Staffers at the American Civil Liberties Union began to circulate an internal petition earlier this year urging its leadership to take a public stance against the U.S. support for Israel’s war in Gaza and Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian territories.
The petition — which also calls on the ACLU to disclose and divest potential investments in Israel and oppose U.S. military aid to Israel — cites previous moments in history when the ACLU condemned international events, such as its opposition to the Vietnam War and South African apartheid. As of early October, 681 staffers from across the free speech organization’s national office and local chapters had signed on to support the petition, about one-third of its overall staff.
In early October, the ACLU’s national board of directors convened to vote on the petition. The governing body rejected the staffers’ calls with a 50-4 vote and one abstention, according to documents obtained by The Intercept. This week, after continued requests from staffers, ACLU leadership also rejected requests for a town hall meeting where staffers could hear leaders’ reasons for dismissing the petition.
ACLU leadership explained its rejection to staff in a memo, sent by Board President Deborah Archer and Executive Director Anthony Romero, stating that while the organization is committed to fighting for the free speech rights of those who are protesting around the war in Gaza, “a position on the war is not needed to carry out this essential domestic work.”
Several months before the vote, Romero had recommended against the petition, stating that “weighing in on this international matter is beyond the ACLU’s remit,” the memo said.
Archer and Romero also stated that the ACLU does not have “an overall framework or guiding principle for deciding which conflicts or countries to engage in a consistent or justifiable manner” around the issue of human rights violations. “The ACLU lacks expertise and staff dedicated to this region or conflict, and does not have a staff presence in the region,” the memo continued. The Intercept also obtained a document highlighting executive leaders’ recommendations against the petition. The document includes statements from board members, executive directors of local ACLU affiliates, and a breakdown of the ACLU’s investments in Israeli companies.
A key part of the staff petition was the demand for divestment from “any company that profits from the Israeli government’s human rights violations — including but not limited to companies providing offensive weaponry, policing, and surveillance technology,” following the model set during the South African divestment movement.
In its October memo, the ACLU leadership said that divestment would have “very significant deleterious impact on our investment portfolio, including an impact on our achieving diversity of holdings, an impact on our overall investment return, and our need to sell our substantial illiquid assets at a significant discount.”
A detailed internal report shared with The Intercept said that approximately 1.5 percent of the ACLU’s investment holdings are in aerospace and defense companies, including shares in U.S. defense giants such as Lockheed Martin and Boeing, and another 0.5 percent are in Israeli companies, but that the broad working relationships between many American companies, such as Microsoft and Google, and Israel or Israeli companies makes it difficult to determine the exact parameters of divestment.
ACLU leadership also claimed it lacked a framework or principle to decide which countries to divest from due to human rights issues.
Following the early October vote rejecting their petition, members of the Palestine Solidarity Working Group Steering Committee, made up of ACLU staffers behind the effort, committed to continue fighting for their demands.
In an email sent to signatories, petition organizers wrote that they “stand on the right side of history in demanding that the ACLU use its resources, expertise, and mandate to oppose our government’s complicity in one of the worst atrocities of the 21st century,” adding that the 681 signees make up more than 30 percent of all ACLU staff.
The email also included a call to action: all the recipients were asked to email ACLU leadership requesting a town hall to discuss the board’s decision. ACLU leaders rejected this request, saying that the organization was prioritizing “election-related work,” according to another leaked email. When organizers asked for a town hall to be held after the upcoming election in November, they say they were turned down again.
Petition organizers decried a “lack of transparency from Executive Leadership” in an email on Monday viewed by The Intercept.
Despite the leadership’s decision to limit a comprehensive organization-wide discussion on the ACLU’s involvement in the current situation, the committee expressed its determination to continue advocating for action.
In a statement provided to The Intercept, an ACLU spokesperson clarified that the organization has not established a policy regarding Israel’s conflict in Gaza, emphasizing that the ACLU typically refrains from taking stances on international conflicts. The spokesperson reiterated the ACLU’s primary focus on promoting civil liberties and rights within the United States, particularly in relation to issues like free speech and protest rights.
While the ACLU leadership stated that they lack a specific framework to address the Gaza conflict, a petition argues that the organization is obligated to do so based on its own policies. Referencing ACLU Policy #401, which governs the organization’s involvement in international human rights matters, the petition highlights the need for the ACLU to take a stand on issues like the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, which prohibits aid to countries engaged in severe human rights violations.
The petition also draws parallels to the ACLU’s past actions on international issues, such as the resolution in 1985 supporting divestment from companies involved with South Africa’s apartheid regime. Additionally, it references resolutions from the 1970s opposing the Vietnam War and addressing human rights violations, suggesting that the ACLU should similarly condemn U.S. complicity in Israel’s actions in Gaza.
The petition urges the ACLU to denounce U.S. support for Israel’s actions, oppose legislation providing weapons to the Israeli government, and divest from companies profiting from human rights abuses. It emphasizes the organization’s responsibility to uphold civil and human rights principles and warns of potential damage to the ACLU’s credibility if it fails to act during this critical time.
An update was added to the article on October 22, 2024, to include additional information about staff demands from ACLU leadership as revealed in leaked emails.
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