Brown University Rejects Demand to Divest from Israel

Brown University has rejected demands from pro-Palestinian students to divest from companies doing business with Israel, the university announced Wednesday.

In a letter announcing the decision, Brown President Christina Paxson and Chancellor Brian Moynihan said that "Brown's mission doesn't encompass resolving or adjudicating global conflict," adding, "Brown University will not divest from the 10 companies described in a student-led divestment proposal as facilitating the Israeli occupation of Palestinian Territory."

Paxson and Moynihan said the decision by the Corporation of Brown University, which is comprised of a volunteer Board of Fellows and Board of Trustees, was based on its "distinct fiduciary duty" as well as considerations of legal, reputational and academic consequences. They said the vote was held by secret ballot so that "no members felt pressure to conform to a majority view."

Last month, Brown became the first Ivy League university to announce that a vote would be held on divestment after student-led protests crippled many campuses across the U.S. in response to Israel's military operation in the Gaza Strip following Iranian-backed Hamas' terrorist attack.

In February, a collation of students at Brown embarked on a hunger strike demanding the university embrace the boycott, divest, sanction movement (BDS), which seeks to punish those who profit off of companies doing business with Israel. Hundreds of campus protests erupted nationwide following the Oct 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas and the ensuing war in Gaza.

Not everyone in the Brown community welcomed the news. Arman Deendar of the student group Brown Divest Coalition told NPR it was "a moral and ethical failure of unimaginable magnitude, compounded by the untransparent, undemocratic, and frankly disgraceful manner in which the Corporation voted in secret." He also said it was "an egregious erasure of the insurmountable violence enacted by the Israeli regime in Gaza and now Lebanon."

Pro-Israel students applauded the decision, saying the school recognized they were being used to make a political statement. Brooke Verschleiser, president of the group Brown Students for Israel, told NPR, "They really acknowledged the divestment proposal for what it was. The [Brown Divest Coalition's] goal from the beginning was to stigmatize Israel, and to make a political statement."

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