Oregon
Students in Oregon and across U.S. call for divestment. It’s not so simple.
A principal rallying cry from students protesting Israel’s invasion of Gaza, in Oregon and other campuses around the country, is for university administrators and trustees to sell off any investments they have in companies profiting from the war, or more broadly, from companies invested in Israel’s economy.
Such “divestment” demands have become common since the movement to divest from South Africa and its apartheid regime took off in the mid 1980s. Today it’s a regular tactic of climate and social justice activists, unions and other groups looking to pressure businesses, governments or other institutions to pursue specific policy changes, from climate change and labor conditions to fossil fuels and tobacco advertising.