© Steven Senne/APActivists hang a placard • Rhode Island School of Design • Providence, Rhode Island • May 7, 2024
Some universities are vowing to provide information about how much university endowment money is invested in companies profiting from the Israel-Hamas war amid calls from pro-Palestinian protesters. On college campuses across the country, a rallying cry of pro-Palestinian protesters has been
"Disclose, divest! We will not stop, we will not rest."Now some are winning the first of those two demands:
Promises to provide information about how much university endowment money is invested in companies profiting from the Israel-Hamas war.As part of that effort, the
University of Minnesota, for one, disclosed this week that about
$5 million of its $2.27 billion endowment investments — or less than a quarter of 1% —
are tied to Israeli companies or U.S. defense contractors.To Ali Abu, a 19-year-old University of Minnesota student and member of Students for Justice in Palestine, the disclosure is a first step. He was among more than a dozen students to stand before the university's Board of Regents on Friday and demand further action.
"That chant isn't a bluff," he said, adding: "We will truly not stop. And we will truly not rest until this university divests."
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