We unreservedly condemn the participation of BlackRock (through its fully-owned subsidiary Global Infrastructure Partners) in the Gateway Development Alliance consortium which will acquire all the shares in Malaysia Airports Holdings Bhd. Though Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) will own only 30% of the consortium, it nevertheless allows BlackRock entry into the management and ownership of 39 airports in Malaysia. These are strategic assets to the country. No ownership should be handed over to a foreign entity, much less one that has a bloody reputation like BlackRock.
BlackRock is a company profiteering from genocide. It is a New York City-based investment company with massive stakes in the defence companies forming the US military-industrial complex. These are the companies that make the weapons Israel uses to murder Palestinians. BlackRock has also been heavily invested in Israel, with operations there since 2016. Its CEO, Larry Fink, is a staunch supporter of the apartheid regime in Israel and a cheerleader of the Israeli genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
BlackRock, therefore, is a company that funds and profits from genocide. And by its continuing investments in Israel is refusing to acknowledge the apartheid and genocidal policies of Israel against Palestinians. BlackRock has rightly been the target of Palestinian solidarity campaigns worldwide.
If the plan for the above consortium were to go ahead, genocide-tainted and Zionist-supporting BlackRock would be consorting with government-linked parties such as Khazanah Nasional and EPF. The Malaysian government’s commendable support for the Palestinian cause will be seen to be merely hollow words, apart from allowing strategic and national assets such as our airports to be run by parties highly sympathetic to the Zionists.
In solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for justice and freedom, we demand the Malaysian government immediately reverse the decision to include genocide-supporting BlackRock in any business arrangement for MAHB.
17 May 2024