274804 Divesting from Israeli occupation

Wednesday, October 31, 2012 : 1:15 PM - 1:30 PM

Dalit Baum, PhD , Director, Middle East Education Program, American Friends Service Committee, San Francisco, CA
TIAA-Cref is one of the largest financial services providers in the U.S., specializing in selling retirement programs to academic and medical institutions, including to APHA staff itself. Under the slogan “Financial Services for the Greater Good,” it offers a “Social Choice Account” which constitutes the biggest socially responsible pension fund in the U.S. Following a 5-year research exposing transnational corporations which are directly involved in severe human rights violations and war crimes in the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories, we have found out that these corporations enjoy a special impunity, when it comes to investments by U.S. “socially responsible” funds. Our “We Divest” campaign (www.wedivest.org) brings together a national coalition of nonprofits focusing on TIAA-Cref. By asking TIAA-Cref to divest from these corporations, we try to raise awareness in the public and in the Socially Responsible Investment (SRI/ESG) community. The presentation will focus on TIAA-Cref's Social Choice account, the corporations it invests in and their specific violations. We will delineate the national campaign strategies and discuss the latest success in getting Caterpillar off this listing.

Learning Areas:
Advocacy for health and health education

Learning Objectives:
Discuss the relationship between public health and the TIAA-CREF divestment campaign Evaluate the role that public health professionals can play in health advocacy through corporate accountability campaigns

Keywords: Health Advocacy, Public Health Advocacy

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Activist in Residence Dr. Dalit Baum is co-founder of the research project Who Profits (within the Coalition of Women for Peace) in Israel, to support U.S. initiatives with tools for socially responsible investment screening, strategic target choice and corporate research for effective campaigns.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.