The Quiet Success of the Israel Divestment Movement

Grassroots efforts to divest local U.S. taxpayer dollars from Israel over its ongoing genocide of Palestinians are gaining steam.

The United States has historically of dollars in foreign aid to Israel. The flow of taxpayer funds to Israel鈥檚 military has only since Israeli forces launched an attack on Gaza in October 2023, in which as many as , according to an estimate published in The Lancet in July 2024.

Beyond the federal dollars funding the ongoing attack on Gaza, there are also investments made to support Israel鈥檚 violence against Palestinians. 鈥淭he ethnic cleansing and horrors that we鈥檙e witnessing being carried out by the Israeli government are deeply entangled in material support from the United States, and that happens on multiple levels,鈥� says Jay Saper, an organizer with in New York City.

As demands for Palestinian liberation in defiance of Israel鈥檚 continuing assaults on the occupied nation and its people, organizers with JVP and other groups critical of U.S. funding for Israel have ramped up efforts targeting this support in their own backyards. These efforts include the in New York state, which aims to end subsidies for New York鈥搑egistered charitable organizations that fundraise to support the Israeli military and violent settler groups, and the , a JVP-led initiative that seeds and supports local efforts to demand divestment from nationwide.

In Cuyahoga County, Ohio, home to Cleveland, Mohammed Faraj works with the on a local effort connected to JVP鈥檚 Break the Bonds campaign. He says the coalition鈥檚鈥淣o New Bonds鈥� campaign has grown stronger and more organized since Israel launched its latest assault on Gaza, and coalition partners have made a concerted effort to reach local lawmakers. 鈥淎fter October, there was just a feeling of wanting to talk to, really, anybody who would listen,鈥� explains Faraj. 鈥淲e realized how inaccessible our federal legislators are and have been, [but] our local political leaders are here, and they鈥檙e accessible.鈥�

Not only are state and local lawmakers more accessible to constituents than federal lawmakers, but local investment portfolios also hold billions of dollars in funding to Israel sourced from the everyday taxes of community members. State and local governments across the U.S. in all investments in their investment portfolios. At least is held between state governments, municipal governments, and public pension funds nationwide. Those investment dollars come from every individual, household, and business within the municipal or state borders that pay property taxes, income taxes, and sales taxes, making them some of the most representative pools of dollars invested on behalf of the public. Saper says that campaigns targeting the investment of these local dollars 鈥渋nvite people to reckon with how implicated we are here at home with the atrocities we are witnessing abroad.鈥�

The Cleveland Palestine Advocacy Community is targeting Cuyahoga County鈥檚 . The Development Corporation for Israel sells these bonds to raise foreign funds for the Israeli treasury. The sale of Israel Bonds provides critical financial support to the Israeli government and its military, and bondholders maintain no oversight of how their funds are spent once invested. 鈥淭he Break the Bonds call for institutional divestment really came out of an absolute horror on the part of folks who are taxpayers at the county, city level, state level […] to learn that many institutions in the United States actually directly loan money to the Israeli government and military unrestricted in the form of Israel Bonds,鈥� explains Dani Noble, senior campaigns organizer at JVP and member leader of JVP-Philadelphia.

Across the U.S., dozens of states and municipalities purchase Israel Bonds. Palm Beach County, Florida, recently made headlines for being the world鈥檚 largest investor in Israel Bonds with . In Ohio, besides Cuyahoga County鈥檚 $16 million in holdings, also hold Israel Bonds, while the Ohio Treasury has more than .

At a meeting on June 4, 2024, Cuyahoga County Council Members Cheryl Stephens and Patrick Kelly introduced a Cleveland Palestine Advocacy Community鈥搒upported resolution that would, according to its text, 鈥渦rg[e] the Investment Advisory Committee to amend the County鈥檚 Investment Policy to .鈥� Dozens of Cuyahoga County residents addressed the council regarding the resolution, including Palestinian Americans whose family members in Palestine have been subject to Israeli violence. One resident, Shereen Naser, later told News 5 Cleveland that one of her cousins, a college student in Palestine, had recently been detained by the Israeli military. 鈥淚鈥檓 wondering if the cuffs around her wrists are ,鈥� she said.

After it was introduced, Cuyahoga County鈥檚 Resolution No. R2024-0208 was referred to the Committee of the Whole. However, the resolution following pressure from groups that categorized it as antisemitic or in violation of Ohio鈥檚 anti-Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) law. The Cleveland Palestine Advocacy Community drafted responses refuting these claims and shared them with the Cuyahoga County Council. The coalition continues to pressure local lawmakers for action on the issue. 鈥淲e want this $16 million to be reinvested here at home,鈥� says Faraj.

A Break the Bonds campaign based in Providence, Rhode Island, has also gathered steam since last year. As recently as 2022, Providence held about . Those bonds matured, and the city no longer has direct investments in Israel. 鈥淲e want to keep it that way,鈥� says Joel Reinstein, an organizer with JVP in Rhode Island.

At a , councilors introduced , which would prohibit future investments in the bonds of governments maintaining a military occupation or accused of committing war crimes or human rights violations. The proposed ordinance was referred to the council鈥檚 finance committee, which will decide whether to send it back to the council for a vote. If the committee sends the ordinance back to the full council, it will need to receive two affirmative majority votes to pass鈥攁nd may require a third majority vote in the event that Mayor Brett Smiley vetoes it, . Leading up to a vote, organizers from JVP and coalition partners, including the Providence Youth Student Movement and Rhode Island Democratic Socialists of America, are and to show support for the legislation.

Students chant slogans during a pro-Palestine protest at George Washington University in April 2024. Across the country, students have called on their schools to stop doing business with companies they see as supporting the Israeli war on Gaza. *Photo by Ali Khaligh/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images*

Meanwhile, in New York state, organizers are targeting a different financial instrument being used to support Israel鈥檚 attacks on Palestinians. The Not on Our Dime! campaign and an eponymous act sponsored by Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani and State Senator Jabari Brisport in the and the , respectively, launched in May 2023. If the Not on Our Dime! Act passes, New York nonprofit organizations that provide financial support to Israel鈥檚 military or Israeli settler groups could be sued for at least $1 million and lose their tax-exempt status. Currently, New York charities send more than $60 million in tax-exempt dollars per year to Israel to fund 鈥渢he violation of international law,鈥� according to Mamdani in a .

Sumaya Awad, a Palestinian New Yorker and director of strategy at the , a coalition partner working on the campaign, says that the Not on Our Dime! campaign is powerful and unique because 鈥渋t offers a tool, a pathway to divert funds from apartheid, to divert funds from genocide, and instead to invest them in life and in public goods.鈥�

This year, the Not on Our Dime! Act was expanded, and the campaign was relaunched with new supporters, including and New York Congressional Representative , who spoke at a relaunch event on May 20 in Albany, New York. The bill鈥檚 language has been updated to explicitly name the Israeli government鈥檚 attacks in Gaza and ensure that New York鈥揵ased nonprofit organizations providing funding for those attacks would be subject to the legislation.

鈥淔or this bill to continue to hold a mirror to the world around us one year later, we needed to expand its scope,鈥� says Mamdani. He points out that the campaign鈥檚 messaging and updated bill language now reflect 鈥渢he facts of genocide in Gaza, a proliferation of New York charities鈥� fundraising in support of units in the Israeli Army perpetrating that genocide, and the renewed calls for the Israeli settler movement to expand into Gaza.鈥�

Gabriel Acevero, member of the Maryland House of Delegates, introduced similar legislation . It was referred to the Maryland House Judiciary Committee for review and has yet to move forward.

For Jewish organizers, these efforts are not only a matter of divesting public dollars but also of extricating their religious traditions from the violence of Israel鈥檚 occupation and its genocide in Gaza. Noble explains that the Development Corporation for Israel has historically linked the sale of Israel Bonds to Jewish rituals, including 鈥渋mposing a tradition of gifting鈥� the bonds at bar and bat mitzvahs and weddings and passing them down as part of a family鈥檚 legacy when sitting shiva. 鈥淲e absolutely are dedicated not just to ending that material support but also to reclaiming our traditions from violence and from war,鈥� Noble says.

The Not on Our Dime! campaign鈥檚 title also echoes , who say 鈥渘ot in our name鈥� to demand that their religious identity and a not be weaponized to obscure Israel鈥檚 atrocities.

Diverse and cross-movement coalitions have been vital to the progress of these campaigns to halt the transfer of U.S. taxpayer dollars from Ohio, Rhode Island, and New York to Israel. Regular mass demonstrations of solidarity with Palestinians nationwide have also spurred the efforts. 鈥淭he horizon of possibilities is opened up by the historic uprisings that we鈥檙e seeing in the streets, and across campuses, and really across the globe,鈥� says Saper.

For organizers looking to ride this wave, JVP and the to get involved or .

Reinstein of JVP鈥揜hode Island says the local and state-level campaigns that are being forged now are the building blocks needed to force meaningful change on the federal level. 鈥淭he more on the municipal level that we can actually stop the flow of cash to Israel鈥檚 violence, the more that can build up to a national movement that could finally create some accountability.鈥�