The complicity of the Spanish financial sector in the occupation of Palestine. The case of solar energy and Greenwashing,

We have released “The Complicity of the Spanish Financial Sector in the Occupation of Palestine: The Case of Solar Energy and Greenwashing.”

You can read the executive summary here.

The report sheds light on a portion of the Spanish financial framework that enables the planning, construction, and implementation of solar energy projects in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and other disputed territories such as the Naqab Desert (in Arabic) or Negev (in Hebrew). To this end, the report investigates the connections of major Spanish banking institutions, insurers, and financial funds with the financing of companies and renewable energy projects, which are the main sources of funding for Israeli solar fields, as well as with the companies that operate them and/or have participated as suppliers.

The report describes the involvement of entities such as Banco Santander, BBVA, CaixaBank, Abanca, Sabadell, Bankinter, Cajamar, Unicaja, as well as insurers like Catalana Occidente and other Spanish financial funds, in solar energy projects developed in the Occupied Palestinian Territory by companies such as Abengoa, General Electric, SolarEdge, First Solar, SunTech, or Siemens AGO.

The investigation highlights projects in the occupied Jordan Valley, which provide energy to settler colonies, or in the Naqab or Negev Desert, historically Palestinian territory where a systematic policy of land confiscation from Palestinian Bedouins is practiced.

The report provides a series of recommendations to both public administrations and companies, as well as to citizens, to move towards assuming responsibility for the negative impacts and effects of such projects.