Student movement in the US achieves some initial victories

Washington y NY. One university accepted the demand to divest from Israel and several other universities have agreed to have their boards of directors and investment managers meet with students to discuss whether to proceed with withdrawing their investments in companies that do business related to Israel’s war in Gaza. indicating that the student protest movement against US complicity is achieving some initial victories.

The administration at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, signed an agreement with students last week in which the institution pledges to end all investment of university funds in any company that profits from human rights violations or illegal occupations. in Palestinian territory. Students at that university had occupied the central square of the campus on April 26 and administrators immediately began negotiations with them. In early May, Evergreen managers agreed to divest their roughly $18 million portfolio and the students ended their occupation.

For now, no other university has agreed to divest, but after student protests at several much larger universities, including Brown University in Rhode Island, the University of Minnesota and Northwestern University in Illinois have agreed to negotiate with students and avoid the route. of repression that many other academic institutions opted for.

At Brown University, one of the most prestigious in the country of the so-called “Ivy League”, with almost 9 thousand students, six days after students set up a sit-in, the board of directors announced an agreement where 5 student representatives would meet with them in May to present his arguments in favor of divesting from “companies that facilitate the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory” of his $6.6 billion assets. Brown pledged that his board of directors will vote in September whether to proceed with withdrawing his investments in those companies.

At the University of Minnesota, a state university with 50,000 students, the student sit-in broke up after the interim chancellor agreed to publicly disclose details of his $3.7 billion estate this week and offer students the opportunity to present their claims. arguments with the university board of directors this month.

At 22,000-student Northwestern University near Chicago, students walked out after administrators agreed to disclose the institution’s investments from its $13.7 billion endowment.

While these agreements for the disclosure, and in some cases, discussion about divestment are far from a withdrawal of funds, and with the financial press arguing that this investment evaluation is not viable, the agreement only to put up for discussion the demand for The divestment was met with fury by some pro-Israel groups. Real estate billionaire Barry Sternlicht, a major donor to Brown University, told the New York Times last Friday that the decision to schedule a vote on divestment was “unconscionable” and charged that the student protesters were “ignorant.”

In Illinois, the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League criticized Northwestern for its decision to meet with protesters and negotiate only a disclosure of the university’s investments. “Northwestern succumbed to the demands of a mob, which has intimidated Jewish students, promoted hateful anti-Semitic speech, and whose members have celebrated Hamas terrorists,” charged Sarah van Loon, regional director of the American Jewish Committee in Chicago. .

At the 37,000-student Rutgers University in New Jersey, students broke up their sit-ins after the university announced it will agree to enroll 10 students displaced from Gaza and the chancellor will meet with students to discuss the issue of divestment. “Our commitment to our students is paramount. “I am grateful for our faculty’s role in guiding and supporting students toward this peaceful resolution,” Provost Francine Conway said in a statement.

With many students reaching the end of the school year and withdrawing over the summer, or some because they have reached the end of their careers, student activists see these steps as the best way to keep pressure on universities to break all collaboration with the war of Israel against the Palestinians.