June 5th 2011 marks the 44th anniversary of Al Naksa, the Israeli invasion of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza, the Golan Heights and the Sinai Peninsula

The IDC marks this anniversary with the first milestone in our phase II campaign – more than one thousand Californians have signed the petition calling on CalPERS and CalSTRS to divest.

On this 44th anniversary of Al Naksa (the setback) and the start of Israel”s more than four decade illegal occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza and the Golan Heights, more than 1,000 Californians have added their voices to the international call for justice. Their signatures – gathered in just the last two months since Global BDS/Land Day – come on top of the more 14,000 California voters who earlier supported a divestment Initiative for the California ballot.

Almost 1/3 third of the more than one thousand signers to date are members of the two state retirement funds (CalPERS and CalSTRS). Along with other California tax-payers, they have made it clear that they do not want these retirement boards to invest in companies that profit from the Israeli occupation and the violation of other international laws.

More than $3 billion dollars of STRS and PERS funds are invested in US corporations like Caterpillar, Motorola, Lockheed Martin, Hewlett Packard and United Technologies that provide equipment used for the construction or maintenance of Israeli settlements and the apartheid wall, and/or provide equipment, supplies and services used by Israel to maintain their brutal occupation of Palestine and violate Palestinians’ basic rights. This equipment is used to destroy homes, maintain the blockade of Gaza, and contributed to the invasion and bombing of Gaza in 2008-09 as well as the 2010 attack on the civilian flotilla carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza – all violations of human rights, international laws and UN Conventions.

Our thanks to all of you who have already signed the petition to CalPERS and CalSTRS. Please spread the word and help us reach our next milestone by the end of July by publicizing the petition link: http://www.israeldivestmentcampaign.org/petition.htm

And to those of you who haven’t already signed, now is the time!