SodaStream dropped from investment fund!

Calls for divestment intensify as retirement fund giant TIAA-CREF drops controversial Israeli settlement company

Pension fund giant TIAA-CREF has removed the controversial Israeli company SodaStream (NASD: SODA) from its portfolio. As of March 2013, financial data posted on TIAA-CREF’s website valued shares in SodaStream at more than $9 million. According to financial data available today, it is zero.

“No matter the reason TIAA-CREF dropped SodaStream, we view this as a conscientious decision,” said Sydney Levy of the We Divest Campaign (wedivest.org). “While SodaStream may be a profitable investment, it is socially bankrupt, operating out of an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank.”

SodaStream is the second company targeted for divestment by international human rights groups to be dropped by TIAA-CREF.

 In 2012, TIAA-CREF took an important step toward its claim to be a socially responsible pension fund by dropping Caterpillar, Inc., from its Social Choice fund. Caterpillar’s bulldozers have been used for countless egregious Israeli human rights violations in occupied Palestine. In that case, TIAA-CREF’s decision was based on the downgrading of Caterpillar stock by ethical investment ratings agency MSCI, which said in a statement that one of the “key factors” in Caterpillar’s downgrading was "on-going controversy associated with use of the company’s equipment in the occupied Palestinian territories."

In recent years SodaStream became the subject of international calls for boycott due to their main production facility being located in the Mishor Adumim industrial park in the Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Adumim in the occupied West Bank. The American Muslims for Palestine is a key organization involved in the Intefaith Boycott Committee that focused much of its energies on SodaStream earlier this year.  The move by TIAA-CREF comes as the international campaign to boycott companies operating in illegal settlements is gaining mainstream traction. In 2012, the policy-making bodies of the United Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church USA each voted to boycott products made in Israeli settlements.

We Divest Campaign activists are intensifying their efforts to see TIAA-CREF divest from all companies in their portfolio that profit from the Israeli occupation. Protests are planned at local TIAA-CREF offices in more than a dozen cities across the country on Tuesday, July 16th, the day of the CREF shareholders meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Read the full press release.