For years, activists professors and students at Harvard have urged the university to divest itself of any investments in Israel, in protest of the nation's policies towards the Palestinians.

Here, for example, is news from 2002 about a petition put forth by professors demanding such a divestment.

So has the university finally given in?

Globes Online reports:

Harvard Management Company stated in its 13-F Form that it sold 483,590 shares in Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq: TEVA; TASE: TEVA) for $30.5 million; 52,360 shares in NICE Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq: NICE; TASE: NICE) for $1.67 million; 102,940 shares in Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. (Nasdaq: CHKP) for $3.6 million; 32,400 shares in Cellcom Israel Ltd. (NYSE:CEL; TASE:CEL) for $1.1 million, and 80,000 Partner Communications Ltd. (Nasdaq: PTNR; TASE: PTNR) shares for $1.8 million.

For what it's worth, the 13-F -- which was filed at 4:01 ET on Friday (meaning nobody saw it) -- doesn't appear to be reporting sales, so much as those various companies are no longer listed as holdings. As you can see from its Q1 13-F, companies like TEVA and Check Point were in fact listed as holdings.

We're eager to see if Harvard Management Company has any comment. Expect incoming firestorm of controversy regardless of what's behind the news.

(via @jamesgrickards)