The Alameda County Board of Supervisors plans to vote Friday on revisions to its investment policy that Jewish community leaders expect will be used to target Israel.
The Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area is urging residents to contact their supervisors and attend the meeting in person or online to weigh in on the proposed changes.
“This proposal has already been used to promote BDS against Israel, rather than advance true impact investing,” the JCRC and the Oakland Jewish Alliance said in a joint social media post.
The vote comes after County Treasurer Henry Levy unilaterally decided in December to divest the county from Caterpillar, which sells heavy machinery to the Israel Defense Forces. That same month the board asked Levy to draft a new investment policy — a move supported by local activists with the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.
A group called Bay Area Divest took credit for the board’s decision in December, calling it a “BDS victory” in a social media post.
Levy released a draft of the “Responsible & Ethical Investment Criteria” in the spring. It has since passed a vote in the county’s treasury oversight committee before making its way to the Board of Supervisors.
The proposed investment policy does not mention Israel but it discourages investments in companies that “demonstrate severe or persistent human rights violations in their own operations” or “facilitate and enable severe violations of human rights, as outlined in international law.”
The JCRC’s community alerts said the new criteria will assist BDS efforts against Israel.
“Instead of objectively advancing impact investing, proponents have already been using this policy to delegitimize corporations with a perceived connection to Israel. This ill-conceived policy will jeopardize local finances and stigmatize the Jewish community,” the JCRC said on its website.
At the December board of supervisors meeting about the county’s investment policy, some speakers said the board was fostering inflammatory discourse about Israel.
JCRC spokesperson Jeremy Russell has attended multiple local government meetings focused on cease-fire resolutions since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas massacre in Israel and the start of the ongoing war.
Russell, who also attended the Alameda County supervisors meeting in December, said he has often witnessed pro-Palestinian speakers dominate public comment periods of such meetings, at times spreading conspiracy theories against Jews and Israel.
“It’s not always merely scorn or derision. I’ve been physically shoved just for standing in line. I’ve seen people pointing at me. People have screamed in my face,” Russell told J. “Regardless of your political bent, it’s extremely unpleasant.”
The intense atmosphere has led some Israel supporters to opt out of attending or speaking during such meetings, he said.
Regardless, the JCRC is asking Alameda County residents to attend Friday’s board meeting, whether in person or online.
“It’s really important that we do show up and speak out,” Russell said. “We know it’s incredibly hard, but it is the right thing to do.”
The BDS movement has long targeted Caterpillar over its sales of bulldozers and other machinery to the Israeli military and has pointed to the IDF’s use of them to demolish Palestinian-owned homes in the West Bank and for its military operations in Gaza.
“As Alameda County treasurer, I am trusted to make decisions about the money in our county government’s large investment portfolio,” Levy wrote in a January op-ed in J. “After I became aware that Alameda County held $32 million in Caterpillar bonds, I decided it was time to sell them.”
Some Jewish community members criticized Levy’s decision, characterizing it as “personal and biased” and “undermining trust and fairness.”
At the December meeting, Levy said that his decision about Caterpillar fell within the guidelines of the county’s current investment policy. Last updated in 2020, the policy states that the role of the treasurer includes implementing a “policy of responsible investment” and incorporating environmental, social and governance factors into investment decisions. It does not go into detail on what those factors may be.
The push for investment policy changes targeting companies that do business in or with Israel has led to related votes in at least two Bay Area cities.
In January 2024, the Hayward City Council voted to divest from four companies, including Caterpillar, as an act of protest against Israel’s war in Gaza. The Richmond City Council passed a resolution in May 2024 that restricts the city from investing in a predetermined list of companies “involved in Israel’s violation of Palestinian rights.”
The Alameda County Board of Supervisors will vote on the new investment criteria during its meeting at 10 a.m. Friday. The meeting will also be livestreamed.