New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Treasurer candidates should answer for Israeli investments
Treasurer candidates, are you happy with Connecticut’s apartheid investments?
There is $107 million of Connecticut Treasury money is invested in Israel. What do Erick Russell, Harry Arora, Jennifer Baldwin and JoAnna Laiscell, the candidates for office of Connecticut treasurer, think of that?
Our committee and others have been complaining about this for years. Why complain? Take this year. There was the killing of famous Palestinian reporter Shireen Abu Akleh, incidentally a U.S. citizen. Investigation after investigation showed she was killed by Israeli soldiers, and the latest one by Al Haq with 3-D modeling showed that the killing had to be deliberate. Yet Israel says its soldiers did nothing wrong.
Abu Akleh was not the only American killed by Israeli soldiers this year — 78-year-old Omar As’ad of Milwaukee was stopped for no reason in a small West Bank town in January, made to sit outside in very cold weather and then left for dead after he had been handcuffed and gagged. Israel says it will give the family NIS 500,000 (about $140,000) compensation, but no soldier involved received more than a slap on the hand.
Then there are the children who have died because Israel wouldn’t let them into Jerusalem from the Gaza Strip for medical treatment. This year the number is three, Fatima al-Masri,
Farouq Abu Naja and Luay Mohammed al-Tawweel. Their parents filed form after form, and still they died before they got permission to be treated in Israeli hospitals. Al-Tawweel’s permission form reached his family on the day he died.
In early August the Israeli government decided to make war on Gaza, in their words, a “preemptive” measure to prevent Palestinians from shooting rockets. Israeli planes bombed and artillery shells were shot in what Israel called “Operation Breaking Dawn.” Then Palestinians did launch rockets in return. In the end Human Rights Watch said 49 Palestinians were killed, including 17 children. Over 350 were injured. Injured doesn’t sound so bad, but one case should especially haunt us, that of Rahaf Salman. She’s 11. You can see two pictures of her, one of a pretty and shy little girl, the other of a patient in a hospital bed encased in bandages after both her legs and one hand were blown off by Israeli bombs.
All of this happens because Israel is constantly taking land so it can be given to those of the state’s favored ethnic/religious group. It happens because Israel’s subject people, the Palestinians, face unending discrimination. Israel fosters Jewish-only colonies. It ignores tens of thousands of Palestinians living in unrecognized villages without schools or connections to the electric grid. It makes it virtually impossible for Palestinians to legally construct homes due to systematic denial of housing permits. These practices and many more make up a structure of apartheid, a system that violates international law. That’s not our judgment, but of the world’s premier human rights groups Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and even the Israeli groups B’tselem.
Years ago the Connecticut state legislature passed a law forbidding investments in Sudan, because of government cruelty there to the people of the Darfur region. Well, what about the cruelties towards Palestinians? Don’t they deserve equal concern? Yes, the state makes money from the investments in Israel. But is revenue all that matters?
Are state employees OK with this? Overwhelmingly the state investments are monies deducted from the salaries of teachers and people who work for state government. Has anyone told them how their money is being invested?
Has anyone asked their approval?
Look at some specific investments. The American Friends Service Committee (the Quakers) who won the Nobel Peace Prize some decades ago maintain a web tool that analyzes corporations for ethical behavior. It recommends selling off those that don’t measure up. It recommends that 22 Israeli companies in the Connecticut Treasury portfolio be divested.
One is Cellebrite, which it describes as “An Israeli digital intelligence firm that supplies law enforcement agencies, prison authorities, border security agencies, and repressive regimes around the world with hacking technologies.” Another is literally called NICE. It’s “an Israeli surveillance company, specializing in phone, video, and internet monitoring.” A third is Elbit, Israel’s largest military company, which makes killer drones, large weapon systems and ammunition used against civilians.
So, candidates for treasurer, how do you stand on the treasury making money off of apartheid?
Overwhelmingly the state investments are monies deducted from the salaries of teachers and people who work for state government. Has anyone told them how their money is being invested?