$2.29 Billion[1]
The UBC Endowment Fund is made up of 75% donations and 25% land revenue.[2] The purpose of the fund is “to support the university’s academic mission in perpetuity, and to ensure that current and future generations of UBC students and researchers are able to benefit from the foresight and generosity of those who establish endowments.” [3]
According to UBC, the academic mission is “Pursuing excellence in research, learning and engagement to foster global citizenship and advance a sustainable and just society across British Columbia, Canada and the world.” [4]
Investing In Genocide
With its endowment, UBC holds over $113 million[5] in shares in various corporations and weapons manufacturers complicit in Israel’s illegal occupation and genocide in Palestine. These corporations include but are not limited to:
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Lockheed Martin - 0.038% or $832,578
The largest military company and weapons manufacturer in the world. Has supplied weapons to Israel, including missiles, for over 50 years. Israel is actively using these missiles to kill civilians in Palestine, Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan.[6] -
Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Co - 0.044% or $971,435
Tech company that supplies IT equipment to Israel, enabling them to control the rights and mobility of Palestinian people; also used by police and in Israeli prisons to surveil Palestinians (Israel is currently imprisoning ~7200 Palestinian people, including 250 children. Recent reports document massive sexual violence weaponized by Israeli guards against Palestinian prisoners[7]). Named by the UN as complicit in Israel’s illegal settlements and human rights crimes in Palestine.[8] -
Airbus S.E. - 0.0299% or $6,566,283
Aerospace company, works closely with Israeli Aerospace Industries. Israel uses Airbus drones to surveill, control, and murder civilians in the Gaza strip. Airbus has been caught blurring/restricting satellite imagery of Gaza, preventing the world from seeing the full extent of Israel’s destruction of occupied Palestine.[9] -
Motorola Solutions - 0.0134% or $292,812
Provides tech and surveillance infrastructure to the Israeli military, and is the Israeli military’s sole 4G provider. Named by the UN as complicit in Israel’s illegal settlements and human rights crimes in Palestine.[10] -
Chevron Corp - 0.0098% or 214,603
US energy company that extracts gas from Israeli-occupied Palestinian land. Israel is pillaging Palestinian off-shore gas reserves (a war crime according to international law), and Chevron is thought to be complicit.[11] -
First International Bank of Israel LTD - 0.003% or $84,000
One of Israel’s largest banks; finances construction projects in illegal settlements on Palestinian land. Named by the UN as complicit in Israel’s illegal settlements and human rights crimes in Palestine.[12]
Who is Responsible?
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BOARD OF GOVERNORS: a UBC body that oversees investment. They are obligated to act in the best interest of students, faculty, and staff - NOT in the best interest of their donors.
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PRESIDENT (BENOIT-ANTOINE BACON): Gives recommendations to the board and oversees various vice presidents, including VP finance Frank Laezza.
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UBC INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT: A for-profit corporation owned by UBC, which is used to directly invest and manage UBC’s endowment funds. Must report to the Board of Governors. The CEO of UBCIM, Dawn Jia, makes $1 million per year and was named the highest-paid public sector employee in all of BC in 2020-2021.
Ending all state, corporate and institutional complicity with Israel’s genocidal regime is more urgent than ever. Palestinian lives and livelihoods literally depend on it.
— BDS Movement[13]
The Power of Divestment
Divestment is about moving money from unethical corporations; however, it is even more so about ruining the social license/reputation of these corporations over the long term so that they lose their power to control resources and human lives. Violent companies like Lockheed Martin are able to continue operating business-as-usual, supplying weapons that enable the genocide of innocent people, because reputable institutions (like UBC) continue to prop them up, implicitly encouraging their students to do the same. UBC’s violent investments make students, faculty, and staff complicit in genocide, without our consent and often without our knowledge.
Getting UBC to divest is extremely possible – with years of hard work and dedication, student activists convinced the UBC Board of Governors to divest from fossil fuels in 2019, for instance.
In 2022, student activists got UBC Vancouver’s student union to successfully pass a motion to call on UBC to divest from the aforementioned corporations.
On Nov 23, 2023, student activists got UBC Okanagan’s student union to successfully pass a motion calling on UBC to divest from the aforementioned corporations. Students voted unanimously to pass this motion.
On November 6, 2024, student activists got UBC Okanagan’s student union to successfully pass a motion to work with the BC Federation of Students to lobby universities across the province to divest from weapons manufacturers and corporations named by the UN as complicit in Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine.
BDS is more about collective, not individual, action. More important than keeping your own investments, purchases, and consciences clean is working within groups or coalitions to organize effective campaigns and build power globally to support the Palestinian struggle.
— BDS Movement[14]
Footnotes
UBC Investment Management Annual Report 2024 - UBCIM Reports ↩︎
UBC Endowment Pool Background - UBC Finance ↩︎
Holdings Disclosure Report - Endowment - 2023 - UBCIM Reports ↩︎
Fact Sheet: Chevron Fuels Israeli Apartheid and War Crimes ↩︎
BDS Movement, Act Now Against These Companies Profiting from the Genocide of the Palestinian People ↩︎
BDS Movement, BDS Guide to Strategic Campaigning for Palestinian Rights ↩︎