Princeton Community Asked to Weigh In on Israel Divestment Proposal

Princeton University’s Resources Committee is encouraging students, staff, faculty, and alumni to provide feedback on the proposal from Princeton Israeli Apartheid Divest (PIAD) to divest from companies and holdings with ties to Israel in response to Israel’s actions in the Israel-Hamas war.

The Resources Committee of the Council of the Princeton University Community (CPUC) is tasked with considering issues related to the University’s endowment portfolio, but the Board of Trustees ultimately makes the final decision on divestment. One of the University’s three guidelines for divestment requires that a proposal reach “a consensus on how the University should respond.”

The Resources Committee will accept feedback until Friday, Oct. 11, through a portal on its website. Users must login with their NetID or TigerNet ID, though they may choose to submit feedback anonymously.

Jay Groves, chair of the Resources Committee and the Hugh Stott Taylor Chair of Chemistry, made the announcement on Sept. 30 at the first meeting of the CPUC this academic year.

The portal is designed “to get input from a broad cross-section of the University about this important issue” in an unbiased forum that protects and preserves the openness of debate for competing ideas, according to Groves.

Since PIAD submitted its proposal to divest in June, the committee has received “thousands of emails,” according to Groves, though they suspect many of those communications have come from “the most interested parties, and maybe we haven’t heard enough from everybody else.”

Groves stressed that feedback should be thoughtful and contemplative, and “it’s definitely not a count-them situation as far as I’m concerned.”

Depending on the response from the community, the committee may hold meetings with groups that specifically requested them. Groves declined to give details on the committee’s timeline.

“Please go to the website. Let us hear what you’re thinking so that we can better assess the mood on campus regarding this divestment proposal,” Groves said in closing his presentation. 

PIAD wants Princeton to divest from entities that “enable or facilitate human rights violations or violations of international law as part of Israel’s illegal occupations, apartheid practices, and plausible acts of genocide.” PIAD suggests the following criteria for determining which companies would be included: those involved with settlement construction; companies that are engaging in “exploitation of natural resources” such as drilling for water, oil, or natural gas; those that build or maintain walls, checkpoints, or surveillance of Gaza and the West Bank; weapons and military equipment manufacturers and suppliers; those who discriminate between Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel; those involved in financing any of the preceding criteria; and any companies that operate in Israel or contribute to its economy.

After the presentation, about a dozen members of the audience, many with divestment signs and some with red tape over their mouths, left the meeting chanting the familiar refrain “disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest.”