Students for Justice in Palestine at UW-Madison met Monday night for a general body meeting and focused on tactics to encourage the University of Wisconsin to divest from Israel.
SJP has been primarily advocating for divestment through Wisconsin statute 36.29 (1), according to SJP members.
“No such investment shall knowingly be made in any company, corporation, subsidiary or affiliate which practices or condones through its actions discrimination on the basis of race, religion, color, creed or sex,” the statute reads.
SJP discussed organizations involved in UW’s investments, mentioning the University of Wisconsin System Trust Funds, University of Wisconsin Foundation, the State of Wisconsin Investment Board and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation.
SJP member Shafiq discussed the importance of transparency regarding UW’s investments.
“I think we need to have them [UW] disclose because it’s just an issue of transparency,” Shafiq said. “The students deserve to know where the money that is being donated in their name is going. They deserve to know where it’s coming from.”
SJP members voiced concerns about a lack of transparency regarding the UW Foundation’s investments, saying the UW Foundation could potentially have the most amount of money to divest, but their private operations make it hard to access that information.
The UW Foundation is a private corporation encouraging individuals and organizations to make gifts and grants to the university. The foundation transfers gift and investment income to UW each year, according to the UW Foundation’s website.
SJP member Abbie Klein underscored SJP’s concerns regarding UW’s investments, mentioning UW’s investments in BlackRock, a global investment manager that has been operating in Israel since 2016, according to BlackRock’s website.
“We already know we’re invested in companies like BlackRock, which is very heavily invested in weapons manufacturing and war profiteering, right,” Klein said. “That’s something we already know. They don’t have to disclose that.”
Three Associated Students of Madison members attended the meeting Monday night. An ASM member discussed ASM’s unanimous approval for a divestment proposal in 2017. Originally, the proposal called for divestment from several Israeli companies. After Jewish students expressed feeling targeted at an open forum, the proposal was altered to instead focus on ending UW’s support of corporations that profit from human rights violations after Jewish students, according to previous reporting by The Badger Herald.
UW condemned the vote, saying ASM’s actions concerned Jewish members of student government and would not result in change, according to a statement from UW News.
SJP members mentioned they are waiting to confirm a meeting with individuals on the Universities of Wisconsin System Board of Regents, including but not limited to Ashok Rai, Charles Saunders and Jay Rothman. The Board of Regents is responsible for establishing policies and rules for governing the University of System, according to their website.
SJP has started organizing with other entities in the UW System to pressure all Universities of Wisconsin schools to divest from Israel. Klein said SJP is currently organizing with UW-Whitewater and UW-Milwaukee.
At the end of the meeting, SJP discussed upcoming events, including protests this Friday at 6 p.m. and this Saturday at 9 a.m. at the Madison Capitol. They encouraged attendance at the hearings for SJP members this Friday and next Tuesday.
As of Thursday at 2:30 p.m., UW and the UW System Board of Regents did not respond to a request for comment.
