Divest from Israel? Protesters' demand gains steam
University protesters nationwide have been demanding their colleges divest from Israel but face fierce opposition and legal barriers. Credit: Getty Images/Spencer Platt
A key demand of pro-Palestinian protesters at college campuses like Stony Brook University is the disclosure of and divestment from ties with Israel and entities that do business with Israel. Also: the end to Israel-related study-abroad programs and other academic relationships. The aim is to pressure the country to change its policies toward Palestinians. The tactic is not new; the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, or BDS, movement targeting Israel dates back decades and has roots in campaigns against apartheid South Africa. But BDS has gained more steam during Israel’s war in Gaza as the death toll mounts.
At Stony Brook, protesters were back demonstrating Thursday after the police cleared a pro-Palestinian encampment starting late Wednesday night and made arrests. On Thursday, about 100 demonstrators chanted: “Disclose! Divest! We will not stop! We will not rest!”
Myke Rook, a 24-year-old protester and a senior at the university from Selden, said in an interview that “Stony Brook is complicit” with what Israel is doing in Gaza, and divestment by a prominent university like Stony Brook would reverberate nationwide.
“I think it will set a trend for other universities to follow,” Rook said.
Opponents of divestment say Israel is being held to a higher standard than other nations, and that protesters are singularly and unfairly focused on Israel without exerting the same pressure or making similar demands of others.
The Anti-Defamation League, which was founded in 1913 “to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all,” says the call for divestment “aims to dismantle the Jewish state and end the right to Jewish national self-determination on any portion of this contested land.”
In 2016, New York's then-Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed an order instructing state agencies to stop doing business with any entity that supports BDS. “If you boycott against Israel,” Cuomo said, “New York will boycott you.” The American Civil Liberties Union called the order “an affront to free expression.” Dozens of other jurisdictions have anti-BDS regulations, and the U.S. Supreme Court last year declined to review the constitutionality of a similar law in Arkansas.
It’s not clear.
Asked about schools’ financial and other connections to Israel or Israeli-related entities — including affiliates and endowments, such as investments, companies, funds, dollar amounts, any other businesses or study-abroad or academic programs — none of the Long Island universities that have seen protests would provide clear, direct answers to Newsday's inquiries.
Kelly Angermaier, a Stony Brook spokesperson, said the university “has no direct investments in Israel,” but she didn’t elaborate or respond to a follow-up asking what that means. University President Maurie McInnis met in February with student leaders and “heard their demands, reviewed extensive materials they provided and responded thoughtfully and substantively to the issues they raised," Angermaier said.
“We explained that Stony Brook has no direct investments in Israel, that SBU does not support the BDS movement, and that we will not limit the academic freedom of our faculty and students to be involved in the free exchange of ideas.”
A letter Wednesday evening to the leadership of SB4Palestine, a group involved in the protest, offered a meeting with McInnis and the head of the university foundation, Justin Fincher, because “your demands include questions about the endowment.” As a condition for the meeting, students would have had to agree to end the encampment and not return. The 11 p.m. deadline passed Wednesday without students agreeing.
Taylor Damian, a spokeswoman for Adelphi, sent a statement from colleague Bobbie Dell’Aquilo that the university "is open and willing to engage in conversations with community members around these topics and more, and we have invited concerned parties to meet with University leadership.” She didn't say whether any meeting had been accepted.
Hofstra spokeswoman Ginny Greenberg didn’t respond to an inquiry.
The three universities offer or have offered study-abroad programs in Israel.
The push to divest from South Africa didn’t start or end on Long Island, but local campuses were a part of the movement credited with helping ending apartheid in South Africa.
In 1985, students across the United States, including at Stony Brook, staged campus demonstrations to demand divestment from companies with ties to South Africa, due to its policy at the time of racial segregation and discrimination. SUNY, the system of which Stony Brook is part, had agreed to sell millions in stock holdings from companies that traded with South Africa and, later that fall, agreed to divest all such holdings.
Chanting "Up with freedom, down with apartheid," students marched and staged a sit-in on May 2, 1985. A school spokesman told Newsday at the time that the holdings of Stony Brook's fundraising arm were to be reviewed "in light of the current situation in South Africa." Stony Brook's then-President, John Marburger, a divestment supporter, that month allowed a “sleep-in” at the administration building by protesters to continue through at least graduation "as long as there is no disruption of business and as long as there is no destruction of property." The next year, the foundation also divested, according to The New York Times.
During the 1980s at Hofstra University, where there was also picketing, officials said the school wouldn't make any new investments in companies that do business with South Africa, but the university said it would stick to any existing investments.
Adelphi — where consultants managed a multi-million dollar endowment, "leaving the school unaware what its holdings are on a day-to-day-basis," according to Newsday in 1985 — students chartered a bus and picketed the South African consulate.
A key demand of pro-Palestinian protesters at college campuses like Stony Brook University is the disclosure of and divestment from ties with Israel and entities that do business with Israel. Also: the end to Israel-related study-abroad programs and other academic relationships. The aim is to pressure the country to change its policies toward Palestinians. The tactic is not new; the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, or BDS, movement targeting Israel dates back decades and has roots in campaigns against apartheid South Africa. But BDS has gained more steam during Israel’s war in Gaza as the death toll mounts.
What do protesters say?
At Stony Brook, protesters were back demonstrating Thursday after the police cleared a pro-Palestinian encampment starting late Wednesday night and made arrests. On Thursday, about 100 demonstrators chanted: “Disclose! Divest! We will not stop! We will not rest!”
Myke Rook, a 24-year-old protester and a senior at the university from Selden, said in an interview that “Stony Brook is complicit” with what Israel is doing in Gaza, and divestment by a prominent university like Stony Brook would reverberate nationwide.
“I think it will set a trend for other universities to follow,” Rook said.
Why do opponents of divestment consider the demand to be antisemitic?
Opponents of divestment say Israel is being held to a higher standard than other nations, and that protesters are singularly and unfairly focused on Israel without exerting the same pressure or making similar demands of others.
The Anti-Defamation League, which was founded in 1913 “to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all,” says the call for divestment “aims to dismantle the Jewish state and end the right to Jewish national self-determination on any portion of this contested land.”
What’s the law relating to BDS in New York?
In 2016, New York's then-Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed an order instructing state agencies to stop doing business with any entity that supports BDS. “If you boycott against Israel,” Cuomo said, “New York will boycott you.” The American Civil Liberties Union called the order “an affront to free expression.” Dozens of other jurisdictions have anti-BDS regulations, and the U.S. Supreme Court last year declined to review the constitutionality of a similar law in Arkansas.
What are Long Island campuses’ ties to Israel from which the protesters are demanding divestment?
It’s not clear.
Asked about schools’ financial and other connections to Israel or Israeli-related entities — including affiliates and endowments, such as investments, companies, funds, dollar amounts, any other businesses or study-abroad or academic programs — none of the Long Island universities that have seen protests would provide clear, direct answers to Newsday's inquiries.
Kelly Angermaier, a Stony Brook spokesperson, said the university “has no direct investments in Israel,” but she didn’t elaborate or respond to a follow-up asking what that means. University President Maurie McInnis met in February with student leaders and “heard their demands, reviewed extensive materials they provided and responded thoughtfully and substantively to the issues they raised," Angermaier said.
“We explained that Stony Brook has no direct investments in Israel, that SBU does not support the BDS movement, and that we will not limit the academic freedom of our faculty and students to be involved in the free exchange of ideas.”
A letter Wednesday evening to the leadership of SB4Palestine, a group involved in the protest, offered a meeting with McInnis and the head of the university foundation, Justin Fincher, because “your demands include questions about the endowment.” As a condition for the meeting, students would have had to agree to end the encampment and not return. The 11 p.m. deadline passed Wednesday without students agreeing.
Taylor Damian, a spokeswoman for Adelphi, sent a statement from colleague Bobbie Dell’Aquilo that the university "is open and willing to engage in conversations with community members around these topics and more, and we have invited concerned parties to meet with University leadership.” She didn't say whether any meeting had been accepted.
Hofstra spokeswoman Ginny Greenberg didn’t respond to an inquiry.
The three universities offer or have offered study-abroad programs in Israel.
What happened at Stony Brook and other Long Island campuses in the 1980s with divestment and South Africa?
The push to divest from South Africa didn’t start or end on Long Island, but local campuses were a part of the movement credited with helping ending apartheid in South Africa.
In 1985, students across the United States, including at Stony Brook, staged campus demonstrations to demand divestment from companies with ties to South Africa, due to its policy at the time of racial segregation and discrimination. SUNY, the system of which Stony Brook is part, had agreed to sell millions in stock holdings from companies that traded with South Africa and, later that fall, agreed to divest all such holdings.
Students at the Stony Brook University campus continue their "sleep-in" at the administration building in 1985 to protest the university's investments in companies that dealt with South Africa. Credit: Newsday/Cliff De Bear
Chanting "Up with freedom, down with apartheid," students marched and staged a sit-in on May 2, 1985. A school spokesman told Newsday at the time that the holdings of Stony Brook's fundraising arm were to be reviewed "in light of the current situation in South Africa." Stony Brook's then-President, John Marburger, a divestment supporter, that month allowed a “sleep-in” at the administration building by protesters to continue through at least graduation "as long as there is no disruption of business and as long as there is no destruction of property." The next year, the foundation also divested, according to The New York Times.
During the 1980s at Hofstra University, where there was also picketing, officials said the school wouldn't make any new investments in companies that do business with South Africa, but the university said it would stick to any existing investments.
Adelphi — where consultants managed a multi-million dollar endowment, "leaving the school unaware what its holdings are on a day-to-day-basis," according to Newsday in 1985 — students chartered a bus and picketed the South African consulate.
Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.
