FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Hampshire College becomes first college in U.S. to divest from Israeli Occupation!
Hampshire
College in Amherst, MA, has become the first of any college or
university in the U.S. to divest from companies on the grounds of their
involvement in the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
This landmark move is a direct result of a two-year intensive
campaign by the campus group, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).
The group pressured Hampshire College’s Board of Trustees to divest
from six specific companies due to human rights concerns in occupied
Palestine. Over 800 students, professors, and alumni have signed SJP’s
“institutional statement” calling for the divestment.
The proposal put forth by SJP was approved on Saturday, 7 Feb 2009
by the Board. By divesting from these companies, SJP believes that
Hampshire has distanced itself from complicity in the illegal
occupation and war crimes of Israel.
Meeting minutes from a committee of Hampshire’s Board of Trustees
confirm that “President Hexter acknowledged that it was the good work
of SJP that brought this issue to the attention of the committee.” This
groundbreaking decision follows in Hampshire’s history of being the
first college in the country to divest from apartheid South Africa
thirty-two years ago, a decision based on similar human rights
concerns. This divestment was also a direct result of student pressure.
The divestment has so far been endorsed by Noam Chomsky, Howard
Zinn, Rashid Khalidi, Vice President of the EU Parliament Luisa
Morganitini, Cynthia McKinney, former member of the African National
Congress Ronnie Kasrils, Israeli historian Ilan Pappe, John Berger,
Tariq Ali, Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire, and Roger Waters of
Pink Floyd, among others.
The six corporations, all of which provide the Israeli military
with equipment and services in the Occupied West Bank and Gaza are:
Caterpillar, United Technologies, General Electric, ITT Corporation,
Motorola, and Terex (see attached info sheet for more information on
these corporations.
SJP is responding to a call from Palestinian civil society for
Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) as a way of bringing
non-violent pressure to bear on the state of Israel to end its
violations of international law. SJP is following in the footsteps of
many noted groups and institutions such as the National Association of
Teachers in Further and Higher Education in the UK, the Israeli group
Gush Shalom, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, the Canadian
Union of Public Employees, and the American Friends Service Committee.
As well as voicing our opposition to the illegal occupation and the
consistent human rights violations of the Palestinian people, we as
members of an institute of higher education see it as our moral
responsibility to express our solidarity with Palestinian students
whose access to education is severely inhibited by the Israeli
occupation.
SJP has proven that student groups can organize, rally and pressure
their schools to divest from the illegal occupation. The group hopes
that this decision will pave the way for other institutions of higher
learning in the U.S. to take similar stands.