Conservative Group Goes After Investment Giant, Accusing It of Anti-Israel Bias

The conservative nonprofit Consumers’ Research launched a campaign on Tuesday going after investment firm Morgan Stanley Capital International for “embracing” an anti-Israel stance in its environmental, social, and corporate governance ratings.

The Consumers’ Research six-figure ad campaign features a new website, a national mailer, digital marketing ads, and a mobile billboard outside of MSCI’s headquarters in New York City.

The campaign came after a coalition of Republican state attorneys general opened an investigation over allegations that MSCI had implemented policies from the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement against Israel.

“MSCI is yet another example of a massive investment firm pushing their anti-Israel agenda instead of following their fiduciary duty,” Will Hild, executive director of Consumers’ Research, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “It’s especially appalling, given the attack on [Israel] last October.”

(Consumers’ Research/MSCILies)

In March, the Jewish News Syndicate reported that MSCI’s ESG policies allegedly downgraded several companies that “it said committed ‘human rights violations’ simply for conducting business in Judea and Samaria and eastern Jerusalem.” Soon after, the coalition of 18 attorneys general, led by Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody, sent MSCI Chairman and CEO Henry A. Fernandez a letter expressing “great concern” over the Jewish News Syndicate report.

“In other words, it appears that MSCI is embracing the BDS movement’s false narrative of Israeli occupation and taking actions designed to pressure companies to Boycott Israel—specifically by downgrading those companies’ EGS scores if they do business in Israel,” the letter reads.

“According to [the Jewish News Service], MSCI deducted ESG points from an Israeli company specifically because of the company’s “participation in the construction of security and surveillance barriers designed to protect Israelis from terrorists,” the letter reads. “It is unthinkable to us that MSCI would stand by this position following the terrorist attacks on Israel last October.

MSCI is not the only asset management company to receive scrutiny for anti-Israel bias. In April 2023, Consumers’ Research also launched a campaign against another investment firm, Morningstar, for also assigning ESG scores to negatively impact companies with connections to Israel.

This campaign was announced after 17 state attorneys general sent a letter in August 2022 highlighting concerns that a Morningstar subsidiary, Sustainalytics, “may be furthering the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement against Israel.” This letter came after then-Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt opened an investigation in July 2022 after Morningstar conducted an internal review and admitted to its anti-Israel bias.

Anti-Israeli bias has become more pronounced across cities and college campuses following the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack. Between Oct. 7 and Jan. 7, incidents of antisemitism skyrocketed 360% to a total of 3,291 incidents, compared with the same period in 2022-2023, which saw 712 incidents, according to data from the Anti-Defamation League.

Conservative groups and lawmakers have attacked this bias within finance firms, particularly by pushing back on ESG. In July 2022, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, proposed legislation to ban state fund managers from taking ESG practices into consideration when investing state funds, saying its been “utilized to impose an ideological agenda on the American people.”

“The American people are sick and tired of the ESG elites allowing their personal progressive politics to interfere with their legal fiduciary duties,” Hild told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “If MSCI can’t do their job without applying an unfair double standard to Israel, then they shouldn’t be trusted by their customers or the American people.”

Originally published by Daily Caller News Foundation

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