An advisory committee at Brown University in the US state of Rhode Island has formally recommended that the university divest from “any company that profits from the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land.”
The recommendation was contained in an official report submitted to the university president and its highest governing body the Brown Daily Herald student newspaper said.
An additional report will be issued later and include names of companies that have ties of the Israeli occupation regime.
The Advisory Committee on Corporate Responsibility in Investment Policies (ACCRIP) which met last Tuesday cited criteria in the recently released UN Human Rights Council’s database of 112 companies that do business in Israeli settlements and outposts in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
These activities include supplying equipment and materials used in the construction and the expansion of settlements and the separation wall supplying equipment for the demolition of homes and property and providing security services equipment and materials to enterprises operating in settlements.
The ACCRIP which consists of university students faculty staff and alumni votes on resolutions surrounding ethical and moral issues or issues of alleged social harm with respect to the activities of corporations in which the university is an investor according to its website.
The vote occurred just months after Brown students voted overwhelmingly in favor of a referendum calling on the university presidency to stay away from companies that conduct business with the Israeli occupation of Palestine.