Boycott Bloody Insurance and Axe Drax joined forces to take direct action against insurance giant AXA – for both it’s complicity in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza and its propping up of fossil fuel and planet-wrecking companies.
AXA: occupied
15 people occupied and blockade the Leeds office of the insurance giant AXA:
Occupiers held banners reading “‘Israel’ needs AXA to bomb Gaza” and “Stop insuring ecocide!”.
Police attended the scene and forcibly removed the protesters:
The action was part of a nationwide mobilisation launching the Boycott Bloody Insurance campaign pressuring AIG, Allianz, Aviva and AXA to stop insuring fossil fuel expansion, the genocide in Palestine, weapons, and the border detention industry.
Boycott Bloody Insurance like AXA
The action was taken by a coalition of groups under the Boycott Bloody Insurance banner, campaigning for divestment and cutting ties with the Zionist settler-colonial project in solidarity with Palestine, with Black and brown communities on the frontlines of the climate crisis, with refugees and asylum seekers and liberation struggles globally.
AXA insures Drax, the UK’s single largest carbon emitter and the world’s biggest tree burning power plan. Drax has been repeatedly accused of poisoning low-income, Black and brown communities, receiving multiple multi-million dollar fines for its pellet operations, and violated environmental regulations over 11,000 times in the US south.
AXA has $177 million invested in 12 weapons manufacturers supplying the ‘Israeli’ military with equipment; including BAE systems and General Dynamics. BAE Systems produces the M109 howitzer used by the ‘Israeli’ military to fire white phosphorus in Gaza, a UN investigation found evidence of BAE equipment being used in the bombing of Medical Aid for Palestinians.
General Dynamics supplies the IDF with weapons such as the MK-84 bomb used in Northern Gaza including on Jabalia refugee camp in October 2023, murdering over 100 Palestinians. AXA insures RE/MAX, Motorola Solutions, Indra, and Drax. RE/MAX markets and sells property in illegal ‘Israeli’ settlements built on the occupied West Bank. Motorola Solutions operates out of the West Bank, providing IT and surveillance products to assist the illegal occupation. Indra is a key player in the European border industry and holds contracts with the fossil fuel companies Chevron and BP.
Stop funding catastrophe
Jose from Leeds Students Against Apartheid Coalition said:
AXA insures genocide by underwriting RE/MAX and Motorola Solutions. These companies are complicit in the ‘Israeli’ colonial regime. AXA has already cut ties with the ‘Israeli’ weapons company Elbit — now it’s time to cut ties with other companies complicit in genocide and settler colonial violence against Palestine.
Rosie from Axe Drax said:
AXA insures companies that profit from racism. RE/MAX and Motorola Solutions support the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from the West Bank. Drax inflicts illegal levels of air pollution on poor, black communities in the US. And Indra supports Europe’s violent border regime. These companies make money because Palestinian, Black, and migrant lives are made disposable — and AXA helps them operate. Without AXA’s insurance, these companies blood stained profits would not be possible.
Boycott Bloody Insurance is sending a clear message to AXA and others: they can and must refuse to underwrite these destructive industries.
Featured image and additional images supplied
