In March, community organizers from Champaign-Urbana launched a local campaign to demand an end to Illinois’s investments in corporations supporting Israel’s genocide against the people of Palestine, including Illinois’s direct purchase of Israel Bonds. The local effort joins a statewide campaign, led by organizers in Chicago, that has been demanding divestment for the last year. The campaign for divestment includes a wide variety of people and organizations across the state, representing both Palestinians and allies.
Israel’s atrocities against Palestinians are sustained through US financial and military support. At the federal level, the Biden and Trump administrations have jointly provided Israel over $20 billion in support, violating the Leahy Law, which prohibits arms sales to countries blocking humanitarian aid. At the state level, investments by the Illinois State Board of Investment (ISBI) include stock in companies that are complicit in Israel’s genocide, including Boeing, Caterpillar, and others. These companies provide technologies used to enact state violence, such as the militarized Caterpillar bulldozers used to destroy Palestinian homes and bury civilians alive, and Boeing aircraft used to drop bombs on refugee camps.
Illinois’s investments also include purchases of “Israel Bonds,” through what is officially known as the Development Corporation for Israel (DCI), made by Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs. Frerichs, a native of Champaign County, has been treasurer since 2015. He is the vice-chair of ISBI, while also sitting on a DCI committee that helps market and support the bonds. Israel Bonds, conceived by Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, and launched by the Israeli Knesset in 1951, are investment loans which support the Israeli government. During his time in office Michael Frerichs has purchased or renewed over $140 million in Israel Bonds, investments paid for by Illinois taxpayers; the total amount purchased by Illinois is currently $100 million. This makes Illinois the fifth-highest investor in Israel Bonds in the United States.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists revealed in July, 2024 that Israel Bonds offered both Frerichs and Robert Sprague, Ohio’s state treasurer, private meetings with Israeli officials and military leaders, invitations to galas and cocktail hours, and travel planning support, raising ethical concerns about not only the bonds themselves, but the way they are sold and marketed. In addition, the bonds have been downgraded by credit rating agencies in the past few years due to political instability. Though they are still considered investment grade, Standard and Poor’s, Moody’s Investors Service, Fitch Ratings, and Morningstar DBRS all consider Israel’s credit rating to have a negative outlook, demonstrating the financial risk of continued investment.
Six organizations in CU have now signed onto the statewide divestment campaign, including Champaign-Urbana Muslim Action Committee (CU MAC), Urbana-Champaign Jews for Ceasefire (UCJC), UIUC Alumni for Justice in Palestine, Graduate Employees Organization Local 6300, Service Employees International Union Local 73, and Illinois for World Beyond War.
On June 20, a group representing these organizations traveled from Champaign to Chicago to join the protest at the quarterly ISBI board meeting calling for divestment. Under heavy police presence, around 100 protesters chanted and marched for hours outside the meeting. Several members of CU organizations supporting the campaign went inside for the public comment period and spoke to the ISBI board about the moral urgency of ending financial support for Israel’s genocide of Palestinians. Though these governmental meetings are meant to be open to the public, only 20 total attendees were allowed inside to watch the meeting and participate in public comment.
“Chicago is known for being the Windy City due to its shifty politicians. Frerichs is even moreso on our radar,” says Jessica Yasin, member of CU MAC, who spoke to ISBI and Frerichs during public comment. “Not only [for] his unethical investments, but [for] making Illinoisans complicit in war crimes and the killing of their own family members. Chicago has the largest Palestinian population in America. That’s not only unethical—but cruel.”
Atlas Karm, a member of UCJC who also spoke at the meeting, said, “As a resident of Illinois, I feel it is deeply important that our tax dollars are being utilized for the well-being of the people of Illinois, not by another [international] state. Illinoisans stand against war crimes, and want our treasurer to put people first, not his personal interests.”
The campaign will persist until ISBI and Treasurer Frerichs end Illinois’s complicity in Israel’s genocide. The people of Illinois are tired of our paychecks being garnished to support horrific violence overseas. In November, over 70 percent of Urbana voters supported the ballot referendum demanding an end to military aid to Israel. In May, over 70 percent of UIUC students supported a referendum to end the university’s investments in companies complicit with human rights violations, which passed by a similar margin as another referendum on the ballot calling for fossil fuel divestment.
These referendums have been modeled on historical divestment campaigns, such as those used to apply pressure to South Africa to end apartheid in the 1980s. The list of companies targeted for divestment include many named by the American Friends Service Committee, an anti-war Quaker organization, as complicit in Israel’s genocide.
If you are a member of a faith, labor, or community organization that would like to sign on to the statewide campaign, or are interested in getting involved as an individual, please reach out to Bryan Maxwell at bmmaxwel@gmail.com to learn more about how to support the divestment campaign.
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