N.J. coalition calls for continuing divestment from Iran

Assemblyman Jon Bramnick, Sen. Robert Gordon, and Assemblywoman Linda Stender with members of No Nukes for Iran Teen Advocacy Initiative at a June 10 press conference in Trenton praising the state’s divestment efforts from Iran and calling for further action. Photo courtesy of UJA-NNJ

Legislators, Jewish communal leaders, and anti-Iran activists held a press conference in Trenton last week to laud state efforts to divest from Iran and encourage businesses to do the same.

The June 10 press conference at the State House, organized by the N.J. Stop Iran Now Coalition, coincided with the one-year anniversary of the demonstrations in Iran following the disputed elections there. Assemblyman Jon Bramnick (R-21) presided over the event. The press conference’s goal, he told this paper afterward, was to keep the Iranian issue in the public eye.

“When you talk about an issue as significant as Iranian nuclear weapons and Iranian government policy, I’m not sure you can measure a response,” Bramnick said. “What is important in American media is that you keep it on the front burner as much as possible.”

Joy Kurland, director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of UJA Federation of Northern New Jersey, said the press conference was as much a call to action as it was a reminder of New Jersey’s achievements.

“We call upon all the counties and municipalities in New Jersey to withhold their support for investment in companies that are doing business with entities and subsidiaries of the Iranian government,” said Kurland, who also heads the regional CRC, made up of UJA-NNJ, United Jewish Communities of Metrowest, and the Jewish Federation of Central New Jersey. “New Jersey clearly set an example when the state divested from its pension funds.”

Former Gov. Jon Corzine signed legislation in 2007 ordering New Jersey to divest its pension funds from companies that deal with Iran. The Garden State has since divested almost $500 million from 11 companies, including Gazprom OAO, Lukoil OAO, and Mitsui & Co., according to the N.J. Department of the Treasury. In all, the department has identified 34 companies tied to Iran or doing business within Iran’s natural gas or petroleum sectors that are ineligible for investment by New Jersey’s pension and annuity funds.

Divestment has overwhelming support in the legislature, Bramnick said. Iran’s irrational leadership is cause for worldwide concern, he added.

“It’s one thing when you have pure terrorists that don’t have a nation-state behind them,” he said. “But leaders of a nation-state have military at their fingertips. That’s a frightening situation.”

The N.J. Stop Iran Now Coalition, created in 2007, includes the American Jewish Committee, AIPAC, JCRC of UJA-NNJ, the Community Relations Committee of United Jewish Communities of Metrowest, the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Central New Jersey, the Lutheran Office of Governmental Ministry in New Jersey, the N.J. State Association of Jewish Federations, and No Nukes for Iran Teen Advocacy Initiative.

No Nukes for Iran is organizing a rally on Monday outside of Honeywell in Morristown to protest the company’s British subsidiary, UOP, which, Kurland said, is doing business with Iran. The coalition’s next move remains unclear, but organizers are firm in their message.

“We’re trying to do as much as we can to have the state move forward from where it is now,” said Jacob Toporek, executive director of the State Association. “As the coalition is in formation so is what it will look like in terms of moving forward. Everybody’s got some ideas and thoughts and we have to sit down and talk about them.”

comments