An obscure California law may prevent action on protesters’ calls for divestment from Israel

BERKELEY — One thorny detail is often overlooked amid protester calls for divestment from Israel: the looming threat of bulldozed budgets.

Local governments and public universities that accept $100,000 or more in public funding from the state of California — and that means nearly all of them — cannot act on divestment demands. It’s been barred since 2016, when then-California Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB 2844.

Last week, hundreds of pro-Palestinian students and their allies gathered...