Divestment: What Really Happened

(Excerpted from "Divestment: What Really Happened" information packet. Click here to download packet in full)

Dear Students and other members of the Hampshire community,

You are receiving this letter because we, Students for Justice in Palestine, want to reach out to you, members of the Hampshire community, to clarify points of confusion that have arisen around the issue of divestment.

SJP feels that the administration has intentionally misled the students and the public by downplaying what occurred here in order to avoid threats and potential loss of donations to the college. However, we feel that the administration is dishonest by not “owning” the move that puts us at the forefront of the movement for international equality and justice, and by not owning the political consequences that go with that decision in the U.S.

Recently, Hampshire’s divestment from a fund that contained hundreds of companies whose business and policies violated our school’s socially responsible investment screen (and then later the screen of socially responsible investment set up by KLD, a private firm that the college hired to review our investments) was announced. Divestment from these companies, which were involved in (and responsible for) countless human rights violations and horrible social malpractice, resulted from Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP)’s two-year campaign to divest from the mutual fund because of six specific companies contained in the fund.

Our presentation to the Board of Trustees on April 18th, 2008 was focused on six companies that profit directly from the illegal (under international law) and very destructive military occupation of Palestine by the state of Israel. The companies are Terex, Motorola, Caterpillar, General Electric, United Technologies and ITT. (The extent of the corporate crimes committed by these multinationals can be found in the company profiles inside this packet.) United Technologies was removed from the mutual fund before the divestment decision, so we were no longer invested in United Technologies by the time of the decision. Nonetheless, we know that these companies directly supply the Israeli military with the equipment to carry out specifically occupation-related services, and these five were the only companies within our investments for which we can say that. Hampshire College is divesting from this mutual fund, and therefore we are no longer financially associated with the occupation of Palestine.

SJP’s divestment campaign is part of a much bigger movement of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), which was initiated by the Palestinian Civil Society in 2005. It is currently the biggest and most effective method of non-violent resistance against Israel’s violations of human rights and international law and was modeled off of the divestment campaign against South Africa, during the brutal years of the white apartheid regime. The success of BDS in bringing an end to apartheid tells us two things:

1) that it operates within a much greater framework of political legality and

2) that money is power and our choices, as consumers in this massive global marketplace, have a very real impact on the lives of thousands of human beings who are nothing but fodder to wealthy entrepreneurs.

Turbulence has followed the college’s decision to divest from the State Street Mutual Fund, which held these companies. The media coverage of the issue has been phenomenal but has also created confusion and allowed the spread of misinformation, much of it to the detriment of SJP – for example, the claim that SJP pushed for divestment from Israel and not, as we stressed many times, from the military occupation of Palestine. Much of this confusion was created intentionally by President Ralph Hexter, Chair of the Board Sigmund Roos, and college spokeswoman Elaine Thomas in order to create an image of political neutrality and therefore have friendly (re: financial donations) relations with people of all opinions about Israel, Palestine, etc. One contradiction, as an example, in the statements of the administration regarding divestment was in its claim not to have divested for reasons concerning any single political movement or geographical region, however it prides itself on the fact that KLD singled out the Burmese and Sudanese governments as ones in which we should not be invested. This rhetorical hypocrisy is a direct result of the college administration’s attempts to appease intense pressure from unconditional supporters of Israel, and to define social justice on its own terms: qualifying environmental damage, worker exploitation, and military-weaponry manufacturing as more worthy of divestment than military occupation, when in reality they are not exclusive of one another.

Much of what the college has stated has been the result of pressure from academic bully and powerful pundit Alan Dershowitz, who laid forth specific steps Hexter must take in order to receive a “large donation” from Dershowitz to the college. So far, Hexter has responded by sucking up to Dershowitz, despite his abominable record as a political and academic bully, having barred Jimmy Carter from speaking at the DNC, Desmond Tutu from speaking in Boston, and by being one of the biggest advocates for Guantanamo. This is particularly cowardly and hypocritical on the part of the administration, given all Hexter’s rhetoric about free and open speech and creating a sense of “safety” on campus. He has allowed Dershowitz to do what he’s always done: to silence, as well as to threaten others. Hexter’s response to Dershowitz was particularly manipulative since he knew full well that

1) the divestment WAS brought about as a result of SJP

2) SJP called for divestment from the Israeli occupation, not Israel, and the occupation is internationally recognized as illegal and a violation of human rights, therefore there is nothing politically radical about this stance or the request to not be financing the occupation.

3) He isisted that the divestment which the Board of Trustees approved of was "neither anti-Israel nor anti-Semitic," in essence furthering the notion that what SJP has claimed to have accomplished was either anti-Israeli or anti-Semitic, which is deeply offenstive to many of the Jewish and Israeli students within SJP

We have tried to clarify the real events surrounding divestment time and time again. We’ve written
clarification statements and hosted open forums, but not everyone has come to those events, and the school has also done its part to keep a large portion of the student body continuously confused. In addition to the convoluted statements administrators have released that only drove people into deeper confusion and frustration, it is important to know that we tried many times to put our statements and even announcements about our events on the intranet, and these posts were censored every single time. Hampshire’s administration most certainly likes to talk about “open discourse,” but it determines the legitimacy and parameters of such discourse on its own terms only.

Whether or not you support SJP, whether or not you sympathize with our movement and its ideals, we urge you to read the rest of this packet. All of us, and especially those of us who are American citizens pouring tax dollars into the war machine, have a responsibility towards other human beings, no matter how distant they may seem from our lives. We live in a world of terrible injustice and suffering and the least we can do, as members of an institution that prides itself on social justice and equality, is to educate ourselves while taking a sides and making opinions. The concept of neutrality is null and void – as long as you are invested, you are complicit, which is why we are so proud to have been able to hold our administration accountable to its investments and divest from what we strive to distance ourselves, politically and morally.

Don’t hesitate to ask us any questions you may have. Any one of us would love to talk, so feel free to grab one of us individually, or e-mail hampshiresjp@gmail.com

Respectfully,
Students for Justice in Palestine

(Excerpted from "Divestment: What Really Happened" information packet. Click here to download packet in full)