Editor’s Note: To help inform The Herald’s ongoing coverage, please fill out this form with your questions about the February hunger strike.
During a Monday afternoon rally attended by around 200, a small group of protestors representing the 19 students currently on a hunger strike delivered a report advocating for divesting the University’s endowment “from companies that facilitate the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory” to the office of President Christina Paxson P’19 P’MD’20.
The 50-page document — a “critical edition” of the 2020 report released by the Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility in Investment Policies that recommended divestment from “companies which profit from human rights abuses in Palestine” — includes the original report and expanded arguments in favor of divestment. Paxson declined to bring the 2020 ACCRIP report to the Corporation for full consideration, stating that there was not “the requisite level of specificity in regard to divestment.”
University Spokesperson Brian Clark told The Herald that the University’s endowment “is not directly invested in any defense stocks or large munitions manufacturers.”
A substantial portion is invested in external managers with the content of these portfolios under contractual confidentiality provisions, The Herald previously reported. Clark wrote that “our external managers have the highest level of ethics and share the values of the Brown community, including the rejection of violence.”
The hunger strikers led a group of protestors to University Hall, where students chanted and called for Paxson and the Corporation to divest. As the protesters congregated outside University Hall, representatives delivered the report to Paxson.
Students flooded the campus center and Leung Gallery while continuing chants for divestment and ceasefire. They then heard from Ward 6 City Council Member Miguel Sanchez and State Senator Tiara Mack ’16, who commended the protestors and the hunger strikers.
“Keep that pressure on the President (and) the Board of Trustees,” Sanchez said.
“Every single thing that you do and every single thing you have done in the past 120 days has meant something to those that are currently under siege in Gaza,” Mack added.
The rally marked the completion of the third day of the hunger strike. Click here to read more of The Herald’s coverage of the strike.
At the rally, some strikers shared the reasons behind their involvement.
Ariela Rosenzweig, one of the strikers, detailed how her grandparents fled the Nazi regime after being born in Poland. They eventually escaped to Mandatory Palestine, where they became some of the first citizens of Israel. Her grandfather later joined the Israeli military, she said.
“The violence experienced by my family should never have led to more bloodshed, and yet it has,” she said.
Eli Grossman asked the crowd to continue to “show up” to the Steven Roberts ’62 Campus Center and Leung Gallery.
Before delivering it to Paxson, Grossman summarized the updated “critical edition” of the 2020 ACCRIM report, highlighting the added additional charges against the state of Israel, such as genocide, apartheid and the “obstruction of Palestinians’ right to education.”
Multiple human rights organizations, in addition to an independent human rights expert commissioned by the United Nations, have published reports labeling the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians “apartheid.”
South Africa has a pending case against Israel in the International Court of Justice alleging that the state is committing “acts and omissions” that are “genocidal in character … (against) the Palestinian national, racial and ethnic group,” the BBC previously reported.
As of Jan. 24, Israel has destroyed over 390 educational institutions in Gaza, according to NPR News.
The Monday rally is the second since the hunger strike began on Friday. But organizers shared that they intend to rally daily at noon on the Main Green before the Corporation meeting that begins Feb. 8.
Owen Dahlkamp is a Section Editor overseeing coverage for University News and Science & Research. Hailing from San Diego, CA, he is concentrating in political science and cognitive neuroscience with an interest in data analytics. In his free time, you can find him making spreadsheets at Dave’s Coffee.
Ryan Doherty is a Section Editor covering faculty, higher education and science & research. He is a sophomore concentrating in chemistry and economics who likes to partially complete crosswords in his free time.
