HARRISBURG, Pa., Sept. 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Board of Directors of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME) deplores the recently publicized demand that TIAA-CREF divest itself of its holdings in an Israeli-owned company, Africa-Israel. SPME is an international academic organization of 28,000 academics world-wide, based in the United States.
The divestment demand came from 59 academics, several of whom are well known for anti-Israel activism. The anti-Israel faculty had their facts wrong (TIAA-CREF had already terminated its holding, presumably for financial reasons), but their demand illustrates certain academics’ hostility, bias and prejudice towards the state of Israel, and their indifference to the facts.
The SPME Board of Directors commends TIAA-CREF for its long-standing and consistent policy of resisting the politicization of its allocations, and urges that any future calls to divest from Israeli companies for political reasons be rejected.
Furthermore, because of recent confusion in the media, we encourage TIAA-CREF to make a public statement about its purely fiduciary decision to drop Africa-Israel from its holdings, and about its commitment to resisting the politicization of its allocations.
For more information on Scholars for Peace in the Middle East and our action alert on TIAA-CREF please see our web site www.spme.net.
This action was approved by the SPME Board of Directors on September 13, 2009.
For more information: Contact Dr. Edward S. Beck President, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East www.spme.net at ScholarsforPeace@aol.com or call 1-717-576.5038 or Prof. Sam Edelman, Executive Director, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East at Sedelman@csuchico.edu or call 1- 530-570-8137.
* Visit Scholars For Peace in the Middle East website http://www.spme.net
* Please consider making a donation to SPME http://www.spme.net/donation.html
CONTACT: Dr. Edward S. Beck President, +1-717-576-5038, ScholarsforPeace@aol.com, or Prof. Sam Edelman, Executive Director, +1- 530-570-8137, Sedelman@csuchico.edu, both of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East