CHICO, California (Press Release) — Scholars for Peace in the Middle East was made aware of the Globes report of August 15, 2010 which indicated that the Harvard Management Company had sold it’s Israel holdings, which immediately made its way to a number of anti-Israel organizations and websites.
SPME, in concert with members of its Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions Task Force; Executive Director who represents SPME on the AICE BDS Task Force and various SPME Board members, immediately began a due diligence process to contact Harvard Management Company and others experts to find out what exactly was happening.
These inquiries, combined with the inquiries of perhaps many others seeing this report, resulted in a public statement by HMC which reads as follows.
The Management Company’s most recent SEC filing details changes in holdings, as is routine, but no change in policy. The University has not divested from Israel. Israel was moved from the MSCI, our benchmark in emerging markets, to the EAFE index in May due to its successful growth. Our emerging markets holdings were rebalanced accordingly. We have holdings in developed markets, including Israel, through outside managers in commingled accounts and indexes, which are not reported in the filing in question.
Professor Alan Dershowitz issued the following statement through the Harvard University Law School.
Statement of Professor Alan Dershowitz regarding Harvard’s Sale of Israeli Stocks
I have been advised by Harvard that the decision of The Harvard’s Management Company to sell stocks in Israeli companies reflected the good news that Israel is no longer considered an “emerging” economy, but has been promoted to the status of a “developed” economy.
As a result of this promotion, the Harvard Management Company could no longer hold Israeli stocks in its “emerging” nation’s portfolio. I am told that Harvard continues to hold Israeli stocks in its “developed” nation’s portfolio. The end result may well be that Harvard will have greater rather than lesser holdings of Israeli stocks.
No one should misinterpret this purely economic decision as support for any form of divestment against Israel. Indeed, Harvard has publicly committed itself not to divest from Israel and not to participate in any campaign of boycotting the Jewish nation.
SPME is pleased to learn that false statements about Harvard’s supposed ‘divestment’ are nothing more than another example of the misinformation which has too frequently clouded this issue. It is especially ironic that this misinformation has stolen public attention from the real story here, which is the recent technology-driven success of the State of Israel.
SPME continues to monitor this situation as it develops and will report to its Network the results of its findings.
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Preceding provided by Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, whose executive director, Prof. Samuel Edelman, is based in Chico.