BDS and Me: My Divestment Story
This is about money. My money and my move last March 2024 to divest one of my financial portfolios from Intel and Chevron, two companies profiting from the 76-year occupation of Palestine and genocide in Gaza. It’s also a story about taking the capital gains from the sale and recycling them back into organizations supporting the people of Palestine while avoiding capital gains tax.
While I’m relieved to have finally done this, I wish I would have acted sooner. I feel sick that I have, albeit in a minuscule way, been funding these oppression enablers.
For the detractors out there, yes, I realize I am one person in an ocean of investors and that my move doesn’t change anything on the ground. But as we scream and rage at the live-streaming genocide while the American government enables, funds, and applauds it, no act of solidarity feels too small.
Well before the current genocide, the Boycott Divestment Sanctions (BDS) Movement has been calling on us to do that which I’ve just done: take actions that hurt the economy surrounding the occupation. In war and genocide, money and profit sustain, and some would say, are the reason behind these horrors. By hitting them where it matters, profit, we can change the course of history.
Formed in 2005 by Palestinian civil society, #BDS calls on Israel to comply with international law by meeting the following demands:
1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall
2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
3. Respecting, protecting, and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.
Inspired by the roles boycott, divestment, and particularly sanctions played in the fall of Apartheid South Africa, the BDS Movement is guided by the principle that ‘Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as the rest of humanity’.
BDS makes sense to me as I’ve always operated under the assumption that every commodity and transaction is somehow linked to injustice as even the most quotidian of things, food, banking, and clothing seem inextricably connected to the oppression of someone, somewhere. If my instincts are true and injustice is baked into everything, how do we begin to untangle ourselves, our purchases, and how we invest?
BDS is a proponent of targeted actions against a small number of complicit actors. In our millions, by focusing on a few, we can truly effect desired outcomes as we’ve already seen with companies such as Soda Stream and PUMA, who, thanks to the pressure of boycott, have succumbed to BDS demands.
So, where to begin?
Finding ‘The List’ was easy as hardly any existed. If one Googles ‘how to divest from the Israeli occupation’ you will get information from BDS, the e-zine, Revolutionary Socialism in the 21st Century (rs21), the United Methodist Church, and Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME), to name a few.
After comparing the lists and finding some discrepancies, I woke up and remembered, ‘Wait, why am I looking any further than a list that originates from Palestine?’. In my everyday struggle to decolonize my mind, my gaze needs to be on what Palestinians are asking for and what they are saying.
The BDS divestment list:
HP
Elbit Systems
CAF (Basque transport firm)
Volvo
Barclays
HIK Vision (China)
HD Hyundai (S Korea)
JCB (UK)
Intel
Chevron/Noble Energy
CAT (US)
TKH Security (Netherlands)
The next step was to contact my financial advisor to let him know that I wanted to divest from any companies on the BDS list. After a scan of my portfolio, he let me know that I had stock exposure to both Intel and Chevron. As the sale of a stock is straightforward, we discussed when to sell and what the capital gains would be.
Launched on 19 March 2024, the BDS #Boycottintel campaign was in reaction to Intel’s decision to invest $25 billion in the construction of a chip-making factory in Kiryat Gat, Israel, 16 miles from Gaza. While Intel has long been investing in Israel (50 billion over 50 years), the timing and scale of this investment were egregious.
“Intel has been aiding and abetting Israel’s apartheid for decades, feeding its war chest, and now it is directly feeding its war chest while it continues its unspeakable genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip. Intel is complicit in Israel’s genocide and its underlying system of apartheid. Intel’s M.O. seems to be, ‘Make Apartheid Great Again!’” (from BDS website)
Chevron also fuels the Israeli genocidal machine.
‘As Israel bombs and starves Palestinians in #Gaza, Chevron supplies energy and millions of $$ in tax revenue to Israel via the operation of major gas fields off the coast of occupied Palestinian land.’ (from @bds.movement).
Further, ‘The pipeline is not under Israeli jurisdiction, and any economic gain in this area without Palestinian agreement is illegal under international law.’ (from @bds.movement)
I knew I wanted to take the ‘profit’ from these sales and donate them to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in Palestine. This I felt great about. But the capital gains stumped me.
Paying capital gains on the sale of Intel and Chevron meant I was giving money right back to the US government which was then pumping it right back into the genocide of the Palestinian people.
Was there a way to get around this?
The answer was to donate the stock to charity. Stock donations have major benefits. Neither the donor nor recipient pays capital gains, the donor can claim a tax deduction, and the gifting process is straightforward, so long as the charity has 501 (c ) (3) charitable status.
Happily, two of my favorite charities, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF), have said status. I reached out to both organizations to confirm they could accept a gift of stock, and my financial advisor prepared the appropriate papers for my signature and made the transfer.
The whole process, from beginning to end, took three weeks. It’s an understatement to say that I’ve never felt so good about a financial transaction.
So what’s next?
Every 6 months, my investment officer and I will check in to see if there are new companies added to the BDS list and then scan my portfolio to ensure I have no exposure. The current BDS list has been shared with those connected to my financial portfolio as a ‘no buy’ list to safeguard the integrity of my investments.
Money is powerful, personal, and, as we witness, can be deadly. How we choose to invest has meaning. While I am just one person and have leagues to go, I’ve started shedding those investments that keep me up at night and, frankly, make me culpable. Now, a year plus into the biggest human catastrophe of our time, I’m ready to make more moves towards the BDS call. There is more I can shed, and I look forward to 2025 to do just that.
Brooke Beardslee, MPH MA
Brooke is the Director of Mid Century Maroc, an online ‘souk’ full of vintage furnishings found in Morocco.
Sources
Naomi Klein The Guardian
Chris McGreal The Guardian
BDS website
@bds.movement
Palestine Solidarity Campaign website