One example, from just up the Ivy-garlanded I-95, at Brown University, was announced just hours before Shafik again called in the police. Brown’s governing body agreed to vote on a proposal that would divest the school’s endowment of companies affiliated with Israel in a meeting in October. The proposal is based on a 2020 Advisory Committee on Corporation Responsibility in Investment Practices that identified and recommended divestment from “companies that facilitate the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory,” per the Brown Daily Herald.
In exchange, the university’s nonviolent student protesters agreed to vacate their encampment by 5 p.m. that afternoon.
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Another plausible outcome from California: When a similar encampment went up a few days ago at the University of California, Irvine, it seemed likely that police might sweep the protesters away. Orange County sheriff’s deputies began to appear in riot gear near the protest.
But, rather than traffic in vague allegations of misconduct before hiding behind a belligerent mayor and an aggressive police force, like Shafik, the UC–Irvine administration took a much different tack. “UC Irvine respects the rights of any students to engage in free speech and expression including lawful protest,” the school said in a prepared statement. This, remember, is at a public school, where keeping public police forces away is more challenging than a private enclave like Columbia.
And in fact, Irvine’s mayor did get involved in the action. Not long after that, Mayor Farrah N. Khan issued a resounding statement declaring that she would not tolerate any violation of students’ free speech or right to assembly. “I am asking our law enforcement to stand down. I will not tolerate any violations to our students’ rights to peacefully assemble and protest.” She asked the deputies to leave, and they did.
Divested from Israel. The answer is that they should have divested from Israel.
I’m only vaguely keeping up with the news (I have PTSD relating to war/violence). Can you help me understand how universities are invested in Israel? What would divesting mean?
To over-simplify, making sure that they don’t accept donations, grants, etc. from companies or other third-parties that are involved with Israel. The article gives some brief details on how “divest from Israel” is the approach that Brown University actually took here.
In addition to what @[email protected] said, a lot of universities have endowments that are invested in stocks, bonds, etc., to provide a baseline level of passive income. Divestment would mean getting rid of any existing investments and barring future investments in Israeli companies and companies that do extensive business with Israel. The result is to lower the access to cash and value of said companies.
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