Comic by Eli Valley

The tsunami of protests on college and universities campuses around the country (see map with locations here) is spotlighting the “D” in the Boycott, Divestment, & Sanctions (BDS) movement. Students are demanding their schools divest from companies, especially defense industries, profiting from Israel’s brutal and genocidal attack on Gaza. As if a mantra, their chant rises up, “Disclose, divest/ we will not stop/ we will not rest.” Administrations are not rushing to open their books; most are stonewalling, rushing instead to dismantle and shut down encampments, quick to call in campus security and local police.

But if administrators were more open, or when they become so, how might they proceed? Anticipating the need for research and guidance, and as a resource for students calling for divestment, the American Friends Service Committee, through their Action Center for Corporate Accountability, has created a Divesting for Palestinian Rights webpage here which includes information on (1) how to divest, (2) the divestment list, (3) methodology, and (4) how to scan one’s portfolio. 

While developed for academic institutions, this webpage also offers a tool that will be helpful for religious groups. For many years now, the national UCC has had in place screens for defense industries and war profiteers, but not all conferences and congregations with investment portfolios do. The present moment invites an examination of conscience in regards to investments. What are we invested in? In addition to the divestment list of individual companies, profiting from the Israel's war on Gaza, that you can find here, this new AFSC webpage provides a link to a lengthy list of mutual funds that their Investigate Project has also screened here.