Friday, May 7, 2010

Progress Report: Week 1








One Step Closer To Success

Within the first week of our campaign launch, we have made significant progress.
Not only have we sparked dialogue and action, but we have ensured that our university is in fact not financially supporting four particularly egregious companies that contribute to suffering and conflict. We reached four specific objectives that are worthy of celebrating:


1. Our call for creative solutions to the suffering in the Middle East was quickly answered by many students, and most energetically by the Stanford Israel Alliance, which is spearheading a campaign to invest in companies that empower impoverished Palestinians.

2. We were elated to be informed that Stanford is not invested in any of the four companies we initially listed in our divestment call! We initially did not have access to this information, but it was confirmed soon after launching our campaign. Since the violations committed by these companies are now well known on campus, we hope and expect that the university will avoid investing in them.

3. The struggle is not over. We have identified hundreds of companies operating in the region that are on our monitoring and research list and that we highly suspect are violating human rights and international law and thereby contributing to the continuation of the conflict. We have begun the process of ensuring that Stanford is not invested in any of them!1

4. Our campaign has prompted campus-wide engagement on the issue. Stanford students have shown that they are willing to donate some of their time and attention to ensure that people are safe and treated equitably.


Thank you for your support. It is inspiring.

Please join us on our website: campaignrestorehope.blogspot.com
or on our Stanford Facebook page: Campaign Restore Hope


1. If you are interested in being a part of the committee responsible for monitoring and researching companies’ human rights violations, contact Fadi Quran (fadiq@stanford.edu).