An obscure California law may prevent action on protesters’ calls for divestment from Israel – By Katie Lauer (The Mercury News) / April 28, 2024
Then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed the anti-divestment bill in 2016
BERKELEY — One thorny detail is often overlooked amid protester calls for divestment from Israel: the looming threat of bulldozed budgets.
Local governments and public universities that accept $100,000 or more in public funding from the state of California — and that means nearly all of them — cannot act on divestment demands. It’s been barred since 2016, when then-California Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB 2844.
Last week, hundreds of pro-Palestinian students and their allies gathered in and around tents pitched in front of the steps of UC Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza, vowing to stay put until the university system officially pursues divestment. At Stanford, students also rallied with a focus on divestment. Matt Kovac, spokesman for UC Berkeley Divest Coalition, said he doesn’t “see mobilization stopping until the U.S. and UCs begin to take this seriously.”
