Gaza: Why Hostage Deal, Divestment Are Impossible (Brussels Morning)

Read Divestment: From South Africa to Israel? https://brusselsmorning.com/divestmen...

Read The Danse Macabre of Israel-Hamas Hostage Deal https://brusselsmorning.com/the-danse...

The United States, the Arab world, and the international community want to secure a permanent ceasefire, each for their own reasons. So do Hamas who wish to regroup, rearm, regain governance of Gaza, and live to attack Israel another time. Israel wants to continue the fighting, punctuated as it is by weeks of truce and swaps of Israeli hostages versus Palestinian prisoners.

These goals are incompatible and, therefore, even if such a truce is agreed on, it is very likely to be breached and lead to renewed fighting.

Countries such as South Africa, Myanmar (Burma), and Sudan have also felt the brunt of divestment. So did certain sectors, most notably the tobacco and fossil fuels industries.

But times are different now, two or three decades later. While there is an increased awareness of the social and ethical responsibility of businesses and institutions as well as a proliferation of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) investment funds – several other transformations have rendered divestment practically impossible.