Interview with organizers on Washington State’s Cut Ties with Genocide campaign

In February 2026, Washington State became the first U.S. state to divest its own funds from Israeli genocide and apartheid. The Office of the State Treasurer sold its Caterpillar bonds, worth $62 million. Caterpillar – a U.S.-based company that manufactures construction equipment, including the bulldozers that Israel uses to destroy Palestinian homes – was the only company on the BDS divestment shortlist in Washington’s State Treasury/Trust Portfolio. The Treasury had already divested from arms manufacturers and fossil fuel companies, following adoption several years ago of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria. This momentous BDS win was prompted by pressure from Cut Ties with Genocide, a campaign of the Palestinian-led Washington for Peace and Justice and Jewish Voice for Peace-Seattle. This month, we sat down with some of the organizers on that campaign to learn more about their work.

Thanks so much for making the time to chat with us! Please introduce yourselves and tell us a little about your work on the divestment campaign in Washington state.

Laila (L): I’m the chair of Washington for Peace and Justice (WA4PJ), which is a Palestinian-led state advocacy organization that predominantly works in Olympia with state legislators. I’m Palestinian myself, which is what leads me to this work. WA4PJ and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) are partners on the divestment campaign Cut Ties with Genocide.

Eliana Horn (EH): I’m an organizer with JVP Seattle. Laila and I are both in the core team of the Cut Ties with Genocide campaign.

Say more about the Cut Ties with Genocide campaign: What kinds of organizing are your groups doing? What communities or constituencies contribute to your work?

L: The overall goal of the campaign is for Washington state to divest from companies that profit off of Israel’s apartheid, ethnic cleansing and genocide in Palestine. Our primary target is the Washington State Investment Board (SIB), and our secondary target was the Office of the Treasurer. Those are different pools of funds, and we’re targeting both for divestment.

EH: As for the communities we organize, we’re always trying to mobilize and grow our organizations’ bases. JVP organizes Jews to work towards Palestinian liberation, join the anti-Zionist movement, and dissent from the pro-Israel politic that was once dominant among Jews in the US (although that’s no longer the case). We also organize folks in labor to move resolutions through their unions. The vast majority are public employees whose pension funds are invested in these companies, and workers have a major stake in that. We’re helping to educate those workers about what their money contributes to. We’re also part of a broader coalition called Fund our Futures, which is working on legislation around responsible investing. That legislation would include human rights violations, but would also consider immigration enforcement, climate change, and other issues. Fund our Futures is a wide-ranging coalition of at least 47 organizations. 

Congratulations on your recent divestment win! Can you tell us more about that victory?

L: The Treasurer’s Office was our secondary target. It started out with a meeting with the Treasurer. He was particularly open to hearing from us because he believed he was already doing Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investing well, and was proud of himself for having divested from fossil fuels. When we took a closer look, thanks to staff at AFSC’s Action Center for Corporate Accountability prompting us to look a bit deeper, we realized the Treasurer’s Office still held Caterpillar bonds. When we mentioned that to the Treasurer, he thanked us for giving him the opportunity to make his ESG policy “more thoughtful and more restrictive.” He’s saying publicly that it was a fiscal decision rather than an ethical decision for the Treasurer’s Office to update their ESG policy and sell their Caterpillar holdings. However, that decision came after our conversation with the Treasurer, so we’re considering that a divestment win.

Can you speak to the significance of this victory for the Palestine solidarity movement at the state and national levels?

L: It was particularly impactful in Washington state because there have been two Washingtonians murdered by the Israeli military. One of them, Rachel Corrie, was run over by two Israeli soldiers in a D9 Caterpillar militarized bulldozer. It was really impactful for us to be able to share that win with the Corrie family. Nationwide, we’re hoping this will amplify other divestment work against Caterpillar, like in Alameda County, and continue that momentum. We’re hoping that these wins will make all these investments riskier, the cascade effect will make it financially irresponsible for companies to support Israeli occupation.

What are the biggest obstacles you have faced, and how did you overcome them?

L: The biggest obstacle with regards to the Washington State Investment Board (SIB), is that aside from the Board that’s technically responsible for the organization, it’s the staff who actually make the decisions. We don’t have access to the staff to discuss with them or influence those decisions. That’s where the legislative work comes in, because the Board is unsure of how to address our concerns on their own. The board keeps telling us that their responsibility is to the pension holders, and that the legislature has told them to maximize profit at a prudent level of risk. We’re arguing that these companies are risky investments, both reputationally and financially, and that they destabilize the economy, but it feels like we’re speaking two different languages. We’re trying to overcome that by getting legislation passed that overrides their current mandate. I’m also a little worried that Palestine is not at the top of people’s minds anymore because of the regional war. I hope we can recognize that Palestine is connected to the US and Israeli attacks on Iran. Even though Palestine is not in the headlines anymore, the same companies are behind the current war, so it’s still important that we keep Palestine in the conversation and divest from these weapons companies.

What’s next for your organizing work in Washington state?

L: The Treasurer’s Office was actually our secondary target. We’re still working on our primary target, which is the State Investment Board. They have over $1 billion invested in companies profiting off the ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and genocide in Palestine.

EH: We’re going to keep showing up at the SIB meetings and applying pressure. Historically only a handful of people would show up, but now, thanks to us, they’ve had to institute a limit on how many people can speak. We’re also doing lots of teach-ins, and we’ve been trying to influence labor groups to sponsor this legislation. We may have some actions targeting the companies on our list in the coming year. We’re also doing a lot of education around how this all works, and we’ll be pushing for our legislation to get passed in January.

L: That education work is two-pronged. We’ve met with some SIB members about the issues we’re working on, and they’ve been very sympathetic, but I’m not sure they know what to do with the information. The second prong is meeting with legislators, and educating them about what our proposed legislation would look like, as well as the harms these companies perpetrate. Even though these companies are profitable, they’re actually quite harmful to the economies that these legislators claim to support. We’re also trying to educate our folks and let them know how their pension funds are being invested.

What advice would you give to a group of people wanting to start a state-level divestment campaign?

L: Buckle up! The first step is to do your research and map out the power players.

EH: Power-mapping is essential. Coming from a labor organizing perspective, I also think about power-mapping in terms of who has the most stake, and where you need to do the hard work of organizing. That’s not about the people who already agree with you, it’s about figuring out who doesn’t know about this but should, and how to bring them into your work.

L: As we power-mapped, we looked at the makeup of the SIB. There are labor representatives on the SIB and in the State Legislature. The pension fund is also deeply connected to labor work, and all that is part of why labor organizing has been so important to this campaign. Power-mapping can help you figure out where you need to put your efforts. 

Is there anything else you’d like to share with our communities?

L: Go for it! Even before the win, getting our voices heard in places they didn’t exist before has been a win in and of itself, so I’d just encourage people to speak up.

EH: And if you have questions or want to start a campaign of your own, please reach out to info@cut-ties.org.