In response to over 3,000 people signing a divestment petition both Labour and Tory councillors agreed instead to make the council’s pension committee “aware” of it, reports Grace Howarth, Local Democracy Reporter

Enfield Council has rejected calls from local pro-Palestine groups to divest the local authority’s pension fund from companies linked to Israel.

Campaigner Chris Kaufman addressed a full council meeting at Enfield Civic Centre on Tuesday (24th), urging the council to pull its pension funds from companies linked to supplying arms to Israel and war crimes.

Instead, Labour and Conservative councillors voted unanimously for the pension policy and investment committee to be “aware” of the petition when they were “updating the investment strategy” in future.

Pension investment strategies are typically reviewed at least every three years.

Prior to the decision, Chris told councillors that a petition supporting divestment had gained over 3,300 signatures and said those residents needed the council’s “vote tonight”.

He said: “The petition calls on the Enfield Council pension fund committee to do three things.

“Firstly, divest all local government pension scheme funds complicit in Israel’s violations of human rights and international law, including the genocide, apartheid and illiegal occupation of the Palestinian people.

“Secondly, use its influence as part of the London Collective Investment Vehicle (CIV) to publicly lobby it to divest from companies enabling Israel’s human rights abuses.

“Thirdly, commit to ending procurement contracts with companies complicit in Israel’s attacks. Ours is an ethical cause.”

Chris highlighted how councils such as Islington and Waltham Forest with “the same constraints” had found a way to “lawfully exit from financial relationships with companies that may facilitate breaches of international law.

He said investments were managed at “arms length” but “ultimately” Enfield was the “owner of the shares”.

In response, council leader, Ergin Erbil said: “I want to make clear that as councillors we do not receive this pension, it is important to note that because 25,000 people subscribe to our pension fund, it’s on behalf of them that we have to make rational and sensible decisions.

“I want to reiterate that we take these concerns seriously, we are acting within our powers responsibly and transparently and, as I have mentioned previously, the investment strategy is being looked at, it is being reviewed.”

Opposition leader Alessandro Georgiou said: “It is near impossible even if we wanted to, to disentangle ourselves from every single body, company and organisation that has traded with Israel.”

Doug Taylor, the pension’s committee chair, said the council did not “directly invest” in companies but puts money into funds, and that these funds were chosen by fund managers “to aim for a financial return”.

He said: “Firstly, the responsibility of the committee is to act in a fiduciary manner, that means not to be negligent or pursue an individual, political, or personal goal rather than the explicit interests of the beneficiaries.”

Responding to Cllr Taylor’s speech, after the meeting, Chris said it was disingenuous to say supporting the petition went against fiduciary duties and highlighted the council had changed its strategy over issues such as Ukraine, gambling, and environmental issues in the past.

He said: “They are washing their hands of their responsibilities. They keep implying this idea that to look after people’s pension funds means maximising returns and forgetting any morality and ethics and they’ve shown themselves in their true colours.”

Fellow campaigner Khalid Sadur, who leads Enfield Community Independents, a newly-formed left-wing group, said the response “wasn’t good enough”. He said: “They’re not interested and come May 2026 they’re no longer going to fill that council chamber because frankly they don’t represent the people as they should do.”

He added that Enfield Community Independents would be running candidates in every ward at the next election.

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