Dershowitz Defends Investments in Israel

Harvard Law School Professor Alan M. Dershowitz has called for a “counter-disinvestment campaign” against Hampshire College unless the school explicitly denies claims that their recent decision to withdraw from a mutual fund represents an act of divestment from Israel.

Hampshire administrators decided earlier this month to withdraw investments from a State Street mutual fund with holdings in six companies contracting with the Israeli military, after a college student group, Students for Justice in Palestine, petitioned the school to divest because of the companies’ ties to what students called “Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine.”

Hampshire President Ralph M. Hexter ’74 said yesterday that the move resulted from a broader review of the fund that was prompted by the student petition and found that many of its companies—not just those flagged by the students—did not meet the college’s ethical standards.

“Israel’s occupation played no role in this decision,” Hexter said. “I want to make it very clear that we have funds in other Israeli companies, and we’re continuing to hold onto those stocks.”

After the student group hailed Hampshire’s decision as a divestment victory, Dershowitz entered the fray, demanding to know from the group’s leaders and Hampshire administrators whether the decision was an act of divestment.

“My goal is to fight back and to end this hijacking of the human-rights agenda,” Dershowitz said. “This was a cancer that had to be stopped.”

Dershowitz said he called the student group’s spokesperson to confirm that Hampshire had divested from Israel, and that he did not want to launch a campaign to stop donations to the college unless the college had divested.

The divestment debate carries particular weight at the Amherst, Mass. college, as it was the first U.S. college to divest from South Africa in 1977.

Leaders of the student group have accused Dershowitz—whose son attended Hampshire—of threatening them and the college in an act of “academic bullying.”

“Dershowitz called me a few minutes after the press release came out,” said Matan Cohen, a student spokesperson for the group and a sophomore at Hampshire. “He threatened to start a boycott campaign against me, SJP, and the college at large.”

Dershowitz acknowledged calling the student group and administrators but denied allegations that he threatened anyone.

“Anyone who interpreted it as a threat is simply lying for ideological reasons,” Dershowitz said.

Facing the possibility of a boycott, administrators at the college issued a “statement of clarification” that said the decision to withdraw from the fund was made “without reference to any country or political movement,” in an effort to distance itself from the claim that the college had divested from Israel.

But the administration’s response did not unequivocally deny divestment in Israel and allowed SJP to claim that the action had been taken to protest Israel’s actions, Dershowitz said.

Dershowitz added that he does not oppose protesting Israel’s actions but said the college’s actions smacked of hypocrisy and anti-Semitism in light of other human-rights abusers around the world.

Hampshire had not withdrawn its money from the State Street fund as of yesterday, according to a spokeswoman for the school.

The college has $4 million invested in the fund, which represented about 20 percent of the school’s managed funds at the end of 2008.

As of yesterday, Dershowitz and the college remained at loggerheads, with the Harvard professor vowing to continue his campaign until Hampshire publicly clarified its decision.

“The president of Hampshire said personally to me that ‘we didn’t divest from Israel.’ If he’s prepared to say that publicly, then the issue is over,” Dershowitz said.

—Staff writer Elias J. Groll can be reached at egroll@fas.harvard.edu.