Demand CalArts Reject BDS

Due to pressure from the SJP chapter on campus and as a direct result of the administration conceding to the antisemitic riots on campus last year, the California Institute of the Arts Board of Trustees has announced its intention to “divest from any entity directly, consistently, and knowingly involved in violations of human rights or violations of international law.” Demand that the Board of Trustees issue a public statement that it is not adopting BDS and will not divest from companies that do business with Israel.

To the CalArts Board of Trustees:

Last month, the CalArts Board of Trustees announced it is revising its investment policy and will divest from “entities that consistently, knowingly, and directly facilitate and enable human rights violations and violations of international law,” with guidance from the Ethical Investment Workgroup (EIW). While on the surface, this sounds like a noble cause, the EIW and its cause are rooted in the antisemitic, pro-Hamas encampment movement that disrupted campus life across the country last year.

In May 2024, CalArts students rioted outside the school’s entrance, demanding that the Institute divest from companies that do business with Israel. After two weeks, the administration caved to the mob and agreed to “disclose and divest” CalArt’s investment portfolio and establish the EIW to work with the Board to do so.

While the new investment guidelines don’t mention Israel by name, the demand and the antisemitic intent behind them remain.

Furthermore, the Board is planning to use “U.N. bodies and mechanisms as a reputable source of reference.” The United Nations and its agencies are steeped in antisemitism and notoriously biased against Israel, as demonstrated time and time again by the antisemitic and biased nature and number of General Assembly condemnations, Commissions of Inquiry, and statements from UN officials.

I am calling on the CalArts Board of Trustees to issue a public statement declaring its rejection of the antisemitic Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and stating that the Institute will not divest from companies that do business with Israel, the world’s only Jewish state. Granting any legitimacy to the antisemitic movement will only lead to increased hostility toward Jewish students on campus, putting federal funding at risk.

Hamas and its supporters have waged a long-term, well-funded campaign to delude Americans into accepting their attempt to portray Israel as somehow uniquely “illegitimate” as a state. Combined with the broadest wave of antisemitism in the West since the 1940s, the Jewish community is being made to feel deeply unsafe, marginalized, and othered, particularly in the university context.

The California Institute of the Arts Board of Trustees must take action to ensure Jewish students continue to feel safe and welcome on campus. Publicly rejecting the hateful, slanderously antisemitic BDS movement is a strong place to start.

Signed,
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