What BDS Overlooked: Sponsors of terrorism within the University of California Endowment

On February 8th, the University of California Student Association Congress voted to divest holdings in the UC endowment from specific companies operating with or within Israel. The association also called for divestment from holdings in the governments of the United States, Mexico, Russia, and Brazil (among others). The legislation was brought forth by members of a global initiative to dismantle the state of Israel called ‘Boycott Divestment Sanctions’ (BDS).

Pro-Israel students from campuses across the state showed up to express their concerns regarding the legislation, their main assertion being that the legislation adopts a one-sided narrative that distorts the realities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A central argument for BDS proponents asserts that these pieces of legislation restore neutrality within the endowment, and that the endowment holds no investments profiting from or otherwise involved in terrorism against the state of Israel (Palestinian or other). Of course, the illegal nature of funding terrorist organizations makes it a significantly more rare occurrence than businesses operating within the limits of the law by working with the state of Israel. Even so, upon analysis of the UC General Endowment Pool (GEP) the following holdings were discovered (the following is by no means an exhaustive list of investments involved in terrorism against the State of Israel).

The GEP currently has over $500,000 invested in HSBC Holdings. HSBC has previously been found guilty by U.S. courts of laundering millions of dollars for Hezbollah fronts, an anti-Israel and anti-Western terrorist organization. One might recall Hezbollah’s own manifesto, which states: “our struggle will end only when this entity [Israel] is obliterated. Or the former leader of Hezbollah stating that “The Palestinian National Charter will live on as long as there is a knife in a Palestinian woman's hand with which she stabs… as long as there are suicide bombers in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. HSBC affiliates also processed $19.4 Billion in undisclosed transactions with Iran, which the U.S. State Department classified as the largest state sponsor of terrorism in 2012.

The GEP currently has over $250,000 invested in the Royal Bank of Scotland Group, which is currently facing renewed lawsuits regarding its fundraising for Interpal. The United States Treasury Departments prohibits permanent residents from doing business with Interpal, based on allegations that the organization funds Hamas terrorism activities.

Guy Singer studies Psychology & Middle East Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.