“As long as I am governor of this state, we will continue to stand side by side with our friends in Israel, both in business and friendship,” Davis, who is running for re-election, pledged in a recent written statement.
“The people of Israel are going through tremendous difficulties right now. They live with daily unrest, violence and death. California will not abandon its friends in their time of need.”
Davis’ November opponent, Bill Simon, and Simon’s campaign workers declined to comment.
Faculty and student advocates of divestment have cited Israel’s alleged human rights violations against Palestinians as the basis of their demands.
Davis noted in his statement that California exported $818.2 million worth of products and services to Israel in 2001, making Israel the state’s 22nd largest trade partner.
Leading exports included industrial machinery, computers, and other electronic and electrical equipment.
In addition, Israeli investments in California, mainly in Silicon Valley hi-tech companies, grew from $4 million in 1990 to more than $162 million in 1998, according to the latest figures available.
The value of Israeli exports to California is harder to pin down, because figures are available only for the United States as a whole and are not broken down by individual states.
But Doron Abrahami, Israel’s consul for economic affairs in Los Angeles, estimated the two-way trade between California and Israel averages out at $2 billion a year, giving Israel a slight edge in exports over imports.
Some 200 offices representing Israeli companies operate in California, mostly in Silicon Valley, said Abrahami. He noted that the biggest Israeli exporter is Intel, whose plants in Kiryat Gat and Jerusalem annually export $2 billion in computer chips to the world.
The single largest American investor in Israel is Los Angeles-based Shamrock Holdings, which has invested between $700 million and $800 million during the past 15 years.