NORTHAMPTON — The City Council unanimously passed a resolution on Thursday to divest from companies that have “complicity in violations of international law and human rights in Israel and Palestine,” the latest step by the city to address concerns from residents and activists about the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
The resolution, recommend by Ward 4 Councilor Jeremy Dubs, Ward 7 Councilor Rachel Maiore and Ward 1 Councilor Stanley Moulton, calls on the city to refrain from investing in Israeli bonds and companies identified by the nonprofit American Friends Service Committee as complicit in human rights abuses in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Companies listed by the nonprofit include Boeing, Chevron and defense contractor L3Harris, which has a manufacturing facility in Northampton. According to the resolution, the city currently has around $71,000 invested in such companies.
“The City Council recognizes that all human life is precious; and recognizes the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the West Bank in particular,” the resolution states. “The City Council believes that the City’s finances should align with our values.”
The resolution also cites a 2022 report by the group Amnesty International concluding that Israel had “imposed a system of oppression and domination” over Palestinians, as well as a 2024 ruling by the International Court of Justice that ruled Israel had illegally occupied Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
In a packed City Council Chambers on Thursday evening, dozens of members of the public, many identifying themselves as Jewish, spoke in favor of the resolution, taking up the entirety of the allotted 90 minutes for public comment. Resident Jenny Bender called on her fellow Jews and fellow Americans to put political differences aside and oppose the violence in Gaza.
“When I say that I am in support of the divestment resolution, it is because I am in such deep despair and rage and terror and grief about the tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians that are being killed,” Bender said. “Whether you identify as Jewish or not, whether you identify as Zionist or anti-Zionist or conservative or progressive, I imagine that most of us here today oppose this unchecked bloodshed.”
Alisa Klein, who lives in Ward 7 and served three terms on the council ending in 2020, said that such divestment was the “only moral stance” the city could take on the matter. She also denied that such a divestment was antisemitic, noting that she herself was a Jew and an Israeli citizen who served two years in the country’s compulsory military service.
“Our tax dollars, this city’s investments, make us partners to this massive crime against humanity,” Klein said. “This action is nothing more than our city’s contribution to stopping a genocide.”
Though most of the public comments were in favor of the resolution, there were several dissenters, such as Shanna Fishel of Leeds.
“Divesting from Israel is ridiculous,” Fishel said. “Divesting hurts the people, all people, the citizens, not the government. All you are doing with these resolutions is dividing this community and sowing seeds of hate.”
During the discussion of the resolution by the council, Maiore said that the city had a responsibility to do whatever it could at the local level to stop the war in Gaza.
“This is not a blanket boycott, this targets corporations and industry,” she said. “This is not a burden to fall on everyday people in Israel. This is about saving us all from what is happening.”
Dubs said that although the war was thousands of miles away in the Middle East, the resolution remained a local issue since it concerned government funds and how they are allocated. He also noted the city had a history of divestment from policies it disagreed with, such as a 2013 divestment from fossil fuels.
“What if there was a genocide happening here right in America? What would we do about it? Wouldn’t we want people all over the world speaking up for us?” Dubs said. “I believe that this is continuing in the tradition of protecting our most vulnerable.”
The amount of money the city will divest as part of the resolution amounts to less than 1% of the city’s total investments. But Moulton said that any amount invested on the issue was too much.
“While that’s a relatively small amount of money, I believe any amount diverges from the city’s humanitarian values,” Moulton said. “I believe, that we have a moral imperative as leaders in the community to continue responding to the violations of international law and human rights in Israel and Palestine.”
The resolution follows a previous resolution by the council in 2024 that called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. It also follows numerous demonstrations against the war that have taken place in the Pioneer Valley since the start of the conflict on Oct. 7, 2023, including an encampment at UMass Amherst that led to more than 100 arrests and several demonstrations in front of defense contractor L3Harris by local groups that have also led to arrests.