Cambridge Council votes to divest

The Cambridge City Council voted last Wednesday to divest municipal pension funds from “companies with severe and consistent involvement directly contributing to genocide, apartheid and occupation of Palestinians,” becoming one of a handful of U.S. municipalities to take such action.

A separate proposal, that would bar the city from contracting with companies supporting Israel’s military and occupation, did not pass.

“Three years into this absolutely brutal genocide of Palestinian people, everyone can see that this is unacceptable and normal people understand that no one deserves the treatment Palestinian people are getting,” said Alex Khoury, a member of the group Cambridge for Palestine, which kicked off the proposed ordinances in January with a petition that garnered more than 2,700 signatures.

“People see that there are extreme violations of human rights and that the United States is underwriting this,” Khoury added.

Israel has killed more than 77,000 people in Gaza and the occupied West Bank since the Oct. 7, 2023 incursion into Israel led by Hamas — with 1,400 killings in Gaza since the October, 2025 cease fire between Israel and Hamas.

A United Nations report released last week found that Israel has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza and the West Bank, including genocidal acts, the targeting and killing of women and children, torture, rape and other sexual violence.

The Cambridge divestment ordinance directs the city to pull investments from an American Friends Services Committee list of proscribed companies which provide military and surveillance technologies to the Israeli government including Palantir, Axon, Flock, Elbit Systems, Boeing and Caterpillar, Inc. Cambridge for Palestine has identified $24 million in investments in companies on the list.

The proposals generated considerable support and opposition. During six hours of community testimony that took place over Oct. 19 and 20, 165 people spoke in support and 100 against.

“It was very, very beautiful to see how many people from different walks of life show up to say, ‘This is wrong and I don’t want my city to be involved,’” Khoury said.

Eli Gerzon, a Boston-based activist with the group Jewish Voice for Peace who testified on Oct. 19, said he is proud of popular support for divestment.

“I’m inspired by what we’ve done in Cambridge and hope other cities will follow suit,” they said. “This is the world’s first live-streamed genocide. There is no excuse for saying you don’t know it’s happening. It’s horrifying how obvious this is and how many people in power there are who feel that they have a vested interest in denying it.”

At the same time, pro-Zionist groups such as the Anti-Defamation League of New England sent out emails urging people to testify against the measure. People called into the meeting from as far away as Dayton, Ohio to voice opposition.

In a social media post last week, the American Jewish Congress New England called the council’s proposal a “mendacious and inflammatory divestment resolution, that was intended to demonize and delegitimize the world’s only Jewish state.”

Support among Cantabrigians was overwhelmingly in favor of the measure. For those who testified in person, and not via Zoom, the ration was three-to-one in favor of divestment and boycott, Khoury said.

“I think that’s a more accurate reflection of how Cambridge feels about this,” he said.

Councilor Ayah Al-Zubi, who along with Councilor Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler sponsored the ordinances, told Democracy Now the passage of the boycott measure was a “huge win.”

“We’re taking a stand as a city and saying that that if the federal government doesn’t want to act, if the state government doesn’t want to act, that we will because we in Cambridge, we want to actually align our values with our actions,” she said in an interview with the news organization.

Dave Herbawi, an activist with the Palestinian Youth Movement, cautioned that activists will have to make sure the Cambridge city manager acts on the ordinance.

“There could be a lot of foot dragging,” he said. “It’s going to be really important for the community to stay active and follow through.”

Herbawi said the vote itself, which passed 5-4, is historically significant. In Massachusetts, Easthampton, Medford and Somerville have taken similar votes. But in Medford, a pair of Isreal advocacy nonprofits have sued to stop the implementation of that city’s divestment ordinance. In Somerville, voters passed a nonbinding resolution in support of divestment, but the city’s mayor has so far refused to act on it.

Khoury said the Cambridge vote is a small but necessary step in a bigger fight to stop Isreal’s slaughter of Palestinians.

“I’m a firm believer that most Americans know right from wrong,” he said. “The big lie that keeps most of the world’s evil chugging along is the belief that we can’t do anything. This may not end the genocide today, but we’re building strength. We can stop our country’s involvement in genocide, apartheid and occupation.”