If spending money is akin to voting, divestment is how institutions boycott causes they don’t believe in. Harvard’s divestments have been on the right side of history — a partial divestment from apartheid South Africa in 1986, tobacco stocks in 1990, and functional divestment from fossil fuels in 2021 after years of pushback from their law students. HLS’s current student body is pushing to get the school to divest from companies. The Crimson has coverage:
The Harvard Law School Student Government has scheduled a student-wide vote in March on a referendum to divest from companies involved in Israel’s war in Gaza.
The referendum, which will be administered to the student body from March 11 to March 13, urges students to vote in favor of Harvard’s divestment from companies “aiding violations of international humanitarian law” — including those that have provided support for the war in Gaza, which the referendum refers to as a genocide.
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I think referring to what is happening as a genocide is a given at this point. Let’s be honest — the presidential AI slop about how great of a travel destination Gaza will be after it gets seized by America reads a lot more like an advertisement for ethnic cleansing than it does cutting-edge conflict stratagem:
It is too early to evaluate the efficacy of the referendum. Even if the vote comes out overwhelmingly in favor in divestment, Harvard President Alan Garber has already voiced his refusal to divest from Israel. It would also be a huge 180 to go from punishing students and faculty for studying or praying for a ceasefire to divesting just a couple of months later. That said, the vote could influence a divestment at a later date, much like with fossil fuels.
For more information, you can go to HLS’s Student Government Instagram:
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HLS Student Government Says Divestment Referendum Voting Will Begin in March [The Crimson]
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Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s. He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and by tweet at @WritesForRent.