by Susan Nicholson
I write in support of H.2984, an act relating to pension divestment from companies providing military equipment to the state of Israel. I urge Rep. Daniel J. Ryan — Co-Chair of the Joint Committee on Public Service considering this bill — to report it out favorably.
Opponents of the bill claim the bill is discriminatory in singling out Israel for treatment not applied to any other nation.
In fact, H.2984 is solidly in line with a rich history of action by the Mass. legislature to divest state pension funds from other nations for moral reasons. This history includes divestment from South Africa (1982), Northern Ireland (1983), Sudan (2009) and Iran (2010).
In the case of South Africa, the moral reason for divestment was of course South Africa’s policy of apartheid. In the case of Northern Ireland, it was Protestant violence against, and unequal treatment of, Catholics. The response of the Mass. legislature to this injustice was to require divestment from businesses involved in supplying military hardware used in Northern Ireland.
The situation facing the legislature today most closely resembles its earlier divestment from Sudan because of Sudan’s war crimes and genocide against the residents of the Darfur region.
As you know, both the Prime Minister of Israel and Israel’s former defense minister are currently under indictment by the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. A case against Israel for the crime of genocide is currently underway at the International Court of Justice, where the Court has issued a number of preliminary rulings based upon its determination that the genocide allegation is plausible.
Prominent international human rights organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, as well as Israel’s own human rights organizations B’Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, have all concluded Israel is committing genocide. Leading genocide scholars, including a number of Israelis, as well as the International Association of Genocide Scholars, have reached a similar conclusion. Finally, in September 2025 a UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry issued a landmark 72-page report concluding that Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza.
Against this background, H.2984 cannot possibly be considered discriminatory against Israel. Rather, H.2984 is an entirely appropriate response to divest Mass. funds from companies manufacturing weapons Israel uses to commit genocide. For the Mass. legislature to refuse to act in this situation would be a dereliction of its moral and legal duty.
Consider, for example, General Dynamics, one of the top companies in which the Mass. pension fund is invested. General Dynamics manufactures 2000-pound bombs which Israel is documented as using in the Gaza Strip, one of the most densely populated areas in the world.
These 2000-pound bombs have a kill radius of 1/5 mile. They are capable of causing damage to buildings and severe injury to persons (ruptured lungs, burst sinuses, torn off limbs) within a radius of 1/2 mile.
Israel is documented, in one 6-week period in 2023, as having dropped almost 600 of these US-made 2,000-pound bombs throughout Gaza. Almost 200 were dropped within the severe injury radius of hospitals throughout Gaza, some within the kill radius of hospitals. Some were even dropped within the kill or severe injury radius of hospitals in the Israeli-designated “safe zones.”
Every such instance represents a knowing and total failure to comply with the internationally accepted laws of war, and a horror Mass. citizens understandably recoil from being associated with.
I strongly urge you to give H.2984 a favorable report.
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Susan T. Nicholson, Ph.D, Esq. (retired)