MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — On college campuses across the country, a rallying cry of pro-Palestinian protesters has been “ Disclose, divest! We will not stop, we will not rest.”
Now some are winning the first of those two demands: Promises to provide information about how much university endowment money is invested in companies profiting from the Israel-Hamas war.
As part of that effort, the University of Minnesota, for one, disclosed this week that about $5 million of its $2.27 billion endowment investments — or less than a quarter of 1% — are tied to Israeli companies or U.S. defense contractors.
To Ali Abu, a 19-year-old University of Minnesota student and member of Students for Justice in Palestine, the disclosure is a first step in what he described as “just the beginning of our fight.” The ultimate goal, he said, remains divestment. A meeting with the university’s Board of Regents is scheduled for Friday.
But Jewish leaders have raised concerns, and endowment experts say the potential fallout from disclosure is hard to predict. Transparency, they say, has pros and cons.