Dozens of faculty members at Columbia University have signed a petition calling upon their employer to “divest from corporations that supply, perpetuate and profit from a system that has subjugated the Palestinian people.”
The 40 signatories proclaimed their solidarity on the petition with Columbia University Apartheid Divest, Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace.
CUAD demanded last month the university divest from eight corporations that “profit from the State of Israel’s ongoing system of settler colonialism, military occupation and apartheid law” as part of the BDS movement, the Columbia Spectator reported.
“As both scholars and community members, we are professionally, intellectually, and morally invested in our University. We deem it our duty to hold our institution accountable for the ethical implications of its own actions, notably its financial investments and their implications around the world,” the petition said.
“In particular, we take issue with our financial involvements in institutions associated with the State of Israel’s military occupation of Palestinian lands, continued violations of Palestinian human rights, systematic destruction of life and property, inhumane segregation and systemic forms of discrimination.”
As a policy, the University does not comment on specific holdings in its endowment portfolio.