Economist: Even if schools divest in companies tied to Israel, it’s unlikely to produce results protestors are hoping for

RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — With pro-Palestinian protestors demonstrating on college campuses across Virginia and the country, it’s worth asking — what exactly do students want their schools to do about the ongoing war in the Middle East?

While many protestors are urging their colleges and universities to support a cease-fire, they’re also demanding their colleges and universities cut off what they perceive to be financial support for Israel.

“Full divestment of financial investments, complete academic boycotts from Israeli institutions and terminating relationships with companies active in this apartheid,” Sereen Haddad, who helped organize Monday’s protest at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) told 8News about what the protestors are advocating for.

Haddad wants VCU to disclose what companies it invests in and divest from those with ties to Israel.

“What this means is we want them to divest from all companies and partnerships that support or otherwise profit from the colonization of the Palestinian people,” Haddad said.

Economist Dr. James Koch, who previously served as the President of the University of Montana and Old Dominion University, explains how colleges invest in order to ensure financial stability.

“Seldom does a university explicitly invest in a particular company, rather they have managers who are investing a wider portfolio,” Koch told 8News.

Koch said that, because colleges don’t typically invest in particular companies, divesting could be challenging — and it’s unlikely to produce the results protestors are hoping for.

“You would have to have lots and lots of universities going together and lots and lots of investors going together for this to make much of a difference at all, and even then, what I just pointed out, for every seller there is a buyer,” Koch said. “Someone else is owning that, so it’s not like Israel is going to suffer very much.”

It’s important to note that schools’ investment portfolios are not necessarily public. 8News reached out to VCU to try and get a list of the companies they invest in and we were told our request would be processed through the Freedom of Information Act.

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