Columnist misunderstands divestment

Matt Gillum’s Oct. 6 column, “Divestment not the answer,” completely missed the point of the the divestment campaign. The divestment campaign calls for withdrawal of international investment in Israel because of illegal occupation of Palestinian territories and Israel’s horrific human rights record.

Citing a few selected papers, Gillum says that the divestment campaign “condemned itself to irrelevance.” This completely ignores the fact the the leadership of South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement found the divestment campaign a valuable tool in the struggle for peace and justice. One of the reasons that the apartheid regime entered in negotiations with Nelson Mandela was that it found the cost of prolonging the racist regime too high. The economic boycott of South Africa did raise the cost of the regime’s import costs. Even though South Africa was able to trade with other countries, few countries and companies were willing to admit being a partner of the odious regime.

The same will happen for Israel. One way to induce pressure on Israel to end its occupation of Jerusalem, Gaza and West Bank and to abide by international human rights agreement is to ensure that the flow of U.S. aid, military assistance and subsidies, as well as foreign direct investment and portfolio capital is reduced. The very fact that Israel’s advocates throw up tantrums and try to dig up materials arguing that the divestment campaign against South Africa was not effective shows how much they fear that international public opinion will reduce the capital flow that helps prolong Israel’s occupation of Palestine.

Personally, I am against academic boycott of Israeli institutions, but I believe that the call for stopping foreign aid and investment in Israel are very useful. Foreign aid should go to countries that deserve it. Multinational companies can find many destinations, other than Israel, that can earn handsome returns for their shareholders, without being a party to an illegal occupation.

If the divestment campaign is successful going forward, Israel will have a hard time attracting investment unless it is acts like a civilized country.

Tanweer Akram, PhD.

The author received his doctorate in