New York, NY, September 19, 2024 … Adopting an Israel divestment strategy aligned with the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement could lead to significant negative financial implications for university endowments, finds a report released today by JLens, the leading Jewish values-based investor network, part of the ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) family. The report, the first of its kind to thoroughly quantify these risks, analyzed the historical…
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Let’s say that a university decides to acquiesce to the demands of anti-Israel protestors and divest its endowment from companies with business ties to Israel. It’s a plausible scenario, despite the many political, economic, and legal reasons to reject the idea: its unfair singling-out and demonization of Israel; the likelihood of reduced endowment returns and lower donations from alumni; state measures discouraging boycotts of Israel; and potential legal risk from…
ADL is addressing antisemitism through advocacy and education to help Jewish students, teachers and allies feel safe in the classroom. Explore the toolkits now!
Campus activism surrounding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict often presents a skewed narrative, painting Israel as the sole aggressor and magnifying its flaws beyond those of any other nation. While all countries have their shortcomings and deserve scrutiny, Israel stands out as a unique target of widespread university divestment campaigns, suggesting a disproportionate focus on its actions and policies. Through their rhetoric and demands, anti-Israel divestment campaigns can feed into the…
There are many reasons why it’s a bad idea for university endowments to divest from Israel. Divestment serves to delegitimize Israel and puts the onus for solving the longstanding Palestinian-Israeli conflict on only one side. It could also likely lead to economic ramifications, such as reduced alumni giving and lower returns, as well as open up the potential for heavier taxation of endowment income. Beyond all of these arguments, universities that decide to divest…
Even as we pause and mourn those we have lost, we cannot rest. Read more.
As encampment protests riled college campuses throughout the Spring 2024 semester, some universities agreed to formally consider protestors’ demands that their endowments divest from companies with business interests in Israel. It is the latest iteration of the years-long Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign that seeks to isolate Israel economically. Brown University reached an agreement for student protestors to take down their encampment and refrain from…
As students start returning to campuses with expected continuation of anti-Israel protests, JLens unpacks the demands and consequences of divestment campaigns.
IntroductionThese talking points address critical issues about university endowment divestment from companies doing business in Israel. We aim to provide comprehensive insights into the economic, legal, academic, and social implications of such decisions. Background and Key Definitions1. ADL believes that many of the founding goals of the BDS movement, which if implemented, would eradicate Israel, are antisemitic. Some BDS advocates and campaigns engage in antisemitic rhetoric. Boycott,…
JLens ran three successful proxy season campaigns with ADL that aimed to combat anti-Israel shareholder proposals and support efforts to protect kids online.
Hillel International, the premier Jewish on-campus organization that supports Jewish life at hundreds of colleges across the United States and abroad, has been one of the most frequent targets of anti-Israel activists and other antisemites in recent months, totaling more than a hundred incidents in the U.S. since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel. Jewish students and Hillel staff members have received threatening emails and phone calls; Hillel buildings have been vandalized and…
Antisemites across the political spectrum gathered in Somerset, KY on June 30, 2024 for a “JP” (Jewish Problem) Conference that promoted anti-Jewish hate.
Complaint: “Virulent wave of antisemitism” swept through Philadelphia schools after Oct. 7 New York, NY, July 23, 2024 … ADL (the Anti-Defamation League), represented pro bono by the law firm Mayer Brown LLP, today filed a federal civil rights complaint on behalf of Jewish parents whose children have been subjected to “severe and persistent harassment and discrimination” at the hands of fellow students and teachers in the School District of Philadelphia (SDP)…
Introduction Anti-Zionist group Samidoun (derived from the Arabic word for “steadfast”) is a self-described solidarity network for Palestinian inmates in Israeli prisons. In October 2024, the U.S. and Canadian governments sanctioned Samidoun as a "sham charity that serves as an international fundraiser for The Popular Front for The Liberation of Palestine" (PFLP), a designated terror group in the U.S., Canada, the European Union, Israel, and Japan. On October 15, 2024, the U.S…
Across the country in recent months, many anti-Israel activists have been engaged in strategic “escalation” to further their cause. These actions have included increasingly aggressive and targeted protests, property destruction and defacement, physical takeovers of institutions deemed to be “complicit” in alleged Israeli military actions, and even multiple cases of ideologically motivated arson attacks. For the most part, the tactics themselves — such as…
Se trata del mayor caso de este tipo, con más de 125 demandantes, y el primero presentado por una organización judía para responsabilizar a los Estados patrocinadores del terrorismo por el atentado terrorista del 7 de octubre en Israel Nueva York, NY, 1 de julio de 2024 ... La Liga Antidifamación (ADL) y Crowell & Moring LLP han presentado hoy una demanda federal alegando que Irán, Siria y Corea del Norte proporcionaron apoyo material a Hamás que…
New York, NY, July 1, 2024 … ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) and Crowell & Moring LLP today filed a federal lawsuit alleging Iran, Syria and North Korea provided material support to Hamas that enabled it to commit atrocities in Israel on October 7, 2023, that killed, injured, and terrorized scores of U.S. citizens and their families, and seeking financial compensation under applicable federal and local laws. The suit names over 125 plaintiffs, including U.S. citizens who were…
Since October 7, extremists and conspiracy theorists have promoted mis- and disinformation narratives about the reality of Hamas’s unprecedented, multi-pronged attack on Israel, attempting to deny or minimize the tragedy and shift the blame towards victims, a majority of whom were innocent civilians. These misleading or false claims — many of which have proliferated on mainstream social media platforms — manipulate and distort the facts of the mass assault, invalidate the…
As the “People’s Conference for Palestine” got underway in Detroit, MI on May 24, the packed audience cheered as Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) organizer and conference MC Mohammed Nabulsi opened by offering “salutations to our people in Palestine and to our noble, steadfast Resistance.” Nabulsi garnered further enthusiastic applause when he urged “eternal glory to our martyrs” and called to “liberate every inch of Palestine, from the Jordan…
Nakba Day commemorations across the United States, already charged events, were compounded this year by a sharp rise in anti-Israel activity tied to the Israel-Hamas war that was triggered by the October 7 mass terror attacks. Nakba Day (“catastrophe” in Arabic) is commemorated annually on May 15 by Palestinians and their supporters worldwide to mourn the events related to the creation of the State of Israel, including its impact on Palestinians, and to advocate for the…