What is happening to Palestinians in Gaza is disturbing. CNN reported on January 7 that since October 7, an average of 10 Palestinian children have been mutilated each day.
Most of Gaza's hospitals have been forced to close, with patients wandering around in hopes of reaching another hospital, even though facilities are overcrowded and have few supplies. In Al Shifa, Gaza City, “so many patients are sitting on the floor that they can barely move without stepping on someone's hands or feet.”
UN relief chief Martin Griffiths said hundreds of thousands of people were currently suffering from hunger. “Hunger” is the most severe category of mass hunger, just above “catastrophic.”
There have been constant military raids in the West Bank, some using drones. Since October 7, more than 360 Palestinians have been killed and more than 4,000 injured. And 95 of those killed were children. Israeli civilians, known as “settlers,” participate in violence without fear of consequences.
Yes, there were terrible atrocities committed by Palestinians in Gaza on October 7, but what was perpetrated against hundreds of thousands of Palestinians rises to a whole other level of brutality. Jewish Voice for Peace, which has more than 700,000 members and supporters, considers what is happening to the Palestinians to be genocide. South Africa has accused Israel of this crime at the International Court of Justice.
Meanwhile, the state of Connecticut has invested millions of dollars in public employee pension funds in hundreds of Israeli companies and Israeli state bonds. The total amount now stands at $95 million.
We invest as if nothing special is going to happen. We are investing despite the precedent that the state of Connecticut divested from companies because it was appalled by unjust or murderous actions by its government. These sales occurred in apartheid South Africa in the 1980s, Northern Ireland in the 1990s, Sudan in 2006, Iran in 2019, and Russian companies today.
The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1947, operates a site with an app that analyzes investments. When you invest in Israel, Connecticut through this app, 37 companies will be recommended for sale to you. Some involve military work, prisons, and construction.
The construction seems quite innocuous until you realize that many of these building projects involve violations of international law. Since 1973, apartheid has been designated as an international crime. The Israeli-held territory, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River, is considered an apartheid zone by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and many other major human rights organizations, many of them Israeli. By building walls, Jewish-only settlements, and prisons, corporations become complicit in the apartheid system.
Among the 37 companies cited by AFSC is Cellebrite, an Israeli digital intelligence company that supplies hacking technology to law enforcement agencies, prison authorities, border patrol agencies and repressive regimes around the world, the most notorious of which is Cellebrite. It is the Saudi government.
Shikun Limited builds infrastructure and housing projects in several informal settlements in the occupied West Bank. There is a company called Neptune Intelligent Computer Engineering, whose official name is NICE Ltd. This is a surveillance company that specializes in phone, video, and internet surveillance. Matrix IT Co., Ltd. Matrix has contracts with Israeli police and prisons. One of the company's subsidiaries provides training services to Israel's National Police College. Leumi Bank is one of the largest banks in Israel. According to AFSC, AFSC is deeply involved in the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Occupied Syria.
Finally, Elbit Systems Ltd. is Israel's largest arms manufacturing company. AFSC reports that its weapons are routinely used in war crimes against Palestinian civilians. Elbit manufactures cluster munitions, weaponized white phosphorus munitions, and flechette munitions.
One Connecticut investment not mentioned in the AFSC app is Zim. The company is a shipping company, and the Zim investment from Connecticut is now worth more than $250,000. When Israel bombed Gaza in 2014, thousands of protesters blocked the unloading of cargo at the Port of Oakland. In 2021, 500 activists and longshoremen in Oakland refused to unload cargo, and a similar effort took place in Seattle. It is unclear what is being sent to the US, but it is likely the “security” and “intelligence” equipment that gives Israel such notoriety.
The Connecticut state treasury invests money in more than a dozen funds, dwarfing the funding of public employees such as state employees, teachers and local government employees. Have these workers ever been asked whether their money should be used to support Israel? Has their union ever been notified? Connecticut law requires that investment 'Social, economic and environmental impacts' must be considered. Will Connecticut lawmakers consider these implications when it comes to Israel, whose government is so complicit in international crimes? Are they going to create a law banning investment in Israel?
Stanley Heller is the administrator of the Perpetual Peace Promotion Organization, founded in New Haven in 1952. He is also a member of Jewish Voice for Peace.
