addition to ending our state’s financial support of these atrocities, state pension holders of North Carolina deserve a fiscally sound retirement plan. Internationally recognized credit agencies Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s have downgraded Israel’s economy, which is heavily invested in weapons and war, because of its financial volatility. Maintaining our statewide investments with entities experiencing documented declining returns will prevent hard-working North Carolinians from enjoying the full potential of their retired lives and hard earned benefits. Our own local municipalities need investment to fund North Carolina schools, parks, affordable housing, and transportation infrastructure. We demand that our savings be used to make our communities stronger and healthier, not to fund crimes against humanity abroad. The sooner we reinvest in life-affirming alternatives here, the better the outcomes will be for the people of our state.