Last Thursday the Business and Finance Committee convened the Board of Regents' annual Trust Funds Investment Forum, a meeting that provides the public with an opportunity to express their concerns regarding investments in corporations implicated in discrimination and violations of basic human rights and international law.
The room was filled to capacity, as close to 100 people came to speak in support of divestment from Israel and re-investment in socially responsible companies. University of Wisconsin students, faculty, staff and community members from a diverse range of ethnic, national and religious backgrounds — including Israelis and Palestinians — came forward to speak in favor of the campaign. Only three people at the meeting ventured to defend the State of Israel's policies and oppose divestment.
Speaker after speaker told the Regents divestment was both a moral imperative and sanctioned by UW's own ethical investment policies. UW Investment policy 78-1, states all investments "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 …" shall be divested in as prudent but rapid a manner as possible.
Supporters of the campaign pointed out that any corporation doing business with and/or in the State of Israel stands in violation of policy 78-1 because Israel practices widespread and institutionalized discrimination against persons of non-Jewish descent living under its control. It was pointed out these policies amounted to a regime of ethnic separation without self-determination for the oppressed group; a system of apartheid similar in kind to that imposed on the black population of South Africa prior to de-colonization.
Speakers made it clear Israel's "Law of Return" discriminates without good reason against persons of non-Jewish descent. Rather than implementing a fair immigration policy based on an impartial set of criteria, the "Law of Return" allows that any person of Jewish descent immediately can gain citizenship and settle on lands expropriated from Palestinians who were expelled from the areas that became the state of Israel in 1948. On the basis of nothing more than their non-Jewish ethnic origin, the Palestinian refugees have been prevented from realizing their basic human right of return, even though international law and U.N. Resolutions mandate their return.
Speakers also argued that discrimination against non-Jews is apparent in many other areas of life, including allocation of and access to state lands, residency and citizenship after marriage, and the distribution of a wide range of economic and social goods. In addition, Palestinian citizens of Israel have had their lands forcefully expropriated by the state and the natural growth of their communities has been prevented through various means, including restricted access to building permits.
UW investment policy 97-1 also stipulates the Board of Regents will seriously re-consider investments in companies implicated in practices that "violate, subvert or frustrate the enforcement of rules of domestic or international law intended to protect individuals and/or groups against deprivation of health, safety, basic freedoms or human rights."
Palestinians have suffered human rights abuses and war crimes that include the demolition of over 12,000 civilian homes since 1967, wanton destruction of civilian infrastructure, institutions, and farmland, expropriation of Palestinian land and important natural resources, the imposition of closures and curfews that prevent Palestinians from accessing healthcare, basic education, jobs and all the other services that sustain life.
Although Israel's apartheid wall has been ruled illegal by the International Court of Justice, it continues to be built deep into West Bank territory, denying Palestinians access to their own communities, institutions and services. Along with the system of segregated roads in the West Bank, the wall is the most visible manifestation of Israel's apartheid policies towards the Palestinians.
The UW Divest from Israel Campaign has been consistent in its belief that "like cases should be treated alike." The very same reasons that justified divestment from companies implicated in apartheid era South Africa now justify divestment from Israel.
Neither the current "peace process" nor the Jewish people's history of atrocious suffering can obscure, diminish or justify the continuing de-humanization of an entire people. By divesting from Israel, the Board of Regents would be doing much more than discharging their responsibility to implement the policies of this school. Divestment lays the groundwork for a just and enduring peace and is an expression of the hope for a free and secure future for every Israeli and Palestinian currently suffering under the burden of conflict. When the Regents divest from Israel, they will contribute to the realization of this hopeful vision.
Mohammed Abed ([email protected]) is a lecturer in the department of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a leader in the UW Divest from Israel Campaign.
