The President of Hampshire College and the Chair of its Board of Trustees have responded to Alan Dershowitz’s claim that the college divested from equities in companies trading with Israel.
“The committee…turned to an outside, independent reviewer, KLD Research & Analytics, the gold standard for socially responsible investment screening, to look closely into the fund’s components,” write Ralph Hexter and Sigmund Roos. “KLD’s review vetted companies for several possible red flags, including employment discrimination, environmental abuse, military weapons manufacturing, unsafe workplace settings, and dealings with Burma or Sudan. Twenty-three equities were found to violate the military weapons screen; four dealt with Burma and three with Sudan; 70 were involved in significant
employment discrimination controversies; 28 were found to be environmentally problematic; and 197 were cited for employee safety issues. Some companies appeared in more than one screening category.”
They also say: “Hampshire currently holds investments in funds that include many hundreds of companies that do business in Israel and in at least three actual Israeli companies: Amdocs, Teva Pharmaceuticals and Check Point Software.”
Meanwhile, rather than relaunching their campaign for divestment, Students for Justice in Palestine continues to insist that divestment took place. Given the evidence that Hexter and Roos have provided, albeit belatedly, I wonder how long that position is tenable. Perhaps it’s the case that in the world of anti-Zionist activism, cold reality doesn’t matter?
“Meanwhile, rather than relaunching their campaign for divestment, Students for Justice in Palestine continues to insist that divestment took place. Given the evidence that Hexter and Roos have provided, albeit belatedly, I wonder how long that position is tenable. Perhaps it’s the case that in the world of anti-Zionist activism, cold reality doesn’t matter?”
Claiming victory is what anti-Zionists do best.
That’s why the Palestinians are in the mess they are in.
If they and their “friends” worried less about “defeating Israel” and more about building their own society they would have had a State by now.
Great victory indeed. This reminds me of what happened during the Gaza conflict. A French pro-Palestinian group, CAPJPO-EuroPalestine, posted an announcement in French, English and Arabic on its website indicating that “The Grand Hotel Intercontinental cancels the Israeli Tourism Fair”.
“Confronted with the indignation expressed by so many people in France and abroad who had heard about the scheduled Israeli Tourism Fair in this great Parisian hotel, the management of this establishment has made the decision to cancel this event, which was supposed to open on January 15.
The hotel’s management, as the Paris police prefecture has confirmed to us, has indicated that it has disinvited the 50 Israeli exhibitors who had planned to present their tourism products.
We express our profound appreciation for all the individuals and associations in France and abroad that made the effort to express their arguments to the hotel management, arguments that were certainly taken into account in the decision to cancel the event. We also thank the management of the hotel for this decision, and we stress that commercial relations and all other interactions should be guided by basic ethical rules.
you can read the rest here:
http://www.europalestine.com/spip.php?article3624
It was pure invention. The Hotel and the Israeli Tourism Fair cancelled the event BY COMMON AGREEMENT, for the reason that the timing wasn’t right. It will take place at a later date.
You can read the letter written by the hotel management here:
“Je suis toutefois en mesure de vous certifier, en effet, comme vous l’avez bien compris, que l’organisation de ce Salon a été reportée avec l’accord de toutes les parties concernées, pour des raisons de sécurité bien compréhensibles.”
http://www.upjf.org/detail.do?noArticle=15575&noCat=145&id_key=145&critere=intercontinental&rub=7
I’m a little confused by the Hampshire thing. as far as I can tell, SJP asked the college to divest from six companies that are involved in the occupation. The college did that, while divesting from other companies which didn’t meet its standards. but does it not remain a fact, hampshire divested from these six companies because their involvement in the occupation violates the school’s standards.
so are you claiming SJP shouldnt be happy, because a bunch of other companies involved in bad stuff were also divested from? I would be pleased if in asking my school to divest from Motorola because of what it does in the OPT, it started a process that led to divesting from companies involved in repression in Burma, as well.