We, the undersigned, call to your attention that, in accordance with Stanford University’s Statement on Investment Responsibility, the University must take ethical factors into account when making and evaluating investments. We further underscore that the University should divest from a corporation should its “activities or policies cause substantial social injury.”
We believe significant social injury is being caused by companies that facilitate human rights violations in Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian Territories (defined as the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip). Many of these companies enable similar violations against communities in the United States.
These abuses include:
- The construction and maintenance of Israeli settlements within the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Relocation of the occupying power’s civilian population into the territories it occupies is deemed illegal by the Fourth Geneva Convention.
- The extensive and discriminatory network of the separation wall, checkpoints, and Israeli-only roads throughout the West Bank, which hinders the mobility of Palestinian residents, therein limiting access to educational, professional, and health services and opportunities.
- Collective punishment of the Palestinian people, which is in direct violation of Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Israel’s economic blockade of the Gaza Strip has been denounced as an act of collective punishment by the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations. Israel’s most recent assault on the Gaza Strip, Operation Protective Edge, during the summer of 2014, failed to uphold the duty of distinction, resulting in massive devastation and a 50-70% civilian casualty rate.
- State-sponsored repression against Palestinians protesting the separation wall, Israeli land seizures, and home demolitions. The Israeli Defense Force regularly attacks unarmed demonstrators with tear gas, rubber-coated bullets, and live munition. Militarized police forces in the US have also used excessive force in response to largely non-violent demonstrations. Take the repression against protesters in Ferguson, Missouri opposing police brutality, or the police attack on Occupy Oakland.
- The widespread and unjust incarceration of Palestinians, which is used by Israel as a tool of political repression and social control. Over-incarceration is also a troubling and significant aspect of the oppressive relationship between the U.S Criminal Justice System and marginalized communities in this country.
We recognize that these human rights violations are facilitated by various corporations, including but not limited to Combined Tactical Systems, which provides teargas to Israeli security forces; G4S, which operates detention centers and provides security services to checkpoints in the West Bank; and Lockheed Martin, which provides fighter jets and Hellfire missiles to the Israeli military. We believe that any investments Stanford University holds in such corporations violate our Statement on Investment Responsibility.
Therefore, we urge the Stanford University Board of Trustees to divest from any holdings in Combined Tactical Systems, G4S, Lockheed Martin, and all other corporations complicit in the infrastructure of occupation, collective punishment, state-sponsored repression, and unjust incarceration in Palestine. We further urge all of our representative bodies on campus to endorse this call and pressure the Board of Trustees to take action. We believe that Stanford University community members must hold Stanford to its Statement on Investment Responsibility, and that Stanford remains complicit in these human rights abuses so long as its endowment is invested in these corporations.
