Universities, cities, unions, and all institutions should withdraw their support of Israeli apartheid, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
As part of their public commitment, institutions should:
- Adopt an Investment Policy Statement with a commitment to divest from entities that consistently, knowingly, and directly enable or facilitate genocide, apartheid, or other war crimes and crimes against humanity.
- Commit to a process with a reasonable timeline for implementing the new policy.
- Report on the implementation process periodically and publicly.
An ethical Investment Policy Statement is an aspirational document, but it has an immediate impact on public opinion, decision makers, and the corporations highlighted. To implement it, institutions should:
- Sell direct investments in stocks or bonds of companies listed below and create mechanisms that would ensure they will not buy again companies on the divestment shortlist.
- If they are invested in Israel Bonds, commit to not renew them when they mature and not to buy them again.
- If they are invested in pooled funds, engage with their investment consultants and managers to identify or create other funds that comply with the new policy.
- Periodically review their investments and better align them with the policy.
Many institutions have divested or are in the process of divesting. See here a list of recent divestment achievements for Palestinian rights.
If your institution is considering divestment, please contact us for support. We have over a decade of experience supporting institutions that are interested in changing their investment policies or portfolios to further Palestinian rights. We would love to work with you.
If you are part of a group or campaign that is calling for divestment and need support, watch our webinars and join our weekly BDS office hours.
What is the BDS Divestment shortlist?
The Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement has a universal ask from all investors: "implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era." The call is not focused on a specific company, nor does it call for divesting from all companies with any links to Israel.
Responding to the BDS call, the American Friends Service Committee has divested and took upon itself to support other investors by publishing our divestment criteria and list. We do this in part because the commercial providers of data for investors, such as MSCI and Morningstar/Sustainalytics, have deliberately and systematically excluded Palestinian human rights from their analysis, for subjective and political reasons.
This divestment shortlist is endorsed by the leadership of the BDS movement, which represents the broadest coalition of Palestinian civil society.
Concerned investors may choose to divest from additional companies of concern based on their own priorities and investment policies. Investors may also take other actions, such as shareholder engagement. However, based on our research and analysis, engagement will not be fruitful with the companies on the divestment shortlist. Shareholders of shortlisted companies are at risk being themselves complicit in these companies' harmful activities.
Investors that are interested in divesting from the arms industry as a whole, not necessarily as it relates to Palestine/Israel, can use these resources:
- SIPRI Top 100 arms-producing and military services companies in the world
- Weapon Free Funds (scroll down to Companies)
The divestment shortlist is not a boycott list and should not be used as such. It relies on a rigorous methodology and objective criteria, which are necessary for institutional investors but are not needed for individual consumers. Large boycott lists are also not effective. Activist groups and individuals should follow the BDS movement, which urges us to "strategically focus on a relatively smaller number of carefully selected companies" to maximize the boycott's impact.
Institutions that are interested in instituting ethical guidelines for their dealings with corporations should know that the divestment shortlist only includes publicly-traded companies and misses many BDS priority target companies that are privately-owned. Contact us for support on how your organization could effectively respond to the BDS call.