Dozens of faculty members at
Columbia University have signed a petition calling upon their employer to
“divest from corporations that supply, perpetuate and profit from a system that
has subjugated the Palestinian people.”
The 40 signatories proclaimed their
solidarity on the petition with Columbia University Apartheid
Divest, Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace.
CUAD demanded last month the
university divest from eight corporations that “profit from the State of
Israel’s ongoing system of settler colonialism, military occupation and
apartheid law” as part of the BDS movement, the Columbia Spectator reported.
“As both scholars and community
members, we are professionally, intellectually, and morally invested in our
University. We deem it our duty to hold our institution accountable for the
ethical implications of its own actions, notably its financial investments and
their implications around the world,” the petition said.
“In particular, we take issue
with our financial involvements in institutions associated with the State of
Israel’s military occupation of Palestinian lands, continued violations of
Palestinian human rights, systematic destruction of life and property, inhumane
segregation and systemic forms of discrimination.”
As a policy, the University
does not comment on specific holdings in its endowment portfolio.
