Barclays PLC

Rates Barclays 10 out of 100 on its Israel-Palestine scale, the bottom band, alongside HSBC, Lloyds, NatWest, Santander, JP Morgan, Danske Bank and Svenska Handelsbanken. Records Barclays as 19th of the top 100 international banks financing arms companies with exports linked to Gaza (Armed Banking, October 2024); 4th largest European creditor and 7th largest investor in the companies arming Israel (The Companies Arming Israel and Their Financiers, June 2024); and 3rd largest European creditor and 11th largest investor in companies linked to settlements (Don't Buy Into Occupation, November 2025). Names BAE Systems, Boeing, Caterpillar, Elbit, General Dynamics, QinetiQ, Raytheon and Rolls-Royce among companies recently financed. On Elbit it records that Barclays' latest 2026 filings show no holding, 'but for part of 2025, Barclays did again hold shares in the company'. The same page rates Triodos 90, TSB 90, Co-operative Bank 80, Metro Bank 80, Monzo 80, Al Rayan 80, Cumberland Building Society 80, Starling 60 and Nationwide 60.

Yvette Cooper told the House of Commons that the Government, with the Department for Business and Trade, had strengthened its business risk guidance to make clear that 'if you are a British citizen or business, you should not conduct any economic and financial activities in illegal Israeli settlements', alongside a fourth package of sanctions targeting settler violence networks. Barclays is a British business and, on the Don't Buy Into Occupation coalition's figures, the third largest European creditor of companies linked to settlements.

The single most important document on this page. Sebastian Shehadi, using data from the Amsterdam research firm Profundo, reports that Barclays participated in just two Israeli government bond issuances after October 2023 ($278 million in November 2023 and $223 million in January 2024, about $501 million in total) and 'has not underwritten a single Israeli bond since'. Barclays left the syndicate without announcing it, while BNP Paribas, which stopped after March 2024, acknowledged its withdrawal openly. The remaining five underwriters, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan Chase, co-ran a $5 billion issuance in February 2025 and a $6 billion issuance in January 2026; seven banks underwrote $29.1 billion between October 2023 and January 2026. Profundo's Ward Warmerdam notes that Barclays and BNP Paribas both continue to buy Israeli government debt on the domestic market, where there is 'no direct relationship with the Israeli government, no prospectus involvement and no public announcement'. Barclays declined to comment.

Press Association report on the annual general meeting of 7 May 2026. Chairman Nigel Higgins was repeatedly interrupted through his opening remarks by protesters holding Palestinian flags and shouting 'Free, free Palestine' and 'Everyone here is profiting from genocide'. On arms financing Higgins said: 'We do provide finance to a number of international defence companies who provide arms for the defence of this country, for the defence of Ukraine.' On the bank's Israel exposure he said: 'I'm afraid I'm not going to go into our financing policies on specific clients.' The third consecutive year the AGM has been disrupted over the same relationships.

Barclays repurchased approximately 261.6 million of its own ordinary shares between 30 July and 27 November 2025 at a volume-weighted average price of 381.47 pence, leaving 13,907,858,099 shares in issue. Establishes that the bank is returning capital at scale and is under no financial stress, which is why exclusion and account switching should be argued on principle and fiduciary risk rather than as an attempt to move the share price.

The DBIO coalition of European and Palestinian organisations and trade unions launched its fifth report at the Geneva Press Club on 26 November 2025, as a side event of the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights. The 2025 edition widened its scope in line with the International Court of Justice's determinations, covering the settlement enterprise, the occupation and the military campaign in Gaza. Ethical Consumer's reading of the report places Barclays third among European creditors of settlement-linked companies and eleventh among investors in them.

The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the OPT concludes that Israeli authorities and security forces 'have committed and are continuing to commit' acts of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and that Israel 'bears responsibility for the failure to prevent genocide, the commission of genocide and the failure to punish genocide' (A/HRC/60/CRP.3, paras. 252 and 255).

Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese finds that corporate entities, including banks and asset managers, 'have profited from the Israeli economy of illegal occupation, apartheid and now genocide' (A/HRC/59/23).

Coverage of the 2025 annual general meeting in Westminster, at which a protester was removed after shouting 'Barclays is a primary dealer in Israel government bonds'. Records the bank's standing position: it acts as a lender providing financial services to defence contractors supplying NATO and allied states, does not invest its own money in companies that supply weapons used by Israel in Gaza, and trades shares in such companies only on behalf of clients.

Research by Profundo for BankTrack and PAX establishing that seven investment banks (Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, BNP Paribas, Citi, Barclays and JPMorgan Chase) underwrote $19.4 billion of Israeli government bonds between 7 October 2023 and January 2025, issuance the Israeli government stated was to finance the costs of the war in Gaza. Goldman Sachs alone underwrote more than $7 billion. This is the research that first placed Barclays in the war bond syndicate, and against which its subsequent absence from every issuance after January 2024 can be measured.

Laura Barlow stepped down as Group Head of Sustainability at the end of 2024, remaining with the bank as a senior adviser, with her responsibilities taken on by Daniel Hanna, who had joined in 2022 as Group Head of Sustainable and Transition Finance. The change came amid wider withdrawal by major banks from net-zero commitments.

Barclays' holdings filing showed the disposal of 16,345 Elbit Systems shares worth about $3.4 million. The bank's position is that it traded the shares on client instruction and as a market maker, not as a principal investor. Ethical Consumer records that Barclays held Elbit shares again for part of 2025, and that its 2026 filings show none. The episode is best treated as a disclosure question rather than a divestment: the amounts are small relative to the £6.1 billion in lending and underwriting that is unambiguously the bank's own.

An Israeli outlet reporting the same reversal approvingly, and the clearest evidence of what the relationship is worth to the Israeli state. Yali Rothenberg, Israel's accountant general, is quoted: 'It is crucial that leading global financial institutions, such as Barclays, choose to resist boycotting Israel and support its legitimate right to self-defense.' Notes Barclays is one of seven foreign lenders assisting Israel in selling government debt as it raises billions to finance a widening war deficit.

Reports that Barclays drew up plans to exit Israeli government bond auctions under campaign pressure and then reversed course, reaffirming its commitment as one of seven foreign primary dealers for Israeli debt alongside Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank. Records the bank's defence that it does not invest its own capital in weapons producers and holds such shares through client-driven trading, including in Elbit Systems.

Sets out the headline findings of the joint research: Barclays holds shares worth over £2 billion in companies supplying weapons used by Israel and provides a further £6.1 billion in loans and underwriting to them, an increase of 55% since 2021. Notes that Elbit Systems supplies 85% of the drones used by the Israeli military, and cites December 2023 research placing Barclays as Europe's sixth largest creditor of businesses working in Israel's illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The publication page for the joint report by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, War on Want and Campaign Against Arms Trade, researched by Profundo. Records that Barclays holds £2 billion in shares of eight of nine companies whose weapons and military technology have been used in Israel's attacks on Palestinians, and provides £6.1 billion in loans and underwriting to seven of them. The nine are BAE Systems, Boeing, Caterpillar, Elbit Systems, General Dynamics, QinetiQ, Raytheon, Rolls-Royce and Ultra Electronics.

The researcher's own project page for the work commissioned by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, confirming the two headline figures: over £2 billion in shares of eight of the nine companies, and over £6.1 billion in loans and underwriting to seven of them. Profundo is the same firm behind the war bond research and the Don't Buy Into Occupation series, which makes the figures across those reports methodologically comparable.

The full report PDF, detailing Barclays' financial relationships with defence contractors supplying weapons to Israel, including BAE Systems, Boeing, General Dynamics and Rolls-Royce, and its role as a primary dealer in Israeli government bonds.

Corporate statement committing the group to respect human rights and stating that it is guided by the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Read against the bank's own defence sector statement, which says it will assess the risk of exports being used to support intrastate oppression or unjustified external aggression, this is the standard the bank has set for itself and against which its lending can be measured.

The group's annual statements on directors' compliance with section 172 of the Companies Act 2006, including the duty to have regard to the desirability of the company maintaining a reputation for high standards of business conduct. The statutory hook for shareholder correspondence and AGM questions.