The Art of Living Under Occupation
On November 6th, the Evergreen Foundation hosted its annual Art of Living auction to raise money for the scholarships it provides. While the auction went on in the lobby of the library, activists from TESC Divest stood outside and tried to raise awareness of an important issue: the Foundation invests its money with the University of Washington system, which invests in companies that profit from Israel’s occupation of Palestine.
While the college itself is slowly moving towards the implementation of an ambiguous “socially responsible investment policy,” the Foundation shows no signs of budging – despite the fact that 79.5% of the student body voted, in Spring 2010, in favor of a resolution demanding that both the College and the Foundation divest from companies profiting from the Israeli occupation. Students also voted by 71.8% to bar Caterpillar, one of the companies the UW invests in, from campus, and the Geoduck Student Union unanimously passed a resolution supporting both votes and directing the Board of Trustees to respond in a timely fashion.
Of course, the Evergreen community has another reason to oppose investment in companies which profit from Israel’s occupation of Palestine, especially Caterpillar: Evergreen student Rachel Corrie was murdered by an Israeli soldier driving an armored bulldozer made by Caterpillar as she protected a Palestinian home from demolition. The activists handed out fliers about the Foundation’s failure to support human rights and campus democracy to those walking in and out of the auction. With the headline “The Art of Living Under Occupation,” and decorated with a bloody splash in a grisly replication of the artwork on the official Art of Living banner, the flier spelled out the basic objections to the policies of the Evergreen Foundation.
Activists also made sure to emphasize that they were not attacking the Foundation or its donors, and that they were grateful for the scholarships that the Art of Living helped to fund. Nearly all of the interactions between the activists and the donors were polite and positive, and the few instances in which activists were treated rudely were more than outweighed by several other instances in which activists had long and constructive conversations with donors, artists who had pieces up for auction, and other community members.