Columbia Has Divested Before: Here's What Happened | WSJ

Many pro-Palestinian student protesters are demanding schools drop Israel investments. The demands vary from school to school.

At Columbia University, protesters are pressing for the sale of holdings tied to companies allegedly profiting from Israel’s actions like Google, Amazon and Airbnb. At Yale and Cornell, students have called for their schools to divest themselves of weapons manufacturers involved in Israel’s campaign. But how does divestment work at universities?

WSJ explores the history of divestment movements at schools and the challenges involved in modern divestment initiatives.

Chapters:
0:00 Protesters calling for divestment
0:35 Divestment, explained
2:22 Past divestment initiatives
4:04 How endowments work

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#Israel #Protests #WSJ

[Tourian]

Why are American universities even investing in weapons manufacturers? Am I the only one thinks this is insane????

[edwardlwittlif]

Let's not revise history, WSJ. As a result of divestment *and* sanctions, the value of the South African rand dropped dramatically during the 1980s. That economic pressure *did* help to end apartheid.

The citation at 5:44 is misleading. The study's focus is narrow, examining whether specific acts of divestment made a dent in economic valuations. But the divestment campaign's success was *cumulative* . The successful divestment protests created a political environment that facilitated capital flight from South Africa, as doing business with South Africa became a toxic PR nightmare and the political support for government sanctions grew.

The value of the rand didn't drop for no reason, and capital didn't gush out of South Africa for no reason.

[Chestermcfly]

You have to understand the aggressors can never be the victims. If you start a war with babies and women you’re not the victims you’re the ones who started the war. It’s not a genocide when you start a war and then all of a sudden you start losing that’s not a genocide that’s losing the war that you started with babies and women.

[uriabinenshtok]

anyone remember when university's invested in prisons

[oussamak]

What about they stop using Amazon and Google themselves.

[AmericanAntiCorruptionAct]

"Keep in mind, the news media are not independent; they are a sort of bulletin board and public relations firm for the ruling class-the people who run things. Those who decide what news you will or will not hear are paid by, and tolerated purely at the whim of, those who hold economic power." — George Carlin

[kenwash]

No word on the hypocrisy of calling to divest Israel but leaving China, Iran, Syria, Russia all in?

[stephenkoenig]

This is what bad parenting and awful teachers leads to!

[gardenerofthegalaxy]

I didn't realize D9 militarized bulldozers could be considered "tractors"

[rock-n-rolls]

"Keep in mind, the news media are not independent; they are a sort of bulletin board and public relations firm for the ruling class-the people who run things. Those who decide what news you will or will not hear are paid by, and tolerated purely at the whim of, those who hold economic power." - George Carlin

[jawedmanowar]

Such an Shameful act that University place where Education and knowledge is imparted is taking money from weapons manufacture and lobbyist and profiting from colonial occupation and supporting Apartheid
It seems Money is more Important, rather Upholding Justice and Law

[TomNook.]

The boycott and divesting will fail. Unlike south Africa, US and Israeli companies are involved in core technologies and services with no viable alternative in all important sectors eg. Finance, food, Comms, healthcare.

[getpaid.gohome]

Why are we listening to Charlie Eaton? This guy has no idea what he’s talking about. What credibility does he have besides being a professor at one of the worst UC’s in California. Merced is the school students usually put at the bottom of their fall back colleges.

[lrmry]

They want to divest from “companies profiting from the war in Gaza, ” but don’t include any Qatari companies?

[naf]

These kids think they have it all figured out, they know nothing about anything. Living sheltered lives funded by their parents.

[AyakoTachi]

One of the better cracks at outlining this that I've seen but still murky as they don't shed any light on what Columbia's current investments in Israel actually are.

[tardarsauce]

"Columbia has been divested before"

Yeah even back in 1912, ask Comstock

[botanicalitus]

These pro paIestinian students have more bravery and integrity in their pinky than their opposition has in their whole bodies.

[Solaris]

They are investing in arms companies so we, in the West (including Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan), can live in freedom and be ahead of our adversaries.
Study what we want, and love who we want. You can take all that for granted but it is not a given.

[jebbo-cl]

universities should not be invested in weapons manufacturers