Brown University yesterday voted in favor of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to financially pressure Israel into ending the occupation of the Palestinian territories and allow full equality for its Arab-Palestinian citizens.
The Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility in Investment Policies (ACCRIP) of the Providence-based university, which consists of university students, faculty, staff and alumni, vote on resolutions surrounding “ethical and moral issues or issues of alleged social harm with respect to the activities of corporations in which the University is an investor,” according to its website.
Brilliant BDS victory led by students in the US Brown University! ????✊?
Posted by Shahd Abusalama on Tuesday, December 3, 2019
Six members of the ACCRIP voted in favor of the motion, while two alumni were against it, and one abstained from the vote.
The vote followed the non-binding referendum in March when 69 percent of Brown undergraduate voters supported the same motion.
Way to go #BrownDivest! ????
University committee votes to divest from companies “facilitating human rights violations in Palestine” https://t.co/zshu7SwT6E via @UpriseRI #BDS #Palestine
— Zeina Hutchison (@ZeinaHutchison) December 2, 2019
However, university President Christina Paxson issued a statement to the Brown community, writing:
“Brown’s endowment is not a political instrument to be used to express views on complex social and political issues”.
BDS Victory: @BrownUniversity committee on corporate responsibility votes in favor of the boycott of Israel! https://t.co/mZ2w6Wu6zr
— BDS South Africa (@BDSsouthafrica) December 3, 2019
In response, more than 90 faculty published a statement that defended the student organizers who are “exercising their democratic right”, urged the university to listen to the demands of the referendum, and criticized Paxson for her “unacceptably narrow” conception of what constitutes productive student activism.
Today, @BrownUniversity's Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility in Investment Policies (ACCRIP) voted in favor of divesting from companies "facilitating human rights violations in Palestine." pic.twitter.com/zml9dWkhV1
— Brown University Divest (@BrownDivest) December 2, 2019
The vote by ACCRIP came after eight months of consultation and activism since the referendum, pushing the university to “divest from companies that profit from Israeli human rights abuses in the occupied Palestinian territories.”
(Middle East Monitor, PC, Social Media)
Very brave of the Brown University ACCRIP to vote in favour of BDS. I hope many more institutions will have the guts to follow suit. AIPAC and the like will no doubt apply monetary coercion but full disclosure will no doubt bring blowback on the Jewish control of the USA.
The wording of the Brown U. resolution says that “Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories constitutes social harm.” (and therefore Brown U. should desist from investing in companies that contribute to that social harm) Since Israel is occupying ALL of Palestine, the disvestment must accordingly be continued until Israel is replaced by the non-occupying state of… Palestine.
The article intro makes two mistakes: it uses the demeaning phrase ‘the Palestinian territories’ – referring to the West Bank only, or at most including the Gaza Strip, thus forgetting ’48’ entirely – and it disregards the third part of the BDS Call, namely the 6 million Palestinians in exile who must return.
As a right wing Israeli Zionist, I welcome the Brown decision to
prevent any employment of Arabs in Israeli businesses. This will cause more to leave and find employment someplace else.
Thank you