The Divestment Project

America is a true democracy. During municipal elections, any individual or group can propose to include a vote on "matters of interest", usually confirmed by a signature list, to appear on a city-wide ballot. Recent ballots topics in Cambridge ranged from decreasing the speed limit in school zone, to promoting the sale of wine in supermarkets. The city of Somerville, an evolving suburb adjacent to Cambridge (it has but one stop on the subway) boasts a lively mix of students and restaurants, Portuguese and Caribbean immigrants. Mostly comprised of depressing, narrow streets lined with unattractive wooden houses, it is hardly on the Boston tourist map, although Somerville does provide an organized yearly tour of people's Christmas lights. Enter the Somerville Divestment Project -- the first organization in the USA to attempt to divest from Israel by way of municipal vote. The organization is not different or unique from other anti-Israeli initiatives in America; but there are two interesting points to make with respect to its presence in Somerville, adjacent to the Chomsky-Dershowitz front, and still a million miles away at the same time. First, that a developing suburb could divest from Israel. Would it threaten to stop the hoards of Portuguese tourists from overflowing on Hamei Tverya, or Boycott the sole Falafel stand in Davis Square ? Second, the alarming indifference by which this attempt was greeted by the public. If it weren't for a few tsadikim in Harvard Hillel, that urged students to demonstrate in the streets of Somerville and to distribute literature, Somerville may have removed its ambassador from Tel Aviv.