Friday, June 30, 2006
This article in the Jewish Week has a run-down of recent divestment happenings -- mostly positive -- but warns that divestment proponents have nothing better to do: Divestment Not Seen Dead [h/t: Judith]
Last week the PC-USA, which jump-started the divestment movement with its 2004 decision to target Israel, voted overwhelmingly to reverse that decision. The resolution, which passed overwhelmingly and survived a last-minute motion to reconsider, also conceded “flaws in our process” on the divestment issue and acknowledged the “pain that this has caused,” a statement widely seen as an apology to an infuriated Jewish community.
But divestment advocates “have a lot invested in this process. They are not going away,” said Yitzhak Santis, director of Middle East Affairs for the Jewish Community Relations Council in San Francisco.
Santis said divestment advocates are already planning to revive the issue at the next Presbyterian General Assembly in 2008...
You can take that to the bank. For those campus watchers out there, there's this:
“The vote at the Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly was neither a total setback for those seeking economic sanctions as a lever against the occupation nor a complete victory for the Jewish organizations who pressed the Presbyterians to abandon economic sanctions,” said Joel Beinin [Booo, Hissss], director of Middle East Studies at the American University in Cairo and leader of Jewish Voice for Peace — one of a handful of Jewish groups that supports divestment. His group was prominently featured at last week’s Presbyterian convention.
“The strategies of selective divestment, boycotts and other forms of non-violent pressure to isolate Israel internationally are now on the table and cannot be removed,” he said. “Israel has already lost the battle for international public opinion. Sooner or later it is going to face economic sanctions as well.”...
Meanwhile, in good news, Massachusetts State Treasurer Tim Cahill says that he's definitely considering the likelihood of possibly putting his influence behind the strong possibility of perhaps investing state funds in Israel. All kidding aside, this would be quite positive: State treasurer eyes investment in Israel
“I would use whatever influence I have to convince my board that if the right opportunity comes up, we should consider it,” Cahill told the Advocate this week, referring to the possibility of investing some of the $30 billion in the state’s Pension Reserves Investment Trust. “The stability that is [in Israel] now makes it more attractive than in the past, as does the pool of intellect and talent there.”
Cahill was part of a 25-member delegation that included state comptrollers, treasurers and chief executives presiding over large pension funds, representing in total more than $1.5 trillion dollars of possible investment. Among the leading state pension investors in Israel are California and New York, which alone has invested nearly $1 billion in Israel-based companies.
Packed into the four-day trip, which was organized by the World Pensions Forum, were meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, several government ministers, former president Shimon Peres, King Abdullah of Jordan, and business and high-tech executives...
