Statement on Student Government Divestment Resolutions
It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something We, members of the Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine (FSJP), an independent coalition of faculty and staff at the University of Maryland, College Park, express our support for the divestment resolutions currently under consideration by the UMD-College Park Student Government Association (SGA): F24-10-30-A “A Resolution Calling on the University to Divest from Fossil Fuels” and F24-10-30-B “A Resolution Calling on the University to Divest from Companies Which Facilitate Violations of International Law and Human Rights.”
These resolutions have two objectives. The first resolution calls upon the University of Maryland and its nonprofit foundations to divest from fossil fuels and to recommit to carbon-free and socially responsible investment agreements that it had previously accepted in 2016-17. The second resolution calls upon the university and its nonprofit foundations to divest from corporations that facilitate state violence, war, occupation, and violations of international law and human rights.
Because of the deep connections between colonialism, militarism, and fossil fuel extraction, we see these two resolutions as complementary. Since the launch of Israel’s current military campaign in Gaza, Israel has granted licenses for offshore oil and gas production by large fossil fuel corporations. These projects extend a history of Israeli control of Palestinian waters and resources, intensifying threats to biodiversity at a time when basic energy, water, and food resources are being denied to Gazans.
We note with special concern that UMD’s financial support for energy, security, defense, military, and prison industries risks making the university complicit in war crimes, destruction or theft of Indigenous lands, international law violations, and environmental disasters. These forms of violence are not limited to Palestine or other locations where violations of international law have recently been in the news – such as the United States–Mexico border, Lebanon, and Sudan – but also affect us locally, as our university community and the State of Maryland are also affected by climate change, war, and incarceration.
Together, these resolutions present an opportunity for the SGA to make clear that investment strategies that operate in the name of students cannot be ethical or justified if they are opposed to environmental and social justice. The resolutions also pose a challenge to the UMD administration to take accountability for financial practices that promote arms sales, surveillance, prisons, polluting industries, and other ventures that cause violence and ecological destruction.
