The Portland City Council’s discussion last week about revising the city’s investment policy turned acrimonious.
A handful of moderate councilors accused several of their leftist colleagues of antisemitism, and the leftist councilors responded in equal force, saying the moderate councilors were engaging in their own form of antisemitism by conflating Jewish identity with support for Israel.
The discussion—which took place at the Finance and Governance Committee of the Whole—is just the latest example of the council’s propensity to stray from debating the merits of policy and instead enter into the choppy waters of race, religion and identity.
With an election just three months away that will see six of the council seats up for grabs, tensions between the council’s progressive caucus and its moderate caucus have at times turned remarkably bitter.
At issue on Sept. 3: The city is required by state law to annually review its investment policy. Previous councils over the years have tightened the city’s portfolio by barring investments in certain industries like oil and gas production and storage, or small arms and correctional facilities. But the current council has considered tightening it further.
City Treasurer Brigid O’Callaghan presented the council with options for how to further restrict the city’s possible investments, including those in industries like military aircrafts, defense, armored vehicles and tanks, munitions, missiles and naval ships. The presentation came as a result of a resolution by the City Council in December 2025 that pledged to review the policy and to seek “options to include methods for screening potential investments based on human rights including those listed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with the intention of ensuring the City does not invest in companies that enable or facilitate war, armed conflict, or human rights abuses including but not limited to genocide, slavery, torture, indefinite or arbitrary detention, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.”
While the options presented by staff last week did not specify any countries or specific conflicts, a few moderate councilors that took issue with the discussion said it was a thinly veiled targeting of American businesses and industries that may be supplying products to Israel in the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
The effect, said moderate councilors, was antisemitism against Jewish Americans who are unfairly being targeted because of the war crimes committed by the Israeli government.
“There has been a fixation since before we took office on things that this council could do to send an anti-Jewish statement,” said Councilor Zimmerman. “I wish that we didn’t live in a time where politicians could be so outwardly antisemitic and get away with it, but we are. It’s wild to me.”
(Zimmerman was likely referring to a pledge that the four Democratic Socialists of America council members signed last fall to investigate Portland…
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