BDS Victory: Retirement giant drops $73 million in Caterpillar stocks

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"According to the Jewish Voice for Peace, retirement giant TIAA-CREF has dropped all $73 million in Caterpillar stocks from their socially responsible investment fund.

For Jewish Voice for Peace the move is a major victory since it's been campaigning for the change because Caterpillar bulldozers have been used to destroy thousands of Palestinian homes and orchards.

The organization says they won't stop there. The movement to pressure Israel to be accountable to international law is now on the verge of a historic breakthrough at the Presbyterian General Assembly in Pittsburgh next week the group claims.

The Presbyterian Church (USA), one of the largest Protestant denominations in the U.S., will be meeting to decide whether to divest from Caterpillar and a few other companies profiting from the Israeli occupation. This may be by far the most contested divestment vote in the U.S.

"We don’t have the hundreds of thousands of dollars for paid ads or celebrity speakers that our opponents have—but we do have committed, knowledgeable and dedicated Jews who can walk the aisles side by side with our Palestinian allies and tell Presbyterian voters face to face to go with their conscience and vote on behalf of justice for all people," said Sydney Levy, Director of Advocacy for the Jewish Voice for Peace."

http://www.arabamericannews.com/news/index.php?mod=article&cat=USA&article=5745

[henank]

1. JVP are lying

TIAA-CREF statement on request by JVP

While TIAA-CREF acknowledges participants’ varying views on Israeli and Palestinian policies and the Gaza Strip and West Bank, we are unable to alter our investment policy in accordance with those views. Our responsibility to earn a competitive financial return on the retirement savings entrusted to us by 3.7 million participants obliges us to invest in a diverse line-up of companies across all sectors of the global economy.

{snip}

Last year you divested from companies with ties to Sudan. How similar is the situation in the Gaza Strip and West Bank?

Our decision to sell shares in certain companies with ties to Sudan culminated a three-year effort to encourage them to take affirmative steps to ease human rights abuses and end genocide in the region in which they operate.

Our divestment action was consistent with U.S. foreign policy, as enshrined in the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act of 2007, which made it easier for mutual funds and private pension fund managers to sell their investments in companies with ties to the Sudanese government.

We believe that concerns about the situation in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank are best addressed by U.S. foreign policy and lend themselves less to using one’s shareholder status to influence portfolio companies.

Why are JVP lying so blatantly about something so easy to fact-check? It seems that the Forward has fallen for the lie. They should do something about their fact-checkers too.

[Dick Dastardly]

4. It seems to be the MO of BDS supporters to claim pressure from the BDS movement was the

reason anytime a BDS targets stock was sold even though it had nothing to do with it. BDS has had virtually no effect except in some small insignificant instances. In fact BDS has actually had the opposite effect as supporters of Israel will go out of their way to support BDS targets where they would not have done so previously.

[shira]

2. PA buys Caterpillar equipment, BDS and Corries silent

Palestinian Tractor is a truly Palestinian enterprise and is set to play a leading role in the country's economic and industrial development, as well as training and development to its Palestinian staff.

Palestinian Tractor and Equipment Co. Ltd. was established in 1995 as a sister company to Jordan Tractor and Equipment Co. and as an affiliate Company to M.E. JALLAD the dealer of Caterpillar Inc. in Lebanon and Syria since 1929. It is a part of Caterpillar dealers network established all over the world.

As a Caterpillar dealer, PT&E are able to bring to the country not only the finest quality products but also the expertise and the know how of a world leader in the productive use and management of machines that serve various segments of the market.

... As a Caterpillar dealer it is our aim to bring to the customer a quality product which is reliable and is best suited to his job requirements.

http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2012/06/pa-buys-caterpillar-equipment-bds-and.html

[King_David]

3. What? No BDS ? nt

[Scurrilous]

5. Israel cited in Caterpillar’s delisting from influential investment index

<snip>

"The sale of Caterpillar tractors to Israel was a factor, but not the determining one, in the delisting of the company from an influential index that prioritizes good governance and human rights.The move, however, is poised to further complicate the difficult ongoing conversation about Israel taking place between American Jewish gruops and the Presbyterian Church (USA).

A senior official at MSCI-ESG, a subdivision of MSCI, an investment advice firm, said Caterpillar already had a low rating before its delisting earlier this year, in part because of its association with the Israeli army’s use of the tractors in the West Bank and past use in the Gaza Strip. The role of Israel’s use of the tractors in the decision also suggests that a sustained campaign by pro-Palestinian groups has had some effect, although officials at MSCI-ESG and one of its clients, the TIAA-CREF pension fund, deny succumbing to direct pressure."

<snip>

"The MSCI-ESG official told JTA on Friday that what drove Caterpillar off the index was the company's decision in February to shutter a London, Ont. plant after a high-profile dispute with employees. However, the official acknowledged several factors played into the company's already relatively low rating, including the association of Caterpillar with Israeli army practices in the occupied territories.

The death in 2003 of Rachel Corrie, an American pro-Palestinian activist, while she was protesting such a demolition in Gaza, helped spur the BDS movement forward. Corrie’s parents and witnesses say she was caught beneath an armored tractor. The army denies fault and maintains she was killed by debris.

MSCI-ESG – ESG stands for Environment, Social or Governance – has as its clients a number of progressive groups that base their investments in part on social justice issues, including care for the environment, the treatment and safety of employees, and involvement in human rights abuses."

http://www.jta.org/news/article/2012/06/22/3098921/israel-cited-as-one-of-several-factors-in-caterpillars-delisting

[oberliner]

6. A major victory for the movement

I am confident this will have a strong impact on the achieving of their ultimate goals.

[King_David]

7. LOL

nt

[oberliner]

8. Incidentally, here is what those ultimate goals are

The campaign for boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) is shaped by a rights-based approach and highlights the three broad sections of the Palestinian people: the refugees, those under military occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and Palestinians in Israel. The call urges various forms of boycott against Israel until it meets its obligations under international law by:

1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands occupied in June 1967 and dismantling the Wall;
2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN Resolution 194.

http://www.bdsmovement.net/bdsintro

Important to remember that removal of all Israeli settlements and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza does not mean an end to the boycott, divestment, sanctions movement.

[King_David]

9. Yes that is quite clear. nt