UTFA votes to call for “rapid” divestment of pension from Israel’s occupation of Gaza

 

Motion from faculty divestment campaign denounces companies involved in human rights violations, weapons manufacture, illegal occupation

On May 8, the University of Toronto Faculty Association (UTFA) approved a motion calling on the University Pension Plan (UPP) to divest from the manufacture of weapons used by Israel to commit “crimes against humanity” in the Occupied Palestinian Territories of Gaza and the West Bank. The vote, which took place at a member-initiated General Meeting, saw a turnout of 1,365 of roughly 3,500 members. The motion passed with 52 per cent in favour, 43 per cent opposed, and five per cent abstaining.

The motion called on the UPP to implement an accelerated timeline to divest from all entities that manufacture weapons used in violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, terrorism, organized crime, and violence against women and children.

This vote comes over a year and a half after the start of the armed conflict in Gaza, during which over 55,000 Palestinians have been killed — more than half of whom are women and children — and over 1.9 million people have been displaced.

The motion also calls for divestment from entities that facilitate Israel’s illegal occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and any other illegal occupations, such as Russia’s occupation of the Crimean Peninsula. 

The inclusion of illegal occupation as grounds for divestment parallels the UN General Assembly’s September 2024 resolution calling on Israel to “cease immediately all new settlement activities, and to evacuate all settlers from the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” and withdraw its military forces from the area, in accordance with international law.  (more...)

UTFA votes to call for “rapid” divestment of pension from Israel’s occupation of Gaza