Students for Justice in Palestine at Hampshire College
In
February 2009, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) reported that the Board
of Trustees at
According to SJP, their
campaign succeeded in getting the college’s Board of Trustees to approve the vote
to divest from five
The moment that SJP
announced the divestment decision, the college administrators tried to deny its
political implications. . The college’s Board of Trustees hired a private firm,
KLD Research & Analytics, to investigate Hampshire's investments using
their own screen of socially-responsible investment. They ultimately identified
over 200 companies from which the college should divest for reasons unrelated
to
SJP still claims victory for
their divestment campaign because the college did divest from the mutual fund
which contained the corporations involved in the occupation, therefore ending
Hampshire’s investment in companies profiting from the occupation. This divestment was the result of SJP’s campaign
to divest the college from the Israeli occupation and is a major victory for
the BDS movement in the
Hampshire’s divestment
from the occupation is not the end of the story. As with the student movement
for boycott and divestment protesting South African apartheid, Hampshire is
just the beginning. Hampshire SJP is now working with students groups across
the country who, inspired by SJP’s success, are launching their own boycott and
divestment campaigns. Hampshire SJP is also working with the US Campaign to
solidify a national Boycott and Divestment movement.
For more
information about Hampshire SJP's campaign, where they are now, or how to get
in touch with them, visit their website at www.hsjp.org