SOMERVILLE, Mass. — Lawmakers in Somerville Massachusetts have delayed motion on an Israeli divestment proposal to permit for extra analysis into the query of what companies can be banned and what the monetary affect can be on town.
Somerville’s Legislative Issues Committee debated the problem on Tuesday night time after its Metropolis Council voted in November 2025 to discover a approach inside a yr to implement poll Query 3 on Israel divestment accepted earlier that month by 55.7% of ballots.
Councilor Lance Davis spent a lot of the assembly questioning Councilor Ben Ewen-Campen, who’s Jewish, on the factors he’s creating by which to judge the businesses that may be included within the procurement and funding ban.
That standards is listed in a draft ordinance that offers solely with corporations the municipality immediately invests in or does enterprise with. It doesn’t embody subcontractors nor sole proprietors, outlined as a “pure individual conducting enterprise in their very own identify or below a commerce identify,” with out forming a authorized entity (like a company) for the aim of their enterprise.
Ewen-Campen informed the legislative committee his intention for the restricted entities can be people who demonstrated “direct, ongoing and understanding exercise” in worldwide humanitarian crimes, together with in Israel and Palestine. “The intent is corporations that play a job within the ongoing violations of worldwide humanitarian legislation, apartheid, genocide, et cetera,” Ewen-Campen defined.
At current, the ordinance bases the factors for implicated entities on these set out by the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice, the Worldwide Felony Courtroom, the UN Workplace of the Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Human Rights Council’s Fee of Inquiry and its information base of Israeli companies, in addition to the UNHRC’s database maintained by the Quaker group the American Associates Service Committee’s Examine Venture.
Ewen-Campen defined that the factors would embody corporations that make weaponry, parts of weaponry, parts of militarized demolition tools and “parts of the surveillance state in unlawful occupied territory.”
Councilor Kristen Strezo, who can be Jewish, identified that a number of the corporations supplied merchandise to civilians and weren’t related to any army use, such because the skincare model Ahava, and Airbnb, which is a worldwide rental service. Strezo expressed concern concerning the monetary affect on town if they’re barred from contracting with related corporations.
Metropolis Solicitor Cindy Amara additionally expressed hesitation over the authorized implications of the lists, questioning how the committee deliberate to finalize the factors.
The committee additionally mentioned the potential monetary affect ought to the ordinance move, together with potential authorized motion towards town ought to the measure be discovered unlawful.
Ewen-Campen mentioned that he was prepared to just accept the potential hurt of the ordinance given the ethical weight it held. “My private convictions round unlawful army occupations is that we shouldn’t be contracting with corporations that facilitate them, help them, give them legitimacy within the eyes of the world,” he mentioned. “I’m not saying there might be no value to town in any approach, form or type. I’m saying I personally imagine it’s price it.”
Strezo careworn a number of instances that she believed the ordinance was irresponsible and discriminatory. “I want to remind our colleagues and everybody right here that many Jews on this group really feel that they don’t really feel secure,” she mentioned, arguing that the ordinance “doesn’t align with the values of everybody feeling welcome right here.”
Ewen-Campen, who, with Councilor Ben Wheeler, initially drafted the language for the ordinance, agreed to make additional amendments to the ordinance earlier than it would return to the committee on Oct. 27, when it would possible come to a vote.
For an ordinance to be adopted, it should move within the full Metropolis Council and be accepted by the mayor, who additionally has the choice to veto and return the ordinance to council. The veto might be overridden if 8 members of the council vote on the motion.
Throughout his marketing campaign, Mayor Jake Wilson didn’t endorse Query 3, the poll measure which prompted the writing of the ordinance. He couldn’t be reached for remark, however Deputy Director of Communications Grace Munns wrote in an e-mail that the mayor “is intently following the Metropolis Council course of, and as with every proposed ordinance, would do an intensive evaluate with workers of the laws.”
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