{"id":262533,"date":"2026-06-10T23:08:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T23:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/262533\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T23:08:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T23:08:14","slug":"divestment-from-pro-israel-firms-could-cost-nyc-37b-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/262533\/","title":{"rendered":"Divestment from pro-Israel firms could cost NYC $37B: report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Divesting from major firms that do business with Israel<\/a> could cost New York City pension funds and taxpayers more than $37 billion over the next decade, claims a new report released Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Mayor Zohran Mamdani <\/a>supports the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel and has representation on each of the city\u2019s five public employee retirement systems or pension boards \u2014 making such divestment more possible under his administration, according to the analysis conducted by the Anti-Defamation League and its affiliate, JLens.<\/p>\n

The analysis compared the 10-year performance of two hypothetical large-cap US equity portfolios: one including 47 major American firms that do business with Israel and are targeted by the BDS movement and one excluding them.<\/p>\n

\"JonathanPension fund divestment from major firms that do business with Israel could cost New York City pension funds and taxpayers more than $37 billion over the next decade, claims a new report released Wednesday Michael Nagle<\/p>\n

The targeted firms include Alphabet\/Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Boeing, Bank of America, Chevron, Cisco, Ford, IBM, Intel, McDonald\u2019s, Meta, JP Morgan Chase and Exxon Mobil, among others.<\/p>\n

The analysis found an approximately two-percentage-point annualized performance gap \u2014 11.7% return for the index with BDS-targeted firm excluded compared to 13.7% return of the equity index with the BDS-targeted firms included.<\/p>\n

Applying that performance gap to the city pension funds\u2019 estimated large-cap US public equity allocations over a future 10-year period, the report estimates a potential loss of value of $37.55 billion.<\/p>\n

Former City Comptroller Brad Lander divested <\/a>government funds from Israel bonds when they matured. Current Comptroller Mark Levine, who manages investments for the pension funds, said he would invest in Israel bonds and Israeli firms.<\/p>\n

The report emphasized that the projected underperformance could have implications beyond the pension funds\u2019 balance sheet.<\/p>\n

\"NYCMayor Zohran Mamdani supports the boycott despite the financial risks it could have on the Big Apple. Robert Miller for NY Post<\/p>\n

Any shortfall in investment returns must be offset through higher employer contributions made by New York City and taxpayers via the city budget.<\/p>\n

The increased pension obligations could force the city to \u201credirect financial resources away from essential municipal services, reduce spending in areas such as education, public safety, or social services, or raise revenues through higher taxes or fees,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

The report warns New York policy makers to steer clear of joining the BDS movement.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhile some in New York, including Mayor Mamdani, have publicly supported the BDS movement, an international campaign aimed at isolating and delegitimizing the world\u2019s only Jewish state, this analysis highlights the potentially serious financial consequences of applying BDS-aligned divestment strategies to the city\u2019s pension funds,\u201d said Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL CEO and national director.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis research shows that divestment strategies guided by the BDS campaign can be bad fiscal policy, and we believe that they risk contributing to an environment where Jewish New Yorkers are already targeted and marginalized.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pension system includes five separate funds: the Teachers\u2019 Retirement System, the New York City Employees\u2019 Retirement System, the New York City Police Pension Fund, the New York City Fire Pension Fund (FIRE), and the New York City Board of Education Retirement System.<\/p>\n

The Post reached out to Mamdani and Levine\u2019s offices for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Divesting from major firms that do business with Israel could cost New York City pension funds and taxpayers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262534,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[9381,19999,17460,10447,60,57,9,56,63,65,64,240,58,82],"class_list":["post-262533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-anti-defamation-league","tag-bds","tag-boycott","tag-comptroller","tag-israel","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-pensions","tag-us-news","tag-zohran-mamdani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}