(Los Angeles, CA — November 1, 2022) — StandWithUs welcomes Morningstar’s announcement that it will change its discriminatory methodology in determining its risk ratings for companies doing business in and with Israel. Morningstar came under fire for giving biased, anti-Israel guidance regarding investments in Israeli companies and other firms targeted by the hateful Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
We commend the community organizations and leaders, especially Julie Hammerman of JLens, who encouraged Morningstar to correct its biased processes. We are grateful to 18 U.S. State treasurers and other state officials who sent a joint letter to Morningstar expressing their serious concern that “Morningstar, Inc. (Morningstar), through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Sustainalytics, negatively rates firms connected to Israel in apparent alignment with the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement” and thereby violates the states’ anti-BDS laws. They urged “Morningstar to take corrective action immediately to terminate all research and ratings products that treat Israel-connected companies differently than companies operating in other free democracies.”
Morningstar promises to hone its approach and the sources that it uses to research companies. To that end, it will seek independent experts for its data collection and remove sources which cannot be corroborated. It will immediately terminate several highly anti-Israel sources, including the United Nations Human Rights Council. It also committed to providing ongoing anti-bias and antisemitism training to its research staff.
Along with state officials and partner organizations, StandWithUs will be following the implementation process to see whether or not Morningstar is putting its words into action.
About StandWithUs
StandWithUs (SWU) is an international, non-profit and non-partisan Israel education organization that works to inspire and educate people of all ages about Israel, as well as challenge misinformation and fight against antisemitism.
Through university fellowships, high school internships, middle school curricula, conferences, materials, social media, educational films and missions to Israel, StandWithUs supports people around the world who want to educate their schools and communities about Israel.
Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Los Angeles, the organization has chapters and programs throughout the U.S., in Israel, the UK, Canada, South Africa, Brazil, Australia and the Netherlands.
For the last eleven years, SWU has consistently received the highest possible ratings from Charity Navigator (4 stars) and Guidestar (Platinum).
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