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Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/32470/full/32470/iranian-divestment-bill-advances-in-assembly/ <br /><br /> <b>Iranian divestment bill advances in assembly</b> <br /> Friday, May 18, 2007 | by <p>joe eskenazi </p> <br /><br /><p>A state assembly bill that calls for divesting billions of dollars from companies doing business with Iran’s energy sector cleared several key committee votes and could be signed into law by summer. <br /><br /> The bill — AB 221 — was introduced in January by Assemblyman Joel Anderson (R-La Mesa). Bay Area members of local Jewish Community Relations Councils and federations traveled to Sacramento earlier this month to lobby for its passage. <br /><br /> “There are 19 companies doing business in the energy sector in Iran,” said Yitzhak Santis, director of Middle Eastern Affairs for the S.F-based JCRC. “The regime they are holding up engages in terrorism, often against the United States, the West and, certainly, Israel. Why should western companies prop up a regime trying to destroy the west?” <br /><br /> Since it was introduced, AB 221 has been heavily amended and edited. Initially, fellow lawmakers expressed reservations about broad language concerning international terrorism and a call for blanket divestment from Iran and companies that do business there.  <br /><br /> The latest version of the bill calls for divestment from the “defense, oil, nuclear or natural gas sectors of Iran or [if] the company is engaged in business operations with an Iranian organization labeled as a terrorist organization by the United States.” <br /><br /> A similar bill was passed earlier this year in Missouri, and both New York and Florida are following California’s lead to enact targeted Iranian divestment measures. “Blanket sanctions would hit every Iranian company, large or small. And it would hurt the Iranian middle class,” Santis said. <br /><br /> “What’s not on this list, and pointedly so, is the banking or financial industries of Iran. We don’t want to hit the middle class. And we don’t want Iranian exporters of carpets or food — family-owned businesses — to be hurt. They’re not the problem. The problem is a regime seeking weapons of mass destruction that has threatened to use them against Israel and the West.” <br /><br /> The list of companies that would be affected by the bill include French oil giant Total, China National Petroleum Company, Royal Dutch Shell and Statoil of Norway. Other companies hail from Spain, Italy, Japan, India, Malaysia, Brazil, South Korea, Canada, Sweden, Austria and Chile.<br /><br /> The JCRC released a statement last week calling for the United States, United Nations and “key international powers” to use “all diplomatic and economic means necessary” to derail Iran’s nuclear ambitions. Santis hopes AB221 will convince the nation that its “pursuit of nuclear weapons is a cost they’re unwilling to bear.”</p> <p> </p>

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