Demand Yale ACIR Reject BDS Proposals

The Yale Sumud Coalition and the Yale Undergraduate Prison Project recently submitted two proposals to Yale’s Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility (ACIR), demanding that the ACIR divest the university’s endowment from companies doing business with Israel. Call on the Advisory Committee to reject these antisemitic proposals.

To the Yale University Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility:

Pro-Hamas actors are pushing for you to recommend that the Yale Corporation divest from companies with ties to Israel in accordance with the antisemitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign.
Amid rampant antisemitism at Yale, including pro-Hamas encampments erected on campus this year and last year and threatening, antisemitic graffiti on campus, it is more critical than ever that you reject these antisemitic BDS proposals from radical anti-Israel students.
The ACIR reviewed and rejected similar proposals last year that also called for divestment from military weapons manufacturers and from Palantir Technologies. The same reasons the ACIR rejected these proposals still apply. In the ACIR’s own words, military weapons manufacturing “supports socially necessary uses, such as law enforcement and national security,” and therefore does not “meet the threshold of grave social injury, a prerequisite for divestment.” The proposal calling for divestment from Palantir falsely claims that Palantir’s technology has been used in surveillance operations by Israel and in ICE’s immigration enforcement, detention, or deportation operations. Palantir has explicitly rejected both of these allegations.
You must vote no on these proposals. Yale should not grant any further legitimacy to the radical pro-Hamas campus efforts that have disrupted campus life across the nation, nor should it endorse the antisemitic and discriminatory campaign for divestment from Israel. Additionally, recommending that Yale divest from companies that do business with Israel would contradict Yale’s institutional voice policy.
Divestment from Israel is not about promoting human rights or social justice. It is a thinly veiled attempt to delegitimize the Jewish state and its right to exist. By voting in favor of divestment, the ACIR would be legitimizing antisemitic attitudes and emboldening those who seek to harm Jewish members of the Yale community. It would also facilitate efforts to harm the Jewish state, which is facing attacks on multiple fronts for defending itself against the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.
I am calling on you to reject divestment from Israel and stand against hate. Universities should be a place where all students, regardless of their background or beliefs, feel safe and respected. You must ensure that the Yale campus remains a welcoming and inclusive environment for all.

Signed,
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