BOSTON — Brown University has rejected a divestiture proposal of ten companies that, according to the demonstrators, facilitated the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory.
Tuesday’s vote by the Corporation of Brown follows a committee report recommending against divesting, in part because the university invests little in it and the amount it does would not cause social harm. The report estimated that the school had no direct investments in the companies, which included Airbus, Boeing, General Dynamics Corp and General Electric Co., and that about 1% of its capital was invested indirectly in the companies.
“If the Corporation were to divest, it would signal to our students and scholars that there are ‘approved’ positions that community members are expected to conform to,” University Chancellor Brian Moynihan and President Christina Paxson said in a joint statement. . “To do so would be completely inconsistent with the principles of academic freedom and free inquiry, and would undermine our mission to serve the community, the nation and the world.”
Last spring, the university promised that its board would vote on a divestiture proposal in October after an advisory committee considered the issue. In return, student demonstrators agreed to dismantle their campus encampment.
Before the vote, Niyanta Nepal, the student body president who was elected on a pro-divestment platform, spent his energy pressuring for a vote in favor of disinvestment. They gathered fellow students to attend a series of forums and encouraged new students to join the movement.
The defeat left the students, led by the Brown Divest Coalition, to map out their next step.
“This is a moral stain on Brown University, a clear affront to the institution’s democratic values, and a blatant erasure of the insurmountable violence perpetrated by the Israeli regime in Gaza and now in Lebanon,” the group said in a statement . One thing is clear: our university has invested at least $66 million in companies that facilitate the genocide, apartheid and military occupation of Israel, and still refuses to part with these funds.”
Colleges have a long time calls for divestment rejected from Israel, which, according to opponents, is turning into anti-Semitism. Brown is already facing criticism for even considering the vote, including a blistering letter from about two dozen attorneys general, all Republicans.