Rutgers AAUP-AFT and PTLFC Members Vote to Adopt “Joint Resolution on Divestment from Genocide in Palestine”
by Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union
The following communication was sent to members of Rutgers AAUP-AFT and the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union on December 13, 2024, announcing the result of the referendum vote on the divestment resolution proposed by members. Scroll down to read the full resolution text.
Dear colleague,
The member vote on divestment closed on Friday, December 13, 2024. The resolution passed among both AAUP-AFT and Adjunct Faculty Union members. In the AAUP-AFT, 58 percent of members who cast a ballot voted yes, 38 percent voted no, and 4 percent abstained—42 percent of those eligible to vote cast a ballot. In the Adjunct Faculty Union, 62 percent voted yes, 34 percent voted no, and 4 percent abstained—24 percent of those eligible to vote cast a ballot. Thank you to everyone who voted and participated.
Our unions have many fights ahead of us. We will need to work together to resist the Rutgers administration’s ongoing attempts to undermine our contract victories. We will face the consequences at Rutgers of the incoming Trump administration’s looming assault on all of higher education. Whether you agreed or disagreed with your colleagues about divestment, they are your allies in those fights ahead.
In confronting the challenges that 2025 will bring, we will be stronger if we are united across union, rank, department, school, and campus—as we were during our victorious strike in 2023. Together we fight, together we win!
In solidarity,
Todd Wolfson, President, Rutgers AAUP-AFT
Bryan Sacks, Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union
Full Text of the Divestment Resolution
RUTGERS AAUP-AFT/PTFLC AAUP-AFT JOINT RESOLUTION ON DIVESTMENT FROM GENOCIDE IN PALESTINE
(Resolution approved by both unions for a two-week long member-wide vote: 12/02/24-12/13/24)
Whereas Israel’s military, backed with U.S. weapons and funding, caused the deadliest year on record for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, plus the displacement of millions of people in Gaza and Lebanon;
Whereas the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions-Gaza, along with 32 other unions in Palestine, has urgently appealed in October 2023 and March 2024 to “Brothers and Sisters of unions and other labor organizations in the United States of America …to pressur[e] the decision-makers to stop this war of extermination”;
Whereas Palestinian faculty and staff of Gaza universities have called on the international community “to resist the ongoing campaign of scholasticide in occupied Palestine,”;
Whereas our unions are committed to democracy, equality, and social justice unionism, as stated in our respective by-laws, and reflected in earlier AAUP-AFT Executive Council and PTLFC AAUP-AFT Executive Board statements opposing antisemitism, supporting Palestinian sovereignty and calling for an end to the occupation, calling for a ceasefire at the start of this ongoing genocide, supporting the Black Lives Matter movement, and protecting reproductive rights;
Whereas Israel has been accused of apartheid, ethnic cleansing and dehumanization of Palestinians—the ongoing Nakba since 1948—and had these accusations upheld by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and United Nations, and that these actions contradict the above-stated core principles of our Union;
Whereas Israeli universities play a key role in supporting Israel’s system of apartheid rule;
Whereas the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has affirmed that academic boycotts “can be considered legitimate tactical responses to conditions that are fundamentally incompatible with the mission of higher education.”
Whereas we stand in solidarity with the overwhelming majority of students on all three Rutgers campuses, who have spoken in unequivocal terms that Rutgers University must “divest its endowment fund from companies and organizations that profit from, engage in, or contribute to the government of Israel’s human rights violations” and that “the University should cease relations with Tel Aviv University”;
Therefore be it resolved that the Rutgers AAUP-AFT and Rutgers PTLFC AAUP-AFT urgently call on Rutgers University and the Rutgers University Foundation to:
A. Rutgers University should suspend its 2021 memorandum of agreement with Tel Aviv University (regarding the New Jersey Innovation and Technology Hub) and disallow any future collaboration on Israeli military or intelligence technology;
B. Perform a comprehensive review of the university’s endowment to identify and terminate investments supporting Israeli state and military operations, Israel’s settler colonialism, apartheid, and genocide of occupied Palestine territories and the Palestinian people;
C. Immediately divest from assets and companies that consistently and directly profit from, enable, or facilitate human rights violations of Palestine and the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza, violations of international law, prolonged military occupations, Israeli apartheid, genocide in Gaza, including but not limited to: Alphabet Inc., Amazon.com Inc., Boeing Co., Caterpillar, Cemex, Chevron, Elbit Systems, Ford Motor Co., General Dynamics, General Electric Co., General Motors, L3 Harris Technologies, Lockheed Martin, Motorola Solutions, Northrup Grumman, RTX Co., Tata Consultancy Services Limited, Tata Motors, Textron Inc.;
And, therefore be it resolved that both the Rutgers AAUP-AFT and Rutgers PTLFC AAUP-AFT locals call upon our national union the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) to:
A. Perform a comprehensive review of the union’s financial portfolio to identify and terminate investments supporting Israeli state and military operations and Israeli apartheid and genocide of occupied Palestine territories and the Palestinian people;
B. Commit to not investing in any State of Israel bonds in the future.
