Campus protests won’t help Gaza
I live near the University of Toronto and often wander down to see how the protest is going. On the colourful signs around the encampment, it’s hard to miss calls to disclose investments and divest from companies with links to Israel.
The “list of shame” is long according to the Canadian BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction) Coalition. It includes Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Airbnb and Costco and also cultural groups that have performed in Israel, such as The Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
It even includes Toronto’s leading rehabilitation hospital for children with disabilities, the HollandBloorview. That’s because a team went to Israel in 2019 to learn more about accessibility. The CBC is on the list, as are three Toronto universities, among dozens of others.
Here’s the question though: Do these divestment campaigns work? According to experts the answer is not so much.
Witold Henisz at the Wharton School has said that research suggests little correlation between divestment and stock value. And divestment doesn’t affect desired outcomes. Researchers at the London Business School focused on the effect of divestment on apartheid and found it had “little discernible effect” on South African financial markets. Those markets registered the boycott as a mere “sideshow.”
More recently, the Brookings Institution concluded that only official sanctions from important economic partners such as the United States or European Union would create the kind of economic pressure protesters hope for.
Sometimes the BDS movement does harm. When it targeted SodaStream nine years ago, the company closed its primary manufacturing plant on the West Bank where Jews and Arabs worked together. It moved operations to Southern Israel instead saying it needed more space. The company continued to prosper. But the 500 laid-off Palestinian workers, who’d been enjoying wages and benefits beyond anything they could expect from local companies, didn’t.
If the Israeli government isn’t listening to Biden, it’s hardly likely to listen to student campers who glorify Oct. 7, fail to call for the release of hostages and question Israel’s right to exist. Israel has shown in the past that it thrives on being an outsider. Its conviction that it can’t afford to lose even one war, and its determination to stand up to a hostile world, fuels its resolve.
But perhaps the most controversial aspect of this is the demand to divest from Israeli universities and cultural institutions. Academic and cultural workers in Israel are more likely than others to challenge the government status quo. Valuable research collaborations with some of the best researchers in the world would end. And cutting off Israeli
academics, writers and artists means no chance of influencing Israel’s research and cultural spheres.
As of now, very few North American universities have agreed to consider divestment. These include Sacramento State and Evergreen State College, a Washingtonbased college with a New Age vibe, that doesn’t issue grades. The president of the University of Toronto is making it clear that divestment is a no-go.
Meanwhile, as protests continue, donors are opting out. That means there’s less money for scholarships and other programs that benefit students. And students risk suspensions or, in truly extreme cases, criminal records that could upend reputations and job prospects. Clearly though, they believe it’s worth it.
So what are the calls for divestment good for?
Even if they’re not affecting companies’ profits and even if they have no effect on Israeli governmental decisions, students can congratulate themselves on being true to their values and helping keep the war against Hamas and the horrific and unjustifiable carnage in Gaza, on the public agenda.
At the encampment, I’m struck by the camaraderie and sense of shared purpose. Many of those students had university years marked by COVID restrictions and a diminished university experience. When those students look back on this extraordinary time, both protesters and counter-protesters will see this as a defining moment in their university careers.
And in the end, maybe that’s the real bottom line.