This week, city aldermen met with local activists to address the rising swell of voices calling for a total divestiture of Israeli bonds and selected companies selling equipment to Israel from the city’s retirement fund. Sound familiar?

In the mid-eighties, many universities around the country were pressured by student populations to divest from South Africa in protest to its rule of Apartheid.

To a certain degree, the pressure exerted by the collegiate divestiture from South African businesses, and the attention it drew to the abuses of the Apartheid government, is credited with regime change in South Africa and the end of Apartheid. Divestiture seemed to work. 

The U.S. government participates in this sort of coercion every time we implement trade embargoes on countries believed to represent some threat to security. It is a disciplinary tactic, and one that works well if accompanied by diplomatic engagement.

In early 2000, divestiture once again entered the political spotlight as a potential vehicle to affect change, this time in Israel. Academics and activists argued that threatened divestiture from Israel could change the treatment of Palestinians living in Israeli occupied territories, in much the same way it affected regime change in South Africa.

The movement swept the Ivy League, landing in Harvard President Larry Summers’ lap in 2003.

A petition was drawn in favor of divestiture and was finally voted down 75 to 439 by the Harvard faculty.

While divestiture was successful in its aims in South Africa

, the South African economy was destroyed by the divestiture, and experienced a depression which lasted from 1988 to 1993: a depression from which the nation is still recovering.

Our city is now indicating that we too may find this initiative appealing, worth backing.

The peace in Israel is an issue close to everyone’s hearts and we at The Somerville News wholeheartedly applaud the vigorous debate conducted in the aldermanic chambers.

And we also recognize that human rights violations require action, the sooner the better. We are not advocating for isolationism.

Rather, we agree wholeheartedly with the mayor’s position on the issue.

The responsibility of the City’s Retirement Board to the pension fund, according to law, is a fiduciary one. That is, they are duty bound to maximize return on investment for the retirement fund.

To make an exception to this duty, based on an intensely complex moral question, only sets a precedent for further complexities.

Furthermore, however well-intentioned, the initiative to divest from Israel seems misguided as a total divestiture from Israel could potentially destabilize the region further, damaging both the Israelis and the Palestinians for the long term.

Israel is a democracy, and its economy will continue to spur economic development within the region, enriching its neighbors once peace is finally achieved.

Why are we involved in foreign policy, anyway? Shouldn’t we be getting the Green Line into the city?

Goodbye to Neil McCabe. He made the paper what it is today. Best of Luck with The North Cambridge Alewife – his new paper. Give ‘em hell.

Keep an eye on us for changes: coming soon; Calendar of Events, Music Editor Mary Hamilton’s new music column, and Stella Luna’s horoscope.