The issue
Palestinian life.
Palestinian freedom.
A future in which people can learn, heal, raise their families, and live freely. That is what our solidarity is for.
Marwa · Gaza · March 2024
To study. To heal.
To live.
Marwa was in her fourth year at Al-Azhar University in Gaza. She and her sister tried to find a little escape in novels. Her brothers fetched water; her father bought food. Her diary describes the daily work of keeping a family going.
She recalled being forced to leave a shelter in Khan Younis and reaching Rafah on her fourth displacement. The family eventually built a tent on the beach, exposed to wind and cold.
She wanted to finish her education, bring her family to safety, and rebuild their life. Those hopes run through her account alongside fear, grief, and anger.
Read and listen to her diary at UNICEFIsrael’s assault on Gaza
Israel is destroying
the conditions of life.
The Israeli government and military have destroyed Palestinian homes, attacked hospitals, and forcibly displaced people in Gaza. Al-Haq’s January 2025 report documents the systematic assault on healthcare, including attacks on medical facilities and the denial of lifesaving care, as a pattern of genocide.
In July 2025, the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem concluded that Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Its report describes killing, displacement, destruction of civilian life, and the policies enabling them.
Arkansas must end its financial support for Israel’s genocide and apartheid.
The Palestinian call · July 2005
Freedom. Equality.
Return.
Palestinian unions, women’s organizations, refugee groups, and other civil society organizations called on people around the world to:
“impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel”
Their call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions sets out three demands:
- End Israel’s occupation and colonization of Arab lands and dismantle the Wall.
- Ensure full equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel.
- Uphold Palestinian refugees’ right to return to their homes and properties.
We can answer that call here by organizing to end Arkansas’s financial support for the Israeli state.
Read the full call and its Palestinian signatoriesThe Arkansas connection
Public money.
Direct state support.
Buying an Israel Bond means lending money to the State of Israel. The issuer says the government can use the proceeds for purposes it determines.
Arkansas’s Treasury and retirement systems have made choices to hold, purchase, or fund Israel Bonds investments. The records below establish those choices. They give our demand a local target.
How Israel Bonds finance the state
Israel Bonds describes these securities as direct obligations of the State of Israel, with proceeds available for government-determined purposes. This establishes state financing; it does not trace a particular Arkansas dollar to a particular military attack.
Read the issuer’s explanationArkansas State Treasury
$55 million
held in Israel Bonds.
Bondholder statement · June 30, 2025
The Treasury’s statement lists seven Israel Bonds positions totaling $55 million, with individual maturity dates. Among them: $10 million scheduled to mature in October 2026 and another $10 million in November 2026.
The demand is to stop new purchases and prevent money returning to Israel Bonds when existing investments mature.
See the holdings and maturity record
State of Israel bondholder statement, June 30, 2025. Produced in the Treasury’s February 19, 2026 public-records response, PDF page 1. The linked image is a literal crop of the dated holdings table.
Open the dated holdings table
The statement is historical. A later Treasury inventory adjustment records a $5 million February 2026 maturity. The $55 million figure above is not presented as today’s balance.
Arkansas Public Employees Retirement System
$15 million
purchased.
Purchase · October 15, 2025
APERS used retirement-system money to purchase $15 million in Israel Bonds on October 15, 2025. The transaction record and subsequent email document the purchase.
Public employees and retirees have a reason to demand that their retirement system stop financing the Israeli government.
See the purchase records
APERS public-records response, February 27, 2026, PDF pages 6925 and 6929. These literal source crops show the transfer amount and the email identifying the initial purchase date.
Arkansas Teacher Retirement System
$50 million
mandate funded.
Funding · December 2025
A December 29, 2025 update to ATRS trustees describes December payments that included the $50 million Scout/Reams mandate for Israel Bonds.
The investment decision moved into funding. Teachers and retirees can demand an end to this mandate’s support for the Israeli government.
See the funding record
ATRS Board Update-Liquidity, email to trustees dated December 29, 2025, produced in the Auditor’s March 3, 2026 public-records response. The source excerpt is cropped from the rendered original email body.
Open the December funding excerpt
This records funding of the manager mandate. It does not establish individual completed bond purchases totaling $50 million.
The demand
End the support.
Bring the money home.
No new Israel Bonds. No renewals. No reinvestment. Organize now to end the financial relationship and keep the money out.
How we win