(Hampshire College Students for Justice in Palestine) Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, has become the first of any college or university in the U.S. to divest from companies on the grounds of their involvement in the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

This landmark move is a direct result of a two-year intensive campaign by the
campus group, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). The group pressured
Hampshire College’s Board of Trustees to divest from six specific companies due
to human rights concerns in occupied Palestine. Over 800 students, professors,
and alumni have signed SJP’s “institutional statement” calling for the
divestment.

The proposal put forth by SJP was approved on Saturday, 7 Feb 2009 by the Board.
By divesting from these companies, SJP believes that Hampshire has distanced
itself from complicity in the illegal occupation and war crimes of Israel.

Meeting minutes from a committee of Hampshire’s Board of Trustees confirm that
“President Hexter acknowledged that it was the good work of SJP that brought
this issue to the attention of the committee.” This groundbreaking decision
follows in Hampshire’s history of being the first college in the country to
divest from apartheid South Africa thirty-two years ago, a decision based on
similar human rights concerns.  This divestment was also a direct result of
student pressure.

The divestment has so far been endorsed by Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Rashid
Khalidi, Vice President of the EU Parliament Luisa Morganitini, Cynthia
McKinney, former member of the African National Congress Ronnie Kasrils,
Mustafa Barghouti, Israeli historian Ilan Pappe, John Berger, Nobel Peace
Laureate Mairead Maguire, and Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, among others.

The six corporations, all of which provide the Israeli military with equipment
and services in the Occupied West Bank and Gaza are: Caterpillar, United
Technologies, General Electric, ITT Corporation, Motorola, and Terex (see
attached info sheet for more information on these corporations.) Furthermore,
our policy prevents the reinvestment in any company involved in the illegal
occupation.

SJP is responding to a call from Palestinian civil society for Boycott,
Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) as a way of bringing non-violent pressure to
bear on the state of Israel to end its violations of international law. SJP is
following in the footsteps of many noted groups and institutions such as the
National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education in the UK, the
Israeli group Gush Shalom, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, the
Canadian Union of Public Employees, and the American Friends Service Committee.

As well as voicing our opposition to the illegal occupation and the consistent
human rights violations of the Palestinian people, we as members of an
institute of higher education see it as our moral responsibility to express our
solidarity with Palestinian students whose access to education is severely
inhibited by the Israeli occupation.

SJP has proven that student groups can organize, rally and pressure their
schools to divest from the illegal occupation. The group hopes that this
decision will pave the way for other institutions of higher learning in the
U.S. to take similar stands.

Please email hampshiresjp@mail.com to schedule a phone interview.

UPDATE 2/14/09

A pro-Palestinian student group at Hampshire College irked the college administration by
disseminating a message on-line Thursday congratulating the school for becoming the first
US college to divest from companies benefitting the “Israeli occupation of Palestine.”
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?blobcol=urlimage&blobheader=image%2Fjpeg&blobheadername1=Cache-Control&blobheadervalue1=max-age%3D420&blobkey=id&blobtable=JPImage&blobwhere=1219218603033&cachecontrol=5%3A0%3A0+*%2F*%2F*&ssbinary=true

Israeli group Anarchists Against the Wall organizes protests against the security barrier, such as this protest at the Palestinian village of
Ni’lin. — Matan Cohen, a member of the college’s Students for Justice in Palestine
organization and the former co-founder of the far-Left Israeli group Anarchists Against
the Wall, insisted the divestment from a State Street corporation fund, which holds stock
in the six companies in question, marked a dramatic first step toward an “international
movement” of divestment from Israel.

An SJP statement insisted the group had “pressured Hampshire College’s Board of Trustees
to divest from six specific companies due to human rights concerns in occupied Palestine.
Over 800 students, professors and alumni have signed SJP’s ‘institutional statement’
calling for the divestment.”

The statement had spread widely across pro-Palestinian blogs within hours of its
publication on Thursday.

Such a move by the small Massachusetts college would have dramatic symbolic power, as
Hampshire was the first US college to divest from the apartheid regime of South Africa in
the late 1970s.

But the college’s director of communications, Elaine Thomas, insisted the message spread
on-line was incorrect.

In a “statement of clarification” sent by Thomas to The Jerusalem Post on Thursday
evening, the college’s president, chairman of the board of trustees, and dean of faculty
insisted the decision to divest from State Street had been made because the fund had been
found by an outside consultant to hold stocks in “well over 100 companies engaged in
business practices that violate the college’s policy on socially responsible investments.
These violations include: unfair labor practices, environmental abuse, military weapons
manufacturing, and unsafe workplace settings.”

The statement acknowledged that the Board of Trustees’ initial review of the college’s
State Street holdings had been based on a complaint by Students for Justice in Palestine
about six companies doing business in Israel.

But the college’s top leadership insisted the “decision expressly did not pertain to a
political movement or single out businesses active in a specific region or country. No
other report or interpretation of the actions of February 7, 2009 by the Hampshire College
board of trustees is accurate.”

The six companies that earned the SJP’s disapproval were Caterpillar, United Technologies,
General Electric, ITT Corporation, Motorola and Terex. They sell products in Israel used
both by the military and by civil and commercial sectors of society.

Asked if the SJP would encourage the college to divest from companies providing similar
“dual-use” products in Gaza that assist Hamas” fighting efforts, Cohen replied, “the
bottom line is that we as an institution have money invested in the Israeli occupation. We
do not have money in Hamas. So it’s a non-issue.”