‘Our pension funds to oppress Palestinians? No way!’

The first U.S. petition campaign to divest workers’ pension funds from companies that supply Israel with equipment to oppress Palestinians was launched in Los Angeles on Sept. 8.

The divestment campaign is opening up a new front in the fight against Israeli apartheid. This effort seeks to keep the pension funds of California public workers and teachers from being invested in companies like Caterpillar, Motorola, Northrop Grumman, Veolia, Elbit Systems, United Technologies, General Electric, Terex and ITT. These firms supply heavy construction and military equipment to Israel that is used to destroy Palestinian homes, wall Palestinian communities off from one another and keep the people under constant threat of being expelled from their homeland.

The California Public Employees Retirement System and the California State Teachers Retirement System have nearly $2 billion invested in companies like those above. Elbit Systems also provides technology for the U.S.-Mexico border wall.

At a press conference outside the Israeli Consulate, people lined up to become the first to put their signatures on the petitions. The campaign has six months to acquire 434,000 valid signatures. To view the press conference video, the endorsers or learn more about the petition campaign, go to IsraelDivestmentCampaign.org.

The accompanying photo shows, left to right: Andy Griggs, United Teachers of Los Angeles activist; Shakeel Syed, executive director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California; Yael Korin, Israeli-American researcher; and Rosie Martinez, labor activist, Latino Caucus of Service Employees Local 721.