Exclusive – Future Fund’s investment in Israeli arms firm skyrockets

Calls grow for Australia's sovereign wealth fund to divest from companies linked to Israeli atrocities

Elbit Systems’ Hermes 900 drone

Australia's Future Fund saw its holdings in Israeli weapons manufacturer, Elbit Systems, explode 469% in 2024 as Israel slaughtered tens of thousands of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in actions widely described as a genocide.

A submission sent to the office of UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese, and shared exclusively with Deepcut, details the Future Fund's investments in companies it alleges are complicit in the genocide.

The UN office published a report on June 16 shaming companies across sectors that are "sustaining the Israeli settler-colonial project of displacement and replacement of the Palestinians in the occupied territory".

The submission – whose author wished to remain anonymous – noted that as of December 2023, two months after Israel commenced operations in Gaza, the Future Fund held a combined $74,737,758 in three companies mentioned in the UN report: Elbit Systems, Lockheed Martin and Palantir Technologies. By December 2024, that figure, drawn from publicly available data on the Future Fund’s website, jumped to $122,983,179.

"This is a very serious concern. As the custodian of billions of Australians’ dollars, it’s vital that the Future Fund invest in an ethical way and be transparent to the Australian public," Barbara Pocock, Greens senator and spokesperson for finance, told Deepcut.

Jordan van den Lamb of the Victorian Socialists said it was “a moral abomination and a betrayal of the large and growing number of Australians who would be appalled to know public funds are being used in this way”.

“We’ve long known the Australian government to be politically complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. These revelations show it to have been a direct financial enabler of its crimes,” he added.

Future Fund's expanding investments in Elbit Systems

In December 2023, the Future Fund's investments in Elbit Systems totalled $547,290, according to the submission. A year later, it had ballooned to $3,114,783. Among those investments include the Australian government's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Land and Sea Future Fund, which saw its stake in Elbit Systems grow 263% from $6,693 in December 2023 to $24,321 in December 2024.

The Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF), established in November 2023 with much fanfare from the Albanese government to “support the delivery of 20,000 new social and 20,000 new affordable homes across Australia over five years”, ended 2024 with a $108,907 stake in Elbit Systems.

The total units held in Elbit Systems in the year to December 2024 leaped from 1,453 to 6,350, suggesting the Future Fund dramatically increased its investments in the Israeli weapons firm as Israel was killing Palestinians en masse in Gaza.

The Albanese government has previously come under fire for its relationship with Elbit Systems, including a $900m contract signed with the firm in February 2024 – a month after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found Israel's acts in Gaza could amount to genocide.

Elbit Systems' fortunes have only risen since Israel's war on Gaza began. In 2024 – the same year the Future Fund's holdings in the company grew – Elbit Systems' revenues increased 14%, with the company citing "a material increased demand for its products and solutions from the Israeli Ministry of Defense compared to the demand levels prior to the war [on Gaza]". On October 2, 2023, its share price sat at US$208.18. As of last Friday, its price was US$480.21 – a 131% spike during the period of the Gaza genocide.

Pocock noted Elbit Systems was previously blacklisted by the Future Fund before 2021. "This should have never changed," she said.

In December 2020, Elbit Systems engaged Pyne and Partners to lobby in Canberra on its behalf. Former defence minister Christopher Pyne – who awarded Elbit Systems nearly $100m in government contracts in 2018 and 2019 – founded Pyne and Partners with his former chief of staff, Adam Howard, in 2020. In March 2021, Elbit Systems and Pyne and Partners hosted an invite-only drinks event at Parliament House.

Potential breach of international law

Established in 2006, the Future Fund works to "invest for the benefit of future generations of Australians". In Q1 this year, the sovereign wealth fund's total investments were worth a record $307.6bn.

The Future Fund engages external fund managers to oversee its various portfolios, and is required by law to periodically disclose its holdings. The submission to the UN office drew on this publicly available data to identify the Future Fund's investments in companies listed in the UN report – among them, Elbit Systems.

"When public investment vehicles channel funds into corporations that are credibly alleged to be materially supporting or enabling actions constituting genocide or other international crimes, the state may be exposed to legal liability for complicity," Lara Khider, acting executive director at the Australian Centre for International Justice, told Deepcut.

"In this case, continuing or expanding investments in companies that are directly supplying weapons, surveillance technologies, or logistical support used in Gaza – in full view of findings of the UN Commission of Inquiry, UN mandate holders and major human rights organisations – plainly raises issues of complicity."

Khider said states were obligated to abstain from "economic or trade dealings" with Israel that would "entrench its unlawful presence" in the occupied Palestinian territories. Khider referenced a separate ICJ ruling in July 2024 that deemed Israel's presence in occupied Palestinian territories as unlawful, and that its practices "are tantamount to the crime of apartheid".

"Investments of the kind made by the Future Fund are in breach of this obligation," she said, adding: "If such investments continue, Australia could face proceedings before international judicial bodies, such as the ICJ."

Calls for Future Fund divestment

The Future Fund released a Responsible Investment Policy in June 2025, noting that "the Board retains the option to exclude investments in cases of particularly severe or sustained misconduct, especially where the investee company is unwilling or unable to change its practices".

In response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Future Fund announced a "winding down" of its roughly $200m "in companies listed on the Russian stock exchange".

The fund is now facing calls to divest from companies linked to the Gaza genocide.

"The Future Fund must divest from any companies listed in the UN report that manufacture weapons and thus profit off the genocide in Palestine," Pocock said.

The Greens senator pointed to last month's decision by Norway's sovereign wealth fund to dump 11 Israeli companies as an example for the Future Fund to emulate.

"Beyond its investment strategies, it is also appropriate that the Future Fund be transparent to the Parliament and estimates about its expenses,” she said.

The Victorian Socialists also called for the Future Fund to apply consistency and treat Israel as it treated Russia.

“If it divested from Russian military-associated entities over the criminal invasion of Ukraine, then why not apply the same standard to Israel?” Lamb told Deepcut.

Khider echoed the demand for divestment and transparency.

"The Future Fund should immediately initiate a full, transparent review of its portfolio, with particular focus on human rights risks," she said.

"It must divest from all companies identified in credible UN or human rights reports as complicit in international crimes, implement a robust ethical investment policy, and commit to ensuring that no public funds contribute to breaches of international law."

The Future Fund's board and the prime minister's office were contacted for comment.

Editor’s note: This article is based on publicly available information and statements from credible sources, including government disclosures, UN reports and named individuals. It should not be interpreted as alleging unlawful conduct by any person or entity unless explicitly cited from a legal ruling or official finding.