University of North Carolina Divestment Campaign

How About UNC’s Investments in Israel’s Occupation of Palestine?

How Do American Corporations Support the Israel’s Occupation of the Palestinian People and Their Lands?

American-owned corporations support Israel’s Occupation of Palestinian lands and its brutal suppression of the Palestinian people in two ways. First, certain U.S. corporations manufacture and supply weapons to Israel to support the Occupation, and do so at U.S. taxpayers’ expense. Second, other corporations have not only invested in Israel, but have benefitted from or supported the Occupation in extraordinary ways.

First, American corporations manufacturing and provisioning military weapons provide direct support to Israel’s Occupation – and conduct very profitable businesses as they do so – and at U.S. taxpayers’ expense! For the seven years 1995-2001, American corporations were paid more than $1 billion dollars annually by the U.S. government to provide Israel with arms that have served the Occupation, and have been used by Israeli Defense Forces to kill, maim and injure hundreds of Palestinian civilians (including children) and activists, more often than not in Israeli-occupied sectors of the West Bank and Gaza strip[1].

Among the most egregious examples of U.S. corporations benefitting from Palestinian suffering are the following corporations, where we list the major weapons they have supplied the IDF, and the amounts they have received in contracts from the U.S. government between 1995 and 2001 [2]:

Lockheed Martin – F-16 fighter jets, AGM-142-D air-to-ground missiles, Multiple Launch Rocket Systems, Hellfire anti-tank missiles ($4.37 billion)
Boeing Corporation – Apache helicopters, Joint Direct Attack Munitions tail kits ($1.46 billion)
United Technologies – Blackhawk helicopters, F-100 aircraft engines ($1.33 billion)
Exxon Mobil – JP-8 aviation fuel ($150 million)
Raytheon – TOW-2A/B anti-tank missiles, Firefinder counterbattery radar ($121 million)
Oshkosh Truck Corporation – Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Trucks ($117 million)
Bell Textron – Cobra Attack helicopters ($11 million)
Caterpillar Corp – provides bulldozers for Palestinian home demolition (figures unavailable)
We call on UNC-Chapel Hill to divest its Investment Fund of any stock and bond holdings it has of these merchants of death and suffering, since University holdings which support such arms trafficking are incompatible with the University’s Mission “to improve the conditions of human life,” to sustain a community “committed to intellectual freedom, personal integrity, and justice,” and to address “regional, national, and international needs.”

Second, many other U.S. corporations have invested directly in Israel, and we urge the University to divest from them. While these corporations may not have profited from arms sales to the State of Israel, the following corporations in particular have directly supported or profited from Israeli Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza:

- Intel Corporation recently invested in a $1.6 billion fabrication plant in Kiryat Gat, on lands that were owned by Palestinians before 1967 – which allowed it to close down another plant in the U.S.
- Coca Cola Enterprises, which is planning to build a large bottling plant in Kiryat Gat on the same Palestinian lands
- Starbucks, whose CEO has forcefully come out in support of the Occupation, proposing that Israeli military officers be sponsored to tour the U.S. as part of Israel’s public relations in support of the Occupation

We call on the UNC-Chapel Hill Investment Fund to divest its holding from these corporations which have thus directly supported, benefitted from, or stand to benefit from the Occupation.

Holdings by the UNC Investment Fund in Corporations: Supporting the Occupation?

As of late 2001, the UNC Investment Fund consisted of $917 million allocated between several sub-funds, the Endowment Fund as such ($525 million), affiliated foundation funds (business, law, medicine, etc.) ($400 million), and the UNC-CH Foundation ($125 million). The UNC Investment Fund holds domestic and international stocks and bonds, real estate, cash, and other commercial investments. The fund is operated by the Chief Investment Officer and his staff, and is overseen by an Investment Fund Board of Trustees made up of 12 prominent business people, citizens, and two representatives from UNC Chapel Hill – the Chancellor and the Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration[3]. The Investment Fund reports to the Board of Trustees of UNC Chapel Hill. However, although UNC-Chapel Hill is a public university, its Investment Fund is, curiously, a private organization, whose meetings and records are legally not available for public scrutiny, and who are not accountable to the citizens of North Carolina in their financial or ethical dealings. We know this first hand, for we in Divest tried to obtain a listing of the Investment Fund’s holdings and were informed by the University Attorney’s office that we could not see them. We were politely informed that this was none of our – the public’s – business.

Since the holdings of the Investment Fund are kept away from public scrutiny, we must assume (until publicly shown otherwise) that the Fund holds investments in the extremely profitable corporations such as those mentioned above that trade arms to Israel or otherwise invest in it while profiting from the Occupation. (Even in the current stock market decline, the earnings of these arms traffickers are among the most profitable corporations today.)

What do the Investment Fund, its officers and Board of Trustees have to hide? Are they willing to tolerate the abuse of the University’s Mission, of common sense, and of human justice, in order to gain profits steeped in blood and suffering? Do University faculty, staff and students, as well as members of the larger community, approve of this arrangement?

Until there is a public evidence that the Investment Fund does not hold any investments in these corporations, we call on the Investment Fund to divest all its holdings in them, and to demonstrate to University students, faculty and staff, and to the community that it has done so.

1 Source: Jordan Green, “Arming the Occupation,” Institute of Southern Studies, 2002.
2 Source: Green 2002.
3 Source: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Foundation Investment Fund, “Presentation for the Board of Trustees of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,” Chapel Hill, NC, November 15, 2001.