On Dec 2, Brown University’s Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility in Investment Policies (ACCRIP) voted to recommend that the school divest from companies that facilitate Israeli human rights violations. Six ACCRIP members voted in favor of divestment, two voted against it, and one member abstained.
The ACCRIP is comprised of students, faculty, staff, and alumni. It “considers issues of ethical and moral responsibility in the investment policies of Brown University.”
“We recommend that the Brown Corporation exclude from Brown’s direct investments, and require Brown’s separate account investment managers to exclude from their direct investments, companies identified as facilitating human rights violations in Palestine,” reads the resolution.
ACCRIP's vote made Brown the first university in the Ivy League to call for divestment from companies that facilitate the Occupation and its abuses of the human rights of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
— Brown University Divest (@BrownDivest) December 2, 2019
This past spring, 69% of Brown’s undergrad student body voted in favor of a referendum to divest from occupation-connected companies like Motorola, Boeing, and Raytheon. After that vote was dismissed by Brown University President Christina Paxson, members of the group Brown Divest have repeatedly presented their case to ACCRIP, while Brown Students for Israel and JStreet members have argued against such a vote.
“I am really excited that ACCRIP took this step towards divestment,” Jewish Voice for Peace student group member Tal Frieden told The Brown Daily Herald, “We know that this is the first Ivy League university to recommend divestment from companies committing human rights violations in Palestine, and we’re really excited for other universities to join this movement.”
The decision is not binding, as the advisory body will now submit the recommendation of divestment to Paxson and await the university’s decision.
The Brown vote comes just days after Columbia University’s student council voted to hold a referendum on Israeli divestment in 2020. The group Columbia University Apartheid Divest has been pushing the ballot initiative for three years.
Proud of my alma mater on this.
Also the Costs of War project at Brown’s Watson Institute, which calls out the $6 trillion and counting price tag for our past and ongoing misadventures in the Middle East since 9/11. Of course, most of it is going to help Israel, and you don’t have to read too much between the lines to get this reality.