SPME Urges TIAA-CREF Members to Call For Resistance To Pressure To Divest From Israel Investments by Chomsky, Zinn and Others

  • 0

The Board of Directors of Scholars for Peace (click here to see members) in the Middle East, an international academic organization of 28,000 academics world-wide based in the United States, deplores calls for divestment from Israeli investments by the TIAA-CREF Program by a fractional group of extremist anti-Israel faculty. SPME members who are TIAA-CREF members may well be familiar with TIAA-CREF’s long and consistant policy of resisting the politicization of allocations.

Furthermore, the SPME Board of Directors believes that the politicization of even a “socially responsible” portfolio would not only be irresponsible from a fiduciary perspective, but would also politicize such a fund in a manner that would take away choices from many socially-conscious investors. That is, some who wish to maintain a socially-conscious allocation might deem investments in Libya to be more of an anathema (on account of the Lockerbie bomber scandal) than investments in Israel. Others might prefer divestment from China equities on human rights grounds. The short of it is that, once a “socially responsible” fund is politicized, it removes choices from socially-conscious” investors who disagree with the politics of the divestment agitators.
Among those campaigning for divestment are Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn, both well known and long-time anti-Israel voices in the academic community. In particular, they are targeting the Africa-Israel construction firm in for it alleged involvement with settlement development.

Faculty members with TIAA-CREF policies are urged to counter these calls by contacting that organization to ask them to resist such practices as being based on discriminatory bases. Holders of TIAA-CREF policies are urged to click here to contact the firm.

1) When you get to the site, chose Corporate Inquiry where it asks to “Select the product your question relatates to.”

2) Then chose Social Responsibility Investing where it asks to “Select the type of service for which you are looking.”

3) Then add your comments to ask the firm not to yield to pressure from a few to divest from Israeli investments.

Calls may be made Toll Free 24 hours/7 days to 1 800 842-2252 or you may send a letter to:

TIAA-CREF Boards of Overseers and
TIAA-CREF Boards of Trustees
P.O. Box 1259
Charlotte, NC 28201

Please send any reply you may get from TIAA-CREF for us to share with our colleagues in the SPME Faculty Forum to scholarsforpeace@ aol.com . Thank you.

This action was approved by the SPME Board of Directors on September 13, 2009

SPME Urges TIAA-CREF Members to Call For Resistance To Pressure To Divest From Israel Investments by Chomsky, Zinn and Others

  • 0
AUTHOR

SPME Board of Directors


Read all stories by SPME Board of Directors