Above photo: Michigan Divest / Instagram.
After a year-long statewide divestment campaign led by Michigan residents, the Michigan Department of Treasury has dropped all State of Michigan Retirement System (SMRS) investments in Israel Bonds.
The SMRS is among the top performing retirement systems in the U.S., with $115 billion in assets in its investment portfolio, holding the pension funds of more than half a million current and former public employees. The SMRS portfolio directly funds multiple subcomponent retirement systems, including the Michigan Public School Employees’ Retirement System (MPSERS), the Michigan State Employees Retirement System (SERS), the Michigan Judges Retirement System (MJRS), the Michigan State Police Retirement System (MSPRS) and the Michigan Military Retirement Provision.
For over a year, Michigan Divest, a statewide coalition of Michigan residents, human rights activists and active and retired public employees, led a campaign to divest Israel Bonds from public pensions. Thousands of Michigan taxpayers, including current and former public employees with pensions in the SMRS, and over 50 endorsing organizations, including labor unions representing public school and state pensioners, expressed disapproval at taxpayer funds being invested in a $10 million Israel Bond purchased less than one month into the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Since October 2024, Michigan residents and pension holders have packed the quarterly State of Michigan Investment Board meetings, expressing strong support for non-reinvestment in Israel Bonds. A petition administered by Michigan Divest and delivered to the Michigan Treasury in October included over 2,200 signatures from Michigan residents and several resolutions calling for non-reinvestment passed by multiple public school employee unions and local county Democratic parties. Among the endorsing organizations is the Dearborn Federation of Teachers. Dearborn Public Schools is the second-largest participating employer in MPSERS.
Public records requests revealed that the SMRS declined to reinvest the $10 million Israel Bond upon its maturity on Nov. 1, 2025, and that it has withheld purchasing any additional Israel Bonds following the launch of Michigan Divest’s campaign in fall 2024.
The State of Michigan Retirement System is free of Israel Bonds for the first time in 30 years.
The Michigan Treasury confirmed, in response to a public records request for all Israel Bonds and pending Israel Bonds: “The SMRS does not currently hold nor are there any trades placed for the types of bonds described in the request.” Internal Treasury correspondence obtained via public records request confirms this, and also reveals how the Israel Bond National Managing Director of Corporate & Institutional Sales personally called the SMRS’ Chief Investment Officer in an unsuccessful attempt to persuade SMRS to continue its three-decade investment relationship.
Michigan’s SMRS is now the first state retirement system in the U.S. to drop all investment in Israel Bonds.
