UIUC Divest doesn’t single out any nation, cause or situation. This would be antithetical to our goal: supporting the rights and liberation of all oppressed peoples.

Divestment includes but does not single companies which aid in Israel’s egregious human rights violations. We also include companies which fund mass incarceration, construction of the Dakota Access pipeline, and immigrant detention centers. Alleging divestment is anti-Semitic depends on the conflation of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. Our critiques of Israel’s practices are not attacking people of the Jewish faith or heritage.

All information on Divest’s referendum is open to the public. Divest isn’t hiding any “secret” agenda or promoting any form of hate. There have been multiple events and discussions for everyone’s voice to be heard and questions answered regarding the campaign/referendum. We’ve attempted to engage in open dialogue but were met with misinformation and smear tactics.

We cannot remain complicit in human rights violations. Divestment is a peaceful method of dismantling and challenging transnational power structures and flows of capital which enable injustice. There’s no proof that companies divested from will cut their ties with the entire institution because: 1) the referendum’s passage won’t trigger divestment — it’s a non-binding show of support, and 2) companies don’t fund students because they care about our reciprocal investments in them — they want to hire skilled labor.

There’s a critical difference between safety and comfort. Divestment doesn’t make this campus unsafe. If divestment makes you uncomfortable then your comfort is likely based in tacit support of human rights violations. Universities are spaces where ideas are challenged. Challenging contentious ideas is uncomfortable. Hostility is nothing compared to what our money goes into supporting: murder, environmental destruction, incarceration and more. If we should unite behind anything, unite behind supporting human rights for the world’s most vulnerable—vote yes to divest.