A Progress Report on UTS’ “Divestment Strategy”
On January 19th, 2025 a ceasefire deal went into effect between Hamas and Israel. Even though the sounds of airstrikes went quiet, the threat and aftermath of mass destruction and violence looms near. There is no guarantee the ceasefire will hold. While Hamas has respected the ceasefire, the Israeli state has already violated the agreement and killed more than 100 Palestinians, just as it has done in Lebanon.
Two decades prior, in July of 2005, 170 Palestinian student groups, trade unions, NGOs, political parties, and popular committees issued a call for a campaign for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) as a way to end international support for Israel’s crimes and pressure it to comply with international law.
The Palestinian civil society call for BDS urges action until Israel complies with international law by:
1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall
2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.
In May 2024, a group of university students, faculty, staff, and administrators from the New York City and New Jersey area gathered at Union Theological Seminary to meet with the Episcopal Church’s Racial Reconciliation Board. The purpose of the gathering was to talk about the student solidarity encampments that had erupted across the world that were protesting the genocide in Palestine, calling for an end to Israeli apartheid, and for our respective institutions to disclose and divest from the apartheid Israeli state.
The meeting occurred a few weeks after the violent NYPD raid of Hind’s Hall, after Columbia University administration green-lit police presence on campus. Shortly after, Union Theological Seminary announced that its board of trustees had voted to divest “from all companies profiting off the war in Gaza.” The Religion News Service broke the story publicly, alongside President Serene Jones, who sent a Union community-wide email announcing the decision. An excerpt of the email is below, where President Jones refers to the divestment policy and some of the content included within:
“The policy is embedded in a fuller letter that explains the moral and ethical reasons behind the Board’s decision, including our clear condemnation of Hamas’s horrific attack of Oct.7th and our support for peace and security for the people of both Palestine and Israel. We are consistent in our strong stand against all forms of hatred, including antisemitism and Islamophobia, and continue to reiterate our calls for an immediate ceasefire.”
Despite the praise that such an announcement garnered from within and without the Union community, several students who are active in the self-designated group Union Theological Seminary Students for a Liberated Palestine (UTS-SLP) were frustrated by the lack of prior communication or consultation, as UTS-SLP wished to have knowledge and input in these conversations.
One of the main concerns is that the lack of full disclosure and divestment of all companies who could be profiting off the genocide and occupation of Palestine was not consistent with the demands and goals expressed by UTS-SLP, Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), and other student solidarity groups. The language used to announce divestment must be analyzed because it illustrates where Union, as an institution, stands, what risks Union is willing to take, and whether they are in true solidarity with those on the margins.
Since October of 2023, students have been pushing for the disclosure of the institution's financial investments to know what Union’s ties were to the apartheid Zionist entity. By March 2024, the UTS Student Senate, with the backing of the student body, passed a resolution calling for Union to divest, modeled after the framework of the current Palestinian Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) movement. Still, we were not included in conversations, enough so that it became a surprise in May to receive this announcement on divestment. We did not know these conversations were happening, and the values driving our focus on Palestinian liberation, guided by Palestinian resistance, did not match the values Union gave for divestment.
Student solidarity groups are following the lead of Palestinian communities who are resisting and fighting for the liberation of their homeland. Their words and actions guide us, and in the announcement of a selective divestment without disclosure, we believe more work is required for Union as an institution. In order to hold the institution accountable to its statement and more importantly to the lives of the most marginalized, we have gone through the statement and highlighted incongruencies between Union’s stance and that of the Palestinian solidarity movement as outlined above.
This is a Genocide Not a War.
The language used in the statement from the board of trustees, which reads, “divest from all companies profiting off the war in Gaza,” reveals quite a bit. First, it leaves divestment and denouncement of the Zionist entity out of the decision, therefore letting Union remain in a normalizing liberal position. BDS understands normalization through this definition:
“Normalization” or tatbee in Arabic means dealing with or presenting something that is inherently abnormal, such as oppression and injustice, as if it were normal. Normalization with/of Israel is, then, the idea of making occupation, apartheid, and settler colonialism seem normal and establishing normal relations with the Israeli regime instead of supporting the struggle led by the Indigenous Palestinian people to end the abnormal conditions and structures of oppression.” (BDS)
Within Union’s divestment announcement, the decision to divest is locked into a post-October 7th world. To engage in anti-normalization, Union needs to recognize the complete history of Palestine and the impact of settler colonialism. This includes the larger history of ethnic cleansing of Palestine, the blockade of Gaza, settler violence in the West Bank, and the erasure of Palestinian history and land that have been going on for more than seven decades in a continuing Nakba. That history is vital to name because the genocide in Palestine does not exist in a historical vacuum.
The Religion News Service included an excerpted quote from the statement by Union’s board of trustees confirming a refusal to name the perpetrators and Palestinian history beyond October 7th. “With respect to companies that are profiting from the present war in Palestine, we continue to hold these standards high and have taken steps to identify all investments, both domestic and global, that support and profit from the present killing of innocent civilians in Palestine.” The excerpt from the Board of Trustees is divorced from the broader history of Palestine. The words from the Board appear frozen in time, acting like the targeting of Palestinians and Palestine is solely a "present" reality instead of a systematic targeting that has been going on for decades upon decades.
We disagree with the use of “war” as it continues the propagation of a Western narrative that draws a false equivalency between the two groups. A fight that made Palestinians out to be invaders when, in actuality, they have a right to resist the occupying power, which is the Zionist entity. We believe the correct terminology to describe what’s happening in Gaza is genocide. Though international law has shown itself to be useless, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), genocide scholars, and Palestinians living through this violence have called what is happening a genocide. The lack of specificity and imprecise language are only part and parcel of the problems emerging with the divestment policy.
Militarism Is Only One Part.
Militarism is the sole focus of the announcement, and it remains generalized. Union knew that divesting from the Zionist entity would not help their public relations and business. Focusing on general militarism could allow the institution to say that they are against war-making but not Israeli apartheid or genocide specfically. Of course, Western militarism is harmful and something to divest from, but it is also vital to be precise and grounded in courage to name a system for what it is. The language of generality and the avoidance of naming the perpetrator (the state of Israel), reveals a hesitancy to center the lives of Palestinians and the realities they are forced to live under. We demand more because Palestinian lives and dreams are getting erased, and we are complicit in it. Tax dollars, investments, and elected political figures are the ones fueling the genocide. None of what the Israeli state does can happen without the aid of Western nations like the United States.
There is Still No Disclosure.
The other issue for students is the lack of disclosure of investments. If Union divests from the military that still does not address the other companies, corporations, and institutions Union may be attached to that are complicit in genocide. There are more companies that BDS names that are not strictly military, and we know by how Union phrases their divestment there could be more investments tied to the apartheid and genocidal system. We need disclosure to keep the institution and all of us accountable for ending complicity in genocide. We need to know where our money goes because money holds power and can destroy people’s lives as it does in Palestine.
The meeting revealed a lot and helped bring to the surface the already simmering feelings of frustration that UTS-SLP members had experienced over the past year. The work of UTS-SLP focuses on solidarity for Palestinian liberation, learning from resistance, growing our political education, and involvement in direct action work. We are seminarians, many of us going out into the world to be ministers, chaplains, and educators who want to work on building toward a flourishing world rather than one rooted in destruction. Many who walk through the doors of Union wish to work for liberation in community with those who share those values and can guide and help us grow.
The values of Union as an institution must engage with the work of student activists, where something like divestment policy is co-created and centered on liberation. The hard work by UTS-SLP cannot get subsumed into the narrative of consensus that Union wishes to produce. We demand more accountability, the courage to name the truth of genocide, apartheid, and settler colonialism, and more transparency and communication with the community. Union as an institution must not continue on a path of normalization where genocide is not named, where settler colonialism remains unconsidered, and there is limited support of the Palestinian people.
As the ceasefire in Gaza continues at a precarious rate, the IOF has now directed terror on the West Bank with a massive escalation and assault in Jenin that has killed over 100 Palestinians. For that fact alone, the ceasefire does not change the demands and the energy needed to pressure for full divestment with disclosure. Every institution, community, and individual must continue to fight for an end to settler colonialism and keep working toward a free Palestine. For a Palestinian liberation paves the road to collective liberation.
| BDS Movement Demands | Has UTS Taken Action? | Why is this a demand? | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Affirm Palestinian’s demands: “The Palestinian civil society call for BDS urges action until Israel complies with international law by: 1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall 2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality 3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.” | No. UTS has not affirmed these Palestinian demands for equal rights in any official seminary statements. | Language is taken directly from the BDS movement website. | |
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Unclear. In May 2023, UTS declared they were divesting the endowment from “Companies Profiting from War in Palestine/Israel.” It is unclear whether this means UTS is divesting from apartheid Israel. Disclosure can provide transparency about whether UTS’ endowment is divested from companies complicit in Israel’s human rights violations, as well as provide a teaching opportunity to other universities and seminaries to show how divestment works. | Language from BDS University guide. | |
| Demonstrate through disclosure that UTS has divested from all companies that participate in Israeli violations as well as all BDS target companies including: Hewlett Packard Inc (HP Inc), Chevron, PUMA, Google, Amazon. | Unclear. UTS has not disclosed their divestments or their endowment investments, nor made a public pledge to boycott BDS target companies and products. | Language is taken directly from the BDS movement website. | |
| Pledge to change UTS procurement policies and contracts: Pledge not to buy products or services from companies like G4S, Eden Springs and HP that participate in Israeli violations of international law. Immediately end any contracts with such companies that run on a month-by-month basis. End any long-term contracts with corporate criminals when they expire. | No. UTS has not made this pledge or provided a review of all procurement policies and contracts. | Language is taken directly from the BDS movement website. | |
| End any exchange programs, joint projects or other official links that they have with complicit Israeli universities. | No. While UTS does not directly have partnerships with complicit Israeli universities, it is yet to urge its partner institutions (Columbia University and Jewish Theological Seminary) to reconsider their exchange programs or joint projects with complicit Israeli universities. |
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| Pledge not to enter into any kind of institutional relationship with complicit Israeli universities. | No. UTS has not made this pledge. | Language is taken directly from the BDS movement website. | |
| Build direct solidarity with Palestinian universities | No. UTS does not have any official relationships of direct solidarity with Palestinian universities or seminaries. | Language is taken directly from the BDS movement website. | |
| Pledge not to participate in normalization projects. |
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In the Palestinian context, normalization refers to any activity that creates the impression that Israel is a state like any other and that Palestinians, the oppressed, and Israel, the oppressor, are both equally responsible for “the conflict.” | |
| Faculty signing the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. |
No. Only one member, Dr. Cornel West, has signed. |
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Unclear. To our knowledge, UTS does not have a policy discouraging this among the faculty. |
Language is taken directly from the BDS movement website. | |
| Immediately divest from all arms companies. | Yes. Union’s May 2023 press release about divestment stated: “Our screens already prevent investments in armaments, weapons, and defense manufacturers, as well as companies that participate in human rights violations.” However, transparent disclosure of Union’s divestments would further clarify that UTS is not invested in any arms companies. Without disclosure, these statements are not verifiable. |
Language is taken directly from the BDS movement website. |