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Friday October 19, 2007

Governor signs Iran divestment bill into law

by joe eskenazi
staff writer

A bill that forbids California’s pension funds from investing in businesses with ties to Iran was signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Sunday, Oct. 14.

“The best prospect for resolving the Iranian nuclear crisis is putting maximum economic and diplomatic sectors of the Iranian economy that are directly related” to nuclear proliferation, said Rabbi Doug Kahn of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Relations Council.

Passage of “AB221” was the top priority of the Jewish Public Affairs Committee, a consortium of JCRCs and Federations.

The law, penned by Assemblymember Joel Anderson (R-El Cajon), prohibits CalPERS and CalSTRS — the second-largest pension fund in the nation — from investing public employee retirement funds in a company that has business operations in Iran.

“Money is the mother’s milk of terrorism. I was never more proud of our governor than when he announced at the United Nations that he would sign this anti-terror bill,” said Anderson.

Kahn added that Schwarzenegger’s U.N. announcement of his intention to sign the bill came on the very day Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke at Columbia University.

“The timing could not be better,” said the rabbi.

Last year, Schwarzenegger signed a pair of bills prohibiting the state’s pension funds from investing in companies with active business in Sudan and indemnifying the University of California from liability that might result from its previous divestment from Sudan.

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