University President Alan M. Garber ’76 said he will not direct the Harvard Management Company to review its investments for ties to human rights violations, rejecting a proposal that a group of pro-Palestine activists presented to administrators during a meeting last month.
Garber wrote in an Oct. 3 email to members of Harvard Out of Occupied Palestine, an unrecognized coalition of activist groups, that the University “will not use its endowment funds to endorse a contested view on a complex issue that deeply divides our community.”
During a meeting on Sept. 6 with Garber and Harvard Corporation member Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar ’93, HOOP representatives presented a two-part proposal — a “human rights investment policy statement” and a task force to audit HMC’s investments.
Garber dismissed HOOP’s proposal in his email response, arguing that the human rights policy statement and task force would effectively require the University to divest from Israel — a suggestion Garber and fellow senior Harvard officials have repeatedly refused to consider.
“Although it references a broader framework, in practice it does not differ substantially from prior demands: the proposal declares that Israel is engaged in both apartheid and genocide, that its territorial holdings are illegal, and that Harvard Management Company should undertake a process to reduce its investment exposure accordingly,” Garber wrote in his email.
HOOP blasted Garber’s response in an Instagram post on Monday, writing that “his unwillingness to engage confirms he welcomes profits from any human rights abuses Harvard is complicit in.”
“Garber’s definition of human rights stops at Palestine,” HOOP wrote.
In the post, HOOP wrote that “the time to act is now” and announced that details would be released about a “week of action,” echoing an Oct. 7 statement by the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee, which wrote that “now is the time to escalate.”
The September meeting was organized as part of a deal to end HOOP’s 20-day encampment in Harvard Yard last spring. Pro-Palestine activists have repeatedly called on the University to divest from any institutional or financial investments in Israel.
The group’s suggested human rights investment statement includes a pledge not to invest in companies that “directly facilitate or enable severe violations of human rights, which might include, but are not limited to, acts of apartheid, illegal occupation, and genocide.”
In particular, HOOP’s proposal encouraged the University to examine its investments in Israel and weapons manufacturers.
Even as HOOP has repeatedly acknowledged that the University was unlikely to accede to its demand for divestment, the group’s new strategy of including all human rights violations in their divestment demand could put greater public scrutiny on Garber’s response.
“Garber indicated that he was not opposed to human rights investment principles in general, but rather chose to reject HOOP’s proposals once it became obvious to him that they explicitly include human rights violations in Israel and Palestine,” HOOP wrote in a Monday release.
A University spokesperson declined to comment for this article, but referred The Crimson to Garber’s email to HOOP.
In an emailed reply to Garber on Oct. 21, HOOP wrote that they were “disappointed” by Garber’s rejection of the proposals.
“As long as Harvard remains invested in such violations of human rights, you endorse a deeply political and irresponsible view: that Harvard will continue to make money off of human rights abuses,” HOOP wrote.
HOOP declined to directly address why the group only chose to release Garber’s email nearly a month later, writing in a statement to The Crimson Monday evening that for the past 25 days, “our eyes have been on the region, just as they have always been.”
“Amidst Israel’s horrific escalations, we have been considering how to best respond to President Garber’s guarantee that our University will remain complicit in this violence,” they wrote.
—Staff writer Michelle N. Amponsah can be reached at michelle.amponsah@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @mnamponsah.
—Staff writer Cam E. Kettles can be reached at cam.kettles@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @cam_kettles.
—Staff writer Joyce E. Kim can be reached at joyce.kim@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X at @joycekim324.