Printer-friendly versionSend to friendPDF version

Please add your name to this campaign initiated by Jewish voices for peace

http://www.jvp. org/campaigns/ tiaa-cref- divest-occupatio n 

To sign on, please write to 

tiaacrefcampaign@ gmail.com

please also include your affiliation if appropriate.





------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -------

15 July, 2010

Dear TIAA-CREF participants,



We are a group of citizens and residents of Israel, Palestinians and Jews. We join our friends at Jewish Voice for Peace1, and many others around the world, in urging you to divest from companies which profit from Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. It is particularly as Israelis that we appeal to you, we find it extremely offensive when the occupation is said to be carried out in our names or for our sake. 



 

It is likely that you are not aware that your funds are invested in companies such as Caterpillar and Northrop Grumman. Companies like these play a crucial role in the decades long continuing dispossession of the Palestinian people, whether by selling bulldozers used for destroying houses or delivering spare parts to airplanes which are regularly deployed against civilian population.



The degree of separation which investment through funds provides does not absolve people of the moral responsibility for actions taken in their name, but merely serves to obscure the nature of profiting from misery. We are sure that as individuals, you are not willing to take part in severe violations of human rights. We therefore ask you to refuse to invest your money in such companies and to ask TIAA-CREF to divest from them.





Sincerely,



Rachel Giora

Tikva Honig-Parnass

Yael Lerer, Andalus Publishing

Anat Matar

Edo Medicks

Susanne Moses

Naama Nagar

Ofer Neiman

Jonathan Pollak

Tali Shapiro

Ayala Shani

Kobi Snitz

Elian Weizman