TIAA-CREF Divest

TIAA-CREF Divest Mime Troupe
TIAA-CREF Divest Mime Troupe at our National Day of Action in NYC, July 17, 2013

Press Coverage

The Forward

Israel Was 'Key' Issue in Caterpillar Dump

Abstract: 

Controversy over the Israeli army’s use of Caterpillar Inc. bulldozers to demolish Palestinian homes was a “key factor” in a corporate rating agency’s decision to drop the American manufacturer from its list of socially responsible companies.

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Press Coverage

Mondoweiss

Pro-Israel lobby tries (and fails) to spin TIAA-CREF divestment

Abstract: 

In the aftermath of TIAA CREF's divestment from Caterpillar Israel advocates are claiming the BDS movement invented a "conflict between the machine and the Palestinian people." But for years rights groups have documented violations of international law carried out by the Israeli army with the weaponized Caterpillar D9 bulldozers and the unmanned Caterpillar armored vehicles.

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Press Coverage

Mondoweiss

Caterpillar’s complicity in Israeli occupation played a part in MSCI delisting and TIAA-CREF divestment

Abstract: 

The decisions by TIAA-CREF, the pension fund managers, to divest $73 million in Caterpillar stock from a socially-responsible investment fund and by MSCI, a Wall Street investment service firm, to delist Caterpillar from its index of "socially responsible" companies, have hit a giant political nerve. Palestinian solidarity groups are claiming the divestment as a victory-- because Caterpillar has long been a target of divestment initiatives. Meantime, pro-Israel groups are spinning the decision their way, saying that Caterpillar got axed for reasons unrelated to the occupation.

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Press Coverage

JTAHaaretz

Israel cited in Caterpillar’s delisting from influential investment index

Abstract: 

The sale of Caterpillar tractors to Israel was a factor, but not the determining one, in the delisting of the company from an influential index that prioritizes good governance and human rights.The move, however, is poised to further complicate the difficult ongoing conversation about Israel taking place between American Jewish groups and the Presbyterian Church (USA).

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Press Release

Caterpillar Removed from TIAA-CREF’s Social Choice Funds

Victory for Pro-divestment Advocates

For Immediate Release

June 21, 2012- Pension fund giant TIAA-CREF has removed Caterpillar, Inc. from its Social Choice Funds portfolio. As of May 1, 2012, financial data posted on TIAA-CREF’s website valued Social Choice Funds shares in Caterpillar at $72,943,861. Today it is zero.

“We applaud this decision,” said Rabbi Alissa Wise, Director of Campaigns at Jewish Voice for Peace and National Coordinator of the We Divest Campaign (www.wedivest.org). “It’s long past time that TIAA-CREF began living up to its motto of ‘Financial Services for the Greater Good’ when it comes to the people of Israel and Palestine.”

Since 2010, We Divest has been urging TIAA-CREF to drop Caterpillar and other companies profiting from and facilitating Israel’s 45-year-old military occupation and colonization of the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip.

“By selling weaponized bulldozers to Israel, Caterpillar is complicit in Israel’s systematic violations of Palestinian human rights,” said Rabbi Wise. “We’re glad to see that the socially responsible investment community appears to be recognizing this and is starting to take appropriate action.”

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Press Release

Leviev’s Africa Israel Continues Settlement-Building, Contradicting 2010 Pledge

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 18, 2012, New York, NY -  
Adalah-NY released new photos today showing that Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev’s flagship company, Africa Israel (AI), continues to build Israeli settlements, despite a November 2010 AI statement that it was not involved in settlement construction. Adalah-NY also revealed that US pension giant TIAA-CREF, already the target of a campaign calling for divestment from Israeli occupation, has renewed its investments in AI after selling its shares in 2009. Campaigns targeting Leviev and TIAA-CREF are part of the growing movement for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it ends its violations of Palestinian rights.

Riham Barghouti from Adalah-NY explained, "Despite a facade of transparency, philanthropy, and glamour, Leviev's companies, including Africa Israel, continue to violate international law by building Israeli settlements and engaging in unethical business practices in Africa. Investors like TIAA-CREF, organizations like the Fashion Institute of Technology and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and celebrities like Daphne Guinness should boycott Leviev's companies rather than abetting their human rights abuses."

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