A group of activists carried out an action in front of a BNP Paribas Fortis bank branch in the city of Leuven on Saturday to denounce the links between the multinational and the fossil fuel industry.
The activists tried to persuade passers-by to withdraw their money from this bank "which is financing ecocide and genocide."
The action was organised by a number of NGOs, including the environmental organisation Extinction Rebellion, the Leuven Palestine Action Group, Grandparents for Climate, Greenpeace and Fairfin.
The demonstrators did a ‘Die-in’, a collective action of symbolic protest in which they lie down on the public highway to represent the victims of ecocide and the "ongoing genocide in Gaza," which they said the bank is indirectly financing.
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"After the Paris climate agreement, BNP Paribas did not phase out its investments in the fossil fuel industry. On the contrary, it increased them," said Hadewijch Verhenne, Head of Communications. "In six years, the company has invested nearly $166 billion in fossil fuel companies. It is a disaster: BNP is contributing to ecocide."
The demonstrators also singled out the role played by BNP Paribas Fortis in the conflict in the Gaza Strip. "BNP invests in British Petroleum and the Italian company Eni," said Verhenne.
"Israel has given these two companies a licence to explore for gas off the coast of Gaza. The game is rigged. In this way, BNP Paribas Fortis is sponsoring genocide."
