Military Audit: AXA

Direct Defence Contracting & Procurement

No public evidence identified of any contract, tender, framework agreement, or memorandum of understanding between AXA and Israel’s Ministry of Defense, the IDF, the Israel Prison Service, or the Israel Border Police. No public evidence identified of AXA appearing in SIBAT’s defence export directory or in international defence exhibition catalogues in connection with Israeli state contracts. No public evidence identified of corporate press releases or trade-press reporting describing a defence-cooperation agreement, joint venture, or partnership between AXA and any Israeli defence entity.

Dual-Use Products & Tactical Variants

AXA is an insurance and asset-management group rather than a manufacturer, and no ruggedised or military-specification product lines attributable to the company have been identified; No public evidence identified. No public evidence identified of export-licence applications, end-user certificates, or export-control reviews concerning AXA sales to Israeli defence or security end users, consistent with AXA’s status as a financial-services provider rather than a goods exporter.

Heavy Machinery, Construction & Infrastructure

AXA is not a machinery manufacturer or construction contractor, and No public evidence identified of AXA equipment, vehicles, or machinery used in settlement, checkpoint, or barrier construction. AXA’s own 2017 public statement asserted that “AXA is not present and does not do business in the settlements, which are subject to an international United Nations resolution” ¹. No public evidence identified contradicting this statement with a documented AXA branch, agency, or authorised-partner presence inside West Bank, East Jerusalem, or Golan Heights settlements. No public evidence identified of construction or engineering contracts involving AXA for checkpoints, detention facilities, military bases, the separation barrier, or settlement infrastructure.

Supply Chain Integration with Defence Primes

No public evidence identified of AXA supplying components, sub-systems, or manufacturing services to Elbit Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, or Israel Military Industries. AXA’s only documented historical relationship with Elbit Systems is as a financial investor holding equity and bonds, established through a divestment campaign rather than a supply or manufacturing partnership ²³. No public evidence identified of joint development, co-production, or technology-transfer agreements between AXA and any Israeli defence firm.

Logistical Sustainment & Base Services

No public evidence identified of AXA service contracts - catering, transport, fuel, waste management, facilities, or telecommunications - supplied to IDF bases, training facilities, or detention centres in the West Bank, Golan Heights, East Jerusalem, or the Negev. No public evidence identified of AXA or AXA XL providing shipping, freight-forwarding, or port-handling contracts specifically servicing Israeli defence logistics or arms shipments, as distinct from routine commercial marine and war-risk insurance products marketed broadly across the shipping industry. No public evidence identified of AXA or AXA XL underwriting policies specifically for Elbit Systems, Israel Aerospace Industries, Rafael, or Israel Military Industries. AXA Partners separately markets standard consumer travel-insurance cover for destinations including Israel through its retail travel-insurance product line, a routine commercial offering unrelated to defence logistics or base services ⁴.

Munitions, Weapons Systems & Strategic Platforms

No public evidence identified of AXA acting as manufacturer, prime contractor, or licensed producer of any lethal platform, munitions, or strategic system - including Iron Dome, David’s Sling, Arrow, aircraft, tanks, or warships - consistent with its business model as an insurer and asset manager. No public evidence identified of AXA supplying guidance electronics, fire-control systems, radar, propulsion, or warhead-casing components to any weapons programme.

Export Licensing, Regulatory & Legal History

No public evidence identified of any government export-licence grant, denial, suspension, or revocation concerning AXA, consistent with its status as a financial-services provider rather than a goods exporter. No public evidence identified of arms-embargo or sanctions enforcement action against AXA specifically tied to Israel. No formal court judgment against AXA has been identified; French civil-society groups raised the 2017 “devoir de vigilance” (duty of vigilance) legal framework in connection with AXA’s investments, but No public evidence identified of a filed lawsuit under that law specifically targeting AXA over Israel ¹. No public evidence identified of a formal OECD National Contact Point “specific instance” complaint filed against AXA regarding Israel. Shareholder activism has nonetheless targeted AXA’s governance directly: a shareholder confronted AXA executives at the company’s Paris AGM at Salle Pleyel over investments in arms companies tied to Gaza, accompanied by a protest banner reading “Axa, don’t insure Israeli apartheid” ⁵. In the United Kingdom, Crossbench peer Lord Walney condemned AXA’s bank divestment as capitulating to “militant activists,” while Lord Austin characterised it as a “campaign of delegitimisation” and pledged to contact AXA’s chairman directly ⁶.

Civil Society Scrutiny & Documented Investigations

AFSC’s Investigate database maintains an ongoing company profile tracking AXA’s investments and controversies connected to Israel/Palestine ⁷.

UN Special Rapporteur findings. UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese’s 2 July 2025 report A/HRC/59/23, “From economy of occupation to economy of genocide,” names AXA alongside Germany’s Allianz in its “Banking and Insurance” enablers subsection, stating that “global insurance companies, including Allianz and AXA, also invest large sums in shares and bonds implicated in the occupation and genocide, partly as capital reserves for policyholder claims and regulatory requirements, but primarily to generate returns” ⁸⁹¹⁰¹¹. The report further states that insurers’ policies “underwrite the risks other companies necessarily take when operating in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, thus enabling the commission of human rights abuses and ‘de-risking’ the operational environment” ¹⁰. Secondary reporting on the report states that AXA invests at least $4.09 billion in tracked companies named in the report despite some divestment efforts, compared with at least $7.3 billion attributed to Allianz in the same paragraph ¹⁰. Law4Palestine’s summary situates this finding in a subsection on financial-sector “enablers,” locating it at approximately paragraph 76 of the report ¹².

Divestment history. AXA partially divested from Elbit Systems in December 2018 and March 2019, completing full divestment by the end of 2019, following a campaign launched in 2016 under the banner “Stop AXA Assistance to Israeli Apartheid” and an April 2018 SumOfUs petition that gathered between roughly 96,000 and 140,000 signatures ²¹³³. AXA divested from Israeli banks Bank Mizrahi-Tefahot and First International Bank of Israel by the end of 2022 ¹³. As of 30 September 2023, AXA still held more than $20 million in shares across three further Israeli banks - Bank Hapoalim, Israel Discount Bank, and Bank Leumi - with Irish media separately reporting the firm had divested almost €18 million from Israeli banks amid sustained public pressure ¹⁴¹⁵¹⁶. By 24 June 2024, AXA had effectively divested from all three remaining banks, reducing its holdings to near zero, a move confirmed by CEO Thomas Buberl at the company’s April 2024 AGM, where he stated that AXA “does not have any investments in Israeli banks… targeted by boycott calls currently led by some activist groups,” while adding that AXA “does not take a position on this serious geopolitical crisis” ⁶¹⁵. BDS Movement’s 21 August 2024 press release characterised this as full divestment from “ALL Israeli banks and Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems,” attributing the outcome to sustained activist pressure ¹⁷¹⁸.

Ongoing arms-company investments. As of 30 June 2024, AXA held $150.43 million across eleven companies described by campaigners as arming Israel, including Rolls-Royce, GE Aerospace, Honeywell Technologies, Textron, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, RTX, L3Harris Technologies, and BAE Systems, the latter comprising $78.87 million in shares and $71.56 million in bonds ¹⁹²⁰. A broader accounting placed AXA’s total holdings across fourteen examined military companies at $173.62 million, including $134.91 million invested in thirteen companies described as “controversial weapons manufacturers” ²¹. As of February 2025, Boycott Bloody Insurance reported that AXA still held $176,738,585 invested in arms companies supplying Israel, including BAE Systems and Caterpillar ²². The June 2024 PAX/Don’t Buy Into Occupation coalition report grouped AXA with Allianz, Aviva, Zurich Insurance Group, and RSA (Intact) as insurers that collectively invested $1.7 billion across fifteen companies involved in Israeli “militarism” ²⁰. Campaigners linked named suppliers’ weapons - rather than AXA directly - to specific incidents, citing the 26 May Rafah bombing and 10 September al-Mawasi strikes in connection with Boeing- and General Dynamics-sourced weapons, with AXA’s documented connection to these incidents limited to its investment relationship with the named suppliers ²¹¹⁹. Al-Haq’s March 2025 report “Ensuring Genocide - The Insurance Industry and Israel’s War Machine” examines the insurance sector’s broader role, including AXA, in underwriting risk associated with the wartime economy ²³.

Bermuda / AXA XL activism. On 10 May 2024, activists Kristin White and Glenn Fubler protested outside AXA XL’s Bermuda office during a Chamber of Commerce meeting, citing AXA’s investments in Israeli banks (approximately $2.6 million in remaining shares cited at the time) and in “five Israeli companies, including a weapons manufacturer” ²⁴. AXA XL representatives responded to the Bermuda protest by stating “Axa has no investment in any of the banks cited in recent calls for boycott” ²⁴.

AXA’s public and policy responses. In September 2017, AXA stated that its holdings in three Israeli banks “did not fall within the exclusion framework of our responsible investment policy” following a “careful examination,” and reiterated that it does not operate in the settlements ¹. In April 2018, AXA described SumOfUs’s divestment allegations as “fragmentary and false,” stated that the three targeted banks represented “approximately 0.004% of the Group’s assets under management,” and characterised its responsible investment policy as “one of the most complete and ambitious” ³. At its April 2024 AGM, CEO Thomas Buberl stated AXA holds “zero investments in Israeli banks, direct or indirect,” condemned “physical attacks suffered by our agents and employees,” and reiterated that AXA “does not take a position on this serious geopolitical crisis” ⁶¹⁵. AXA Investment Managers’ Responsible Investment Policy of January 2024 excludes producers of controversial weapons, including white-phosphorus-weapons producers, under an ESG-standards overlay for Article 8/9 funds, but does not explicitly name Israeli settlements, occupation, or apartheid as an exclusion trigger ²⁵.

Campaigns. The “Stop AXA Assistance to Israeli Apartheid” coalition has campaigned since 2016 for AXA’s divestment from Israeli banks and Elbit Systems, declaring a partial “win” in August 2024 ¹³¹⁷. A “#BoycottAXA” consumer boycott has continued after the 2024 divestments, now focused on AXA’s remaining arms-company investments, coordinated by BDS Movement, Ekō, Boycott Bloody Insurance, and allied groups ²¹²². No public evidence identified of any institutional investor, such as a pension fund or sovereign wealth fund, divesting from AXA itself on these grounds; the divestment actions documented are AXA’s own portfolio decisions regarding its Israeli holdings, not third-party divestment from AXA shares or bonds.

UN settlement-business database. The OHCHR’s Database of Business Enterprises maintained pursuant to Human Rights Council Resolutions 31/36 and 53/25, updated 26 September 2025, lists entities connected to Israeli settlements, but No public evidence identified of AXA appearing among the listed database entities, meaning AXA’s UN documentation nexus is confined to the Special Rapporteur’s Albanese report rather than the settlement-business list itself ²⁶²⁷²⁸.

End Notes