Send Page to a Friend Somerville Coalition for Middle East Peace Stops Divestment from Reaching the Ballot in November Somerville (September 30, 2005) The Somerville Coalition for Middle East Peace has thwarted the Somerville Divestment Project's (SDP), efforts to introduce a measure to force the City of Somerville to divest its pension fund holdings in Israel Bonds and in U.S. companies that do business with Israel. Through the Coalition's aggressive campaign that included an army of volunteers who held signs and made thousands of phone calls, asking voters to say no to divestment, support for divestment decreased to a margin of 10-1 of voters who now say they now oppose divestment from Israel. In August, SDP submitted 1,000 signatures to the Somerville Board of Elections for certification. The City rejected these signatures because they were submitted on unofficial forms that were gerryrigged for the election by SDP, which refused to use the official forms the City produced for signature gathering. Last week, Ron Francis and SDP sued the City for injunctive relief in an attempt to force the Election Department to accept signatures collected on SDP's petitions. In Middlesex Superior Court, Mr. Francis maintained that he had collected 4,500 signatures—500 more than the 4,000 required to put the question on the ballot – but has not actually submitted them. The judge who presided over the case rejected SDP's request for an injunction. Meanwhile, the City has reviewed the original 1,000 signatures that SDP turned in, and advised us that only 70% of the signatures were valid. At that rate of certification, Mr. Francis would have had to turn in 6,000 signatures to get on the ballot. His 4,500 count falls far short of that amount. While we have won this battle, the war is not over. SDP will continue their anti-Israel tactics. No matter what they do, the Coalition will be there to continue to fight on behalf of Israel and her right to live in security and peace. Now is the time to move forward with a proactive strategy that creates broad-based support for Israel.  The Somerville Coalition for Middle East Peace, along with JCRC's Israel Action Center will expand its work with a broad cross-section of the Greater Boston community to support Israel in her quest for peace with security.  The Coalition would like to thank the many volunteers who gave of their time and efforts to defeat this measure.