#BDS Arizona State University student government votes to divest from Israel

At the last Senate hearing of the year, the undergraduate student government at Arizona State University unanimously passed a bill demanding that ASU divest from and blacklist companies that continue to provide the Israeli Defense Force with weapons and militarized equipment or are complicit with the genocidal regime in Darfur.

This announcement, coming on the last day of the 2012 school year, is another victory in the global call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) on Israel as well as other global solidarity movements calling for the end to human rights violations.

Arizona State University, a university with an endowment of over $735 million, aspires to be the “New American University” with globally engaged students. We, students, at ASU want our university to make socially responsible investment decisions; we also want ASU’s investments to reflect its values as an institution. The bill calls for ASU to divest from and blacklist companies such as Alliant Tech Systems, Boeing, Caterpillar, Motorola, United Technologies, Petrochina, China National Petroleum Company, Sinopec, Oil and Natural Gas Company, and Alstom.

This is not the first time ASU has divested from companies supporting human rights abuses. In 1985 Arizona public universities supported divestment from apartheid South Africa. The undergraduate student government has also supported the idea of the creation of an Advisory Committee for Socially Responsible Investing on campus in the past. This is just another step in the right direction for the New American University. The bill concludes, “that the [ASU] Undergraduate Student Government supports on-campus divestment from and blacklisting of corporations that are complicit in human rights abuses in the occupied Palestinian Territories and Sudan.”

Lina Bearat- ASU SJP President, ASU USG Senator

Aman Aberra- ASU SJP Vice President, ASU USG Senator

Shifa Alkhatib- ASU SJP Media/PR

Here is the bill that passed:

THE ASSOCIATED STUDENTS OF ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY
UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT GOVERNMENT SENATE
NINTH LEGISLATURE
<XXXX> REGULAR SESSION
<XXX XX>, 2012

SENATE BILL 53

INTRODUCED BY
SENATOR LINA BEARAT, SENATOR AMAN ABERRA, SENATOR LAILA ALKAHLOUT


An act imploring human rights divestment


The Undergraduate Student Government Senate,

WHEREAS, ASU aspires to be a New American University with “socially embedded” students who are “engaged globally.”

WHEREAS, Our investments impact conflicts and human rights situations world-wide, including the Israel-Palestine conflict and the genocide in Darfur.

WHEREAS, although over 300,000 have been killed in Darfur and 5.6 million civilians have fled from violence, although some corporations continue to prop up the genocidal regime of Omar al-Bashir.

WHEREAS, corporations continue to provide the Israeli Defense Force with weapons and militarized equipment, despite the Israeli occupation being found a violation of the 4th Geneva Convention, the charter of the United Nations, the principles of international law, and repeated United Nations resolutions (UN Res. 3414).

WHEREAS, our investments should reflect our values as an institution.

WEHREAS, ASU invests over $735 million through the ASU Foundation.

WHEREAS, Other universities, including Harvard, Yale, Amherst College, Hampshire College and Stanford, have divested from either the genocide in Sudan or the Israel-Palestine conflict.

WHEREAS, Arizona public universities have a history of supporting divestment from human rights abuses, being among the first universities to divest from apartheid South Africa in 1985.

WHEREAS, Arizona State University Undergraduate Student Government has previously supported the idea of socially responsible investment on campus.

WHEREAS, Arizona State University Undergraduate Student Government specifically supports the call for an Advisory Committee for “Socially Responsible Investing.”

LET IT BE RESOLVED that Arizona State University Undergraduate Student Government supports on-campus divestment from and blacklisting of corporations that are complicit in human rights abuses in the occupied Palestinian Territories and Sudan. These companies include Alliant Tech Systems, Boeing, Caterpillar, Motorola, United Technologies, Petrochina, China National Petroleum Company, Sinopec, Oil and Natural Gas Company, and Alstom.  Source.