Biden panders to pro-Israel Jews, who are as reactionary on Israel as evangelicals

A Pew poll shows that when it comes to Israel, American Jews are much closer to white evangelicals than they are to Democratic Party numbers. Democrats want to cut off military aid. By and large, Jews don’t.

BY PHILIP WEISS 

  MAY 10, 2024 

MONDOWEISS

BIDEN GIVES SPEECH ON HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY, AT US CAPITOL, MAY 7, 2024. HERE HE IS GREETED BY STU EIZENSTAT, TO HIS IMMEDIATE RIGHT, A STATE DEPARTMENT SPECIAL ADVISER ON HOLOCAUST ISSUES. (PHOTO: JOE BIDEN X ACCOUNT)


Joe Biden took contradictory actions this week. He called campus protesters of Israeli genocide antisemites one day. Then a day later he said he wouldn’t give Israel more bombs to kill Palestinian civilians.

Biden is trying to reconcile two irreconcilable parts of the Democratic coalition– the progressive base and a special interest, the Israel lobby.

Biden’s speech on Holocaust memorial day was an extended attack on the progressives. He said campus protests represent the latest “surge” of the “ancient hatred of Jews,” the same hatred that fueled Nazism


The smear got sympathetic coverage on broadcast media. “This is ultimately a continuation of why he ran in 2020, when he saw neo-Nazis marching in Charlottesville chanting — quote — ‘Jews will not replace us,’” Laura Barron-Lopez said on the PBS News Hour. CNN reporter Jamie Gangel echoed the Charlottesville claim. While CNN anchor Dana Bash said that the protests “hearken back” to Nazi Germany.

Biden’s attack on the demonstrators carries great political risk. The Democratic base is overwhelmingly critical of Israel. By 56 to 22 Democrats say that Israel is committing a “genocide” in Gaza, according to a new poll.

Pew’s survey in March was just as emphatic. Democratic Party voters oppose military aid to Israel by 44 to 25 percent, think that Israel’s methods are unacceptable by 52 to 22 percent, sympathize with Palestinians over Israelis by 27 to 15, think Biden is favoring Israel too much as opposed to striking the right balance by 34 to 29 percent, and have an unfavorable view of Israel’s government by 71 to 24.

Biden has tried to throw some crumbs to that base, as in his decision to hold back some 2000-pound bombs.

But such gestures are too little too late for many progressives– after 34,000 killings and the destruction of Gaza’s cities, all with American weaponry. Bernie Sanders has said that Gaza could prove to be Biden’s Vietnam because of the anger of the base. James Carville has said Biden’s stance could cost him the election.

Pro-Biden apologists in broadcast media have countered by saying that Biden is showing statesmanship by risking his base. And the New York Times has explained Biden’s risktaking by saying he’s a committed Zionist.

What these analyses miss is that Biden knows just what he is doing.

By smearing the protesters, Biden is catering to a key bloc in the Democratic coalition: pro-Israel Jews, who according to Pew are among the most reactionary groups in America on the Israeli violence. Jews historically vote for Democrats by about 3-to 1. But today Jews are completely out of step with the Dem base.

When it comes to Israel, Jews are much closer to white evangelicals and Republicans than they are to the Democratic Party, according to Pew’s poll, conducted in February.

PEW POLL IN MARCH SHOWS THAT JEWISH SYMPATHY FOR ISRAELIS OVER PALESTINIANS IS OVERWHELMING, AT 69 TO 7 PERCENT, AND GREATER THAN WHITE EVANGELICAL PROTESTANTS’ SYMPATHY FOR ISRAEL, AND STARKLY AT ODDS WITH DEMOCRATIC PARTY VOTERS, WHO SYMPATHIZE WITH PALESTINIANS OVER ISRAELIS BY 27 TO 15.

By 62 to 33 percent, Jews find Israel’s methods acceptable; sympathize with Israelis by 69 to 7 (sympathy for Palestinians); support military aid by 74 to 15; think Biden is striking the right balance as opposed to being too favorable to Israel, by 45 to 13; and have a favorable view of Israel’s government by 54 to 44.

Nearly one in five Jews say that Biden is too favorable to Palestinians. Only 3 percent of Democrats say that

.

PEW POLL IN MARCH SHOWS THAT DEMOCRATIC PARTY VOTERS OPPOSE MILITARY AID TO ISRAEL BY 44 TO 25 PERCENT, WHILE JEWS SUPPORT AID TO ISRAEL BY 74 TO 15 AGAINST.

These ardently pro-Israel views can be seen in the many ways that American Jews have risen to support Israel since the war began October 7. For instance, the five leading Jewish organizations (ADL, AIPAC, AJC, Conference of Presidents, and Federations) formed a new publicity campaign, led by a p.r. firm with links to the Biden administration, saying much what Biden said in his Holocaust speech: October 7 was an unleashing of Jewish hatred that hasn’t stopped since. Donor activism by Jewish pro-Israel alumni at Harvard and Penn led to the historic resignations of the Harvard and Penn presidents, days after they did not sufficiently denounce pro-Palestine demonstrators in congressional testimony –a demonstration of Zionist muscle if ever there was one.

Such efforts continue with Harvard megadonor Bill Ackman and Jessica Seinfeld, the wife of Jerry Seinfeld, funding pro-Israel demonstrations, and former Facebook exec Sheryl Sandberg putting out a documentary about sexual violence on October 7.

In fact, the leading Jewish organizations have been cheerleaders for an onslaught that many international law experts say is a genocide. Just the other day Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL issued a battle cry for Netanyahu’s war on the starving refugees of Rafah.

“We are not the Jews of trembling knees. We will not flee, we will fight, we will press on and we will win, because we have no other choice,” Greenblatt said.

Biden’s pandering to these reactionary forces is in a tradition of Democratic politicians currying the favor of Zionist donors. The proportion of large Jewish donors in the Democratic Party is “gigantic” and “shocking,” according to J Street experts in 2016, the “elephant in the room” according to the Pulitzer Prize winner Nathan Thrall, writing in the Times in 2019. And former insiders Ben Rhodes of the Obama administration and Stu Eizenstat of the Carter administration (who introduced Biden’s Holocaust remembrance speech) have both written that Jewish donors were critical to their presidents’ reelection success/failure.

Of course, calling out these Jewish influencers can foster antisemitism: it bolsters the view that all Jews are powerful and working behind the scenes to get politicians to overlook the crimes of the Jewish state.

That makes it more important than ever to stress that a third of the Jewish community does not buy into the pro-Israel propaganda. A third of the community is very similar to the Democratic base and to younger voters generally. A strong but growing minority of the Jewish community is non- or anti-Zionist, and already causing a crisis among liberal Zionists, and a boycott of some Passover seders, and uncomfortable silence at others.

These Jews are shut out of the establishment but unapologetically critical of Israel’s conduct. The youth group IfNotNow has denounced Israeli genocide and apartheid, and been ostracized from the mainstream Jewish community for doing so.

When Biden withheld bombs from the Israeli military machine, Jewish Voice for Peace declared, “This is huge, and now is the time to tip the scales.”

For all of Jonathan Greenblatt’s and Alan Dershowitz’s warmongering, media need to focus on such Jewish leaders as Norman Finkelstein. The 70-year-old son of Holocaust survivors, Finkelstein has for 40 years created a body of work of harsh criticism of the Jewish state that he continues to this day. He will one day be lauded as a Jewish hero. As will Rebecca Vilkomerson of Jewish Voice for Peace, Simone Zimmerman of IfNotNow, and Marc Ellis, the author and liberation theologian.

The Jewish establishment has long shunned such speakers as self-haters as it exerts its influence for Israel. Those organizations still have traction in the White House, but not among young Jews who question Zionism. The youthful numbers are only growing. The media have an obligation to give these Jews a voice. Then our politicians will also salute their work.

#BDS

University of California official says system has $32 billion in holdings targeted by protesters

SOPHIE AUSTIN
Wed, May 15, 2024 

Demonstrators wave flags on the UCLA campus, after nighttime clashes between Pro-Israel and Pro-Palestinian groups, May 1, 2024, in Los Angeles. If the University of California, one of the largest public university systems in the country, were to agree to divestment calls from students protesting the Israel-Hamas war, the system would lose $32 billion of its overall $175 billion in assets, officials said on Tuesday, May 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)More


SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Investments in weapons manufacturers and a wide array of other companies by the University of California targeted by students protesting the Israel-Hamas war represent $32 billion - or nearly one-fifth - of the system's overall assets, the system's chief investment officer says.

UC Chief Investment Officer Jagdeep Singh Bachher unveiled the estimate Tuesday at the first public Board of Regents meeting since nationwide pro-Palestinian student protests began in April. The calculation was in response to a letter he received last month from the UC Divest Coalition, which is scrutinizing the system's overall $175 billion in assets.

The group asked for the system to halt its investments in weapons manufacturers, the investment firms Blackstone and BlackRock, and two dozen companies across the entertainment, technology and beverage industries.


Bachher said that would apply to investments that include: $3.3 billion in holdings from groups with ties to weapons manufacturers; $12 billion in U.S. treasuries; $163 million in the investment firm BlackRock and $2.1 billion in bonds that BlackRock manages; $8.6 billion from Blackstone and $3.2 billion from the other 24 companies.

“We pride ourselves on a culture of transparency,” Bachher said, adding that it is important to listen to and engage with students.

The University of California system said last month it would not boycott or divest from Israel, and the regents have not indicated a change in position during this week's meetings.

In 1986, the regents voted to divest $3.1 billion from companies doing business with South Africa's apartheid government after more than a year of student protests. The system also dropped its investments in fossil fuels in 2020.

For weeks, students at campuses across the country have been protesting and setting up encampments at their universities to call on them to be more transparent about their investments and to divest from companies that financially support Israel. The demonstrations have led to disruptions, arrests and debates over free speech rights. Tensions between protesters, law enforcement and administration at the University of California, Los Angeles, have garnered some of the most attention.

The protests stem from the current Israel-Hamas conflict which started on Oct. 7 when Hamas launched an attack on southern Israel in which militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took roughly 250 hostages. Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched an offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 34,500 Palestinians, around two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory. Israeli strikes have devastated the enclave and displaced most of Gaza’s inhabitants.

In a letter provided to The Associated Press by the UC president’s office, the UC Divest Coalition — which is made up of anti-war student advocates across UC campuses — asked the university system to end any investments in “companies that perpetuate war or weapons manufacturing, including companies that give economic support to the state of Israel, and therefore perpetuate the ongoing occupation and genocide of the Palestinian people.”

“Investment in arms production is antithetical to the UC’s expressed values and the moral concerns of the students, workers, and faculty that the Regents represent,” the letter says.

The United Nation's top court in January ruled that Israel must do all it can to prevent acts of genocide in Gaza but did not order an end to Israel's military activities in the territories. The ruling was in response to a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of committing genocide in violation of international law. Israel has denied that it is committing genocide.

The coalition did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent via email and social media on the letter and the $32 billion estimate.

At a meeting that lasted nearly two-and-a-half hours Tuesday, some students and faculty called for the system to divest from groups with ties to Israel, some faculty raised concerns about antisemitism and Islamophobia on campus, and regents asked investment committee members what it would mean to divest.

Holly Yu, a student studying ethnic studies at the University of California, Merced, urged officials to recognize that students are “expected to continue our everyday lives” as the death toll rises in Gaza.

“Please listen to the voices of your students and stand in solidarity with us by divesting immediately,” Yu said.

Regents said that the question of what it would mean to divest does not have a straight-forward answer.

“We need to be able to articulate to our students that are demanding divestment as to why it’s not so simple,” Regent Jose M. Hernandez said. "It’s not just a matter of selling a coupon and saying ‘okay, we don’t want this, so we’re going to invest in another company.’”

___

Austin is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Austin on the social platform X: @sophieadanna

UC Berkeley encampment comes down after school agrees to review investments

Alicia Victoria Lozano
Wed, May 15, 2024 at 5:48 PM MDT·3 min read



Antiwar student protesters at the University of California, Berkeley, began dismantling their encampment Tuesday after reaching an agreement with administrators at the school over its Israel-related investments.

Protesters had been calling for the university to completely divest from weapons manufacturers and other Israeli businesses that have ties to military operations in Gaza, including weapons manufacturers and surveillance companies.

High-level investment decisions cannot be made by individual institutions under the University of California system, but instead fall to the UC Board of Regents.

Because UC Berkeley administrators cannot independently divest from all companies, Chancellor Carol Christ agreed to support and initiate a "rigorous examination" of the school's investments.

"The University of California has decided in the past to divest from businesses that were determined to not be aligned with our values," Christ wrote in one of two letters sent to protest organizers. "We should examine whether UC Berkeley’s investments continue to align with our values or should be modified in order to do so."

She also said Berkeley would investigate discrimination complaints against Palestinian students and establish a task force by the end June to review financial dealings involving the UC Berkeley Foundation, a private fundraising entity.

The concessions end a three-week standoff between antiwar protesters and school administrators, who walked a tightrope for much of the year, trying to balance free speech rights with concerns over antisemitism and Islamophobia.

University officials decided early on not to call police unless absolutely necessary. Unlike other universities where students were arrested or tussled sometimes violently with counterprotesters, UC Berkeley's encampment was largely peaceful.

No one was arrested and no fights broke out. The encampment, which grew to some 200 tents, featured daily activities, including student- and faculty-led lectures, arts programming, film screenings and an interfaith seder during Passover.

Even though the encampment was dismantled, protesters vowed to continue fighting for divestment across the University of California system. On Wednesday, they took their demonstrations to the University of California, Merced, where the board of regents is holding a three-day meeting.

"This is not a victory," UCB Divest Coalition, one of the protest organizing bodies, said in a statement. "Our fight continues to a new terrain."

On Tuesday, a handful of people spoke against the war in Gaza during opening remarks at the Merced meeting. Many echoed calls for divestment from Israeli companies with ties to the country's military operations, drawing parallels to 1986, when the university system divested from South Africa's stock holdings during apartheid.

In his presentation, Jagdeep Singh Bachher, the university system’s chief investment officer, outlined UC's vast financial dealings. More than 18% of the $175 billion investment portfolio is tied to Israel, he said.

Of that total, antiwar student protesters are asking the system to divest some $32 billion, according to Bachher.

“These assets belong to the entire university,” he said, adding that 350,000 people, including employees and retirees, depend on returns to pay for pensions and health benefits.

"Anytime we've done things about buying and selling things from the portfolio, we've aimed to do it uniformly across all the portfolios that we manage at the University of California, not for any one group of constituents," he said. "That is the responsibility we take very seriously."

On other college campuses, antiwar protests appear to have dwindled as commencements take place. Students at Harvard University took down their encampment on Tuesday, a day after students at Williams College in Massachusetts dismantled theirs.

Some commencements have featured antiwar demonstrations, including at UC Berkeley, where graduate and law students disrupted ceremonies with signs and chants to divest.



Pro-Palestinian protesters remain on campus at UC Merced to make their voices heard during a UC Board of Regents meeting on Tuesday.

Protesters seen dismantling camp at UC Berkeley
Reuters Video 

TRANSCRIPT

Wed, May 15, 2024 

STORY: :: Aerial footage shows Pro-Palestinian demonstrators

dismantling encampment at UC Berkeley

:: May 14, 2024

:: UC Berkeley officials agreed to meet with protesters

after the camp is cleared, local media reported

:: Berkeley, California

Local media reported that UC Berkeley officials have agreed to meet with protesters after the encampment is cleared. No other details about the conditions or terms were known.

Student protests over the war in Gaza have swept the U.S. in past weeks, with police clearing a number of encampments, at times after confrontations between protesters and counter-protesters; other tent protests dismantled after universities agreed to protesters' demands; and some demonstrations continuing.

Some school administrators have called in local law enforcement to arrest protesters and clear camps and sit-ins. Others have let camps operate or reached deals to end protests.

The University of California, Berkeley has allowed a pro-Palestinian camp so long as it does not disrupt campus operations and there is no threat of violence.

Bay Area group arrives at UC Merced to support Palestine
John Houghton
Wed, May 15, 2024 at 10:00 AM MDT·1 min read



Bay Area group arrives at UC Merced to support Palestine


FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – What’s described as a “large rally” arrived at the UC Merced campus on Wednesday to ask the UC to withdraw investments from Israel “and enterprises of US militarism implicated in the ongoing atrocities perpetrated against the Palestinian people in Gaza.”

The group, said to be made up of hundreds of students, faculty, and Bay Area community, is set to rally at the UC Regents meeting, which is also taking place at UC Merced. The UC Board of Regents is meeting on the UC Merced campus until May 16.

Over 100 people were counted at the demonstration on Wednesday, approximately twice as many who were present at the demonstration on Tuesday, reporters told YourCentralValley.com.

UC Merced encampment: What are their demands?

The rally follows a pro-Palestine encampment set up at UC Merced earlier this week. The protest group, UC Merced Gaza Solidarity Encampment led by Students for Justice in Palestine has been posted at UC Merced’s campus since May 12.




We are demanding that the UC Regents heed the call of their students, faculty, and alumni, as they did in 1985 when they made the historic decision to divest from South African apartheid.

Kassem Hamideh, a student at the University of California, Berkeley

UC Alumni for Palestine say they have collected over 13,000 signatures demanding the University of California divest from Israel immediately.

According to the group, Wednesday marks the 76th anniversary of the ‘Nakba’ or “catastrophe” in Arabic.

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Sonoma State president put on leave for 'insubordination' for supporting Israel academic boycott, divestment

Jaweed Kaleem
Wed, May 15, 2024

The clocktower in front of the library at Sonoma State University. (Alyssa Archerda / SSU.edu)

The president of Sonoma State University was placed on leave Wednesday, a day after he released a controversial campuswide message on the Israel-Hamas war that said the university would pursue "divestment strategies" and endorsed an academic boycott of Israeli universities.

California State University Chancellor Mildred García​ announced the decision in a statement posted to the CSU website, saying that Sonoma State President Mike Lee was taken off the job for his "insubordination" in making the statement without "appropriate approvals."

Pro-Palestinian student encampment protesters celebrated when Lee released a letter to the roughly 6,000-student member Rohnert Park campus on Tuesday that met enough of their requests for activists to agree to dismantle their camp by Wednesday evening.

"SSU Demands Met!" said a post on the SSU Students for Justice in Palestine Instagram with the caption "brick by brick, wall by wall" that showed screenshots of Lee's letter.

In his letter, Lee promised to pursue "divestment strategies that include seeking ethical alternatives" in consultation with pro-Palestinian activists and said he supported an academic boycott of Israel.

"SSU will not pursue or engage in any study abroad programs, faculty exchanges, or other formal collaborations that are sponsored by, or represent, the Israeli state academic and research institutions," Lee's Tuesday letter said.

Read more: UC Berkeley to consider divesting from weapons makers as pro-Palestinian protesters break camp

Lee's statement stood out. While other universities have recently said they will look into divesting from weapons companies, including UC Berkeley and UC Riverside, nearly all in the U.S. have rejected calls to target Israel specifically or to boycott formal exchange or research partnerships with Israeli universities.

In rejecting such calls, the universities have cited their support of academic freedom and anti-discrimination policies. Some have also noted that a 2016 state law signed by then Gov. Jerry Brown banned giving state grants or contracts worth more than $100,000 to state universities that targeted Israel in endorsing the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

Lee's statement immediately drew criticism from Jewish students, parents and community groups.

Speaking at a Jewish Public Affairs Committee of California conference in Sacramento on Wednesday, California Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, who serves on the CSU Board of Trustees, slammed campuses for moving forward with agreements to quell protests.

"Each campus is handling these situations in their own way with inconsistencies and frankly, sometimes coming up with agreements that they really don't have the authority to come up with,” said Kounalakis, who spoke before Lee was put on leave.

Read more: Police clear UC Irvine camp, make arrests after protesters occupy science building

Kounalakis, a Democrat, said campuses were “woefully unprepared” for the recent protests.

Gov. Gavin Newsom, who made a video appearance at the same Wednesday event to promote his plan to counter antisemitism, said last week that he did "not support divestment."

Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino) and Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), co-chairs of the California Legislative Jewish Caucus, commended García's decision, saying in a statement that Lee's support of an academic boycott "was totally unacceptable and evidence that former President Lee is unfit to lead one of our great state institutions. We look forward to working with Chancellor García and the CSU Trustees to pursue a different path that will promote learning, respectful dialogue, mutual respect, inclusivity, and peace.”

In her letter announcing that Lee would step aside, García​ said she was "deeply concerned" about his words.

​"Our role as educators is to support and uplift all members of the California State University. I want to acknowledge how deeply concerned I am about the impact the statement has had on the Sonoma State community, and how challenging and painful it will be​ for many of our students and community members to see and read," García​ said. "The heart and mission of the CSU is to create an inclusive and welcoming place for everyone we serve​, not to marginalize one community over another."

In his own letter on his departure, Lee apologized, saying he had "marginalized other members of our student population" and that "I realize the harm that this has caused, and I take full ownership of it. I deeply regret the unintended consequences of my actions."

"I want to be clear: The message was drafted and sent without the approval of, or consultation with, the Chancellor or other system leaders. The points outlined in the message were mine alone, and do not represent the views of my colleagues or the CSU," Lee wrote.

It was unclear how long Lee will be out. He has been on the job for 20 months, about half the time as interim president.

In an interview with The Times, kinesiology professor Lauren Morimoto said she supported Lee.

"As of now, the Academic Senate has not made a statement about Mike Lee's announcement. However, I'm meeting with the Board of the Asian Pacific Islander American Faculty and Staff Association and we stand in solidarity with Mike Lee and the student protesters...," said Morimoto, the former chair of the academic senate. "I will ask to be added to tomorrow's agenda to present a resolution of support for Mike Lee and the student protesters and the demands they were able to negotiate with the university."

Staff writers Colleen Shalby and Mackenzie Mays contributed reporting.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.


Bay Area university accused of ‘blacklisting Israel’ in striking agreement with protesters

Terisa Estacio
Wed, May 15, 2024 

(KRON) — There’s controversy in the North Bay after the president of a Northern California state university put forth an agreement with protesters and members of Students for Justice in Palestine. The school president laying out a detailed plan to look at divestment and ending an exchange program.

But now, a state lawmaker is speaking out, calling the agreement awful.

“This is horrific and wrong, my jaw dropped when I read the letter,” said State Sen. Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat.

Oakland restaurant burglarized twice in one day asks community for help

Sen. Wiener is talking about a letter sent out Tuesday evening to the Sonoma State campus community detailing an agreement the state school struck an agreement with students protesting the war in Gaza.

Photo: KRON4.com

More than 19 days ago, protestors set up encampments at Sonoma State. The university president, Mike Lee said he has listened to their demands.

In the letter, Lee said in part:

“None of us should be on the sidelines when human beings are subject to mass killing and destruction. I have said this before and it merits repeating; this is no political, religious or cultural principle that merits the murder of innocent and the one battle we should all be engaged in is the fight for inclusion, respect, and freedom of all people regardless of their background or identity.”

Lee then laid out a series of agreements struck with the protestors, including:

Reviewing the school’s investments


Declaring an academic boycott with Israeli universities


Recognizing a Palestinian curriculum


Calling on a permanent cease-fire in Gaza

“He is basically blacklisting Israel,” Wiener said.

On social media, protesters at Sonoma State applauded the agreement, calling it a win and saying their demands were met. KRON4.com reached out to Sonoma State University and they responded, saying they have received many requests for comment about the president’s letter and will be issuing a statement.

We also reached out to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, San Francisco Bay Area. We have not yet heard back.

Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. 

UC Berkeley to consider divesting from weapons makers as pro-Palestinian protesters break camp

Jaweed Kaleem, Teresa Watanabe, Hannah Wiley
Tue, May 14, 2024 

Pro-Palestinian student protesters at UC Berkeley agreed to remove their encampment. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)


Pro-Palestinian protesters at UC Berkeley have removed tents on a central campus plaza in an agreement that appeared to end one of the largest and longest student encampments in the country as Chancellor Carol Christ said she would initiate a discussion about the university's investments in weapons companies and the possible divestment from them.

The move to dismantle the encampment, which swelled to more than 180 tents and hundreds of students at its peak, notably included no police presence or arrests at a time when some universities — including UCLA, USC, Pomona College and Cal Poly Humboldt — have faced immense criticism for using police to clear camps or building takeovers by pro-Palestinian protesters. Ongoing turmoil has racked UCLA since an encampment there came under a violent mob attack two weeks ago.

The Berkeley agreement joins ones at at least four other California universities and several across the country that have forged settlements with activists to end campus encampments that some Jewish students say have included antisemitic signage and chants. While no schools have agreed specifically to divest from ties to Israel — a demand of protesters — each has indicated that it will explore proposals to tighten investment policies regarding companies that sell weapons.

Pro-Palestinian protesters at UC Berkeley said they dismantled their encampment and were going to protest at the UC regents meeting at UC Merced on Wednesday. (Hannah Wiley / Los Angeles Times)

At UC Berkeley, in two letters released Tuesday on the university website, Christ rejected calls for the university to directly target Israel through divestment or cutting ties with Israeli universities. Instead, she said the university would review complaints about discrimination against Palestinians and other groups in academic partnerships such as exchange programs. And the chancellor said she supported examining Berkeley's investments in "a targeted list of companies due to their participation in weapons manufacturing, mass incarceration, and/or surveillance industries."

The letters said that the university would create a task force by the end of June that includes faculty, students and staff to examine whether the investments of the UC Berkeley Foundation, the university’s primary private fundraising arm, "align with our values or should be modified in order to do so."

As of June 30, UC Berkeley's endowment had a total market value of $7.4 billion, with $2.9 billion held by the UC Berkeley Foundation and $4.5 billion held by the University of California regents. Christ said she expected a report on findings by the fall.

She also agreed to push UC regents on divestment. "I will encourage the Chair of the Regents Investment Committee to develop a framework to consider ethical issues concerning investment and any changes in investment strategy. Such a framework should involve broad-based engagement with the community," one letter said.

The chancellor had resisted pressure to forcibly take down the encampment and instead sought to negotiate with protesters. In an interview with The Times last week, she said the Berkeley encampment had been "largely peaceful, very well run," although some of the protest banners had disturbed her.

"I’ve got a long history of Berkeley, and in my experience protests don’t end with police action," Christ said. "They end with negotiations."

Read more: A staggering two weeks at UCLA: Protest, violence, division mark 'dark chapter'

On Tuesday afternoon, a banner displayed across Sproul Hall before campers departed read, "Free Palestine encampment until UC divests. Glory to the martyrs, victory to the resistance."

Students, who staged a rally Tuesday afternoon, read Christ's letters and applauded the chancellor's expression of support for an "immediate and permanent cease-fire" in the Israel-Hamas war.

Activists said their protests are not over.

"We are not declaring victory. We are saying it is time to move on to the next step, to take this campaign, to take this movement, to the office of the regents, to the office of the president, until we win complete divestment," a student leader said.

Divestment "won’t come from Berkeley. It will come from the regents ... deciding and determining that, ‘Yes, we no longer want to have blood on our hands,'" said Banan Abdelrahman, a graduate student and member of the UC Berkeley Divest coalition.

In a statement released Tuesday evening, organizers of the encampment said, "Palestinians have given us the roadmap to liberation, and we will keep treading that path — from Berkeley to Merced all the way to a free Jerusalem in a free Palestine."

Students said they would travel to UC Merced, where protesters from across the state planned to converge at Wednesday's regents meeting.

Speaking at the regents committee meeting Tuesday in Merced, UC Chief Investment Officer Jagdeep Singh Bachher said that more than 18% of UC’s $175 billion in investments is tied to Israel, weapons companies and other holdings targeted by pro-Palestinian divestment activists. He said the funds were indirectly invested, such as through index mutual funds or U.S. Treasury bonds.

Berkeley protesters also encouraged members of the UAW Local 4811 academic workers union to support a strike vote. Results were expected Wednesday night.

The union, which represents 48,000 workers across the 10 University of California campuses, including graduate students who are teaching assistants, has filed unfair labor practice charges against the university system after arrests of pro-Palestinian graduate student protesters at UCLA and the issuing of suspensions and other discipline at UC San Diego and UC Irvine. The union has accused the university of retaliating against student workers and unlawfully changing workplace policies to suppress pro-Palestinian speech.

The dismantling of the UC Berkeley encampment does not end the controversy at the university. The campus for months has been roiled by deep divisions over pro-Palestinian activism, which some members of the Jewish community said has veered into antisemitism.

Read more: 'Please leave!' A Jewish UC Berkeley dean confronts pro-Palestinian activist at his home

The Bay Area Jewish Community Relations Council criticized the university for its response.

"The concessions that have come as a result of the encampment have rewarded students for violating university rules and harassing other students, particularly Jewish students," said Jeremy Russell, a spokesman for the council. "It's appalling that the administration was not able to respect the activists' right to free speech and peaceful protest without capitulating to demands and encouraging, even if inadvertently, the violation of their own policies."

In March, the U.S. Department of Education launched a civil rights investigation into UC Berkeley over potential “shared ancestry violations” of Title Vl of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The law bans discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin, including harassment based on a shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics.

The investigation followed a volatile incident in February when protesters targeted a campus event featuring a controversial Israeli speaker. The protest escalated and UC Berkeley police evacuated the event as demonstrators broke open a door to the building and shattered a window. The university launched its own investigation into the incident. A rescheduled event for the speaker later took place without incident.

The UC Berkeley pro-Palestinian protesters, a coalition of dozens of university groups, set up the camp April 22. It had demanded that the university call for a cease-fire in the war in Gaza, divest from investments in weapons and military companies tied to the war and Israel's occupation of the West Bank, sever ties with Israeli universities and establish a Palestinian Studies program.

The University of California has rejected calls for divestment. In late April, it said in a statement that the university system "has consistently opposed calls for boycott against and divestment from Israel. ... A boycott of this sort impinges on the academic freedom of our students and faculty and the unfettered exchange of ideas on our campuses."

In her Tuesday letters, Christ, who is retiring at the end of June, reiterated the position. "As stated by the University of California Office of the President, divestment from companies on the basis of whether or not they do business with or in Israel is not supported. The sale of direct investments is not within the authority of the Office of the Chancellor but rather lies with the UC regents."

Read more: 'We will not move.' Pro-Palestinian encampments, protests grow at California universities

Also on Tuesday, Harvard University activists who had set up for 20 days in Harvard Yard said they would end their protest. The university did not agree to divestment. It said in a statement that it would "pursue a meeting between encampment participants and the chair of the corporation committee on shareholder responsibility and other university leaders for a discussion regarding students’ questions related to the endowment.”

Harvard also said it would reinstate at least 22 student protesters who had been put on involuntary leaves of absence.

"We are under no illusions: we do not believe these meetings are divestment wins. These side-deals are intended to pacify us away from full disclosure & divestment. Rest assured, they will not,” said a statement from the encampment group, Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine.

The recent agreements between colleges and student protesters in California share similarities in providing official forums for discussion on investments, although some go further on divestment.

UC Riverside Chancellor Kim A. Wilcox signed off May 3 on an agreement to end the encampment at his campus. It was the first such agreement at a UC campus and said that the university would publicly make a "full disclosure" of the companies and size of its investments.

It also said that UC Riverside would form a task force that includes students and faculty to "explore the removal of UCR's endowment from the management of the UC investments office and the investment of said endowment in a manner that will be financially and ethically sound for the university with consideration to the companies involved in arms manufacturing and delivery." The task force would present its findings to the board of trustees by March 21, 2025.

"It has been my goal to resolve this matter peacefully and I am encouraged by this outcome — which was generated through constructive dialogue,” Wilcox said in a statement.

“This agreement does not change the realities of the war in Gaza, or the need to address antisemitism, Islamophobia, and other forms of bias and discrimination," Wilcox said. "However, I am grateful that we can have constructive and peaceful conversations on how to address these complex issues.”

A sign on the site of the UC Berkeley encampment signaled protesters' next move. (Hannah Wiley / Los Angeles Times)

Sacramento State

President Luke Wood announced May 8 that the university had agreed with protesters to change its investment policy for its five auxiliaries managed by the university — including a philanthropic and fundraising arm — to focus only on "socially responsible investment strategies which include not having direct investments in corporations and funds that profit from genocide, ethnic cleansing, and activities that violate fundamental human rights." The university also said it did not have direct ties to funds related to the Israeli military.

At Occidental College, a pro-Palestinian encampment came down Friday after an agreement was signed that said the college’s board of trustees would vote by June 6 on whether to divest from companies with ties to Israel.

"Demonstrators agree not to cause or promote substantial disruption of Occidental’s Commencement ceremony on May 19, 2024, which would create safety concerns for attendees, violate any College policies, or require pausing, canceling, or relocating of the event," the agreement said.

On Tuesday, protesters at Sonoma State University agreed to end their encampment after President Mike Lee met several demands, including vowing to create a Palestinian studies curriculum and not pursue academic partnerships that are "sponsored by, or represent, the Israeli state academic and research institutions." Lee said the university would look into "divestment strategies."

Kaleem reported from Los Angeles, Watanabe from Merced and Wiley from Berkeley.

Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Harvard student protesters reach agreement to end pro-Palestine campus encampment

Josh Marcus
Tue, May 14, 2024 

Harvard student protesters reach agreement to end pro-Palestine campus encampment


Student protesters have reached an agreement with Harvard University to end a 20-day pro-Palestine encampment that’s been occupying a central green at the prestigious university.

Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine (HOOP), the activist coalition which coordinated the encampment as part of its campaign to get the university to cut financial ties with the Israeli military apparatus, announced the deal on Instagram on Tuesday.

“Encampments are a tactic — a big and beautiful one — in a larger strategy of divestment,” the group wrote in a statement. “Here at Harvard, we believe the utility of this tactic has passed, and we have decided to re-group and carry out this protracted struggle through other means.”

“We are under no illusions: we do not believe these meetings are divestment wins,” HOOP added. “These side-deals are intended to pacify us away from full disclosure & divestment.”

Following negotiations with the student activists, the school agreed to reinstate 22 students from involuntary leaves of absence for their participation in the encampment, according to the Harvard Crimson university newspaper.

People walk past the remnants of an encampment of tents in Harvard Yard on the campus of Harvard University, Tuesday, May 14, 2024, in Cambridge, Mass (AP)

The school also offered HOOP a meeting with members of university leadership involved in setting guidance for stock purchases within Harvard’s $50bn endowment.

“There will continue to be deep disagreements and strongly felt emotions as we experience pain and distress over events in the wider world,” Harvard president Alan M Garber wrote in an email Tuesday to Harvard affiliates following the deal. “Now more than ever, it is crucial to do what we do at our best, creating conditions for true dialogue, modeling ways to build understanding, empathy, and trust, and pursuing constructive change anchored in the rights and responsibilities we share.”

This spring, protest encampments have formed at universities across the United States.

University administrations have taken starkly different approaches to engaging with these demonstrations.

Some schools, like Brown University, forged a deal with protesters to end their encampment in exchange for putting forward a vote on Israeli divestment.

Others, like Columbia University, have failed to reach agreements with students, and have instead called riot police to campus to clear out the demonstrators.

Columbia-Affiliated Union Theological Seminary Votes to Divest from Israel’s War on Gaza

By Serene Jones, Amy Goodman , Juan Gonzalez 

May 14, 2024
Source: Democracy Now!




As student protests around the world call for their educational institutions to divest from companies with ties to Israel, we speak to the Reverend Dr. Serene Jones, the president of Union Theological Seminary, an ecumenical seminary affiliated with Columbia University that is one of the first schools to begin divesting from companies that “profit from war in Palestine/Israel.” Jones says divestment is an extension of Union’s “long policy of trying our best to bring our values, our core mission and our conscience to bear on how we invest our money,” and credits student activists with pushing the administration to action. Jones criticizes Columbia’s decision to arrest student protesters with a “police takeover” and “violent decampment,” in contrast to Union’s approach to student political expression. “We support students learning what it means to find their voice and speak out for justice and freedom,” she says.

Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.


AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

Among the leading demands of students protesting the war in Gaza across the United States for the past month have been calls for universities to disclose and divest from companies with ties to Israel. While many universities have sought to break the Gaza solidarity encampments by force, calling in police, suspending, expelling students — over, it’s believed, about 3,000 students and faculty and allies have been arrested across the country — other institutions have responded to calls for divestment.

Among them is the Union Theological Seminary here in New York, an ecumenical seminary affiliated with Columbia University. Last week, the Union announced its Board of Trustees had endorsed a divestment plan from, quote, “companies profiting from war in Palestine/Israel.” In a statement, they wrote they have, quote, “taken steps to identify all investments, both domestic and global, that support and profit from the present killing of innocent civilians in Palestine, whose numbers are now over 34,000 — and a humanitarian crisis of ever-growing magnitude. Union’s president, faculty, and students have repeatedly made strong public calls for an immediate ceasefire and will continue to do so until this continually escalating war has stopped. These calls are supported by today’s decision by Union’s Investment Committees to withdraw support from companies profiting from the war,” end-quote.

For more, we’re joined by the president of Union Theological Seminary, the Reverend Dr. Serene Jones. Her recent piece for Religion News is headlined “What we have to learn from students leading the charge for justice.” She’s joining us in our New York studio.

Welcome back to Democracy Now!, Dr. Jones. It’s great to have you with us.

REV. SERENE JONES: Thank you.

AMY GOODMAN: I was just at Union Theological Seminary for the two-day retirement conference of the Colombia University Edward Said professor, Rashid Khalidi. It was supposed to be at Columbia, but it had to be moved. The Columbian — the president of Columbia had called in the New York police twice. Well over a hundred people were arrested. The encampment was destroyed. Union has taken a very different approach, though you are affiliated with Columbia University. Can you talk about the decision you’ve made? And for presidents of universities and colleges and seminaries around the country, explain how your Board of Trustees came to this decision.

REV. SERENE JONES: Well, thank you.

And in terms of the decisions that we’ve made since the beginning of the war, but also increasingly since the beginning of the encampments and the student protests, is we have a long-standing policy of not allowing the police on our campus except in the case of a serious crime. And our campus, we consider it a sanctuary, a place of safety. And so, rather than responding with arrests, with penalizing students, we support protesters. We support students learning what it means to find their voice and speak out for justice and freedom.

So, that meant, in this situation, opening up our campus to all of the surrounding campuses, where people were being expelled, where events weren’t allowed to happen, and opening our doors. So, we had Columbia classrooms meeting on our campus. We had events. Yesterday we had the Columbia Law School do their graduation in our chapel. So, it’s been very active. And among those things are a Passover Seder, that the students who were Jewish in the encampment asked if they could come do a seder on our campus. We’ve had Muslim prayers on Friday on the campus. We’ve just — our doors are wide open, which is what a school, a university should be in times like this, places for voices and places where community happens. Not a hard decision on our part.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Dr. Jones, I wanted to ask you: How does your school now plan to work with the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, which handles, I understand, some $4 trillion in managed assets for over 300 institutions?

REV. SERENE JONES: Yes, working with the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility is one piece of a multipronged strategy. Our decision to work with them has to do with our look at our own investments, which are very small because of preexisting screens we have against armaments and guns. This ups that to defense industries and to any body profiting from the war. And we’re going to extend from there forward. But what ICCR does is allow multiple faith traditions and faith communities to pool their resources in order to bring pressures to bear against particularly intractable companies who have been previously nonresponsive to divestment, pressures of divestment. So, it’s the place where we both teach our students what it means to participate in socially responsible investing, and it’s a collective strategy for bringing pressure to bear.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And Union has also said that — in its announcement, that it is, quote, “exploring investments that proactively support humanitarian and entrepreneurial companies doing positive work in the region.” What would that look like?

REV. SERENE JONES: So, we’re still looking into all of this to see what the specifics of it are. We have various lists — I haven’t even seen the lists — of the companies that we are targeting to divest from. And we are exploring also through ICCR and others how we might make positive investments in the region. So, I don’t have any specifics on that, but that is the intention. Just to be clear, when we made the decision to divest and to invest in humanitarian support, it was a decision that was very firm and clear and directed, but it is just the beginning of the process of actually implementing it, which we take very seriously.

AMY GOODMAN: And if you can explain socially responsible investments, SRI, the kind of screen that you use? And have you spoken to the presidents of Columbia and Barnard in the actions that they took, arresting so many, well over a hundred, of their students?

REV. SERENE JONES: So, socially responsible investing screens, Union has long had them with respect to our endowment. Our first major divestment was from South Africa, U.S. companies doing business in South Africa. And that socially responsible screens mean you tell the company that manages your investments, “Do not put money here. And if we have it, withdraw it and move it somewhere else.” We have screens for armaments. We have screens for guns. We most recently have a screen for for-profit prisons. We were the first school to divest from fossil fuels, way back in 2014. And so, this is just a continuation of what has been a long policy of trying our best to bring our values, our core mission and our conscience to bear on how we invest our money. So, those screens go in place, and it stops investments going forward and begins to work on divesting going backwards.

AMY GOODMAN: And have you spoken to the Columbia and Barnard presidents? I believe both staffs have had no-confidence votes in their presidents.

REV. SERENE JONES: Yes. So, I know both of them. I have —

AMY GOODMAN: Because you’re affiliated, right? What is your relationship?

REV. SERENE JONES: So, we’re affiliated in that we have a long-standing friendly relationship with Columbia, but we’re actually a completely separate entity. We have our own board, our own endowment. So we’re different from, for instance, Barnard and Teachers College.

Most of my communications have been directly to the Union community, but I’ve been very clear in expressing alarm. And in the most recent case of the police, basically, takeover of Morningside Heights and the violent decampment and breaking into the admissions building, I was there to witness that. And I publicly, adamantly condemned those actions. So, that is writing to the Union community about my position on them. Many Union students have been part of the encampment and part of those actions, and we have refused to take action against them for their actions.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Dr. Jones, even before the encampments, not only Columbia and Barnard, but many universities around the country had been clamping down on student protests, overnight changing their rules and regulations, requiring permission beforehand to even have a rally, suspending student organizations like Jewish Voices for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine. What is your sense of the message that these university authorities sent to the students in the months before the encampment?

REV. SERENE JONES: Yes, those policies suddenly sprung to life. Initially, they were presented as if they had been long-standing, but they weren’t. And very early, the message got out that this is not a place where your voice can be heard. And don’t even try telling students they have to give two weeks’ notice for a protest. As an activist my whole life, I can’t remember when we ever knew two weeks in advance when we were going to have a protest. So, it was a setup from the beginning to create the foundation for taking the kinds of actions that they have.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, we want to thank you for being with us, the Reverend Dr. Serene Jones, president of Union Theological Seminary here in New York. Before that, she was a professor of religion and head of women’s studies at Yale University. Her recent piece for Religion News is headlined “What we have to learn from students leading the charge for justice.” We’ll link to it at democracynow.org.

Dr. Jones mentioned for-profit prisons. That’s what we’re going to take on next. When we come back, immigration is a top issue for voters this year. We’ll speak with the author of the new book, Unbuild Walls: Why Immigrant Justice Needs Abolition. Stay with us.

Statehood in the Arab Levant Faces a Miserable Fate


Opinion
Hazem Saghieh
Sunday - 12 May 2024


Let us remember what happened in Beirut in 2002 for a moment. Despite over two decades having gone by, recalling this juncture remains useful for understanding the present. Not only has the past not truly passed, it has become more present and painful with time, and its meanings have become more transparent.

That year, during an Arab Summit, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, who would later become king, put forward what came to be known as the "Arab Peace Initiative.” The tragedy of 9/11 in the United States and the Second Intifada in Palestine were propelling a major shift in the "Middle East crisis" and its resolution.

The most prominent dimension of this initiative was its announcement that Arab states were prepared to recognize the State of Israel in exchange for the establishment of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders and Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Golan Heights it had taken from Syria.

Then Israeli Prime Minister of Israel Ariel Sharon prevented Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from traveling to Lebanon to attend the summit in which his cause would be discussed. For his part, Arafat complied with the decision for fear that if he went to Beirut, the Israelis would prevent him from returning to Ramallah.

In turn, Emile Lahoud, then President of Lebanon, who is known for being a subordinate of Damascus and Tehran, denied Arafat’s request to deliver a speech at the summit via satellite. The pretext for removing the speech from the conference's agenda was scandalous: "fears Israel would interfere and distort the speech."

What happened was even worse: Hamas carried out a terrorist attack in Netanya during the summit, which coincided with the Jewish holiday of Passover, resulting in the deaths of 30 Israeli civilians.

Sharon and his government found in the attack an opportunity to ignore the Beirut summit and avoid engaging with the offer it presented. Sharon’s dismissal of the summit was reinforced by the fact that it refused to address (let alone condemn) the terrorist operation because of pressure from Syria and rejectionist Arabs.

Nothing attests to the collusion of Israel and Iran in undermining Palestinian statehood and the notion of peace in general - albeit from a position of enmity - more compellingly than this incident. Mind you, the war against the Oslo Accords also spoke volumes about this same collusion: the Israeli right assassinated Yitzhak Rabin, and rejectionist Palestinian factions planted explosives among civilians.

In addition, we add nothing novel in mentioning what happened after the Hamas coup and takeover of Gaza in 2007, which left the Israeli right happy and reassured. It was thus impelled to come to the aid of Hamas and to bolster its authority financially, not necessarily out of love for Hamas but out of hatred for the prospect that any kind of Palestinian national structure could take shape.

Both Israel and Iran sought to destroy Palestinian statehood and prevent it from evolving. Tel Aviv believed that perpetuating the split between the West Bank and Gaza Strip was crucial to achieving this end, while Tehran believed that nothing less than fragmenting the Arab Levant and preventing its stabilization into a system of statehood was necessary.

The birth of a Palestinian state leads to two undesirable outcomes:

On one hand, it deprives rejectionists of a useful flammable element, as well as proving that solving this obstinate problem is possible.

On the other hand, the creation of such a state would be a celebration of statehood and evidence of the state system's success in the Arab Levant. The reality, as many of our experiences have shown, is that the existence of a Palestinian state has become tied to the question of whether the state system is viable or absent and unachievable in the region.

Both sides, in any event, do not want the problem to be resolved, leaving it to remain a "cause." They prefer the project of promoting the turn towards militias that hinders the formation of states and spreads social decay.

Completing the picture, Assadist Syria saw itself as a partner in the Iranian effort to fragment the Levant and foster its militarization, provided that this fragmentation excluded Syria and allowed it to control the process. However, it soon fell into the hole it had dug for its "brothers" in Lebanon, Iraq, and Palestine. Thus, there was no longer any exception to this Levantine rule, and the Iranians and Israelis were the only ones left on the field. The former tosses us in the air like a ball and the latter kicks it.

Now, with October 7 and the war on Gaza, it can be said that the push to nip Levantine nationhood in the bud has been successful, starting from and building on its success in Palestine. Anyone looking for regional stability that could foster statehood will find nothing but a war that springs from Gaza and does not end there. It will likely be multipronged and complex, albeit while taking various forms.

And anyone looking for autonomous forces in the Levant capable of benefiting from the Israeli-Iranian conflict will find only increasing fragmentation accompanied and aggravated by rival communal and centrifugal groups fighting among themselves. The continued population drain, brain drain included, attests to the impossibility of building on demographic solid grounds, while the defeat of revolutions and reform movements in Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq show that dynamics needed to bring about positive change will remain pending for a period that is difficult to predict.

As for the influential global powers in our region, their footprint remains overwhelmingly linked to military and security matters that overshadow their minimal political presence and role in shaping a vision for the future. What was that? “Future”?

Union Theological Seminary votes to divest from companies profiting from Gaza war

Union, a private, ecumenical school that serves as Columbia University’s faculty of theology but maintains a separate endowment, is the first U.S. institute of higher education known to divest from the war in Gaza.

Smoke and explosions rise inside the Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel, March 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

May 9, 2024
By Fiona Murphy

NEW YORK (RNS) — Union Theological Seminary’s board of trustees voted Thursday (May 9) to divest from all companies profiting off the war in Gaza.

Union, a private, ecumenical school, shares a graduate studies program with Columbia University but is independent and maintains a separate, $127 million endowment, is the first U.S. institute of higher education known to divest from the war in Gaza.

“We do it with humility and we do it with a sense of moral conviction,” said Union’s president, the Rev. Serene Jones.

In November, Union’s board of trustees, which includes Jones, hired Cambridge Associates, a private investment management company, to review the seminary’s investment portfolio to identify companies that are financially invested in the war in Gaza.

RELATED: For Muslim student protesters, a sense of purpose mingled with fear

The board will now transition to selling its shares of the identified companies. “We have a very good investment committee who are completely, at a moral level, committed to seeing this through,” Jones said.

In a statement after the trustees had approved the measure, they said, “With respect to companies that are profiting from the present war in Palestine, we continue to
hold these standards high and have taken steps to identify all investments, both domestic and
global, that support and profit from the present killing of innocent civilians in Palestine.”

Chris Marsicano, an assistant professor of educational studies and public policy at Davidson College, cautioned that divesting could take months, or even years, explaining that a single investment group can be invested in thousands of companies at one time. Additionally, the hedge funds that manage university endowments are constantly buying and selling shares and changing their investment strategy for the financial benefit of the institution, which makes an investigation difficult.

Brown Memorial Tower at Union Theological Seminary in New York. (Photo by Chris06/Wikimedia/Creative Commons)

As a seminary, Union already screens its investments based on social and environmental principles. “We don’t invest in any armaments or weapons,” Jones said. “It’s a small thing, but symbolically it’s an important step to take.”

“Although our investments in the war in Palestine are small because our previous, strong anti-armament screens are robust,” the trustees’ statement said, “we hope that our action today will bring needed pressure to bear to stop the killing and find a peaceful future for all.”

At Trinity College in Ireland, the school’s administration recently released a statement promising to “endeavour to divest” from Israeli companies after a five-day encampment led by student protesters caused conflict on campus. Student protesters in Ireland considered it only a partial victory as the university clarifies that divestment “will be considered by a task force as a first step.”

Calls for divestment have been a major demand of students participating in sit-ins and encampments at more than 100 colleges around the U.S. in protest of Israel’s response to Hamas’ terrorist attack and kidnapping on Oct. 7.

Union’s student body actively supported the dissenting Columbia students whose tents filled the university’s main quad in past weeks. Last month, a group of Union students hosted a Communion service in Columbia’s encampment attended by hundreds of people and held a small Passover Seder in Union’s courtyard for Jewish students suspended from Columbia.

“It felt like an ultimate integration of what I have learned at Union,” said Pearl Vercruysse, a third-year Master of Divinity student who participated in the Communion service, “and everything I’ve discerned as what I’m called to do in ministry.”

Credited with being the birthplace of liberation theology, Union has been a leading institution for progressive Christian activism for decades. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German pastor executed by the Nazi regime, was briefly resident at Union, and the influential theologian Paul Tillich taught there for two decades. The controversial academic and current presidential candidate Cornel West has been associated with Union since the 1970s.

In 2014, Union trustees voted unanimously to divest from fossil fuels after a wave of student protests. Three months later, a group of students occupied a classroom to organize their demonstrations against the killing of Michael Brown by police in Ferguson, Missouri.

Known as the “Love Hub,” the classroom became a center for students and faculty protesting Brown’s death. James Cone, a Methodist minister and theologian who is considered the founder of Black liberation theology, delivered his last lecture in the Love Hub. After inviting the entire school, Cone spoke on the horrors of police violence, expanding on ideas from his 2011 book, “The Cross and the Lynching Tree.”

“The divestment happened just before I showed up, and was swiftly overshadowed by student activism around Ferguson,” said Jorge Rodriguez, a Union alumnus who now teaches history at the school.

In 1968, when students at Columbia created encampments to protest the Vietnam War, Union opened its door to students and faculty who were suspended and expelled. Union’s then-President John Bennett sided with the protesters, agreeing to cancel classes for the rest of the school year. “After the cessation of classes, students created what they called the Free University,” Rodriguez said.

“In this moment,” Rodriguez said, “my hope is that we would see that same phenomena happen again.”

A sign is displayed at the pro-Palestinian demonstration encampment at Columbia University in New York, April 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

Union is currently hosting Columbia University professors who continue to teach students penalized for protesting the war in Gaza. Jones says these students are focused on completing their work so there is no reason, apart from violating a university policy for participating in an encampment, that they should not graduate.


RELATED: What we have to learn from students leading the charge for justice

In a letter to Columbia students published in April, Jones called the Union campus “a safe haven” for those penalized for taking part in the protests. “As president, I have your back,” she wrote.

In the past month, as hundreds of students and other individuals have been arrested by the New York Police Department for protesting the war in Gaza, Jones said she has never seen this kind of “military action” taken from a university in all her career. “I’ve never had to face this level of escalation,” Jones said. “I fear for our country.”

Several people detained as protesters block parking garage at Massachusetts Institute of Technology


Pro-Palestinian demonstrators wave flags outside the Stata Center at MIT, Thursday, May 9, 2024, in Cambridge, Mass. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)

BY STEVE LEBLANC
, May 9, 2024


CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Police detained several people Thursday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology after demonstrators blocked a parking garage in their ongoing protest movement connected to the Israel-Hamas war.

Tensions have ratcheted up in standoffs with protesters on campuses across the United States and increasingly in Europe. Some colleges cracked down immediately, while others have tolerated the demonstrations. Some have begun to lose patience and call in the police over concerns about disruptions to campus life and safety.

In Boston, the U.S. city most identified with higher education, students have set up encampments on at least five campuses, including MIT, Northeastern University and Harvard University.

At MIT, protesters have been asking administrators to end all research contracts with Israel’s Ministry of Defense, which they estimate total $11 million since 2015. On Thursday, the school issued an alert just before 2 p.m. saying protesters were blocking the entrance to a campus parking garage and spilling onto a nearby street.

About two hours later, authorities split protesters up and pushed them away from the garage. At least three people were detained. Protesters walked away continuing to chant “free Palestine.” The crowd dispersed, and the garage was reopened by 5 p.m., the school said.




Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters march in Malmo against Israel’s Eurovision participation


As pro-Palestinian encampments spread to European campuses, UK government seeks to head off unrest

MIT officials said later Thursday that fewer than 10 people were arrested by MIT police during the incident and the Stata Garage and Vassar Street are now open. Cambridge Police were also on hand to help clear the garage entrance, officials said.

Hannah Didehbani, an MIT student and one of the leaders of the protest, said the decision to block the garage was part of a larger effort to bring attention to what she described as MIT’s complicity with the Israeli military. Didehbani said she has been issued a suspension and an eviction notice by the school but said MIT cannot suspend the larger student movement.

“They’d much rather do those things than cut ties to a state that is currently enacting a genocide,” she said.

The pro-Palestinian protest movement began nearly three weeks ago at Columbia University in New York City. It has since swept college campuses nationwide, with more than 2,500 people arrested.

US campus Gaza protests echo past in crucial election year

William Noah Glucroft

DW

MAY  6, 2024

As the US academic year winds down, student protests are heating up. The tense exchanges over Israel-Gaza policy and police crackdowns have had consequences beyond the university campus.

California law enforcement made many arrests while taking down a pro-Palestinian encampment on the UCLA campus last week

Mario Tama/Getty Images


Many people in the United States and observing the scene from abroad over the last several weeks may be asking themselves, "What's going on?"

The title of the 1971 song by soul legend Marvin Gaye spoke to an era of civil unrest sparked by war, racism and political disillusionment when students and young people were putting themselves at the center of demands for major change.

If he were still alive today, Gaye would likely find just as much reason to produce that hit. Once again, US youth are turning their university campuses into stages to spotlight what some have described as "genocide live-streamed on their phones and a Democratic president who is fully in support of that," Leigh Raiford, a professor of African American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, told DW.

"There is a whole generation of people who will not vote for the Democratic Party, will not vote for Joe Biden," she said, explaining that Israel's treatment of Palestinians would be on the ballot for some voters in November.

That starkly contrasts four years ago, when Biden defeated former US President Donald Trump partly by appealing to young people engaged in nationwide protests linked to the Black Lives Matter movement. The catalyst for that election-year turmoil and this one differ, but the pursuit of social justice overlaps.

#BlackLivesMatter: A campaign goes viral  02:24

Whether the election outcome will also differ in 2024 remains a matter of debate among pollsters and campaign strategists. Biden has tried to show a balance between his unwavering military support for Israel and an interest in alleviating the civilian toll. In recent weeks, he has more vigorously pushed for a cease-fire.

What are the protesting US students demanding?

"Anti-genocide encampments" have popped up on dozens of campuses across the US, with participants calling for an end to Israel's seven-month bombardment of Gaza. Israel's military campaign that began after Hamas, which is recognized as a terrorist organization by the German government, the EU, the US and some Arab states, launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, has killed nearly 35,000 people.

Nearly half the dead are children, according to the United Nations, which uses figures from the Hamas-run Health Ministry. Many aid organizations have said the toll is likely an undercount.

Their demands vary, but the protesters on university campuses broadly want the US, as the largest supplier of lethal aid to Israel, to end its "ironclad" commitment to the state, as Biden has often described it.

The president has said the protests will not alter his stance. However, his administration paused a shipment of ammunition to Israel this week, according to a report by Axios, a US news platform. It was not immediately clear why, but this marks the first such hold in the current round of escalation.

Biden demands order amid US campus protest chaos  02:22

Students also want their universities, some of which maintain endowments worth billions of dollars, to divest from financial holdings in the weapons industry and Israel-related business.

With final exams and commencement approaching and under pressure from wealthy donors and politicians allergic to criticism of Israel, many universities have cited safety issues and other violations of campus policies as reasons to bring in police to clear out the protesters. At least 2,000 people have been arrested at universities across the country so far.

Myriad reports, such as from campuses in Georgia, Texas and New York City, appear to show police using excessive force. Yet at University of California, Los Angeles, they were criticized for doing too little as masked pro-Israel counterprotesters attacked the Palestinian encampment there last week. Social media posts captured protesters chanting, "Where were you yesterday?" as law enforcement moved in to dismantle the encampment following the attack.

US has long tradition of trying to discredit activist groups

"This is yet another example of suppression from colleges and universities of students' pro-Palestinian speech," Amr Shabaik, the legal director of the Los Angeles chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in a statement condemning the escalation.

Mindful of the roughly 1,200 people killed during Hamas' October attacks, many of them civilians, pro-Israel supporters have pointed to incidents of harassment or threats directed at Jewish students. They have presented circumstantial evidence alleging a connection between protest groups and foreign entities, such as Hamas.

Demonstrators watched the dismantling of an anti-war encampment at UW-Madison in Wisconsin

John Hart/AP/picture alliance

Many Jews have expressed solidarity with the protests, joining encampments and hosting traditional seder meals during last month's Passover holiday. The nuanced picture of who falls on what side has further complicated the universities' response.

For example, of the 282 arrests made at Columbia University and City College of New York on April 30, New York City police reported 71% and 40% had campus affiliation, respectively. Unlike Columbia, CCNY is a public college and remains more open to outsiders.

"These kinds of calls of 'outside agitation' are really dangerous, and they're also really disingenuous," said Raiford, currently in Germany as a fellow at the American Academy in Berlin.

She pointed to a long tradition of trying to discredit activist groups in the US, from the Red Scare of the early and mid-20th century to civil rights and anti-war demonstrations of the 1960s and '70s, all of which opponents accused of being influenced by Soviet and communist outsiders. Raiford said that these movements have been seen as falling on the "right side of history."

Martin Luther King, Jr., and his wife Coretta Scott King led a civil rights march from Selma, Alabama, on May 3, 1965

mage: William Lovelace/Express/Getty Images

"They called Martin Luther King an 'outside agitator,'" she added, referring to segregationists dead set against equal rights for all Americans.

There have been plenty of allegations to go around. A coordinated effort between pro-Israel groups in the US and the state of Israel has worked to quash pro-Palestinian voices, especially on campuses, according to reports by the US monthly magazine The Nation and the Qatar-based Al Jazeera news channel.

Freedom of speech vs. order

Universities have found themselves caught between competing pressures when it comes to upholding rights. Freedom of speech enjoys greater constitutional protection in the US than in many other democracies. But safety and access to education are also guaranteed rights.

Tensions spill over at US university protests  03:22

While they have "legal obligations to combat discrimination and a responsibility to maintain order," Anthony Romero, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, wrote in an open letter to university officials, "it is essential that you not sacrifice principles of academic freedom and free speech that are core to the educational mission of your respected institution."

That mission, of teaching social and moral ideals to students so that they can "go out and change the world," Raiford said, clashes with US higher education, which often serves as "spaces of consolidating the power of the ruling class."

Major institutions such as Columbia and the University of Chicago, which are both currently in the national spotlight, benefit from their student body's reputation for taking part in social and political change, which may be vilified in the moment but lauded in hindsight. When police in riot gear entered Columbia's Hamilton Hall last week, it was hard to miss the uncanny timing: they had done the same thing exactly 56 years earlier during the 1968 anti-war and civil rights protests.