Faculty members send letter to APIRL opposing divestment

March 4, 2015, 11:06 p.m.

A combined 135 Stanford faculty members have submitted two different statements to the Advisory Panel on Investment Responsibility and Leasing (APIRL) opposing the recent call for Stanford to divest from certain companies identified as complicit in human rights violations in Israel and Palestine.

The longer statement of the two, circulated by Avner Greif, Lawrence Marshall, Steve Zipperstein and Larry Diamond and signed by 114 current and emeritus faculty members, bemoans the “simplicity” of the onrushing divestment campaigns on campus.

“We believe these statements represent a considerable segment of campus opinion,” Diamond said in an email to The Daily.

“Israel deserves to be treated — much like nearly all other states — as a state worthy of criticism; the onslaught unleashed at Stanford suggests something far more overarching in its reach,” the statement read.

David Kreps and another 20 faculty members, while acknowledging their slight disagreement on “portions” of the first statement, say in their own statement that they are also opposed to the divestment activities because of the one-sided nature of the campaigns.

Signers of both statements mention are concerned that the divestment would be detrimental to reaching a compromise between Israel and Palestine.

Contact Qitong Cao at qitong ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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