As the war in Gaza enters its tenth month, college students across the country are continuing to push their universities to cut financial ties with Israel.
At Michigan State University, students and faculty have taken similar actions and have been urging school administrators to divest from companies that they say are contributing to Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
In recent months, protests for divestments in Israel have taken center stage at Michigan State University Board of Trustees meetings.
During the board’s June meeting in Flint, dozens of protesters caused a disruption so intense that it led to a temporary evacuation of the conference room.
At the forefront of these calls are MSU students who have been urging administrators to rethink how they are investing the school’s $4 billion endowment.
The Hurriya Coalition, a collective of more than 20 student groups, is urging the university to divest from companies that they say are implicated in Israel’s war efforts in Gaza. The group is also asking the university to create a Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) and Arab institute for students across campus.
MSU officials deny directly investing in Israel’s war efforts.
“To the degree that there are investments in Israel…there’s been a lot of talk about arms manufacturers," MSU President Kevin Guskiewicz told students at a Palestinian solidarity encampment in April.
That moment sparked Jennifer Goett’s curiosity, prompting the anthropology professor to team up with dozens of other faculty members to scrutinize the university’s investments.
“We took a look at MSU’s 2023 cash investments disclosure, and we found a direct investment in Israel bonds,” said Goett.
MSU’s Israel bond was purchased in 2023 and its worth $236,114, according to the university’s 2023 List of Cash and Investments. The faculty group has identified other university holdings in manufacturers that have supplied weapons used in Israel’s war efforts in Gaza.
MSU’s investments in Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman are around $3 million. The university’s Boeing bond, valued at over $1 million, matured in February of this year and has since ceased paying interest.
Some at MSU say the divestment issue is deeply personal.
Long-time faculty member Waseem El-Rayes is from Gaza. He says he's lost 28 family members in the war.
“The companies that provide these instruments of death are American companies that are killing my family members and devastating their homes,” said El-Rayes, who is also a part of the faculty group looking into MSU’s investments.
The group is planning to release a report in August detailing how some of MSU’s investments are connected to Israel and its military campaign in Gaza
“We are not asking for the university to divest from all Israeli companies. Just those benefiting and contributing to the occupation and genocide,” said Goett.
But MSU administrators don’t see the investments as supporting war, citing the world’s intertwined economic system.
“Today, every product made, whether it's made in the U.S. or made in Israel or made in some place in Europe or in Southeast Asia contains parts that are manufactured around the world,” said Phil Zecher, MSU’s Chief Investment Officer.
The university’s investments in the defense industry were prompted by yield and credit quality, Zecher said, adding that much of the control over weapons exports lies with the U.S. government.
“Israel is an ally,” Zecher said. “We need weapons manufacturers so that we have the equipment to defend ourselves and that our allies have the ability to defend ourselves.”
This isn’t the first-time divestment has been brought up at MSU.
Back in 1978, following months of protests, the MSU Board of Trustees agreed to divest stocks in companies operating in apartheid South Africa like General Motors, Dow Chemical and Kellogg. It was not until 1986, that Congress approved “The Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act” imposing sanctions against South Africa.
MSU administrators argue there is less consensus now about how the world should react to Israel and Gaza than there was then about South Africa.
“It does say there are a variety of opinions on this and if we said that we were going to divest on this then we are taking a very narrow one-sided view of the activities of these companies and of the outcome,” said Zecher.
While many support the growing calls for Israel’s divestment, there are others who feel that the protests foster an unsafe environment on campus.
“A lot of these calls do feel like personal attacks on a little piece of [Jewish students’ identities] or on a big piece because there are also Israeli students here on campus,” said Robyn Hughey, the executive director of MSU Hillel, the university’s center for Jewish students.
While the MSU administration maintains its stance, students and faculty are not giving up. They are planning more protests and hope to push the university towards cutting ties with Israel.
