TIAA-CREF: Divest from the Occupation
Ask one of the largest financial services in the United States to divest from the Israeli occupation.
Join over 15,000 people of conscience who have already signed the petition to ask TIAA-CREF to stop investing in companies that pro?t from the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
Jewish Voice for Peace had a spectacular success at the TIAA-CREF shareholders meeting, and will be meeting again with their administrators.
Then, imagine what we can do when we multiply the number of signatures!
SIGN THE PETITION and contact others to do the same.
READ the news and watch the video from Jewish Voice for Peace after the recent TIAA-CREF shareholders meeting, July 2010
BACKGROUND
TIAA-CREF invests its money in these kinds of companies - these five are examples of the list of companies to be divested from - click on each to download a fact sheet about them:
Caterpillar Elbit Motorola Veolia Northrop Grummann
What do we want?
TIAA-CREF is one of the largest financial services in the United States, considered to be one of the largest retirement systems in the world. We want TIAA-CREF to stop investing in companies that profit from the Israeli occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. We’ve opened a petition to TIAA-CREF and we want you to join us.
Who can endorse the petition to TIAA-CREF?
You can. The petition is open to all people -- Jews, Christians, Muslims, all people of conscience -- whether they have money invested with TIAA-CREF or not. We are asking people who have investments with TIAA-CREF to make sure to let us know. The company will be especially interested in knowing how many of their clients oppose the Israeli occupation.
How can I endorse the petition to TIAA-CREF?
You can endorse the petition online by clicking here
Why focus on TIAA-CREF?
1. TIAA-CREF is big, the biggest fund of its kind in the world. If we help them change their policies, this will be a substantial blow to the Occupation and a model for other socially responsible financial managers to emulate.
2. TIAA-CREF is near you. With 60 offices in the US and 15,000 client institutions in the academic, research, medical, cultural and nonprofit fields, chances are that wherever you may be in the country, you will find a network of TIAA-CREF participants close to you.
3. TIAA-CREF cares about socially responsible investment. In 2009, TIAA-CREF divested from four petrochemical companies that were pro?ting from Sudan’s oppression of the people and exploitation of the natural resources of Darfur. However, the company continues to invest in companies that reap profits from the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and violations of Palestinian rights. Until it divests, TIAA-CREF violates its own ethical principles and is complicit in Israel’s breaches of international law and violations of human rights.
What is this petition NOT about?
It is NOT about divestment from TIAA-CREF. We are asking TIAA-CREF itself to divest from companies that profit from the Israeli occupation.
It is NOT about divesting from companies that do business in Israel or with the Israeli government.
It is NOT about divesting from Israeli companies.
It is NOT about academic or cultural boycotts of Israel.
What are some of those companies?
Our petition highlights five companies as examples. TIAA-CREF is invested in other companies that pro?t from the occupation. Here are the five we included in our petition:
CATERPILLAR profits from the destruction of Palestinian homes and the uprooting of Palestinian orchards by supplying the armor-plated and weaponized bulldozers that are used for such demolition work.
VEOLIA pro?ts from the construction and expansion of illegal Jewish-only settlements by operating a landfill in the West Bank, exploiting Palestinian natural resources to serve the settlements, and by contracting for the future operation of an illegal light rail system connecting these settlements with Jerusalem.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN profits from the production of parts for the Apache helicopters and F-16 aircrafts used by Israel against civilians in Gaza during Israel’s 2008-09 assault.
ELBIT profits from the confiscation of Palestinian land by providing surveillance equipment that is mounted on the Separation Wall, which was declared unlawful by the International Court of Justice.
MOTOROLA pro?ts from Israel’s control of the Palestinian population by providing surveillance systems around Israeli settlements, checkpoints, and military camps in the West Bank, as well as communication systems to the Israeli army and West Bank settlers.
Didn’t TIAA-CREF already divest from companies that profit from the
Israeli occupation?
In September 2009 Adalah-NY and over 100 TIAA-CREF participants signed a letter requesting that the company not invest in the funding of Jewish-only settlements. That petition focused on Africa-Israel, a company involved in the building of settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. TIAA-CREF later claimed that it had already sold its shares of Africa-Israel, as early as June 30, 2009.
Although the September petition appears to have been a misreading of TIAA-CREF’s June financial statement, we are gratified that TIAA-CREF is no longer invested in Africa-Israel. The pension fund invests in other companies that profit from the Israeli occupation. We follow in the footsteps of Adalah-NY in asking that TIAA-CREF live up to its motto of providing "Financial Services for the Greater Good" by divesting from companies that profit from the Israeli occupation.
“Boycott is not a dogma; it is a tactic. The reason the BDS strategy should be tried against Israel is practical: in a country so small and trade-dependent, it could actually work.”
-- Naomi Klein
Take action now in this important campaign with Jewish Voice for Peace:
http://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/campaigns/tiaa-cref-divest-occupation