San Jose demands divestment from companies that do business with Israel, ICE
San Jose, CA – On Tuesday March 24, community members made public comment at the San Jose City Council meeting, demanding they enact an ethical investment policy.
At this meeting, the city council was conducting an annual review of investment policy. Around 40 people called on the city to divest from corporations tied to Israel and ICE, companies that include Alphabet, Amazon, Caterpillar, Honeywell and Microsoft.
For almost two years, San Jose Against War (SJAW) has been leading a divestment campaign targeting companies complicit in genocide, ethnic cleansing and incarceration. They mobilized to the Public Safety, Finance, and Strategic Support Committee meeting in February. They also conducted an email drive, enabling participants to send a pre-written email to all of their council members in just a few clicks. Additionally, SJAW did extensive flyering at activist events, calling people at the March meeting to join the call for ethical investment.
At the meeting, Council Members Ortiz and Kamei introduced a policy that would bar any new investments in companies that provide services to ICE, including Microsoft, Alphabet (Google) and Amazon. Many community members spoke in favor of the policy, while even more spoke in favor of a more expansive policy that also includes companies that provide services to the Israeli military.
Serena Myjer, a local biologist, highlighted a recent precedent set by the council. “In 2020, the city of San Jose aligned with its constituents’ values and chose to amend city council investment policies so that the city would not make investments in entities that directly engage in expiration, production and refining or marketing fossil fuels.”
Philip Nguyen, SEIU Local 521 steward, emphasized divestment as a meaningful way to stand up for the immigrant community, “We have investments in companies that have historically facilitated the ripping apart of families and killing of people at home and abroad.” Nguyen continued, “With Alphabet having a partnership with Lockheed Martin to make their weapons more efficiently, as well as CBP [Customs and Border Patrol] to make their tactics of surveilling the border more deadly.”
A member of the Community Service Organization (CSO) stated, “We have seen ICE’s direct impacts in our communities here in San Jose, with deportations of South Bay families, with kidnappings, and even just recently, ICE against pulling a gun at community members for entering a lobby of a building in Southside San Jose.”
Marcel Knightly, a local educator, walked over four miles to make public comment, “San Jose is a sanctuary city, and we should reaffirm this by divesting and barring any future investment into companies such as Alphabet, Microsoft and Amazon, who have contracts with ICE and other deportation operations.”
Drusie Kazanova of SJAW told the crowd, “Since Trump has escalated his attacks… with American citizens being murdered in the streets by ICE, and our own San Jose community members having a gun pulled on them by the manager of the ICE office here in San Jose a couple weeks ago; it’s time to put our money where our mouths are.”
After 60 public comments with a strong majority in support of the proposed resolution, the city council ultimately voted to not approve a policy that would divest from companies that deal with ICE. The motion received a tie vote of four to four, needing six to pass. Those who spoke in favor met with SJAW outside the building shortly after the vote to debrief. People were eager to carry on the struggle, and together resolved that this would not be the end of the campaign.
The movement for divestment continues to grow and the people of San Jose’s fight for divestment from companies complicit in Israel’s genocide on Palestine will continue.