AG Yost says Ohio counties can’t divest from Israel on political grounds, but there is a way out
Ohio counties cannot divest from Israel on political grounds because their investment portfolios are meant to maximize returns for taxpayers, not to advance their political beliefs, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said in a recent advisory opinion.
Yost’s opinion, published on May 8 as formal advice to Lucas County Prosecuting Attorney Julia Bates, who previously asked whether the county could be legally permitted to divest from Israel at the end of this year, considering that the county’s $5 million in bonds in Israeli debt will mature at the end of 2026.
Some officials and local residents in the county pushed for divestment after claiming that the Jewish state invaded and occupied Palestine, which allegedly resulted in a genocide, according to Signal Ohio.
Several nation-states and a United Nations commission also alleged that Israel committed a genocide, according to a report by The New York Times. As expected, Israel denied the accusations.
Initially, the Lucas County Investment Advisory Committee, a panel of officials that counsels the county treasurer, wanted to divest immediately, but later changed its mind, opting for a divestment at maturity after realizing that an immediate divestment would result in a financial penalty.
To support his claim, Yost cited House Bill 96, which became the law last year, that says that Ohio counties are prohibited from investing “public money with the primary purpose of influencing environmental, social, personal, or ideological policy, unless expressly authorized by Ohio law.”
Based on that bill, Yost wrote in his opinion that Ohio county officials cannot consider “non-economic factors,” such as foreign policy or war-crime accusations, when deciding where to invest taxpayers’ dollars. The officials, however, are allowed to divest for “bona fide economic” reasons, such as risk, liquidity, and portfolio diversification.
“If the investment advisory committee’s policy runs counter to these conditions in law, the treasurer is not bound to follow it,” Yost wrote in his opinion, adding that non-economic reasons for a divestment would result in treasurers being exposed to civil liability for violating their legal duties as fiduciaries.
The recent news came after Pete Gerken, a Lucas County commissioner, suggested a divestment from Israel on August 22, 2025, according to the meeting minutes.
Even though the motion doesn’t explicitly mention Israel, Gerken made it very clear that he wants the divestment from Israel because the country’s government “is now engaged in a full-blown genocide, starvation tactics by design, and policies of violence, oppression, and displacement,” according to Signal Ohio.
“I cannot look away, I will not look away, and I don’t want this board to look away. This is where our money is going, and even though it’s a penny or two in our investment, it’s still the idea our money is being invested in,” he said, according to the news source.
Another reason why Gerken decided to divest from Israel is that there are allegedly a lot of Middle Eastern immigrants living in Lucas County who oppose what Israel does.
Gerken said he will use the legal approach pointed out by Yost to ensure the county divests from Israel, the news source reported.
