We are really pleased to announce that we received an email from Bristol Women’s Voice ensuring us that
“Accenture will no longer be our key sponsor for the event and we will not be accepting funds from them.”
They’ve asked us to remove our open letter in which we highlighted our concerns about the sponsorship however we feel that it is important for transparency, accountability, awareness and education, that the open letter remain public.
How Bristol Women’s Voice reacted can actually be a really good example for other organisations in a similar situation, and a good reminder to take care in accepting sponsorship.
We have also requested that Bristol Women’s Voice release their own statement, acknowledging the harm of collaborating with companies like Accenture, apologising and committing to taking greater care in accepting sponsorship in the future.
Thanks to all who signed.
Dear Bristol Women’s Voice,
It has come to our attention that the headline sponsor for your upcoming International Women’s Day celebration is global multinational professional services company Accenture. Are all those involved in BWV aware of Accenture's relationship to Israel and the ongoing genocide in Gaza?
We call on you to drop Accenture as a sponsor of your event, and we call on you to reach out to Palestinians in Bristol and bring their voices to the forefront of the event.
Accenture Chair and CEO Julie Sweet released this statement in October 2023 which promotes a racist, and deeply false equivalence between the scale, history and nature of the violence enacted on Palestinians and Israelis, and fails to acknowledge or address the company's active complicity in Israel’s military occupation, siege, mass displacement, deadly bombardment and genocide in Palestine. The company not only operates on stolen land, but also operates in close partnership with Palantir Technologies.
Palentir is a US tech company, initially funded by the CIA, which specialises in AI-powered military and surveillance technology and data analytics. Palantir describes its military technologies as offering customers (which include the US military, ICE, the UK Ministry of Defence and the Israeli government) “mission-tested capabilities, forged in the field” to deliver “a tactical edge – by land, air, sea and space”.
Palantir is currently openly supporting the Israeli military and government in their genocide on Gaza. It reports being “proud to support Israel in every way [it] can”. It says it is working with Israel to keep them “armed and ahead”.
In January 2024, Palantir signed a deal with the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) to increase its “advanced technology provision” to Israel in support of war related missions. Palantir’s CEO Alex Karp says he is “exceedingly proud” of Palantir’s involvement in what he calls “operationally crucial operations in Israel”.
Source: https://www.medact.org/2024/resources/toolkits/no-palantir-in-the-nhs-campaign-toolkit/
According to UN Women, as of 14 January 2025 at least 46,645 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since October 2023 - around 70 per cent of those killed have been women and children.
936,700 women and girls have been displaced from their homes, facing risks of arbitrary detention and harassment. For families with elderly or disabled family members who cannot leave, it is women who disproportionately stay behind as caregivers.
155,000 women in Gaza are pregnant or breastfeeding with 5,500 expected to deliver in the next month, of whom 840 are likely to experience complications during pregnancy or birth, needing additional medical care that is not available. Access to food and water is very limited, and this has severe impacts particularly for lactating women and young women.
There is no privacy for women and girls in over-crowded shelters and no access to safe and dignified latrine and bathing facilities. There is not adequate access to basic hygiene products like sanitary towels, toilet paper or running water, severely impacting menstruating people.
Women in Gaza are facing an increased risk of sexual and gender-based violence and exploitation whilst Gaza’s only two women’s shelters have had to close and gender-based violence services are severely restricted due to communications and electricity blackouts.
We know that in times of human catastrophe and crisis, barbarity and oppression, women experience the brunt of violence: both at an interpersonal and institutional level. We know that with war comes brutal, unflinching gendered violence. These universal facts – that come out of living in a patriarchal and violent world – don’t change when the women are Palestinian.
More broadly, we know that the mutually sustaining systems of apartheid, settler colonialism and occupation, that keep Palestinians cruelly oppressed, have devastating effects on the psyche of women, and is incompatible with women’s liberation. This is why Palestinian women’s rights organisations and activists have themselves long insisted that women’s struggle and the struggle for national liberation are inseparable.
Source: https://www.sistersuncut.org/2023/11/02/arent-palestinians-women-too/
For feminists, silence on Palestine is not an option. We call on you to honour the demands of Palestinian Feminists and boycott companies profiting from and collaborating with the illegal occupation and genocide in Palestine. We ask that you centre Palestinian women in your IWD event and that you cancel Accenture's sponsorship. The freedom of women anywhere depends on the freedom of women everywhere.
The Undersigned,
IWDbristol.com
Bristol Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Riseup 4 Palestine
Bristol Queers for Palestine
Bristol Apartheid Free Zone
Palestine Justice Campaign
School Strike for Palestine
Bristol Families for Palestine
Kites In Solidarity
Bristol Stop the War Coalition
Voices For Palestine
Bristol Occupy 4 Palestine
Rebel Girls Club
SLEEC
The Menstrual Cramps
Sister Courage
Easton Cowgirls
Bands Boycott Barclays
Queer Ballers
Bristol Anti-Fascists
BASE Social Centre
Bristol Leftist Collective
BSU Divest
Radical Roasters
Bristol Copwatch
Dance For a Cause Bristol
Cute Cartel