Easthampton City Council members are scheduled to vote on a proposed resolution that would direct the city to pull its investments out of companies advocates say are complicit in human rights violations in Israel and Palestine. The measure targets roughly $454,000 the city has invested in firms including GE Aerospace, Palantir Technologies and RTX Corporation, according to city treasurer records.
The vote caps a monthslong process that began in December 2025, when Divest Easthampton began tabling, campaigning and drafting the resolution; council consideration began after a tense, standing-room-only meeting on Sept. 2, when more than two dozen residents spoke on the proposal and councilors ultimately sent it to the Finance Committee rather than deciding on the spot, according to gazettenet.com. About two-thirds of the speakers that night supported the resolution, per The Reminder. As originally reported by WWLP, the council is now scheduled to take up the measure again.
What the Resolution Would Actually Require
As written, the resolution asks the city treasurer and the city Retirement Board to divest from, and refrain from making future investments in, companies alleged to be complicit in violations of international law and human rights in the region, The Reminder reports. It sets a two-year window for the city to unwind its holdings in companies tied to the Israeli military, according to the gazettenet.com account of the proposal.
Of the roughly $454,000 Easthampton has invested in flagged companies, about $395,000 sits in GE Aerospace, with another $13,800 in Palantir Technologies and $9,600 in RTX Corporation, the same gazettenet.com report found. Those holdings are drawn from a broader watch list: the city's investments touch 11 of the 82 companies named on a list compiled by the American Friends Service Committee, per that outlet's reporting.
A Nonbinding Measure With Real-World Weight
Finance Committee Chair Thomas Peake has said the resolution is nonbinding but could still shape powerful policy, and he indicated it likely needed further discussion before heading back to the full council, The Reminder reported. After the September hearing, the panel was expected to take the matter up within about a month before returning it to the council for a final vote, the outlet noted.
Behind the push is Easthampton Divest, an advocacy campaign that told The Reminder it had gathered 475 signatures in support of the resolution. The group's organizing and signature-collection effort has been described as essentially mirroring a parallel divestment campaign in neighboring Northampton, according to NewsBeep.com.
Northampton's Experience Looms Over the Vote
Northampton's City Council unanimously passed its own resolution calling for the city to avoid investing in Israeli bonds and in companies accused of the same violations, and that measure became the subject of a lawsuit that a judge later dismissed, according to MassLive. The dollar figures at stake in Northampton were far smaller than Easthampton's: about $71,000 in city investments as of January 2025, per that same report. MassLive's coverage also noted that Easthampton held its own public hearing on a similar resolution while the Finance Committee reviewed it.
The Shoestring has reported that the legal outcome in Northampton could carry implications for other Massachusetts municipalities weighing similar measures.
Divestment Momentum Beyond City Hall
Easthampton's debate echoes a wider reassessment of defense and tech holdings among institutional investors. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) voted unanimously in June to divest its full roughly $2.5 million stake in Palantir Technologies and GE Aerospace, according to the American Friends Service Committee. The church's Committee on Mission Responsibility Through Investment said it had recommended selective divestment from those two companies, per the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), even as the same committee recommended continued engagement rather than divestment with GE Vernova after officials there responded to its outreach in 2025.
The American Friends Service Committee also points to larger institutional moves away from Palantir specifically, noting that the Netherlands' largest pension fund, Stichting Pensioenfonds ABP, divested from the company after previously holding €825 million in its stock, and that KBC Group excluded Palantir from its socially responsible investment funds after classifying it as deriving more than 5 percent of its revenue from military contracts.
Under Massachusetts law, a city, town or district treasurer may invest or deposit revenue cash not immediately needed for expenses, along with certain bond or note proceeds, according to the Massachusetts General Laws. Whether that framework settles the legal questions raised by Easthampton's resolution, including how it would apply to Retirement Board holdings, remains unresolved in the public record reviewed for this story.
