Source: Common Dreams
by H Patricia Hynes
“Medford, a city of 60,000 people in Massachusetts, voted to pass a historic ordinance to divest from weapons companies that contribute to human rights violations. Their vote included Israel’s ongoing genocide, starvation, and destruction of everything that makes life in Gaza possible. The Medford City Council passed the Values-Aligned Local Investments Ordinance in August 2025, making Medford one of a handful of municipalities (and the only city in liberal Massachusetts) that has barred investments in companies that profit from genocide. Others include Dearborn, Michigan; Iowa City; Richmond, California; and Portland and Belfast, Maine. In December 2024, Alameda County, California, a populous county of 1.7 million people, became the first county to divest from Caterpillar, Inc., a complicit company that sells bulldozers to Israel to demolish agricultural fields, roads, buildings, and other infrastructure in Gaza and Palestinian territories.” (08/28/25)