Tomorrow: UC San Diego students to vote on endorsing divestment from ‘companies that profit off the military occupation of and violence inflicted upon the Palestinian people’

WHEREAS, the Principles of Community of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) state that UCSD “is dedicated to learning, teaching, and serving society through education, research, and public service”(1); and,

WHEREAS, the University of California, San Diego, is an institution established to “advance the health and well-being of our region, state, nation and the world” (2); and,

WHEREAS, the University of California San Diego promotes and encourages engagement on global issues, as exemplified by Eleanor Roosevelt College’s mission statement that seeks to “feature dimensions of international understanding and cultural diversity” (3); and

WHEREAS, the mission of the Office of the Treasurer of the UC Regents reaffirms the importance of  ”adher[ing] to high ethical as well as professional standards in serving the investment management needs of its constituency”(4); and,

WHEREAS, students at the University of California San Diego have a long history of activism, including the Lumumba-Zapata Movement to establish Thurgood Marshall College, the anti-militarism movements of the 1960s, and the student response to the 2010 Compton Cookout (5); and,

WHEREAS, the most recent UC Annual Endowment Report shows University of California San Diego holdings in the Russell 3000 Index, which  includes investments in United States companies General Electric, Northrop Grumman, and Caterpillar Inc., whose military technology is used by the Israeli Defense Forces in the occupation and siege within areas of the Palestinian territories (6); and,

WHEREAS, General Electric holds engineering support and testing service contracts with the Israeli Defense Forces and supplies the T700/CT7 engine propulsion system  for the Apache AH-64 Helicopter Fleets which, as documented by Amnesty International and the World Policy Institute, have been used in attacks on the Palestinian population (7); and,

WHEREAS, Northrop Grumman produces the Longbow mast-mounted 360° radar for the Apache AH-64 attack helicopter, which as documented by Amnesty International have also been used in attacks on the Palestinian population (8); and,

WHEREAS, Caterpillar-provided D9 bulldozers are used against Palestinian civilians and peace activists, most notably in the murder of Evergreen College student Rachel Corrie (9); and,

WHEREAS, the companies also listed in the Russell 3000 Index: Alliant Techsystems, Boeing, General Dynamics Corporation, Globecomm Systems, Hewlett Packard, Ingersoll-Rand, ITT Corporation, Lockheed Martin, Motorola Systems, Raytheon, Silicon Graphics, Terex, United Technologies, and Valero Energy Corporation also all profit from violence against Palestinians (10); and

WHEREAS, the occupation of Palestine, annexation of East Jerusalem, settlement of the West Bank, and siege and blockade of Gaza are deemed illegal under international law by the United Nations through UN Resolutions 252, 267, 271, 298, 446, 476, 478, 452, and 1860, (11); and,

WHEREAS, the Government of South Africa has declared the Nation-State of Israel to be an apartheid state with an “institutionalized form of racism in which states enact laws which function as the apparatus to commit inhuman acts for the purpose of establishing and maintaining domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them” (12); and,

WHEREAS, the United Nations Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination (UNCERD) issued a report in March 2012 urging the Nation-State of Israel to end its practices of racial segregation and apartheid (13); and,

WHEREAS,  Palestinian citizens of Israel which comprise 20% of the total population of the state are subjected to racial discrimination, violence, and segregation by practices and policies of the nation state (14); and,

WHEREAS, the Nation-State of Israel has been condemned for human rights violations, including preventing the Palestinian right to return as documented by Resolutions 194, 237, and 484, and the murder of Palestinian university students in Resolution 592 and 605 (15); and,

WHEREAS, the divestment of corporations complicit in violence against Palestinians is in line with the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Movement, which has been used to shed light on the continued human rights abuses against the Palestinian people; and  has been endorsed by Palestinian civil society joined by a diverse range of activists including Archbishop Desmond Tutu, South Asian writer and intellectual Arundhati Roy, the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, American Jews for a Just Peace, Code Pink,  and the Green Party of the United States,  among numerous others (16); and,

WHEREAS, UC San Diego is built upon indigenous Kumeyaay land just as the Nation-State of Israel is built upon indigenous Palestinian land; and,

WHEREAS, on 30 November 2011 the ASUCSD passed the “Resolution in Support of Reclaim UCSD” that stated that ASUCSD can make decisions regarding “world events and political issues that deeply impact UCSD students and are significant to their student lives”; and,

WHEREAS, the ASUCSD has already set the ethical precedent of advocating for peaceful investments; notably, on 11 May 1985 the ASUCSD passed the “South African Divestment Resolution” to withdraw investments from companies contributing to the apartheid system in South Africa; and,

WHEREAS, on 20 January 2006 the ASUCSD passed the “Resolution Supporting University of California Divestment from Sudan”; and,

WHEREAS, on 20 February 2013 the ASUCSD passed “Resolution in Support of Divestment from Fossil Fuel Companies”; and,

WHEREAS, the UC has divested from tobacco companies (17); and,

WHEREAS, the University of California Student Association (UCSA), a body that represents all UC student governments passed a resolution “recognizing the legitimacy of boycotts and divestment as important social movement tools, and encouraged all institutions of higher learning to cleanse their investment portfolios of unethical investments in companies implicated in or profiting from violations of international  human rights law, without making special exemptions for any one country” (18); and,

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, the ASUCSD urges that UC assets do not include holdings in General Electric, Northrop Grumman, Caterpillar Inc., Alliant Techsystems, Boeing, General Dynamics Corporation, Globecomm Systems, Hewlett Packard, Ingersoll-Rand, ITT Corporation, Lockheed Martin, Motorola Systems, Raytheon, Silicon Graphics, Terex, United Technologies, and Valero Energy Corporation and all other companies that profit off the military occupation of and violence inflicted upon the Palestinian people; and,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the ASUCSD urges that the UC divests immediately with the goal of maintaining the divestment until aforementioned companies cease such practices; and,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that this ASUCSD resolution takes a stance in support of UC San Diego corporate accountability through divestment from all corporations profiting from all violent conflict; and,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the ASUCSD supports the indigenous Palestinian people in their struggle against a colonial occupier.

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that this resolution also stands as a precedent-setting expression of ethical and peaceful investment practices supporting universal human rights and equality.

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