Explainer: Rachel Corrie’s alma mater becomes first US university to divest from Israel

By Ivan Kesic

Amid the wave of pro-Palestine demonstrations sweeping American universities, the Evergreen State College in Olympia, the capital of the US state of Washington, has become the first US university to announce complete divestment from the Israeli regime.

The university administration reached a memorandum of understanding with the pro-Palestinian Evergreen Gaza Solidarity Encampment to fully divest from the Tel Aviv regime.

With this move, it became the first American higher education institution in history to accede to student protests and formally agree to work towards divesting from companies profiting from human rights violations or the occupation of Palestinian territories by the Israeli regime.

Importantly, Evergreen State College is the alma mater of Rachal Corrie, an American activist-student and member of the Palestinian International Solidarity Movement who was crushed to death by an Israeli military bulldozer while resisting the demolition of Palestinian homes in southern Gaza in 2003.

Her father, Craig Corrie, expressed happiness at Evergreen’s decision to divest from Israel.

What preceded the Evergreen memorandum?

In the wake of unprecedented pro-Palestinian student protests in the United States, which began with the pro-Gaza encampment at New York's Columbia University on April 17, students at various other universities have also been holding on-campus protests in recent weeks.

On April 23, a small but persistent group of student protesters occupied Evergreen's Red Square in Olympia, set up an encampment of tents and canopies, and covered the area with Palestinian flags.

On the same day, the Beldaan Solidarity Network, a non-registered pro-Palestine student organization, hosted a walk/roll-out in coordination with schools across Washington State in condemnation of the Gaza genocide perpetrated by the Israeli regime with the backing of the United States.

Rachel Corrie's dad 'proud' of her alma mater Evergreen State College divesting from Israel

The father of a pro-Palestine American activist, who was killed by the Israeli forces in Rafah in 2003, is “proud” of his late daughter’s college to have divested from the occupying entity.

In solidarity with the Palestinian people, a crowd of around 150 Evergreen students, staff, and faculty participated in the walkout’s two-hour program of speeches, poetry, and sloganeering.

The encampment protesters presented six major demands, the first of which was that the Evergreen State College sever ties with all funding received from the Israeli lobby groups, including the Academic Engagement Network, a prominent Israeli lobby group based in Washington DC.

Other demands included that Evergreen not take part in any study abroad programs that would have students in occupied Palestine, the college's divestment from Zionist corporations and prison labor, as well as that they pressure the state legislature to divest.

A spokesperson for the protest group said that they are part of an autonomous movement and have no affiliation with any student groups or faculty.

What does the memorandum mention?

The persistent efforts by pro-Palestine students bore fruit on April 30 after the Evergreen State College and Evergreen Gaza Solidarity Encampment reached a memorandum of understanding.

According to the text of the memorandum, the college will charge four committees to begin work in spring on four policy questions and appoint up to three students to each of them, and these committees will publish quarterly reports on their progress.

The four committees are the Investment Policy Disappearing Task Force, the Grant Acceptance Policy Disappearing Task Force, the Civilian Oversight of the Police Department Disappearing Task Force, and the Alternative Models of Crisis Response Disappearing Task Force.

The Investment Policy Disappearing Task Force is charged with proposing revisions to investment policies from some companies and developing a definition for socially responsible investing.

This committee will also address divestment from companies that profit from gross human rights violations and the occupation of Palestinian territories.

The Grant Acceptance Policy Disappearing Task Force will decide what criteria will be applied for accepting or refusing funding "based on the purposes of the grant."

Criteria would include such considerations as whether grants facilitate illegal occupations abroad, limit free speech, or support the oppression of minorities.

Evergreen is also required to issue a statement defending students’ rights and free speech, which includes a paragraph from the president expressing horror and grief over the genocide in Gaza.

The statement will include an acknowledgment of the International Court of Justice’s genocide investigation and comments about US weaponry supplied to the Tel Aviv regime.

What is the significance of Evergreen's move?

With this landmark decision, Evergreen State College has become the first American university or college to agree to complete divestment from the occupied Palestinian territories.

Evergreen is also the third institution to reach an agreement with pro-Palestinian students, following Brown University and Northwestern University.

However, in these two cases, the demands were not fully met as the institutions only agreed to the establishment of an advisory committee on university investments, which many commentators see as a silent attempt by the university to end the protests.

The college's move also has great symbolic significance because Evergreen is the alma mater of Corrie, an American activist who campaigned for the Palestinian cause all her life and was killed for the same.

Corrie was killed during the Second Intifada in 2003 while protesting against the Israeli military’s demolition of Palestinian houses in Rafah, a Palestinian city in southern Gaza that is currently being threatened with a genocidal invasion by the Israeli regime.

"I’m proud of the students at Evergreen for the action that they took and the way they managed to get those concerns across," Corrie’s father was quoted as saying.

"I’m proud of the faculty that worked with them and the administration they negotiated with that those concerns could be acknowledged."

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