CU-Divest at the Board of Regents

2-minute Public Comment, Michael Rabb, 22 Feb 2011, Board of Regents Meeting, University of Colorado

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The University of Colorado should divest from companies that support Israel’s apartheid policies against the Palestinians.

Good Afternoon, My name is Michael Rabb, I’m alum of CU Boulder, graduate school, MS Telecom, 1983, and a local Boulder resident.

I wanted to take advantage of public comment today to address the Board of Regents to communicate a serious concern among the University community, that investments held by the University of Colorado may violate the University’s commitment to human rights and social justice: that some of the University’s investments support the apartheid policies of Israel.

You know there is a global campaign of BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) for Palestine. I wanted to let the Board of Regents and the University of Colorado generally know, that we (concerned members of the University community: students, faculty, employees and local citizens) are starting a campaign, we call it “CU-Divest,” to urge the University to divest from its investments that support Israel’s occupation and apartheid of Palestine.

As a first step in this campaign, I have drafted a resolution for action by the Board of Regents. This draft resolution essentially requests that the University state unequivocally that it abhors apartheid and will do all it can to show its position on apartheid within its business practices by ending its investments that support the oppression of the Palestinian people,

It also requests the Board of Regents immediately commission an examination of its investments including all funds, endowments and pension funds with an objective of identifying investments in companies, institutions and investment funds that directly and indirectly support Israel’s apartheid policies,

And finally, the resolution requests the Board of Regents commit to act on the recommendations of the study to actually divest of its holdings in such companies and funds.

I request the Board of Regents consider this draft resolution and adopt the resolution. I hope we can meet with the Board of Regents in the future to develop this action.

For more information and the full text of the resolution please go to cu-divest.blogspot.com.

Thank you for your time.