The Cornell Daily Sun Online

April 01, 2004

An Investment To Be Proud Of

Jamie Weinstein

Last year at campuses across the nation a number of students and faculty began circulating petitions asking their academic institution to divest all funds from the State of Israel. These petitions singled out one of the only democracies the Middle East as the only country in the world that was unfit to receive university investment of any kind.

The rise of this movement led Harvard President Larry Summers to deliver a historic and widely publicized speech in which he stated, among other things, that in the divestment movement, "serious and thoughtful people [were] advocating and taking actions that [were] anti-Semitic in their effect if not in their intent." In rejecting the idea of divestment on his campus, Columbia President Lee C. Bollinger added that the movement's comparison of Israel to Apartheid South Africa was "grotesque and offensive." While here at Cornell the movement did not catch on as it did on other elite campuses, there were still those who sadly expressed support for it.

From within the midst of this unfortunate nation-wide campaign, however, there came a glimmer of hope. From campus to campus a grass roots movement began to emerge. A large and diverse number of students and faculty who were outraged by the movement to divest came together and took action. The divestment movement unintentionally sparked a flame, which, by the time the flame reached its fiery peak, included over 55,000 students and faculty at nearly every college campus around the nation pledging their support for the State of Israel.

At Cornell, this grass roots movement was impressive. Over 1,200 students, faculty, and alumni signed their names to a petition stating that they stand with Israel and support a strong U.S.-Israel relationship. Going further, these students declared that they not only thought that it would be outrageous for Cornell to divest university funds from Israel, but they thought that the university should invest in Israel. With their signatures of support for Israel, they gave money -- often one dollar at a time -- to invest in the tiny democratic state. Part of that money was given to help victims of terror, while the other part has been used to purchase an Israeli bond in the name of Cornell University.

This bond is a tangible investment in Israel on behalf of Cornell. At a ceremony on March 14, the bond was presented to Cornell President Jeffery Lehman '77 by Jennie Berger '03, the President of the Cornell-Israel Public Affairs Committee. In accepting the bond, President Lehman joined the noble ranks of his fellow Ivy League Presidents Bollinger and Summers in standing up this dishonest and wholly misguided movement. It was a momentous occasion.

It was a momentous occasion not only because it is literally tangible dollars being invested in a country which shares similar values to our own and has been unfairly maligned over the past several years, but also because of what it signifies on a larger level. It signifies that a large and diverse group of students and faculty members stand united in support of the State of Israel at a time when such support is so necessary.

The detractors of Israel, including MIT linguist Noam Chomsky, who is credited with starting the divestment movement, could have never envisioned the size and scope of the counter movement which swept college campuses last year. It included members of every religion, political ideology, and ethnic background. While it is not clear that this counter movement has delivered a fatal blow to the divestment campaign -- the movement still exists to varying degrees on many college campuses -- the counter movement has most certainly sent Israel's detractors an important message: "Like America at large, college students stand with Israel!" They do so because it is right and just. They reject divestment because it is stands on a foundation of lies and they can see it for what it is.

While there may be some chatter between some Professors in the Ivory Towers of some notable universities and between some ill-informed students in the debating clubs on some college campuses across this nation about the "merits" of the divestment movement, in the University administrations where it matters the movement is rightfully falling on deaf ears. And here at Cornell investment in Israel, rather than divestment, is actually taking place. This is something the Cornell community should be immensely proud of.