The University of San Francisco (USF) announced it will divest from four American defense contractors connected directly or indirectly to the IDF and Israel’s Defense Ministry, following sustained pressure from pro-Palestinian student activists.
The decision, affecting less than 0.5% of the university's investment portfolio, was described as part of an updated policy that now includes "ethical considerations."
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Pro-Palestinian protest encampment on a US college campus
(Photo: AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
The companies targeted for divestment — Palantir, L3Harris, GE Aerospace and RTX (formerly Raytheon) — all supply weapons systems or intelligence technology to the IDF. According to a university spokesperson, the divestment will be completed by June 1, 2025 and future investments will be made solely through index funds, eliminating direct holdings in individual stocks.
Students on campus celebrated the move as a landmark victory after nearly 18 months of protests, encampments and negotiations with the administration. "This is an important step, but we're not stopping here," said Alia Skye, a law student and leading activist.
The movement is now calling for the university to cut all ties with Israeli institutions, including student exchanges, scholarships for Israeli students and research collaborations.
USF emphasized that the decision was finalized in February as part of a structured process and not in response to students’ temporary occupation of the campus library. Skye, however, claimed the administration kept the decision secret and only publicized it after the library was taken over and renamed in honor of a Palestinian journalist killed in Gaza.
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Meanwhile, violent clashes broke out at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle during student protests against the school’s ties to Boeing. Over 30 demonstrators were arrested after blocking streets, setting trash bins on fire, and barricading themselves inside the university’s engineering building, which is named after the aerospace giant.
Protesters are demanding a full severing of ties with Boeing, including the cancellation of donations, removal of company representatives from teaching roles, and what they call “ending corporate influence on academic content.”
The occupied building was renamed by demonstrators after Shaban al-Dalu, a 19-year-old Palestinian killed in an airstrike on Gaza’s al-Aqsa Hospital in October 2024. “Every dead cop is a win for the resistance,” protestors chanted.
The UW administration condemned the “violent behavior, arson and rioting,” and said those involved will face criminal and disciplinary charges. “Such disorder will not be tolerated and the university will continue to stand against antisemitism in all its forms,” the university said.
Foreign funding under scrutiny amid spike in campus antisemitism
This comes as the Network Contagion Research Institute released a new report highlighting a massive surge in foreign donations to U.S. universities — nearly $29 billion in the past four years alone, more than double the total from the previous four decades.
The report warned of “industrial-scale influence buying” by countries perceived as anti-American or politically subversive.
Leading the list of foreign donors are Qatar, China, Saudi Arabia and Germany. Qatar alone has contributed more than $2 billion to U.S. universities since 2021, nearly one-third of its total donations since reporting began in the 1980s. Among the top recipients are Harvard ($3.2 billion), Cornell and Carnegie Mellon (about $2.8 billion each). In some cases, the funds were used to establish satellite campuses abroad.
A previous study by the same institute found a correlation between large donations from authoritarian states and an uptick in antisemitic incidents on campus. According to the researchers, such funding often supports anti-liberal ideologies, serving the interests of foreign adversaries and undermining the foundations of Western democracy from within.
In response, U.S. President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order requiring universities to disclose the sources and intended uses of all foreign donations, under threat of losing federal funding for noncompliance.