• Keeponstalin@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    Local and state governments absolutely have a say through their investments to Israel. It’s just as important to pressure them for divestment as the federal government and corporations on the BDS list.

    Not only are state and local lawmakers more accessible to constituents than federal lawmakers, but local investment portfolios also hold billions of dollars in funding to Israel sourced from the everyday taxes of community members. State and local governments across the U.S. hold more than $4 trillion in all investments in their investment portfolios. At least $1.6 billion in Israel Bonds is held between state governments, municipal governments, and public pension funds nationwide. Those investment dollars come from every individual, household, and business within the municipal or state borders that pay property taxes, income taxes, and sales taxes, making them some of the most representative pools of dollars invested on behalf of the public. Saper says that campaigns targeting the investment of these local dollars “invite people to reckon with how implicated we are here at home with the atrocities we are witnessing abroad.”

    • jordanlund@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      The people screaming for divestment have no idea what’s involved. In many cases there are contractual obligations that make it impossible.

      The people screaming for it have no idea how any of it works, they just want it stopped and will continue to get angry when it doesn’t.

      • Keeponstalin@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        This is nonviolent civil disobedience to protect the financial support of an ongoing genocide. Acting like this isn’t a valid form of protest or that the BDS movement have “no idea what’s involved” when putting pressure on corporations and institutions to Divest is ridiculous.

        These kind of protests do put pressure and bring the issue to the forefront of the local and state administrative bodies. The BDS movement was successful in the divestment of Apartheid South Africa, this isn’t too different

        “Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue,” King wrote. “It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored.”

        • MLK Jr. on the nature of nonviolent protests
          • Keeponstalin@lemmy.world
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            3 months ago

            Yeah dude, that’s why the anti-apartheid protests and BDS movement in the United States were so unsuccessful and not effective when it came to South Africa

          • WanderingVentra@lemm.ee
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            3 months ago

            The offenses are actually happening in the US, too. That’s where the voters voting for genocide enablers are located, that are sending all the bombs to Gaza to blow up schools and hospitals.

      • AntiOutsideAktion@lemmy.ml
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        3 months ago

        I’m sorry, hundreds of thousands of innocent children. This piece of paper says it’s impossible to stop paying for you to be murdered.

        • jordanlund@lemmy.world
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          3 months ago

          Pretty much, that’s how “contractual obligations” work.

          In my state, we’ve been trying to get the state Public Employees Retirement System to divest from oil investments for a few decades now. The big problem is PERS is tied up with contractual obligations to provide a specific return on investment, a return which can’t be made if they dump fossil fuels:

          https://www.opb.org/article/2024/02/07/oregon-retirement-fund-carbon-neutrality/

          The folks supporting divestment think it’s like a light switch. “Well, just STOP!” and it doesn’t work that way.

          • AntiOutsideAktion@lemmy.ml
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            3 months ago

            It literally does just work that way. A piece of paper is a piece of paper. “But we won’t make as much money” is the part that holds it together. Contracts and laws in general are no more or less than a pretext to exercise class power. They’re broken at will in other contexts. The US was literally founded on it.

            • jordanlund@lemmy.world
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              3 months ago

              Tell me you don’t understand how a contract works without telling me you don’t understand how a contract works.

              There are legal liabilities for breaking a contract. It’s not that simple.

              • AntiOutsideAktion@lemmy.ml
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                3 months ago

                Tell me you don’t interact with people without a keyboard without telling me [useless repetition]. Fucking weirdo.

                Yes it is that simple. The law is, and only is, a mechanism for people with power to exercise that power under the veil of legitimacy. Ask any Indian tribe. Ask anyone with x amount of money attempting to litigate a contract with someone with 1000x amount of money.

                The reality of the system cannot be disputed without looking like a fucking joke.