In 2005, one hundred seventy bodies within Palestinian civil society launched the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement with the intention of compelling Israel to comply with international law. Recognizing that Israel’s decades-long projects of settler-colonialism, apartheid and occupation are facilitated by the support of international corporations and foreign governments, the movement places nonviolent pressure on the State of Israel to affirm Palestinian humanity and end its occupation and colonization of indigenous lands.

We, the undersigned members of the Swarthmore community, add our voices to the international BDS movement by calling on Swarthmore College to divest from seven companies invested in Israeli Apartheid and Occupation in Palestine. Below, we will briefly outline : Lockheed Martin, Elbit Systems, Boeing, Caterpillar, Hyundai, Bank Hapoalim, and Hewlett Packard (HP). From the development and maintenance of military, surveillance and biometric technology used at IDF checkpoints to the provision of machinery used to illegally demolish Palestinian homes and advance illegal settlement-building in the West Bank, these corporations both finance and profit from apartheid and military occupation in Palestine. (For more on their specific roles in funding Israeli Apartheid, visit this link: https://voices.swarthmore.edu/content-1/2018/10/24/swarthmore-college-divest-from-israeli-apartheid-now)

As an institution that professes to uphold social and ethical concern and responsibility as core values, Swarthmore College has a moral imperative to divest from Israeli Apartheid. Further, our institutional prominence and location in the United States, which contributes the largest portion of its economic and military aid to Israel, uniquely positions us to pressure our government to cease support of this regime and to set an example for other civil society bodies.

As long as we support these corporations, we support colonization, occupation, and apartheid. Swarthmore, divest now.