How Bristol’s tallest tower will be tied to Israel’s atrocities Submitted by Joe Banks on Fri, 07/17/2026 - 13:30 Funded by Menora Mivtachim and Cain, St James House links Bristol to capital flows that run from the Gulf, through Israel to Europe St James House, a new construction project in Bristol, UK, that has investment tied to Israel (Joe Banks/MEE) Off In the centre of Bristol, two towers are rising slowly into the sky. St James House, a new development now under construction in southwest England’s largest city, will consist of one 28-storey building to house students and another 18-storey “co-living” block aimed at young professionals. The purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) tower will become the dominant feature of a city centre skyline that has historically remained relatively modest in scale.
It will also tie Bristol, a city with a rich and often dark dual history of both mercantile capitalism and radical activism, to Israel, pro-Israeli lobbying in the UK and the genocide in Gaza. Funded by the real estate investment firm Cain International, together with Menora Mivtachim, one of Israel’s largest pension and insurance groups, the scheme is typical of a city where global capital has been increasingly flowing into office developments, build-to-rent flats and, especially, student accommodation. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); St James House is just the latest student tower built in the UK by Cain and Menora Mivtachim, whose combined portfolio covers developments in Liverpool, Nottingham, Manchester, Leeds and York.
The crude logics of speculation and occupation run from the high-rise towers of New York to the desert metropolises of the Gulf, through the 'Gaza Riviera' plan, and on to British university cities like Bristol Cirrus Point, a 45-storey, 660-bed development nearing completion in Leeds, is not only the city’s tallest building but also the tallest purpose-built student accommodation tower in the world. The boom in student accommodation has been underpinned by the expansion of higher education in Britain, from around two million students at the start of the century to almost three million today. A significant share of this expansion has come from overseas students, who now account for almost a quarter of all enrolments.
Government funding for universities has been slashed since 2010 and undergraduate fees for British…
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