71 tenured faculty present divestment petition to Eisgruber '83

A group of faculty members presented a petition on Wednesday to University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 advocating for divestment from companies that “contribute to or profit from the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the continued siege of Gaza.”

The five professors who drafted and presented the petition were Molly Greene, Michael Laffan, Gyan Prakash, Cyrus Schayegh and Max Weiss. 71 tenured faculty members had signed the petition by Nov. 19.

The petition had initially run as an advertisement in The Daily Princetonian earlier this month and has since triggered numerous responses and a counter petition sponsored by the Center for Jewish Life.

The professors explained that they had a 15-minute meeting with Eisgruber, in which they read aloud the key elements of the petition, and Eisgruber then explained that the administration would pass the petition along to the Resources Committee, which governs all finances of the University.

Eisgruber declined to comment about the meeting.

“The Resources Committee will study the issue and determine firstly whether a central University value is involved and secondly whether there is a sustained and powerful interest, and the final test would be whether divestment is the best strategy,” Prakash said about the meeting.

The Resources Committee of the Council of the Princeton University Community considers issues regarding the University's investment policies.

Prakash added that if the University were to take a stance on divestment, this action might help to resolve the current, ongoing conflict between Israel and Gaza.

“The occupation is in violation of human rights,” Prakash said. “The University, by taking such an issue, would not only be making a symbolic statement, but we think that if sufficient pressure were to be exerted, this could lead to a peaceful solution to the conflict in the Middle East.”

The petition said the faculty can no longer remain silent on the issue of companies’ profiting from Gaza, especially in light of the recent killings in a West Jerusalem synagogue. Laffan said it is important to note that the professors who started the petition did seek out a specific constituency on campus, namely tenured faculty.

“We feel that as the people the University has invested in —the tenured faculty —we are committed to the University. We feel we have a stake in this,” he said.

In addition to being a human rights problem, the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza has been violating international law since 1967, Schayegh and Greene said.

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Greene said the signatories of the petition do not know which companies are included in the University’s investment portfolio, as the University is not obligated to reveal the information.

However, Greene, Laffan, Prakash, Schayegh and Weiss were able to identify several specific firms —including Caterpillar and Motorola —that are involved in the Israeli occupation based on previous divestment movements.

The initial petition has proved controversial, and multiple counter-petitions and letters have been exchanged on campus regarding the divestment issue. The counter-petitions and letters include a response letter from the Center for Jewish Life and a response from students.

The CJL did not respond to a request for comment.

“I was gratified. I feel like there have been a lot of letters either in support of us or letters showing that people have paid careful attention to what we have said,” Greene said. “They have said that the Center for Jewish Life was wrong in saying that we are advocating boycotts, divestment and sanctions. In fact, we’re specifically asking simply for divestment from companies that contributed to occupation.”

Prakash also said that heappreciates the dialogue this petition is engendering.

“Even the counter-petition doesn’t say that the occupation should continue. Certainly not. There is, I think, a general agreement that the status quo is untenable,” Prakash said. “If there is a disagreement here, it is about how to achieve a change.”

Correction: Due to a reporting error, an earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that students had signed the petition. This petition was for faculty members only. The 'Prince' regrets the error.