After submitting the proposed initiative to the City, and after the Seattle City Attorney’s office drafted the ballot title, the Office of the City Clerk approved the final petition form on April 1, 2008. Under the law, the initiative’s sponsors were given 180 days to collect 17,968 valid signatures, with the 180 days starting to run on that date. By mid-May, close to 1500 voters of the City of Seattle had already signed the initiative petitions.

Nearly a month after the initiative title was approved, on April 28, 2008, three opponents of the Initiative – including the Washington Israel Business Council and the Israel Emergency Alliance, the latter a California-based non-profit also known as "Stand With Us," – filed a lawsuit challenging various aspects of the initiative. As a result of that lawsuit, the ballot title was changed slightly by the court, so that it now reads:

If enacted, Measure 97 restricts how the City of Seattle invests retirement funds. It prohibits investment in corporations that profit directly from the U.S. presence in Iraq. It also prohibits investment in corporations that do business in or with certain Israeli settlements or in disputed territories. The City must also withdraw retirement funds invested with the Israeli government if Israel attacks Iran without U.N. authorization.

Obviously, this initiative will not, by itself, alter U.S. foreign policy. In fact, it is not even clear if this initiative would be legally enforceable to change the City of Seattle’s retirement funds investment decisions.

However, should the initiative obtain enough signatures to get on the ballot, that will be an important signal nationwide of the widespread discontent in at least one community about the role the U.S. is currently playing in the Middle East. Should the initiative both get on the ballot and be enacted into law by the voters of Seattle, that will be an even stronger signal to the political leaders of both major parties that the people of this country will not indefinitely, and without dissent, permit their government to fight wars and assist oppression in their name.

For more information, go to http://www.divestfromwar.org/.