THETFORD — The Selectboard finalized a policy to consider “human rights” when making town purchases over $350,000.
The board voted unanimously last month to adopt the Human Rights Equipment Procurement Policy, that “is part of a larger effort to further the Town of Thetford’s commitment to a high level of fiscal, social, and environmental responsibility, and to define the process for procuring high value capital equipment products in a responsible manner,” according to the policy.
The board plans to sign the final policy at its next meeting, after requesting a last-minute edit to specify that it only applies to products being purchased new, Town Manager Brian Story said in a Thursday email.
Under the rule, when buying new capital equipment for more than $350,000, Thetford’s Town Manager and a Selectboard representative will be required to research vendors and manufacturers using a database that identifies companies that also supply the Israeli military or support Israel’s operations in the West Bank. The database is compiled by the Quaker organization American Friends Service Committee, which also wrote an apartheid-free communities pledge the town has adopted.
The representatives will have to report their findings and make a purchase recommendation to the Selectboard to make a final decision.
Thetford already has a “Green Procurement Policy” that requires the Selectboard to consider the environmental impact of new purchases.
Importantly for the town, the policy is not a boycott, but staff will have to “research the impact our purchases have on the rest of the world, and to measure that impact against our local needs,” Story said.
The policy went through about four different drafts before the Selectboard opted to approve it, but Story said it did not change too much along the way.
The policy is a follow up to Thetford’s adoption of an Apartheid-free community pledge to “join others in working to end support to Israel’s Apartheid system, settler colonialism, and military occupation,” in 2025.
Other towns including Hartford and Hanover adopted the same pledge at Town Meeting this year. But the Hanover Selectboard voted last week to take no action on the pledge, which residents introduced at the end of Town Meeting.
Organizers in Thetford introduced the proposal for a purchasing policy in December as a specific way to limit financial support for Israel following the approval of the pledge. They see the approval as both a victory and a first step toward further action.
“What is important about this activity is that we can tell the world that Thetford and other towns in the Upper Valley and parts of Canada… are apartheid-free communities and we’re starting to put pressure on Israel from the grassroots up, because government is not doing it,” organizer Duncan Nichols said in an interview.
The passing of the purchasing policy feels like a “first step towards fulfilling the pledge” that voters passed and “putting as much pressure as possible financially, diplomatically and using people power” to “stop the genocide, stop the apartheid” that Israel is perpetuating in the Gaza, Henry Nichols, an organizer and Duncan Nichols’ son, said.
Though organizers in Thetford haven’t identified specific next steps, Henry Nichols said an important step has been working with other towns to pass anti-apartheid pledges and to help develop similar purchasing and boycott policies. Working with others is specifically outlined as part of the pledge.
Tim O’Hara, of Wilder, who was instrumental in the passage of the same policy in Hartford this year, said he is in the early stages of looking at a purchasing or divestment policy for the town.
Hartford organizers are probably “some time away” from approaching the Selectboard with any ideas but hope to work collaboratively with the town to develop a policy and are looking to Thetford and other New England towns an example, O’Hara said.
Organizers have also taken on other efforts, such as encouraging other entities including community groups, businesses and faith groups to sign the apartheid-free communities pledge.
“It’s important to have an effort all over the community to push it forward,” O’Hara said.
