Disinvestment from Iran is campaign primarily in the US that aims to encourage disinvestment

Disinvestment

Disinvestment, sometimes referred to as divestment, refers to the use of a concerted economic boycott, with specific emphasis on liquidating stock, to pressure a government, industry, or company towards a change in policy, or in the case of governments, even regime change...

 from the state of Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

.

Federal

The Iran Sanctions Enabling Act (H.R. 1327) was introduced in US Congress by Reps. Barney Frank

Barney Frank

Barney Frank is the U.S. Representative for . A member of the Democratic Party, he is the former chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and is considered the most prominent gay politician in the United States.Born and raised in New Jersey, Frank graduated from Harvard College and...

 (D-MA) and Mark Kirk

Mark Kirk

Mark Steven Kirk is the junior United States Senator from Illinois and a member of the Republican Party. Previously, Kirk was a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Illinois's 10th congressional district....

 (R-IL). It passed 414-6. The legislation aims to protects fund managers who divest from such companies from potential lawsuits, thereby facilitating state efforts to divest from the Islamist regime.

Support

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz describes the origin of the efforts in 2007:

"Various Israeli sources and the pro-Israel lobby

Israel lobby in the United States

The Israel lobby is a term used to describe the diverse coalition of those who, as individuals and as groups, seek and have sought to influence the foreign policy of the United States in support of Zionism, Israel or the specific policies of its government...

, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee

American Israel Public Affairs Committee

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee is a lobbying group that advocates pro-Israel policies to the Congress and Executive Branch of the United States...

 (AIPAC), are also contributing to the efforts, particularly through specific legislation in various American states where pension funds hold stock in firms invested in Iran."

According to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, the AIPAC has made the campaign for disinvestment from Iran a major policy goal for 2009. The JTA wrote that the H.R. 1327 disinvestment bill is "strongly backed by AIPAC" and the its introduction to Congress during the yearly AIPAC conference was "no coincidence" because "having 6,000 conference-goers press for their passage next Tuesday [during the AIPAC conference] is bound to give them a turbo boost."

See also

• Disinvestment from South Africa
  Disinvestment from South Africa
  Disinvestment from South Africa was first advocated in the 1960s, in protest of South Africa's system of Apartheid, but was not implemented on a significant scale until the mid 1980s...
  
  
• Disinvestment from Israel
  Disinvestment from Israel
  Disinvestment from Israel is a campaign conducted by religious and political entities which aims to use disinvestment to pressure the government of Israel to put "an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories captured during the 1967 military campaign." The disinvestment campaign is...