Bilbao, 16/3/2024
This morning, on the occasion of the BBVA annual shareholders' meeting held yesterday, activists from Alternativa Antimilitarista-Movimiento de Objeción de Conciencia (AA-MOC), from Bilbao, Las Palmas, Madrid and Valencia, sprayed red paint on the BBVA headquarters in Bilbao to denounce the bank's support for the violation of the rights of the Palestinian people and the financing of wars.
Between 2021 and 2023 BBVA financed, with more than €1 billion, companies that manufacture weapons that Israel is currently using in its offensive against Gaza. BBVA also invests in energy projects, such as the installation of solar panels, in territory occupied by force, which involves the confiscation of land and the forced displacement of the Palestinian population, as detailed in the report "The complicity of the Spanish financial sector in the occupation of Palestine".
The activists consider it an obscenity that BBVA, and a large part of the Spanish financial system, uses apparently environmentally friendly projects to promote the violation of human rights in Palestine. According to the report "Don't Buy into Occupation Coalition" from 2020 to 2023, BBVA ranked 11th in financing Israeli companies in occupied settlements, investing a total of $5.861 billion.
On the other hand, the record profits achieved by BBVA in 2023 are largely due to its investments in the war industry and are therefore stained with blood. In recent years this bank has allocated 5.4 billion euros to support the arms industry, including the financing of companies linked to the manufacture of nuclear weapons.
War is a crime against humanity and antimilitarists pledge to continue to advocate nonviolence and civil disobedience against military spending, the arms industry and military installations in our cities.
The war starts at your ATM.
Not one person, not one euro for war!
BBVA profits from war and genocide.
Not in our name! NO TO WAR!