Archive: Boycott, also by Universities / ....We respect the right to education. Does Israel....? 10 feb 2009 - 4 may 2009

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Electronic Intifada

Petition seeks expulsion of Palestinian activist from Israeli university

Press release, PACBI

4-5-2009
The impressive growth of the Palestinian civil society campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel, particularly after its criminal war of aggression on the occupied Gaza Strip, is testimony to the morality and consistency of ordinary citizens and civil society organizations around the world concerned about restoring Palestinian rights and achieving justice for Palestinians.

The most recent achievement of the Israel boycott movement was the adoption of BDS -- nearly by consensus -- by the Scottish Trade Union Congress, following the example set by the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.

In despair over their evident inability to stop or even hold back the growing tide of BDS across the globe, Israel apologists have resorted to an old tactic at which they seem to excel: witch hunts and smear campaigns. A self-styled McCarthyist academic monitor group in Israel has launched a petition calling for the expulsion of Omar Barghouti, a founding member of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), from Tel Aviv University, where he is enrolled as a doctoral student. The Israeli campaign urges the university administration to expel Barghouti due to his leading role in the BDS movement that calls for boycotting Israel and all institutions complicit in its occupation and apartheid.

To date, more than 65,000 persons have reportedly signed this right-wing Israeli petition that depicts Barghouti as an "especially strident and persuasive voice" against Israeli colonial and racist policies. Several media columns by Zionist journalists in Israel and the United Kingdom, among others, have tried to use the "revelation" that Barghouti, "now enrolled" at an Israeli university, is politically inconsistent for calling for the boycott of all Israeli academic institutions while he is a student at one of them. Other than the clear dishonesty and underhandedness of these same media in presenting the case as if Barghouti has just -- or recently -- enrolled in an Israeli university despite themselves having reported years ago that he was already enrolled then, the reports have made some glaring omissions about the Israeli apartheid context, the widely endorsed criteria of the PACBI boycott, and the system of racial discrimination in Israel's educational system against the indigenous Palestinians.

While consistently calling upon academics around the world to boycott Israel and its academic -- and cultural -- institutions due to their entrenched collusion in the state's colonial and apartheid policies, PACBI has never called upon Palestinian citizens of Israel and those who are compelled to carry Israeli identification documents, like Palestinian residents of occupied Jerusalem, to refrain from studying or teaching at those Israeli institutions. That would have been an absurd position, given the complete lack of alternatives available. Successive Israeli governments, committed to suppressing Palestinian national identity in their pursuit of maintaining Israel's character as a racist state, have made every effort possible to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian university inside Israel. The only choice left to Palestinian students and academics in Israel, then, is to go to an Israeli university or leave their homeland to pursue their studies or academic careers abroad -- often not possible due to financial or other compelling reasons. In fact, the Israeli authorities have consistently worked to strip Palestinians from occupied Jerusalem of their Israeli ID cards and thus their residency rights while they study abroad, thereby prohibiting them from returning.

Palestinians in Israel are treated as second-class citizens in every vital aspect of life and are subjected to a system of "institutional, legal and societal discrimination," as admitted even in US State Department reports on human rights. In the field of education this discrimination is dominant throughout the system, as the following conclusion from a ground-breaking Human Rights Watch study published in 2001 states:

"The hurdles Palestinian Arab students face from kindergarten to university function like a series of sieves with sequentially finer holes. At each stage, the education system filters out a higher proportion of Palestinian Arab students than Jewish students. ... And Israel's courts have yet to use ... laws or more general principles of equality to protect Palestinian Arab children from discrimination in education."

Palestinians, like any people under apartheid or colonial rule, have insisted on their rights, including their right to education, even if the only venues available were apartheid or colonial institutions. Nelson Mandela studied law at the Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg, one of the most notorious apartheid institutes then. Similarly, leaders of the anti-colonial resistance movement in India and Egypt, among many other countries, received their education at British universities at the height of the colonial era.

PACBI has always made a distinction between the forms and range of academic boycott it urges the world to adopt and what Palestinians themselves can implement. The former have a moral choice to boycott Israeli universities in order to hold them accountable for their shameful, multifaceted complicity in perpetuating the occupation and racist policies of the state; the latter are often left with no choice but to use the services of the oppressive state, to which they pay taxes.

Finally, we stress that it is precisely PACBI's five-year-old record of moral and political consistency and the growing influence of its principles and the campaigns it and its partners have waged around the world that have provoked Zionist anti-boycott forces to try, yet again, to rehash old attacks of inconsistency, failing to understand or intentionally and deceptively ignoring the boycott criteria set by PACBI. We urge all academics, academic unions, cultural figures and cultural associations to adopt whatever creative form of BDS their context allows them. This remains the most effective and morally sound form of solidarity with the Palestinian people in our struggle for freedom, dignity, equality and self determination.

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Defending Academic (and real) freedom...

Prof. William I. Robinson's original email: Parallel Images of Nazis and Israelis


"If Martin Luther King were alive on this day of January 19, 2009, there is no doubt that he would be condemning the Israeli aggression against Gaza along with U.S. military and political support for Israeli war crimes, or that he would be standing shoulder to shoulder with the Palestinians.





3-5-2009
The Original Email at Issue

Below you can find the original email at issue in this case. This email contained two main portions: 1) Prof. William I. Robinson’s words regarding the Israeli aggressions and 2) a forward that that he received, which he forwarded.

Prof. Robinson did not generate the pictures at issue. The pictures and the political questions they pose were already part of the the public debate that was underway. They were indeed real photos from real world global events. It is not the photos that are shocking but the real world events that are shocking, the study of which is integral to the mission of the university.

What’s more, the Anti-Defamation League and student complaints, along with the charges put forward by the Charging Officer, have suggested an email about Isreal’s recent war on Gaza was not appropriate for the course. According to the University of California, Santa Barbara’s 2008-9 General Catalog: Sociology 130SG: Sociology of Globalization is an “Introduction to the sociological study of globalization. Survey of principal theories and debates in globalization studies, with a focus on economic, political, and cultural transnational processes, gender/race/class and globalization, transnational social movements, and local-global linkages (our emphasis).” Needless to say, WAR is a political transnational process.

The crucial issue here is ACADEMIC FREEDOM. According to the American Association of University Professors (AAUP)’s statement on academic freedom in the classroom: “If an instructor cannot stimulate discussion and encourage critical thought by drawing analogies or parallels the vigor and vibrancy of classroom discussion will be stultified”, and “Ideas that are germane to a subject under discussion in a classroom cannot be censored because a student with particular religious or political beliefs might be offended”

Read more here

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Palestine Telegraph


University Occupations Over Gaza

By Mona Baker, Radical Philosophy

30-4-2009
The ‘occupation movement' started on 13 January 2009, when students at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London occupied the Brunei Gallery and issued a list of demands in connection with the atrocities committed in Gaza and the University's links to the arms industry.

The national media largely failed to report on the SOAS occupation and others that followed. But the occupying students spread the word themselves, and managed their own publicity via Facebook, Wiki, blogs and YouTube.

Between 13 January and 6 March 2009 there were at least twenty-seven occupations at UK university campuses: School of Oriental and African Studies, London School of Economics, Essex, King's College London, Birmingham, Sussex, Warwick, Manchester Metropolitan, Oxford, Leeds, Cambridge, Bradford, Queen Mary, Sheffield Hallam, Nottingham, Strathclyde, Manchester, Glasgow, Goldsmiths, Edinburgh, University of East Anglia, University of the West of England, St Andrews, University of East London, University of Arts London, Plymouth and Cardiff.

The UK undergraduates demanded scholarships to be granted to Palestinian students and, in some cases, to Israeli students who refuse to serve in the army.They issued official statements by the university administration, stating their support for the right of Palestinian students to education.

The shortest occupation, at Oxford, lasted seven hours and ended with significant and immediate concessions from the University administration. This included an agreement to the provision of scholarships to Palestinian students. In addition a pledge to examine and reconsider university investment in companies that have links with the military. The longest protest, at Manchester University, lasted thirty-one days, beginning on 4 February and ending on 6 March.

Solidarity was expressed for the Islamic University of Gaza, which was specifically targeted in the latest attack. Various forms of aid were promised for the university plus other educational institutions in Gaza that have suffered destruction in the attacks.

Fundraising was included on campus to provide financial support for the people of Gaza, with many occupations specifically calling for a Disasters Emergency Committee day of fundraising to be visibly promoted by university administration.The BBC had incensed the British public at large by refusing to televize an appeal for Gaza by the Disasters Emergency Committee in early January.

Many of the student occupations in London and Scotland were accompanied by occupations of BBC offices to protest this decision. A commitment was pledged to examine university investment portfolios with a view to divesting from companies implicated in the arms trade. Their stance completely against the occupation of Palestinian land; and ensuring immunity from reprisals for students involved in the occupation.Some occupations also demanded one or other form of boycotting Israeli goods and services, especially on campus.

In Scotland, all occupations demanded that the (national) contract with Eden Springs to provide bottled water on campus be revoked. Eden Springs is a UK company with unethical links to Israeli firms that source their water from the occupied Golan Heights.

In Birmingham, the boycott agenda included a demand not only to withdraw all goods illegally produced on Israeli settlements from university retail and catering outlets, but also to close the university account with Lloyds TSB and withhold renewal of its lease on campus. The bank is claimed to have instructed the Islamic Bank of Britain, in its capacity as a clearing bank, to terminate the account of the Palestinian charity Interpal.
Nottingham, Sheffield Hallam and Birmingham have been accused of being particularly heavy-handed in dealing with student occupations. However, most occupations ended in partial success, so far as demands are concerned. In Cardiff, for instance, the University agreed to divest all shares from BAE Systems and the aerospace arm of General Electric. Several universities agreed to provide scholarships to Palestinian students, though most tended to wrap this up within a package of scholarships to students in war zones in general.

The achievements of the occupation movement extend well beyond concessions. One has been managing to expose the hypocrisy of university administrations.

When the director of the LSE refused to issue a condemnation of the attacks on Gaza, claiming that the university does not take positions on political issues, the occupying students were quick to remind him that he personally made an overtly political statement in May 2007 condemning a UCU resolution on Israel. The t previous LSE administrations had also condemned South African apartheid and the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989.

Another achievement is the successful alliances students forged with academic staff that are likely to endure in future and strengthen the activist base on campus. Perhaps the most significant achievement has been the shock waves the action sent through the system - from one end of the country to the other, and beyond, even inspiring two occupations on US campuses (at Rochester and NYU).

Educational institutions in this country can no longer take their students for granted - especially on the issue of Palestine.

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PressTV

Anti-Israel Finkelstein cripples speech ban

Norman Finkelstein has been banned from teaching at DePaul University for his belief that Israel is the real 'terrorist' in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

27-4-2009
Clark University President John Bassett fails in his efforts to cancel a lecture by Norman Finkelstein on the Israeli massacre of Gazans.

Basset sparked student fury earlier this month after he nixed the appearance of Finkelstein -- an outspoken critic of Israeli policies toward the Palestinians -- for fear that any support would undermine a university-sponsored conference on the Holocaust.

The Students for Palestinian Rights and other organizations responded by circulating petitions and organizing a protest rally in criticism of what they believed to be a violation of the right of freedom of speech granted under the First Amendment.

The American Civil Liberties Union also wrote a letter Basset, reprimanding him for infringing upon academic freedom.

In the face of the angry outburst, Basset revoked the cancellation and rescheduled Finkelstein's appearance for Monday, after the conference

"I freely admit that the process could have been better," Bassett said in a statement. "I should have begun by consulting with the leaders of the sponsoring student organization, not by announcing a decision."

"My decisions along the way in this case were made in an attempt to balance two goods -- free inquiry and common courtesy to visiting speakers," he added.

Finkelstein -- a son of Holocaust survivors -- describes Israel as a 'terrorist state' which unleashed an ongoing ethnic cleansing campaign on the Palestinians in 1948.

In his book The Holocaust Industry, Finkelstein asserts that the Holocaust has been overused and exploited to justify discriminatory Israeli policies toward Palestinians.

Universities in the United States and Europe, under increased pressure from political Jewish circles, have stepped up efforts to prevent high-profile critics of Israel from making presence at universities in recent months.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was scheduled to deliver a speech at the Webster University in Geneva, Switzerland and to later participate in a question and answer session, but the event was cancelled following pressure from the Israeli lobby.

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Press Release:



U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel


30-3-2009
In solidarity with the International Global Day of Action for Palestine, the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel announce the endorsement of over 300 US academics and cultural workers, and the affiliation of over 20 organizations.

The newly formed Advisory Board consists of internationally known scholars, artists and human rights activists:

Desmond Mpilo Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town

Hamid Dabashi, Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature, Columbia University

Bill Fletcher, Jr., Executive Editor, The Black Commentator and immediate past president of TransAfrica Forum

Glen Ford, Executive Editor, Black Agenda Report

Mark Gonzales, Educator, Poet, Human Writes Project

Marilyn Hacker, poet

Edward S. Herman, Professor Emeritus of Finance at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

J. Kehaulani Kauanui, Associate Professor of American Studies and Anthropology, Wesleyan University

Robin D. G. Kelley, Professor of History, University of Southern California

Ilan Pappé, Chair in the Department of History, the University of Exeter and co-director of the Exeter Center for Ethno-Political Studies.

James Petras, Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at SUNY Binghamton

Adrienne Rich, poet, essayist, activist

Michel Shehadeh, Executive Director, Arab Film Festival

Lisa Taraki, Associate Professor of Sociology, Birzeit University, Palestine and a founding member of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel

As educators of conscience, we have been unable to stand by and watch in silence Israel’s indiscriminate assault on the Gaza Strip and its educational institutions and its ongoing illegal occupation of Palestine.   In response to the call of Palestinian civil society organizations and in solidarity with the growing international movement for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel, USACBI renews its call for the complete academic and cultural boycott of Israeli academic institutions.

A major element of the occupation and the blockade has been the destruction of Palestinian culture and of its institutions of education and the normalization of the occupation through academic business-as-usual and cultural “embassies”.   We therefore encourage our colleagues throughout the United States to join us in pursuing this non-violent means to end Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine and its apartheid system by:

 (1) Refraining from participation in any form of academic and cultural cooperation, collaboration or joint projects with Israeli institutions that do not vocally oppose Israeli state policies against Palestine;

(2) Advocating a comprehensive boycott of Israeli institutions at the national and international levels, including suspension of all forms of funding and subsidies to these institutions;

(3) Promoting divestment and disinvestment from Israel by international academic institutions;

(4) Working toward the condemnation of Israeli policies by pressing for resolutions to be adopted by academic, professional and cultural associations and organizations;

(5) Supporting Palestinian academic and cultural institutions directly without requiring them to partner with Israeli counterparts as an explicit or implicit condition for such support.

We believe that non-violent external pressure on Israel, in the form of an academic, cultural and economic boycott of Israel, can help bring an end to the ongoing massacres of civilians and an end the occupation of Gaza and Palestine. We therefore urge a comprehensive boycott, including divestment, political sanctions, and the immediate halt to all military aid, sales and deliveries to Israel. However, as educators of conscience, we specifically call for an academic and cultural boycott of Israeli institutions as a key element in this larger action.

We urge our colleagues, nationally, regionally, and internationally, to stand up against Israel’s ongoing scholasticide and to support the non-violent call for academic boycott, disinvestment, and sanctions.

This boycott should be maintained until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law by:

1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall;

2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and

3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.

Details of the call, a list of endorsers, and further information can be found at:  http://usacbi.wordpress.com/

To endorse, please e-mail  uscom4acbi@gmail.com with your name and institutional affiliation.

Contacts:

Sherna Berger Gluck, shernagluck@gmail.com; Jess Ghannam, jess.ghannam@ucsf.edu; David Lloyd, colles2012@sbcglobal.net; and Sunaina Maira, smaira@ucdavis.edu

For further information on the campaign, see: http://usacbi.wordpress.com/

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Rania el Masri:

 Statement of Academics in Lebanon

In this latest onslaught against Palestinians, Israel has attacked a university, the Ministry of Education, schools across the Gaza Strip, and several UNRWA schools.

Such attacks against learning centers are not unique for Israel. Most particularly since 1975, Israel has infringed upon the right of education for Palestinians by closing universities, schools and kindergartens, and by shelling, shooting at, and raiding hundreds of schools and several universities throughout the occupied Palestinian territories.

    Nor have these attacks been limited against Palestinians. As academics in Lebanon, we are all too familiar with Israeli onslaughts against educational centers. In its latest assault, in 2006, for example, Israel destroyed over 50 schools throughout Lebanon, and particularly schools designed for the economically disadvantaged in the South.

    We thus stand, as academics in Lebanon, in urging our colleagues, regionally and internationally, to oppose this ongoing scholasticide and to support the just demand for academic boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel. Specifically, we ask our colleagues worldwide to support the call by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel to comprehensively and consistently boycott and disinvest from all Israeli academic and cultural institutions, and to refrain from participation in any form of academic and cultural cooperation, collaboration or joining projects with Israeli institutions as a contribution to the struggle to end Israel’s occupation, colonization and system of apartheid.

    We further call on the enforcement of Lebanese anti-normalization laws with Israel, and thus for the prosecution of individuals and institutions in Lebanon that violate those laws and conduct collaborations, associations or investments in Israel or with Israelis.

    We salute the recent statement by the Scottish Committee for the Universities of Palestine calling for a boycott of Israel, the letter signed by 300 Canadian academics to Canadian Prime Minister Harper asking for sanctions against Israel, and the appeal by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario University Workers Coordinating Committee supporting a ban on collaborations between Canadian and Israeli universities.

    Academics in Lebanon who have signed on to this petition consist of faculty, lecturers, and graduate students from the University of Balamand, the American University of Beirut, the Lebanese American University, Notre Dame University, Lebanese University, Beirut Arab University, USEK, Lebanese International University and Global University. We call on our colleagues to add their name to this statement calling for full academic boycott of Israel and Israeli institutions, and calling our colleagues, throughout the world, and most particularly those in the Arab world and those claiming to stand in solidarity with the Palestinians, to comprehensively and consistently boycott and divest from all Israeli academic and cultural institutions, and to refrain from normalization in any form of academic and cultural cooperation, collaboration or joint projects with Israeli institutions as a contribution to the struggle to end Israel’s occupation, colonization and system of apartheid.

    to submit your signature, email Rania Masri:  rania.masri@balamand.edu.lb

    Sawsan Abdulrahim
    Sana Abidib
    May Abboud
    Michel Abou Ghantous
    Dahna Abourahme
    Mona Abu Rayyan
    Mohamad Alameddine
    Rayane Alamuddin
    Falah Ali
    Mahmoud El-Ali
    Rayan El-Amine
    Karma Bibi
    Nabil Dajani
    Daniel Drennan
    Nabil Fares
    Nicolas Gabriel
    Aline Germani
    Sabah Ghandour
    Rima Habib
    Samer Habre
    Nicolas Haddad
    Hratch Hajetian
    Roger Hajjar
    Sari Hanafi
    Sirene Harb
    Diala Hawi
    Ihad Hedroj
    Sami Hermez
    Ibrahim El-Hussari
    Maha Issa
    Samer Jabbour
    Paul Jahshan
    Fatme Al-Jamil
    Maher Jarrar
    Rasha Al-Jundi
    Tamar Kabakian-Khasholian
    Faysal El-Kak
    Ghada Kalakesh
    Rabih Kamleh
    Samar Khalil
    Nikola Kosmatopoulos
    Michel Majdalani
    Jean Said Makdisi
    Judy Makhoul
    Maya Mansour
    Muzna Al-Masri
    Rania Masri
    Zéna Meskaoui
    Cynthia Myntti
    Aida Naaman
    Omar Nashabe
    Hoda Nasrallah
    Youssef Nasser
    Mike Orr
    Hibah Osman
    Gillian Piggott
    Daniel F. Rivera
    Joelle Rizk
    Nada Saab
    Amal Saad-Ghorayeb
    Sofia Saadeh
    Naim Salem
    Nisreen Salti
    Helen Samaha-Nuwayhid
    Rima Sarraf
    Richard Saumarez Smith
    Rosemary Sayigh
    Kirsten Scheid
    Eugene Sensing-Dabbous
    Rabih Sultan
    Lyna Al Tabbal
    Jihad Touma
    Hanan Toukan
    Nazek Yared
    Marian Yazbek
    Samar Zebian
    Hussein Zeidan
    Mohammed Zubeidi
    Huda Zurayk
    Rami Zurayk

Source: rania.masri@balamand.edu.lb

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Electronic Intifada:

Tough times for university students in Gaza



The Agricultural College of al-Azhar University in Beit Hanoun was destroyed by the Israeli attacks on Gaza. (Matthew Cassel)

27-3-2009
GAZA CITY (IRIN) - Many university students who lost relatives or whose homes were destroyed during the recent 22-day Israeli offensive are finding it difficult to cope, according to university officials and students.

Some have been unable to register for the new semester due to lack of funds; others are still traumatized.

Al Mezan Center for Human Rights in Gaza said 14 of the 15 higher education institutions in the Strip (most are in and around Gaza City) were damaged by Israeli forces. Six came under direct attack.

Three colleges -- al-Da'wa College for Humanities in Rafah, Gaza College for Security Sciences in Gaza City, and the Agricultural College in Beit Hanoun (part of al-Azhar University) -- were destroyed, according to Al Mezan communications officer Mahmoud AbuRahma.

Six university buildings in Gaza were razed to the ground and 16 damaged. The total damage is estimated at $21.1 million, according to the Palestinian National Early Recovery and Reconstruction Plan for Gaza.

The Israeli offensive -- in retaliation for continued Hamas rocket-fire from Gaza into Israel -- began on 27 December 2008 and ended on 18 January 2009.

Islamic University

Just after midnight on 28 December the Islamic University was targeted in six separate air strikes, according to eyewitnesses.

The two main buildings on campus were completely destroyed, while nine others were damaged; water, electrical and internet systems were affected, according to the university's president, Kamalain Shaath.

"The two [main] buildings contained 74 science and engineering laboratories equipped with thousands of pieces of apparatus," said Islamic University public relations officer Hussam Ayesh.

The university, which has 22,000 students enrolled, wants to rebuild and renovate but lacks building materials due to the Israeli blockade; Israel is very unlikely to allow in replacement laboratory equipment, without which it will be difficult for classes to resume.

"Only basic food commodities and essential humanitarian items are permitted to enter Gaza," said spokesperson for the Israeli Civil Liaison Administration Maj Peter Lerner.

The Israeli military said the Islamic University was being used by Hamas to develop and store weapons, including Qassam rockets used to target Israeli civilians. The university and Hamas deny the allegations.

The Islamic University has estimated the damage at $15 million. By contrast, tuition fees for the 2009 semester only amount to $10 million. The university has appealed for help and halved the minimum initial payment required by students.

"Tuition fees are now a problem for more than 70 percent of the students and many have missed the semester," said Abdel Rahman Migdad, 20, a third year business studies student. "Books are unavailable due to the siege and most students can't even afford photocopies -- and now we even lack ink for the photocopiers."

Al-Azhar University

Al-Azhar, Gaza's second largest university, generally seen as pro-Fatah (the political faction associated with Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank) was hit on the same day.

"Three thousand of the 20,000 registered students could not return this semester due to issues related to the war," said public relations officer at al-Azhar University Sameh Hassanin, who also said there had been a 20 percent increase in the number of students unable to afford fees since the offensive ended.

"Students lack funds for transport and books, and are struggling," said Hassanin. The university also lacks paper, spare parts and ink for copiers.

The Agricultural College in Beit Hanoun was completely destroyed, with the damage estimated at $4.3 million, according to university officials.

This item comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian news and information service, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. All IRIN material may be reposted or reprinted free-of-charge; refer to the copyright page for conditions of use. IRIN is a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

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Electronic Intifada:

Australian academics call for boycott of Israel

Statement by various undersigned

26-3-2009
Responding to the Call of Palestinian civil society to join the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, we are an Australian campaign focused specifically on a boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions, as delineated by PACBI (Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel):

In light of Israel's persistent violations of international law, and given that, since 1948, hundreds of UN resolutions have condemned Israel's colonial and discriminatory policies as illegal and called for immediate, adequate and effective remedies, and given that all forms of international intervention and peace-making have until now failed to convince Israel to comply with humanitarian law, to respect fundamental human rights and to end its occupation and oppression of the people of Palestine, and

In view of the fact that people of conscience in the international community have historically shouldered the moral responsibility to fight injustice, as exemplified in the struggle to abolish apartheid in South Africa through diverse forms of boycott, divestment and sanctions:

We scholars, inspired by the wishes of Palestinian civil society, call upon international civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era. We appeal to you to pressure your respective states to impose embargoes and sanctions against Israel. We also invite conscientious Israelis to support this Call, for the sake of justice and genuine peace.

These nonviolent punitive measures should be maintained until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people's inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law by:

1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Palestinian and Arab lands and dismantling the Wall which separates Palestinians from their arable lands;

2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality;

3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN Resolution 194.

The principles guiding our campaign and the three goals outlined above are also points of unity for the British, Canadian, and US Campaigns for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USCACBI, this statement is a modified version of theirs). There can be no academic freedom in Israel/Palestine unless all academics are free and all students are free to pursue their academic desires.

If you are committed to these principles of unity, and wish to work on a campaign of boycotting academic and cultural institutions guided by this approach, please join our campaign.

Gaza is but the latest incident in a series of ongoing Israeli massacres, from Deir Yassin (1948) to Kafr Kassim (1956) to Jenin (2002) to the wars on Lebanon (from 1980s to 2006). All demonstrate a pattern of violence by a state that will not end its violations of international law and war crimes on its own, without international pressure. We must act now. As academics we wish to focus on campaigns in our universities and in institutions of higher education to advocate for compliance with the academic and cultural boycott, a movement that is growing internationally across all segments of global civil society.

This call for an academic and cultural boycott parallels the call in the non-academic world for divestment, boycott and sanctions by trade unions, churches and other civil society organizations in countries such as the United States, Canada, Italy, Ireland, Norway, the United Kingdom, Brazil, South Africa and New Zealand.

Actions

Since Israeli academic institutions (mostly state-controlled) and the vast majority of Israeli intellectuals and academics have either contributed directly to maintaining, defending or otherwise justifying the above forms of oppression, or have been complicit in them through their silence, we call upon our colleagues to comprehensively and consistently boycott all Israeli academic and cultural institutions as a contribution to the struggle to end Israel's occupation, colonization and system of apartheid, by applying the following:

1. Refrain from participation in any form of academic and cultural cooperation, collaboration or joint projects with Israeli institutions;

2. Advocate a comprehensive boycott of Israeli institutions at the national and international levels, including suspension of all forms of funding and subsidies to these institutions;

3. Promote divestment and disinvestment from Israel by academic institutions;

4. Work toward the condemnation of Israeli policies by pressing for resolutions to be adopted by academic, professional and cultural associations and organizations;

5. Support Palestinian academic and cultural institutions directly without requiring them to partner with Israeli counterparts as an explicit or implicit condition for such support.

As educators and scholars of conscience in Australia, we fully support this call. We urge our colleagues, nationally, regionally, and internationally, to stand up against Israel's ongoing attacks on the rights of Palestinians to education, land, and human dignity, and to support the nonviolent call for academic boycott, disinvestment, and sanctions.

Undersigned: Dr. Anthony Ashbolt, University of Wollongong; Jumana Bayeh, Macquarie University; Professor Ann Curthoys, The University of Sydney; Dr Ned Curthoys, Australian National University; Professor John Docker, The University of Sydney; Ann El Khoury, Macquarie University; Professor Heather Goodall, University of Technology, Sydney; Laila Hafez, University of Wollongong; Professor Terry Irving, University of Wollongong; Dr Evan Jones, The University of Sydney; Dr Jon Jureidini, University of Adelaide; Dr Ray Jureidini, American University in Cairo, Egypt; Professor Peter Manning, University of Technology, Sydney; Dr Morris Morley, Macquarie University; Dr David Palmer, University of Adelaide; Rosemary Pringle; Professor Lyndall Ryan, University of Newcastle; Dr Ron Witton, University of Wollongong.

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UN, IRIN:

 OPT: Tough times for university students in Gaza

Photo: Erica Silverman/IRIN

Female students at the Islamic University in Gaza City

GAZA CITY, 26 March 2009 (IRIN) - Many university students who lost relatives or whose homes were destroyed during the recent 23-day Israeli offensive are finding it difficult to cope, according to university officials and students.

Some have been unable to register for the new semester due to lack of funds; others are still traumatised.

Al-Mezan Centre for Human Rights in Gaza said 14 of the 15 higher education institutions in the Strip (most are in and around Gaza City) were damaged by Israeli forces. Six came under direct attack.

Three colleges - Al-Da’wa College for Humanities in Rafah, Gaza College for Security Sciences in Gaza City, and the Agricultural College in Beit Hanoun (part of Al-Azhar University) - were destroyed, according to Al-Mezan communications officer Mahmoud AbuRahma.

Six university buildings in Gaza were razed to the ground and 16 damaged. The total damage is estimated at US$21.1 million, according to the Palestinian National Early Recovery and Reconstruction Plan for Gaza.

The Israeli offensive - in retaliation for continued Hamas rocket-fire from Gaza into Israel - began on 27 December 2008 and ended on 18 January.

Photo: Erica Silverman/IRIN

Damaged buildings at the Islamic University as a result of Israel's military campaign in Gaza

Islamic University

Just after midnight on 28 December the Islamic University was targeted in six separate air strikes, according to eyewitnesses.

The two main buildings on campus were completely destroyed, while nine others were damaged; water, electrical and internet systems were affected, according to the university’s president, Kamalain Sha’ath.

“The two [main] buildings contained 74 science and engineering laboratories equipped with thousands of pieces of apparatus,” said Islamic University public relations officer Hussam Ayesh.

The university, which has 22,000 students enrolled, wants to rebuild and renovate but lacks building materials due to the Israeli blockade; Israel is very unlikely to allow in replacement laboratory equipment, without which it will be difficult for classes to resume.

“Only basic food commodities and essential humanitarian items are permitted to enter Gaza,” said spokesperson for the Israeli Civil Liaison Administration Maj Peter Lerner.

The Israeli military said the Islamic University was being used by Hamas to develop and store weapons, including Qassam rockets used to target Israeli civilians. The university and Hamas deny the allegations.

''Three thousand of the 20,000 registered students could not return this semester due to issues related to the war.''

The Islamic University has estimated the damage at US$15 million. By contrast, tuition fees for the 2009 semester only amount to $10 million. The university has appealed for help and halved the minimum initial payment required by students.

“Tuition fees are now a problem for more than 70 percent of the students and many have missed the semester,” said Abdel Rahman Migdad, 20, a third year business studies student. “Books are unavailable due to the siege and most students can’t even afford photocopies - and now we even lack ink for the photocopiers.”

Al-Azhar University

Al-Azhar, Gaza’s second largest university, generally seen as pro-Fatah (the political faction associated with Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank) was hit on the same day.

“Three thousand of the 20,000 registered students could not return this semester due to issues related to the war,” said public relations officer at Al-Azhar University Sameh Hassanin, who also said there had been a 20 percent increase in the number of students unable to afford fees since the offensive ended.

“Students lack funds for transport and books, and are struggling,” said Hassanin. The university also lacks paper, spare parts and ink for copiers.

The Agricultural College in Beit Hanoun was completely destroyed, with the damage estimated at US$4.3 million, according to university officials.

es/ar/cb

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Stand Up for Academic Freedom; Support Joel Kovel

Target:
The Bard Administration
Sponsored by:
CODZ: Committee for Open Discussion of Zionism

Sign HERE

We, the undersigned, protest the decision of Bard College to terminate Professor Joel Kovel's contract, after 21 years, and reject the college's interpretation that this was solely for financial reasons.

We believe the record to show a pattern of prejudice based on hostility to Professor Kovel's criticism of Zionism and the State of Israel. (For Kovel's full statement and chronology of events visit codz.org). 

The Middle East Studies Association (MESA) has expressed "concern that [Bard's] decision to terminate Joel Kovel's appointment as Distinguished Professor of Social Studies at Bard College may have been, at least in part, politically motivated. [This would] constitute a serious violation of the principles of academic freedom and a threat to all teachers and students who exercise their right to teach about, and speak out publicly on, controversial issues, including Zionism and Israel."  We join with MESA and many people across the world to demand that the Bard administration re-evaluate Joel Kovel's professorship under fair and just conditions.

Thank you,

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AP:

American and Palestinian colleges form partnership

Ben Hubbard

12-3-2009
The project, kicking off this year between Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, and the West Bank's al-Quds University, seeks to improve relations between Americans and Palestinians while boosting education in the Palestinian territories, said Bard College president Leon Botstein.

Botstein designed the program with his al-Quds counterpart, Sari Nusseibeh. Philanthropist George Soros' Open Society Institute has promised an initial grant of $1.5 million.

The project will have three parts: an American-style liberal arts college, a master's degree in education and a model high school where new education techniques will be tested.

"If there is going to be peace in this region of the world, it requires instruments of peace that are not guns and are not the destruction of people and not war," he said. "If education and culture are not those instruments, what are they?"

The liberal arts college is set to open on the al-Quds campus east of Jerusalem in the town of Abu Dis in September 2009 with a first class of 100 students and a faculty of Palestinian and international lecturers.

Students will study history, economics, political science and other subjects, and earn bachelor's degrees from both universities.

The degree from Bard will be a huge benefit for Palestinian students because Israel does not currently recognize degrees from al-Quds, said al-Quds executive vice president Hasan Dweik.

The 100 students in the master's in teaching program this summer will do their practical work at the model high school, set to open in 2010 with a freshman class.

All programs will focus on critical thinking, not on memorizing and reproducing information, the emphasis of current Palestinian education, Dweik said.

"By applying this type of education, we can change the education system in Palestine," he said.

Botstein, who also serves as music director of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and the American Symphony Orchestra, said more American colleges should form similar partnerships.

"If we don't reach out and help other nations build universities of equal quality, how can we expect the base of mutual understanding that will allow for the freedom and democracy we always talk about?" he said.

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Palestine Telegraph:


Students occupy universities across Britain in solidarity with the people of Gaza

Ahmad Sabbah
By Katt Cremer

8-3-2009
[Britain] 2009 brought in a wave of occupations at Universities for the people of Gaza across our country. Spurred into action following the barbaric scenes of Israeli aggression in Gaza at the start of the year, thousands of students throughout Britain took a stand in solidarity with Palestine and demanded their universities do the same.



    On 13th January the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London was the first to initiate an occupation by taking control of a Ministry of Defence exhibition on campus that was promoting the armed forces.

    Occupations in LSE, Essex, King's College, Birmingham and Sussex universities were quick to follow and within two weeks over 15 universities had staged occupations. To date there have been 28 occupations in universities throughout Britain, including Warwick Manchester Met, Oxford, Leeds, Cambridge, Sheffield Hallam, Bradford, Nottingham, Queen Mary, Strathclyde, Glasgow, Goldsmiths, Edinburgh, UEA, UWE, UEL, St Andrews, Plymouth, UAL, Cardiff which have all now been finished while Manchester Uni and Byam Shaw are ongoing.

    The level of communication between the occupations was  phenomenal; each university set up individual blogspots and Facebook groups spreading the message of the occupations and the victories won inspired other universities to follow suite. Indeed the word has spread far and wide from the 28 university occupations in Britain; to two successful occupations of American universities at New York University and Rochester.

    The majority of the occupations achieved success with a significant number of demands agreed to by the respective universities. Demands included statements by the university condemning Israel's actions; disinvestment from the arms trade; provision of scholarships for Palestinian students; support for fund-raising for Gaza on campus and pledges to send unused computers and other equipment to Palestine.

    All the occupations have been peaceful, except for some instances of the university security forcing an end to the occupation by physically removing the occupiers. However, the majority of occupations were respected by the university authority and  the Vice Chancellors entered into negotiations with the occupiers.

John Rose, one of the original LSE student occupiers stated, "What's interesting is the nervousness of vice chancellors and their willingness to concede demands; it indicates this is something that could well turn into [another] '68. Students are revolting: The spirit of '68 is reawakening."-The Independent, 8 February 2009

During all of the occupations the students  utilised their occupied space to increase the awareness of the situation in Palestine. By holding public meetings, creating displays of information, showing films, making banners to highlight the demands of the occupations the students built up a mass of support for their campaign and promoted discussion within the student population.

Katt is from Bristol and has been involved in the Palestine Solidarity Campaign for the past eight years and the Stop the War coalition since its inception. Katt is studying part time at the University of the West of England and is a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist)
Last Updated ( Thursday, 12 March 2009 16:33 )

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AIC:


Internship: Research for Academic Boycott of Israel

10-3-2009
The Alternative Information Center (AIC) , a joint Palestinian-Israeli organization engaged in dissemination of information, political advocacy, grassroots activism academic boycott against Israel. 

Working under the close guidance of relevant AIC staff members, the research intern will assist in updating the AIC’s August 2007 document entitled The Case for Academic Boycott against Israel.

The research intern will research and verify new facts and developments about Israeli universities and their cooperation with the Israeli occupation; collect data about international academic boycott actions; draft and edit sections of the new document; and other research related tasks needed to update The Case for Academic Boycott against Israel.

Person Specifications

    * Commitment to AIC values and Palestinian-Israeli-international work.
    * Good knowledge of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
    * Strong research skills, including the use of internet for research purposes
    * Well organised and able to work effectively, both independently and with others.
    *  Ability to effectively read and utilize large quantities of English-language research materials


Timeframe, Location and Additional Details

Timeframe: The research will take approximately 6-8 weeks, 20 hours weekly.

Location: The intern will ideally be located in Jerusalem, although it may be possible to conduct research from AIC office in Beit Sahour.

Additional Details: Research will commence in April 2009. Although no intern stipend is available for this position, it will provide the appropriate candidate with outstanding experience in conducting primary research.  
For more information and to apply for this internship, please send your CV and a brief letter outlining your interest in this internship to: connie@alt-info.orgThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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BBC:

A protest is planned outside London's Science Museum on Thursday

3-3-2009
Israeli Day of Science events taking place at museums in London and Manchester have been hit by protests.

More than 400 people have signed a British Committee for the Universities of Palestine letter attacking the Zionist Federation event.

Universities whose academics are attending were "complicit" in the policies and weaponry used during the Gaza offensive, the letter claimed.

Organisers insist the events, aimed at secondary schools, are non-political.

They say the events are aimed at igniting young people's interest in science. Senior Israeli academics are lecturing on topics from medical research to energy and water technologies.

However, the letter's author, Professor Jonathan Rosenhead, said: "This is a dubious venture at the best of times but at this particular moment, after the offensive in Gaza, it's particularly insensitive."

It is estimated that 1,300 people were killed, including more than 400 children, during an Israeli offensive in December and January.

[The protesters are] trying now to prevent schoolchildren from being inspired by scientific discovery and innovation Jonathan Hoffman, Zionist Federation

Critics accused Israel of being disproportionate in its response to militant rocket attacks launched from within Gaza.

Supporters of the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine (Bricup) letter protested against the day of science outside Manchester's Museum of Science and Industry on Tuesday.

A similar protest is planned to coincide with Thursday's event at the Science Museum in London.

Prof Rosenhead, from the London School of Economics, said around 150 academics had signed the letter, which had been backed by people from all walks of life.

He said the seven institutions involved were "up to their necks" in Israel's actions in Gaza, citing Tel Aviv University as an example.

Its annual review stated that Israel's defence ministry was funding 55 of its projects and that it was helping to enhance the country's "military edge", the professor claimed.

"But they aren't putting up people who design policies for the government and saying look how good we are at killing people," he added.

Zionist Federation vice-chairman Jonathan Hoffman accused Bricup of trying to "prevent schoolchildren from being inspired by scientific discovery and innovation".

He said he was "saddened" the protesters wished "not only to prevent the provision of scientific lectures to sixth formers but also to urge the Science Museum to discriminate against Israeli academics".

'No politics'

"Science transcends borders," he added, referring to a collaboration between Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian researchers to eradicate the Mediterranean fruit fly.

Bricup has also hit out at the venues for agreeing to host the events, which focus on subjects such as stem cell, cancer and brain research, nanotechnology and solar energy.

The Science Museum insisted in a statement that it was an "apolitical organisation" and was not co-hosting or sponsoring the event, which had been booked for almost a year.

"The event has no political theme. Not to proceed with the event would mean taking a political stand, which would be wholly inappropriate," it said.

"Scientists speaking at the event include a marine biologist, a physicist who works on experiments at the Large Hadron Collider at Cern, a nanotechnology expert, a water scientist and a geneticist."

Nobody at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester was available for comment.

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Stop the Wall:

BDS events kick off IAW in the West Bank

Latest News, Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, March 5th, 2009

IAW began in the West Bank at al-Quds Open University in Tulkarm on Tuesday. More events took place on the following day in a number of universities in the north as well as in the Aida refugee camp in Bethlehem. The events have focused on education and spreading the word in the campuses and camps about BDS, setting the stage for the week to come.

Above: Students in Tulkarm discuss BDS during an IAW event.

IAW opened at al-Quds Open University in Tulkarm, where events began mid-morning. Student activists working with the Stop the Wall Campaign distributed questionnaires to 300 students about the importance of boycotting Israeli goods. Activists sent the results to both the student council and the university administration and asked them to sign statements pledging to cease buying Israeli goods, primarily for the cafeteria, and cut any ties with Israeli academics. Students also distributed brochures and other educational material about the boycott campaign in Palestine.

On Wednesday, events were scheduled in several universities in the north. At al-Quds Open University in Qalqilya, students held a presentation about the Wall for their colleagues, and both students and academics agreed to write a statement from university supporting the academic boycott. A similar event took place in al-Khadoury college in Tulkarm, where the youth coordinator of the Stop the Wall Campaign held a talk and discussion with students on BDS. The student council at al-Khadoury is committed to boycott, and made a commitment to keep Israeli products out of the cafeteria.

Presentations and exhibits were also organized by students in Jenin and Nablus. At the Arab American University, 35 students organized an exhibit of black and white photographs from the Nakba, which was well received by viewers. At an-Najah University, a small group of students began to do research about the attitudes toward BDS held by students and faculty, as they intended to invite Palestinian companies to exhibit products and provide alternatives to buying Israeli.

In Bethlehem, children and youth at Lajee Center in Aida refugee camp organized an event to discuss the BDS campaign with camp residents in general and their families in particular.

The youth group, part of the Badil Resource Center Youth Education and Activation Program, has spent the past year learning about the forced expulsion and displacement of Palestinians since 1948, the rights of Palestinian refugees under international law, the conditions of Palestinian refugees in various host countries, and how to implement and defend their rights to return, restitution and compensation.

The event included theatrical sketches prepared by the students in which they discussed the boycott of Israeli consumer products as well as cultural and academic boycott. The boycott campaign was connected to the refugees right to return through a slide-show presentation of photos of the students' towns and villages of origin which was accompanied by a short presentation on each of these places of origin before and since the 1948 Nakba.

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Stop the Wall:



UK students win divestment victory, stand with Jayyous
Worldwide Activism, Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign, March 3rd, 2009

In another victory for the UK student occupations, Cardiff University has been forced to divest from the arms trade. Also, Sussex University has organized a week of action in solidarity with the arrested students from Jayyous.

The occupation of Cardiff University ended as the university administration acceded to the occupiers’ key demand – to divest from the arms trade. Cardiff University provided students written confirmation that they divested from two companies and have instructed fund managers not to reinvest.

The victory comes after three days of occupation which has made students across the campus aware of the £209,000 worth of shares which, until yesterday, Cardiff University held in BAE Systems and General Electric, two firms which have been selling arms to Israel.

Also, Sussex University, responding to a call on behalf of the arrested students of Jayyous, has organized a week of BDS action for March 2 – 8. On 18 February, more than 70 youth were arrested and interrogated in the village. Several more were arrested later in the week. A number of youth are being held indefinitely, as Occupation forces attempt to crush the growing resistance.

To date, 30 universities in the UK have been occupied, while the renewed student activism sparked by Gaza is not showing signs of slowing down. The movement has galvanized solidarity groups, and many are moving forward with their own divestment campaigns.

Above: Students at Cardiff University leave the Shandon Lecture Theatre after their victory.

For more information on the UK occupations, click here.

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PACBI:

Whereas Israel’s colonial oppression of the Palestinian people, which is based on Zionist ideology, comprises the following:

· Denial of its responsibility for the Nakba -- in particular the waves of ethnic cleansing and dispossession that created the Palestinian refugee problem -- and therefore refusal to accept the inalienable rights of the refugees and displaced stipulated in and protected by international law;

· Military occupation and colonization of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza since 1967, in violation of international law and UN resolutions;

· The entrenched system of racial discrimination and segregation against the Palestinian citizens of Israel, which resembles the defunct apartheid system in South Africa;

Since Israeli academic institutions (mostly state controlled) and the vast majority of Israeli intellectuals and academics have either contributed directly to maintaining, defending or otherwise justifying the above forms of oppression, or have been complicit in them through their silence,

Given that all forms of international intervention have until now failed to force Israel to comply with international law or to end its repression of the Palestinians, which has manifested itself in many forms, including siege, indiscriminate killing, wanton destruction and the racist colonial wall,

In view of the fact that people of conscience in the international community of scholars and intellectuals have historically shouldered the moral responsibility to fight injustice, as exemplified in their struggle to abolish apartheid in South Africa through diverse forms of boycott,

Recognizing that the growing international boycott movement against Israel has expressed the need for a Palestinian frame of reference outlining guiding principles,

In the spirit of international solidarity, moral consistency and resistance to injustice and oppression,

We, Palestinian academics and intellectuals, call upon our colleagues in the international community to comprehensively and consistently boycott all Israeli academic and cultural institutions as a contribution to the struggle to end Israel’s occupation, colonization and system of apartheid, by applying the following:

Refrain from participation in any form of academic and cultural cooperation, collaboration or joint projects with Israeli institutions;

Advocate a comprehensive boycott of Israeli institutions at the national and international levels, including suspension of all forms of funding and subsidies to these institutions;

Promote divestment and disinvestment from Israel by international academic institutions;

Work toward the condemnation of Israeli policies by pressing for resolutions to be adopted by academic, professional and cultural associations and organizations;

Support Palestinian academic and cultural institutions directly without requiring them to partner with Israeli counterparts as an explicit or implicit condition for such support.

Endorsed by:

Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees; Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions; Palestinian NGO Network, West Bank; Teachers’ Federation; Palestinian Writers’ Federation; Palestinian League of Artists; Palestinian Journalists’ Federation; General Union of Palestinian Women; Palestinian Lawyers’ Association; and tens of other Palestinian federations, associations, and civil society organizations.

PACBI, P.O. Box 1701, Ramallah, Palestine; info@BoycottIsrael.ps; http://www.pacbi.org

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IPS:

Israel Boycott Movement Gains Momentum

By Mel Frykberg

RAMALLAH, Mar 3 (IPS) - "Standing United with the People of Gaza" is the theme of this week's Israel Apartheid Week (IAW), which kicked off in Toronto and another 39 cities across the globe Sunday.

A movement to boycott Israeli goods, culture and academic institutions is gaining momentum as Geneva prepares to host the UN's Anti-Racism Conference, Durban 2 next month amidst swirling controversy.

Both Canada and the U.S. are boycotting the Durban 2 conference in protest over what they perceive as a strongly anti-Israel agenda.

The first UN Anti-Racism conference, held in the South African city Durban in 2001, saw the Israeli and U.S. delegates storm out of the conference, accusing other delegates of focusing too strongly on Israel.

U.S. and Canadian support might have offered some comfort for Israel. However, international criticism of Israel's three-week bloody offensive into Gaza, which left more than 1,300 Palestinians dead and thousands more wounded, most of them civilian, has breathed fresh life into a Boycott, Divest, Sanctions (BDS) campaign.

The BDS campaign followed a 2005 appeal from over 170 Palestinian civil society groups to launch a divestment campaign "as a way of bringing non- violent pressure to bear on the state of Israel to end its violations of international law."

In the wake of the BDS campaign, critics of Israel have lashed out at what they see as parallels between South Africa's former apartheid system and Israeli racism.

They point to Israel's discriminatory treatment of ethnic Palestinians within Israel who hold Israeli passports, and the extensive human rights abuses against Palestinians in the occupied territories by Israeli security forces.

During the apartheid era, ties between Israel and South Africa were extremely strong, with the Jewish state helping to train South Africa's security forces as well as supplying the regime in Pretoria with weapons.

Meanwhile, Toronto, where the Israel Apartheid Week movement was born, will hold forums, film shows, cultural events and street protests to mark IAW week. One of the guest speakers is former South African intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils.

Kasrils is no stranger to controversy. His parents fled from Tzarist Russian pogroms carried out against Jews, and immigrated to South Africa at the beginning of the last century.

During white rule, as a member of the African National Congress (ANC), working both in exile and underground in South Africa, he was reviled by many white South Africans as a "terrorist".

He has also been labelled a self-hating Jew by many Israelis and South African Jews due to the strong stand he and the ANC have taken against Israel's policies.

Meanwhile, in New York, prominent IAW activist Nir Harel, a member of Israel's Anarchists Against the Wall, will also be courting controversy. His group regularly protests against Israel's separation barrier, which divides Israel proper from the Palestinian West Bank.

The barrier deviates significantly from the Green Line, the internationally recognised border, into Palestinian territory where it has swallowed huge amounts of land, dispossessing farmers from their agricultural crops.

Another Israeli activist, Matan Cohen, has been central in the first U.S. college implementing a divestment campaign against Israel. Hampshire College in Massachusetts called for divestment from over 200 companies that the college says is responsible for violating its socially responsible investment policies in Israel.

The companies which provide the Israeli military with equipment and services in the occupied West Bank and Gaza include Caterpillar, United Technologies, General Electric, ITT Corporation, Motorola and Terex.

A Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) petition for divestment was supported by more than 800 students, professors, and alumni at the college, that has only 1,350 students.

Hampshire college may be small but it has been big in social activism. It was also the first U.S. educational institution to divest from South Africa, ten years before other universities and colleges followed suit.

U.S. campus activism is spreading. The University of Rochester in New York and members of the community are also involved in boycott activities.

Students from Macalester College, a liberal arts college located in St. Paul, Minnesota, occupied the Minnesota Trade Office in January and then picketed there Feb. 6, demanding that the state end all trade with Israel. New York University students too began a divestment campaign.

Professors and university employees in Quebec, Canada, endorsed the Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees' call to boycott Israel.

SJP's actions at Hampshire College follow similar moves by the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education in the UK.

In London, students held sit-ins at Goldsmith University and the London School of Economics, among other institutions. Similar protests have spread throughout the U.K., with some winning concessions from university officials.

At Manchester University, about a thousand students joined a campaign equating Israel with apartheid-era South Africa, and called on the administration and student union to boycott Israeli companies and support Gaza and the BDS movement.

In Australia the University of Western Sydney's Student Association recently joined the international BDS campaign. International trade union support for political action against Israel has been seen from Spain to South Africa.

The South African Transport and Allied Workers Union, under directive of the Council of South African Trade Unions, refused recently to unload an Israeli ship which docked in Durban, despite threats and pressure from both management and the Israeli lobby.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions, with 600,000 members in 55 unions, is preparing to start a boycott of Israeli goods.

Meanwhile, the biggest trade union in Canada's Ontario province, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), was forced under pressure to moderate its call for a boycott of all academic institutions in Israel. Instead it called for a boycott of Israeli institutions engaged in research which aided the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). (END/2009)

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13:20 02/25/2009

Targeting Israel: The Global BDS Movement

'Boycotting Israeli academic and cultural institutions is an urgently needed.'

By Stephen Lendman – Chicago Enough is enough. After 61 years of Palestinian slaughter, displacement, occupation, oppression, and international dismissiveness and complicity, global action is essential. Israel must be held accountable. World leaders won't do it, so grassroots movements must lead the way. In 2004, Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote: "The end of apartheid stands as one of the crowning accomplishments of the past century, but we would not have succeeded without the help of international pressure - in particular the divestment movement of the 1980s. Over the past six months, a similar movement has taken shape, this time aiming at an end to the Israeli occupation." In July 2008, 21 South African activists, including ANC members, visited Israel and Occupied Palestine. Their conclusion was unanimous. Israel is far worse than apartheid as former Deputy Minister of Health and current MP Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge explained: "What I see here is worse than what we experienced - the absolute control of people's lives, the lack of freedom of movement, the army presence everywhere, the total separation and the extensive destruction we saw....racist ideology is also reinforced by religion, which was not the case in South Africa." Sunday Times editor, Mondli Makhanya, went further: "When you observe from afar you know that things are bad, but you do not know how bad. Nothing can prepare you for the evil we have seen here. It is worse, worse, worse than everything we endured. The level of apartheid, the racism and the brutality are worse than the worst period of apartheid." Activist Opposition to a Fundamentally Evil Occupation In July 2005, a coalition of 171 Palestinian Civil Society organizations created the global BDS movement - for "Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel Until it Complies with International Law and Universal Principles of Human Rights" for Occupied Palestinians, Israeli Arabs, and Palestinian diaspora refugees. Since 1948, hundreds of UN resolutions condemned Israel's colonial occupation, its decades of discriminatory policies, illegal land seizures and settlements, international law violations, and oppression of a civilian population, and called for remedial action. Nothing so far has worked. Palestine remains occupied. Its people continue to suffer. Their human rights are denied. These abuses no longer can be tolerated. In solidarity, people of conscience demand justice and "call upon international civil society organizations and (supporters everywhere) to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to (apartheid) South Africa." Pressure is needed for "embargoes and sanctions....for the sake of justice and genuine peace." Nonviolent punitive measures should continue until Israel: -- recognizes Palestinian rights to self-determination; -- respects international law; -- ends its illegal occupation; -- dismantles its Separation Wall; -- grants Israeli Arabs equal rights as Jews; and -- complies with UN resolution 194 affirming the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and property or be fully compensated for loss or damage if they prefer. Dozens of Palestinian political parties, organizations, associations, coalitions, campaigns, and unions endorse the project, including: -- the Council of National and Islamic Forces in Palestine; -- the Palestinian Independent Commission for Citizen's Rights (PICCR); -- the Consortium of Professional Associations; -- the Lawyers Association; -- the Network of Christian Organizations; -- the Palestinian Council for Justice and Peace; -- the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI); and -- the US Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel. PACBI In April 2004 in Ramallah, Palestinian academics and intellectuals launched it by "buil(ding) on the Palestinian call for a comprehensive economic, cultural and academic boycott of Israel issued in August 2002 (followed by further calls) in October 2003." In July 2004, its statement of principles read: -- "to comprehensively and consistently boycott all Israeli academic and cultural institutions until Israel withdraws from all lands occupied in 1967, including East Jerusalem; -- removes all its colonies in those lands; -- agrees to United Nations resolutions relevant to the restitution of Palestinian refugee rights; and -- dismantles its system of apartheid." PACBI states: "Boycotting Israeli academic and cultural institutions is an urgently needed form of pressure against Israel that can bring about its compliance with international law and the requirements for a just peace." Israel won't comply. Why should it when world governments are supportive and complicit and offer Palestinians no relief. Thus, grassroots pressure is crucial. That's why organizations like PACBI are essential. So is the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (CACBI). It's comprised of US academics, "educators of conscience....unable to stand by and watch in silence Israel's indiscriminate assault on the Gaza Strip and its educational institutions." They call for: (1) boycotting all "academic and cultural cooperation, collaboration or joint projects with Israeli institutions" not opposed to their government's policies towards Palestinians; (2) "a comprehensive boycott of Israeli institutions at the national and international levels (including) all forms of funding and subsidies....;" (3) divestment and disinvestment from Israel; (4) academic, professional, and cultural groups condemnation of Israel; and (5) support for Palestinian academic and cultural institutions. Israel flaunts the rule of law, pursues violence, not peace, and discriminates against everyone not Jewish. Terror bombing Gaza and daily West Bank incursions illustrate its arrogance and intentions. CACBI "believe(s) that non-violent external pressure (through) academic, cultural and economic boycott" are crucial. Worldwide support and unwavering pressure must happen as well. In solidarity with PACBI, CACBI, and non-academic bodies globally, Australian academics issued their own mission statement, calling on like-minded activists to join them. Others elsewhere have done the same. Inception of the Academic Boycott Idea On April 6, 2002, UK professors Steven and Hilary Rose first presented the idea in an open letter to the London Guardian. They wrote: "Despite widespread international condemnation for its policy of violent repression against the Palestinian people in the Occupied Territories, the Israel government appears impervious to moral appeals from world leaders." For its part, America "seems reluctant to act. However, there are ways of exerting pressure from within Europe....many national and European cultural and research institutions....regard Israel (alone in the Middle East) as a European state for the purposes of awarding grants and contracts. Would it not therefore be timely" for a pan-European moratorium of all further support "unless and until Israel abides by UN resolutions and opens serious peace negotiations with the Palestinans" along the lines of proposed "peace plans." By July, 700 signatures were registered, including from 10 Israeli academics, but not without controversy and opposition. Questions of ethics and effectiveness were raised. Academic freedom, anti-Semitism, and unfairly singling out Israel as well. On April 22, 2005, the UK Council of Association of University Teachers (AUT - with support from 60 Palestinian academics) voted to boycott two Israeli universities - Haifa and Bar-Ilan. Haifa for wrongly disciplining a lecturer who supported a student's writing about 1948 Israeli attacks on Palestinians and Bar-Ilan for conducting courses in the West Bank, complicit with the occupation. Criticism of the AUT was immediate and harsh by Jewish groups and its own members. Zvi Ravner, Israel's deputy ambassador in London, said the "last time Jews were boycotted in universities was in 1930s Germany." By May, pressure was intense, forcing AUT to cancel its boycott, but the idea stayed viable. In May 2006, the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE) passed motion 198C, a call to boycott Israeli academics who refused to speak out against their government. As expected, criticism again was intense but those in support stayed firm. On May 30, 2007, the congress of the University and College Union (UCU - created by AUT and NATFHE's merger) voted 158 - 99 on Motion 30 for a Palestinian trade unions boycott petition. It asked lecturers to "consider the moral implications of existing and proposed links with Israeli academic institutions." On September 28, after considerable opposition, UCU abandoned its effort in a press release stating that lawyers advised that "an academic boycott of Israel would be unlawful and cannot be implemented." Nonetheless, despite start-and-stop efforts and enormous opposition, the BDS movement remains viable and has taken root globally. In January 2009, the Ontario branch of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) proposed banning Israeli academics from teaching, speaking at, or doing research at Ontario universities unless they condemn Israel's war on Gaza. After CUPE national president's opposition, local branch officials removed the proposal from its web site but replaced it with a statement calling for a boycott "aimed at academic institutions and the institutional connections that exist between universities here and those in Israel." It will also introduce a resolution on the ban. On January 31, hundreds of Irish activists ran a full page ad in The Irish Times condemning decades of Israeli militarism, oppression, occupation, and violations of international law. They called for the Irish government to: -- "cease its purchase of Israeli military products and services and call publicly for an arms embargo against Israel; -- demand publicly that Israel reverse its settlement construction, illegal occupation and annexation of land in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions and to use its influence" to achieve this; -- "demand publicly that the Euro-Med Agreement under which Israel has privileged access to the EU market be suspended until Israel complies with international law; -- veto any proposed upgrade in EU relations with Israel; (and for) -- The Irish people to boycott all Israeli goods and services until Israel abides by international law." On February 1, a new alliance of American Jews for a Just Peace issued this statement against Israel's war on Palestine: "Israel recent War on Gaza resulted in worldwide popular condemnation. Perhaps this marks an important turning point in the relationship between Israel and the world community. We will not stand by while Israel instigates a war, annihilates civilian infrastructure, targets civilian shelters, blocks medical teams from reaching victims, uses chemical weapons," and commits various other atrocities and illegal acts. This isn't how a democratic state functions, one that respects international laws and norms. "On the contrary, they are actions of a rogue state....fully supported by the US government." "American Jews for a Just Peace calls for: -- immediate suspension of all US military aid to Israel pursuant to the Arms Export Control Act; -- the US Congress to open an investigation into possible war crimes as violations of the Arms Export Control and Foreign Assistance Acts in the war on Gaza; -- businesses and individuals to refuse to purchase Israeli-made products that originate in or support Jewish settlements in Occupied Palestine and the apartheid system of racial separation and oppression in Israel/Palestine; -- the Israeli government to sign the International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid that was adopted by the United Nations in 1973...; -- the Israeli government to end the blockade and siege of Gaza and allow unhindered access to all humanitarian aid organizations as well as international journalists; and -- efforts by all activists to promote awareness of and resistance to the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, which continues through the ongoing blockade, siege, displacement, annexation, and Israeli state-sponsored terror." On February 3, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported that "The only Palestinian university (Al Quds) to maintain ties with Israeli colleges and oppose international calls for an (academic) boycott....suspended contacts with Israeli universities in the wake of the war in Gaza." Al Quds has 10,000 students on three West Bank campuses - in El Bireh, Abu Dis, and East Jerusalem. By unanimous decision of its board on February 1, it froze (but didn't end) 60 joint projects for six months, pending a policy review and possible change. Its statement cited no justification for continued ties and that cutting them "is aimed at pressuring Israel to abide by a solution that ends the occupation, a solution that has been needed for far too long and that the international community has stopped demanding." Al Quds' board called on local, regional, and international academics to support its position by halting their own cooperation with Israeli universities. On February 5, Durban, South African dock workers refused to offload an Israeli ship docked in the city's harbor. At the same time, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) called on "workers and activists for justice and peace to join the ever growing movement of people in solidarity with the suffering masses of Palestine." COSATU asked workers globally to follow their lead not to offload Israeli ships or handle Israeli goods in retail stores. It also affirmed its stand to "strengthen the campaign in South Africa for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against apartheid Israel." Despite its efforts, the Port of Durban used non-union workers to offload the Israeli ship on February 6. On the same day, COSATU and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign affirmed their boycott initiative by protesting in front of the South African Zionist Federation offices in Johannesburg. On February 6, stopwar.org.uk reported a "Wave of Gaza solidarity action on UK campuses" over the past two weeks at 22 universities and colleges so far. Student demands include: -- providing scholarships for Palestinian students; -- sending books and computers to Occupied Palestine; -- condemning Israeli attacks on Gaza; and -- divesting from Israel and BAE Systems that supplies Israel with arms. On February 7, the Church of England announced that late last year it divested over 2.2 million British pounds from Caterpillar, a company whose bulldozers and equipment is used to demolish Palestinian homes. It's a small step but an important one, given the Church's importance. Hopefully it will inspire others to take similar steps and divest entirely from Israel and companies with which it does business. On February 9, Hampshire College in Amherst, MA became the first one in America to divest from companies involved in Israel's occupation of Palestine. It marked a successful outcome of an intensive two-year Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) campaign that pressured the school's Board of Trustees to act. Over 800 students, faculty and alumni were involved. Their efforts worked and shows that other campus campaigns nationwide and globally may as well. This is an important first step. On February 10, the Belfast Telegraph reported that the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) "launch(ed) a boycott of Israeli goods as part of a major campaign to secure a peaceful settlement in the Middle East." Ian Paisley's Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) dismissed the idea but Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams expressed support in saying:...."Gaza has been the target of an all-out military assault by Israeli forces. Over 1300 people were killed, many of them children." Northern Ireland's Social Democratic and Labour Party's (SDLP) Carmel Hanna said that her country's experience with the "Troubles" should inspire support for Middle East peace. "We have learned from the conflict here that violence does not work and creates bitterness." On February 19, the Secretariat of the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee called on "all (globally) to unite our different capacities and struggles in a Global Day of Action in Solidarity with the Palestinian people and for a (BDS action) against Israel on 30 March 2009" - as part of a "Global Week of Action against the Crises and War from 28 March to 4 April." March 30 actions will focus on: -- "Boycotts and divestment from Israeli corporations and international (ones) that sustain Israeli apartheid and occupation. -- Legal action to end Israel's impunity and prosecute its war criminals through national court cases and international tribunals. -- Canceling and blocking free trade and other preferential agreements with Israel and imposing an arms embargo as the first steps towards fully fledged sanctions against Israel." The time for these actions is now. It must be sustained until Gaza is free, the occupation of all Arab lands ends, the Separation Wall is demolished, Israeli Arabs have equal rights as Jews, and Palestinian refugees get their international law right to return to their homes and property or receive full compensation for loss or damage if they prefer. On February 23, Amnesty International (AI) issued a press release headlined: "Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territories - Evidence of Misuse of US-Weapons Reinforces Need for Arms Embargo." AI found evidence of US-supplied weapons and munitions and "called on the UN to impose a comprehensive arms embargo." It also accused Israel of using "white phosphorous and other weapons supplied by the USA to carry out serious violations of international humanitarian law, including war crimes. Their attacks resulted in the death of hundreds of children and other civilians and massive destruction of homes and infrastructure," according to Donatella Rovera, head of AI's Gaza and southern Israel fact-finding mission. "As the major supplier of weapons to Israel, the USA has a particular obligation to stop any supply that contributes to gross violations of the laws of war and of human rights. The Obama administration should immediately suspend US military aid to Israel." During the week of March 1 - 8, the fifth annual Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) will be held - last year in over 25 cities and this year likely many more in the wake of the Gaza war and subsequent world outrage. IAW is part of the growing global BDS movement - from Abu Dis to Atlanta, Barcelona to Bethlehem, Chicago to Copenhagen, Halifax to Hebron, New York to Nablus, Washington to Waterloo, and on and on in an effort to make it unstoppable. Background Information and Member Global BDS Movement Countries Organizations in 20 countries participate under the banner of the International Coordinating Network on Palestine (ICNP). Formed in 2002, it calls itself "a body of civil society organizations....under the auspices of the United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People." Its mission "is to strengthen the role of civil society in supporting and demanding, of governments and international institutions, the full implementation" of all Palestinian rights under international law, including to self-determination, national independence, and sovereignty. ICNP coordinates global campaigns; facilitates communication; aids local organizations; plans civil society conferences; and mobilizes global BDS support. In the spirit of internationalism, it strives for representation on every continent in many more nations than now. Participating organizations are currently in the following countries: -- Australia; -- Belgium; -- Canada; -- the autonomous Catalonian northeast Spanish community and its capital, Barcelona; -- Denmark; -- France; -- Egypt; -- Greece; -- Iceland; -- Italy; -- Netherlands; -- Norway; -- Scotland; -- South Africa; -- Spain; -- Sweden; -- United Kingdom; and -- United States. Formal Asian and Latin American representation is noticeably absent, but BDS leaders look for change. They also promote broad international BDS initiatives: -- academic and cultural boycotts by "refusing to participate in cultural exchange, artists, and cultural institutions" to tell Israel that its "occupation and discrimination against Palestinians is unacceptable;" Israel promotes apartheid; non-Jewish voices are excluded; Israeli children are taught to deny a Palestinian identity; Israel monitors this closely and cracks down hard on non-compliers; -- consumer boycotts of Israeli products and services through public awareness, bad publicity, pressuring stores to remove merchandise denoting Israeli origin, and encouraging companies to stop buying Israeli technology; overall, to create an inhospitable climate for Israeli commerce; -- a sports boycott to highlight Israeli oppression and discrimination and to stop its self-promotion as a "fair player" by participating in bilateral and international competition; at the same time, to promote a Palestinian presence in these events to support their right to identity and self-determination; -- divestment/disinvestment in Israel and companies globally that support its occupation and oppression; encourage and pressure individuals, businesses, organizations, universities, pension funds, and governments to shed their Israeli investments to provide pressure for change; -- sanctions - starting with open debate and raising awareness on applying them; followed by implementing comprehensive economic, political, and military measures to isolate the Jewish state; ending Israel's membership in economic and political bodies like the UN, WHO, Red Cross, WTO, and OECD; -- end cooperation agreements under which Israel gets preferential treatment on trade, joint research and development, and various other projects; Israel's Export and International Cooperation Institute reported in 2006 that participation of its companies in international projects in 2005 grew by 150% - from $600 million in 2004 to $1.5 billion in 2005; Israel is the only non-European country participating in the EU's Sixth Framework Programme for R & D and gets preferential treatment as a member; many international agreements have clauses that bind participating countries to human rights, international law, and democratic standards; Israel disdains them; it must be challenged and excluded as a result; -- efforts at the local, regional, and institutional levels to build greater individual awareness and support; -- ending military ties is also vital; Israel is a serial aggressor; militarism defines its culture and existence; despite its own technology, it's heavily dependent on America and other nations for hardware and munitions supplies; breaking that connection can curb its crimes of war and against humanity; raising public awareness is crucial toward accomplishing this goal; -- involve faith-based bodies and institutions in the campaign; explain religion isn't the issue; morality and human rights are at stake; religious leaders can be enormously influential in building BDS support and enhancing its legitimacy; and -- work cooperatively with trade unions; Palestinian ones faced Zionist attacks since the 1920s, especially from the Histradrut General Federation of Laborers in the Land of Israel; it's replaced Arab workers with Jewish ones; in 1965, the General Union of Palestinian Workers (GUPW) was founded to organize West Bank, Gaza and diaspora labor; in 1986, the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU) grew out of Occupied Palestine's labor movement; today it's ineffective given conditions in the Territories and Israeli discrimination against its Arab citizens, consigning them to low wage, few or no benefit jobs; Histadrut represents Jews alone. The Global BDS movement seeks worldwide support for Palestinian liberation and self-determination. Its campaign continues to grow. Calls for Prosecuting Israeli Officials for Crimes of War, Against Humanity, and Genocide For over six decades, Israel has tried to eliminate a Palestinian presence throughout Greater Israel - through occupation, oppression, impoverishment, discrimination, isolation, displacement, aggression, and genocide. The time for accountability is now. Efforts are going forward and were pursued earlier. On February 3, the Australian Sun reported that International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo "was conducting a preliminary analysis of alleged (Israeli) crimes during (its) recent (Gaza) offensive...." He received communications from the Palestinian justice minister, Ali Kashan, the PA, and over 200 from others, including NGOs. He wasn't encouraging in saying that he'll "examine all relevant issues, including on jurisdiction," (but) preliminary analysis....is not indicative that an investigation will be opened." Earlier, his office stated that the ICC "had no competence over the Gaza situation." The court can only try individuals for crimes committed by a signatory to the Rome Statute. Israel is not. The prosecutor may also investigate at the behest of the Security Council or if a non-party state accepts court jurisdiction. A guaranteed US veto rules out the former. The PA is pursuing the latter even though Palestine is not an independent state. Earlier in September 2006, Al Jazeera reported that "Three Moroccan lawyers said last month they were suing (then) Israeli defence minister, Amir Peretz, over the recent (Lebanon and Gaza) offensives. Israel Radio reported that a Danish politician also tried to have (foreign minister) Tzipi Livni detained and prosecuted during a recent visit to Copenhagen but the request for an arrest warrant was" denied. On January 24, Iran Daily reported that 30 "International attorneys have filed war crime charges against 15 Israeli political and military officials including Ehud Olmert, Tzipi Livni and Ehud Barak." The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) believes the evidence is compelling, including IDF use of illegal weapons and large-scale atrocities in Gaza. Names of those accused were submitted to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague, even though Israel isn't a member. Nonetheless, Israelis have been warned to check before traveling abroad to be sure no arrest warrants for them were issued. French lawyer Gilles Dovers is involved and called for an "open investigation into war crimes" committed by Israeli forces in Gaza. He said 500 complaints were submitted by Arab, European and Latin American officials. Venezuela and Bolivia are preparing their own cases. Iran Daily said "a group of French lawyers (intend) to file a complaint on behalf of French citizens of Palestinian origin to the French courts against Israeli officials," and this effort "is gaining attention" in Paris and eastern France. "Coordination with other lawyers in Belgium and Spain is (also) underway....in Brussels and Madrid." On February 6, AP reported that a Turkish prosecutor "launched a probe into whether Israel's military offensive in the Gaza Strip counts as genocide, torture and crimes against humanity." The prosecutor's office proceeded after an Islamic human rights group filed an official complaint naming Shimon Peres, Ehud Olmert and Tzipi Livni. Turkish laws allow for trials against persons accused of genocide and crimes against humanity. Other efforts are proceeding as well. The Sabra Shatila Foundation issued a petition to hold Israel accountable for war crimes in Gaza and urged people of conscience to sign it. The International Organization for the elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination (EAFORD), Tlaxcala Universal Petition, and International Lawyers without Borders also advocate Israeli war criminal prosecutions. On December 31 in Global Research.ca, international law expert Francis Boyle called for "An Israeli War Crimes Tribunal (ICTI as) the Only Deterrent to a Global War." He asked the UN General Assembly to "immediately establish an (ICTI) as a 'subsidiary organ' under UN Charter Article 22" similar to the Security Council's ICTY for Yugoslavia. Its purpose "would be to investigate and prosecute Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against the Peoples of Lebanon and Palestine." It would provide "some degree of justice" and serve as a deterrent to future regional aggression and a potential "global catastrophe." Boyle also accused Washington of aiding and abetting Israeli genocide against the Palestinians. Instead of "rein(ing) in the Israelis (by cutting off all funding), the United States government, the US Congress, and US taxpayers instead support the 'Jewish' state to the tune of about 4 billion dollars per year...." He calls it "dishumanitarian intervention (or) humanitarian extermination" by both countries "against the Palestinians and Palestine." "In today's world, genocide pays so long as it is done at the behest of the United States and its de jure or de facto allies such as Israel." Boyle wants Israel's UN General Assembly and entire UN System membership suspended. He also proposes imposing economic, diplomatic and travel sanctions and for "the Provisional Government of the State of Palestine to sue Israel in the International Court of Justice (ICJ)" for committing genocide in violation of the 1948 Genocide Convention. In his 2003 book, "Palestine, Palestinians, and International Law," Boyle states that world governments and people of conscience should organize a comprehensive economic divestment/disinvestment campaign against Israel. It can be modeled after the successful South African anti-apartheid one. The 1973 International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid is the standard. It applies to Israel, defines apartheid as a "crime against humanity," and calls guilty parties international criminals. In a May 20, 2002 Counterpunch article, Boyle wrote "In Defense of a Divestment Campaign Against Israel" and based it on his November 30, 2000 Illinois State University public lecture calling for a nationwide campaign. UC Berkeley Students for Justice in Palestine responded with their own. Others followed, including Palestinian students at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where Boyle teaches. Soon after, over 30 US campuses joined the effort and others later on. Faculties as well, including at the University of California where 143 professors petitioned the UC system "to use its influence - political and financial - to encourage the United States government and the government of Israel to respect human rights of the Palestinian people" and for divestment until Israel complies with international law. Last February, the London School of Economics Students Union (LSESU) voted overwhelmingly for its university and the National Union of Students (NUS) to divest from companies that have commercial and military ties to Israel. On January 18 in the Electronic Intifada, Elna Sondergaard, Director of the Human Rights Program and American University (Cairo) Law Professor, said it's "Time for Israel to be put on trial." In the wake of the Gaza war, she cited atrocities and grievous crimes of war and against humanity that must not go unpunished. "The crucial question is: To which courts of justice can Palestinian victims bring their claims?" Palestinian courts have no jurisdiction over Israeli crimes, and as stateless people can't adjudicate before the ICC. They're also denied "legal protection offered by classic interstate diplomacy," and pursuing claims in Israeli courts is fruitless. Sondergaard suggests doing it in other countries on the basis of universal jurisdiction, even though past efforts in Belgium, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and America were unsuccessful. She also suggests an "ad-hoc tribunal," similar to what Boyle proposes, and said doing so "would cost the international community nothing." Abstaining, however, would leave Gazans "without remedies and hope" and would encourage politicians and soldiers to think they're immune and can get away with anything. "Thus," she concludes, "we cannot allow these crimes to remain untried." Nor can we abstain from boycotting, divesting, sanctioning, and expelling Israel from the UN System until it complies with international law, recognizes Palestinian self-determination, ends its illegal occupation, disbands its settlements, dismantles its Separation Wall, grants Israeli Arabs equal rights as Jews, and lets Palestinian refugees return home to their property or be paid just compensation if they prefer. A vibrant, committed, grassroots global BDS movement is crucial to achieving these goals. - Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization. He contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com. Contact him at: lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. (Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to The Global Research News Hour on RepublicBroadcasting.org Monday through Friday at 10AM US Central time for cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on world and national issues.)

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PULSE:

On Dershowitz and Hampshire College

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Daily Bruin:

UCLA professor helps launch boycott of Israel

Nearly 200 US professors follow suit; others cite need for pressure on Palestine, too

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IMEMC:

Academic boycott of Israel takes off in Canada

Over 40 universities in Canada will be participating in activities to mark 'Israeli Apartheid Week', beginning on Sunday. Students from the participating universities are calling for a boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions until Israel ends, what they call, apartheid policies against the Palestinians.

Controversial 'Israeli apartheid week' poster

In addition to the university groups, CUPE (Canadian Union of Public Employees), the largest trade union in the Canadian Province of Ontario, has called for a boycott of all Israeli institutions that engage in research for the Israeli military.

According to the organizers of Israeli Apartheid Week, the campaign was first launched in Toronto in 2005. In 2008, more than 25 cities around the world participated in the week's activities, which also commemorated 60 years since the expulsion of the Palestinian people from their homes and land in 1947-1948. Israeli Apartheid Week 2008 was launched with a live broadcast from the South African township of Soweto by Palestinian leader and former member of the Israeli Knesset, Azmi Bishara.

The network organizing the week states, “This year, IAW occurs in the wake of Israel's barbaric assault against the people of Gaza. Lectures, films, and actions will make the point that these latest massacres further confirm the true nature of Israeli Apartheid. IAW 2009 will continue to build and strengthen the growing Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement at a global level.”

The event is not without controversy, however. In Canada, Carleton University officials tried to ban a poster advertising the event, which displays a Palestinian child being targeted by an Israeli airforce missile. According to one supporter of the poster, “Many know the numbers: nearly 1400 Palestinians killed, over half civilian, the majority of those women and children. Fourteen Israelis were killed, four by their own misconduct. As well, it is well documented by Israeli, Palestinian and international human rights groups that the levels of force measured between rock-throwing Palestinian civilians and the [Israeli military]’s US-funded military machine are anything but equal. Yes, Hamas and other militant groups conduct suicide bombings and rocketing that target Israeli civilians. But the death and destruction of Palestinian land and people far exceeds that of Israel, many including [Jewish academic] Norman Finkelstein, citing the latest Israeli offensive on Gaza as a hundred-to-one ratio....This poster is an accurate representation of the political and conflictual realities of the two sides, with the [Israeli military] might on one side and the death of unarmed Palestinian civilians on the other.“

The Simon Wiesenthal Center raised objections to the event, saying it is “a worldwide campaign to demonize Israel and intimidate students and faculty who support the Jewish State. Israel Apartheid Week has only grown in scope and viciousness, sponsored by aggressive, well-funded organizations committed to demonize the Jewish state and de-legitimize the only democracy in the Middle East.”

The Wiesenthal Center failed to reconcile the mutual exclusivity of the claims that Israel is both a Jewish state and a democracy, a contradiction that has been brought up by both the left and right wing inside Israel.

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Weblog Stan van Houcke:

dinsdag, februari 24, 2009

Boycot Israel 33

'Here's a link to Questions and Answers regarding CUPE's academic boycott of Israel: http://www.cupe.on.ca/doc.php?document_id=677&lang=en

As expected, CUPE is already being attacked, smeared, demonized, bullied, and viciously misrepresented by the Lobby and its corporate-controlled media organs. Now is the time for solidarity with CUPE as a minimal form of appreciation of their very effective solidarity with justice and peace in Palestine.

Omar'Barghouti

*URGENT*

CUPE Ontario needs your support!* Please Post Widely *CUPE Needs Your Solidarity for Bravely Standing in Support of PalestinianAcademicsFind below:* Text of the two historic resolutions;* Concrete ways to show your support.

Toronto, February 23, 2009 - The Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) congratulates CUPE-Ontario's University Workers Coordinating Committee (OUWCC) conference in Windsor for passing a historic resolution in support of the Palestinian civil society call for an academic institutional boycott of Israel. The resolution calls for education and research into institutional links between Israeli and Canadian Universities that serve to perpetuate apartheid.An additional emergency resolution was adopted by the OUWCC to protest the violation of free speech and forms of bureaucratic repression that are increasingly targeting Palestine-solidarity organizations and student advocates at several University campuses in Ontario.Both motions are enormously important as they offer concrete support for academic freedom in Palestine and in Canada. As expected, supporters of Israeli apartheid and militarism are incensed by these resolutions.Despite the mounting campaign of intimidation launched by pro-apartheid organizations and individuals against CUPE Ontario as a response to these resolutions - including death threats against CUPE Ontario members and their families - the union has stood firm in its commitment to freedom of expression and international solidarity.Now it is time to show your support for CUPE! Here's how:(1) Please send letters of support to CUPE ON president Sid Ryan and the OUWCC committee Chair, Janice Folk-Dawson to cupeont@web.net or fax to 416 299 3480 thanking them for their strong stand in support of Palestinian Human rights (see form letter below for a template you can use to write these letters, though we always like to see people use their creativity and write their own!).(2) Write to your local paper in support of CUPE-Ontario's position. You can use Google News to track the story:http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=CUPE+boycott&btnG=Search+News.Also be sure to post online comments in support of CUPE-Ontario wherever the opportunity arises.(3) Familiarize yourself with the resolutions pasted below and with CUPE-Ontario's positions. Forward this message and the following link to co-workers, colleagues, friends, allies, partners, relatives, family, and community members: http://www.cupe.on.ca/doc.php?subject_id=152&lang=en and urge them to write in support of CUPE-Ontario.(4) Write to the administrations of Carleton University (contact information at bottom of http://www2.carleton.ca/about/administrative/president.php), York University (http://vpacademic.yorku.ca/directory/findadm.php?id=1001) and the University of Toronto (http://www.president.utoronto.ca/officeofthepresident.htm) to registeryour disagreement with their systematic silencing of pro-Palestinian, pro-human-rights and anti-apartheid voices in Ontario. For specific information on the Free Speech Campaign, visit: http://www.caiaweb.org/.SAMPLE LETTER TO CUPE-ONTARIO:Dear Sid and Janice:I am writing to express my gratitude to the both of you for the incredibly important position you've taken in support of human rights in the Middle East. I am especially thankful that you have done so in support of academic freedom for Palestinians and their supporters in both Israel/Palestine and here in Canada as well.As you know, the Palestinian people are facing an unprecedented attack on their ability to learn and teach. In short, their fundamental rights to education are being violated on a daily basis by Israel's racist apartheid regime. By affiliating to the Right to Education Campaign, CUPE-Ontario has taken an important step forward in ensuring that Palestinian children have hope for the future – that perhaps someday soon they will be able to go to school without fear of checkpoints, arrests, beatings, or worse.Furthermore, Israeli academic institutions are often complicit in the oppression of Palestinians. They are deeply integrated into Israel's military-industrial complex and in the production of studies central to the perpetuation of apartheid over Palestinians. It is important to recognize that brave voices within Israel –both Jewish and Palestinian – have supported the call for a boycott. This is because these voices, those most committed to peace in the region, understand that war and occupation will not end until the institutions complicit in violations of international law are held to account.Once again, I would like to applaud you for taking the lead in promoting a peaceful way forward in ensuring that justice in the region is achieved. CUPE-Ontario does not stand alone, as the recent global wave of actions in support of the Palestinian campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israeli apartheid demonstrates. Keep up the amazing work. Millions are standing with you.Regards,
______________________
*** TEXT OF THE TWO RESOLUTIONS THAT PASSED ***MOTION 1The OUWCC will:1. Affiliate to the RIGHT TO EDUCATION campaign at Birzeit University to defend the right of Palestinian students to have access to education and educational institutions in the Palestinian territory, and seek to raise awareness about the issues facing Palestinian education, students and teachers under Israeli military occupation, and further that it willencourage member locals to affiliate to the Right to Education campaign2. Encourage its member locals to hold public forums to discuss an academic boycott of Israeli academic institutions, and
3. Ask campus representatives to work with locals to investigate both research and investment links between Ontario Universities and the state of Israel's military, and4. Mobilize campus allies to pressure universities from engaging in acts of cooperation that assist and aid military research at the institutional level with Israeli universities;5. Work with campus and community allies to pressure Ontario universities to refuse collaborations, corporate partnerships and investments that would benefit, either directly or indirectly, military research or the Israeli state military;6. Request funding and support from CUPE Ontario to conduct an education campaign on the academic boycott, coordinate education sessions and assist in the implementation of resolution 50 as passed in 2006Because, in response to a call from Palestinian civil society and trade unions, CUPE Ontario's Resolution 50 (in 2006) calls upon the Union and its locals to support boycotts, divestments and sanctions (BDS) of the state of Israel, so long as that state continues to occupy Palestinian territory and refuses to respect and uphold international law andcovenants, andBecause the latest Israeli attack on Gaza killed over 1300 people, wounded thousands, and destroyed hospitals, schools, roads, power plants, sewage and water infrastructure, and thousands of civilian homes, and as a direct consequence of the attacks by the Israeli military, the Gazan education system has been unable to function, andBecause Israel's direct bombing of universities and schools and its years-long blockade forbidding educational supplies, fuel and other basic necessities, or movement of people including students and teachers, has brought about the collapse of the education system in Gaza, and Because all three major Palestinian trade union federations are signatories of the Palestinian Civil Society for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions call including: The General Union of Palestinian Workers, PGFTU, and the Federation of Independent Unions.MOTION 2Because campus administrators have taken actions that seek to limit free speech and repress public discussions and campus dialogue about the occupation of Palestine.Because students, staff and faculty members have been threatened with punitive measures for speaking out or organizing events against the state of Israel and have placed obstacles that prevent/limit public debate on campus.The OUWCC shall;1. Issue a public statement about our support for free speech on campus and the right of students and campus workers to speak out and organize events that support Palestine and bring awareness to the occupation.2. Locals of the OUWCC be encouraged to write letters to the administrations of Carleton, Ottawa, York and the University of Toronto to protest the silencing and repression of public debate on campus.'

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Questions and Answers on the CUPE Ontario Boycott of Israeli Academic Institutions

 

What does CUPE Ontario mean by Academic Boycott?

 

It is important to understand that this is not a call to boycott individual Israeli academics. Rather, the boycott call is aimed at academic institutions and the institutional connections that exist between universities here and those in Israel.

 

This could include calling on Ontario universities and university workers to:

 

§  Refuse to participate in academic cooperation, collaboration or joint projects with Israeli universities, such as participating in conferences in Israel, refereeing or editing articles for Israeli journals, or evaluating research proposals for Israeli institutions.

§  Advocate a boycott of Israeli universities, including suspension of all forms of funding and subsidies.

§  Promote divestment from Israel by Ontario academic institutions.

§  Work toward the condemnation of Israeli policies and actions in the occupied territories by pressing for resolutions to be adopted by academic and professional organizations and associations.

 

CUPE Ontario is taking this action in response to an appeal from the Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees.

 

Why Boycott Israeli Academic Institutions?

 

The recent assault on Gaza has seen the total destruction of the Palestinian educational system. The Israeli military has bombed numerous universities and schools. On January 7^th, Israeli forces killed over 40 Palestinian civilians who had taken shelter in a United Nations school.

 

The aim of the academic boycott is to put pressure on Israel to fully comply with international law, by cutting off financial support and our connections to those institutions involved in the oppression of the Palestinian people.

 

The call for a boycott of academic institutions is part of a broader campaign of Israeli boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) that CUPE Ontario had already approved in 2006.

 

What is the call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS)?

 

In 2005, over 170 Palestinian civil society organizations, including the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions (PGFTU), urged the world to adopt a campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israeli institutions. This campaign was modeled on the BDS movement that helped end South African apartheid.

 

The aim of this campaign is to block the political, military and economic support that allows Israel to continue violating international law.

 

Is CUPE Ontario the only one calling for this?  Who else supports these actions?

 

This campaign has wide support. Just a few weeks ago, the President of the United Nations General Assembly, Father Miguel D'Escoto Brockman, stated:

"More than twenty years ago we in the United Nations took the lead from civil society when we agreed that sanctions were required to provide a nonviolent means of pressuring South Africa to end its violations. Today, perhaps we in the United Nations should consider following the lead of a new generation of civil society, who are calling for a similar non-violent campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions to pressure Israel to end its violations."

 

In the first week of January some 300 academics signed a letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper calling on the Canadian Government to institute sanctions against Israel.

 

Why is CUPE Ontario involved in this as a union?

 

CUPE members have identified the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a priority. The current assault on Gaza, the deaths of nearly 900 Palestinians – including many children – and desperate humanitarian need call for urgent, non-violent action such as a boycott. More background information is available on the CUPE Ontario web site.

 

This action is a concrete measure that will help to create conditions for peace by forcing Israel to comply with international law.

 

The national constitution of CUPE mandates us to do international solidarity work, and CUPE has a proud history of supporting workers around the globe. Our International Solidarity Committee campaigns on international struggles for justice and workers' rights in places like Venezuela, Columbia, Egypt and Afghanistan. Here in Canada, CUPE members defend education, health and social, community and municipal services as well as human rights.

 

What is CUPE Ontario's plan?

 

The CUPE Ontario University Workers Coordinating Committee (OUWCC) will further this work by supporting a motion to boycott Israeli academic institutions, as part of the  protest against the bombing assault on Gaza and, in particular, the bombing of the Islamic University on December 29, 2008.

 

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the Star:

Canada university workers: CUPE union votes for academic boycott of Israel

Adrian Morrow
staff reporter

22-2-2009
University workers in the Canadian Union of Public Employees have passed a controversial motion calling for an academic boycott of Israel, and union members from at least one Toronto university are planning to pressure their school to cut any financial ties with the country.

Although the motion didn't call for a boycott of individual Israeli academics - as some union members had suggested last month - it encourages union locals to publicly discuss boycotting Israeli universities and to push Canadian universities to end any research or investments that could benefit the Israeli army.

Members of Jewish organizations say the motion sets a dangerous precedent by singling out Israel and vow to keep fighting it.

Delegates representing university workers in CUPE's Ontario branch, which represents 200,000 government and other public sector workers, voted on the motion at a meeting in Windsor.

The committee, which represents the union's university workers, called on the union to develop an education campaign on what its proponents label Israel's "apartheid" practices, such as building a wall around Palestinian territory and invading the Gaza Strip in December; asks the union to back an international campaign of sanctions and boycotts against the country and asks the national union to start researching Canadian connections to Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories.

The boycott, however, stopped short of calling for Canadian universities to ban Israeli academics, an idea previously floated by CUPE Ontario President Sid Ryan.

"(We want to) do what we can in a peaceful way to end the occupation of Palestine," Ryan said, adding that the idea of the motion is to boycott research that helps the Israeli military and to investigate any ties between Canadian universities and Israel, not to ban individual Israeli professors.

How the motion is put into place will be left up to individual union locals, he said. At least one Toronto local was planning to support the boycott.

"This is a disastrous and horrific situation that's developed (in Israel), especially in light of recent events in Gaza," said Tyler Shipley, spokesperson for CUPE local 3903, which represents contract faculty and teaching assistants at York University. "It's just unconscionable for us not to take some sort of action."

Shipley says his local will be pushing York to sever its financial ties to Israel. Local 3903 will also be backing the events of Israeli Apartheid Week, an annual series of lectures and panel discussions opposing Israel's presence in the Palestinian territories, scheduled for next week.

"It's important that we get our institution here to grapple with its ties to the Israeli state," Shipley said. "This is a colonial state, this is a state that has been perpetrating unspeakable human rights abuses."

Jewish groups and some of CUPE's own unions opposed the motion.

"Here we have a situation where a once-proud union has sunk so low as to have a small group put forward a motion that is, on its face, bigoted and discriminatory and anti-Jewish," said Bernie M. Farber, chief executive officer of the Canadian Jewish Congress, who argues that the motion is discriminatory because it targets a single country. He notes that the union isn't, for instance, calling for a boycott of Sudan over alleged human rights abuses in Darfur.

"The sole target is Jews, is Israel," he said.

Farber called on the national union not to put the motion into practice. The Congress pointed out that the motion was adopted by a committee of the union and not the entire membership.

Others in the Jewish community were more fearful of the motion's consequences.

"Our fear and our concern is that there could be violence against Jewish workers," said Meir Weinstein, national director of the Jewish Defence League of Canada, which is considered a radical group. "Wherever there are calls for a boycott of Israel and the Jewish state, there is violence against Jews."

Weinstein fears that the tensions on some university campuses - where pro-Palestinian campaigners have scuffled with pro-Israeli students - could boil over into the other workplaces that CUPE represents.

Estimates on the number of people who showed up to protest CUPE's meeting in Windsor varied - from 35 reported by CUPE to more than 100 estimated by Weinstein. They were met with pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

Rafeef Ziadeh, a teaching assistant at York and CUPE member, however, said the discussion of the motion at CUPE's meeting in Windsor was civilized.

"The debate was very, very respectful, in CUPE style," she said.

The final vote passed with a clear majority.

For the most part, the union will start searching for connections between Israeli institutions, such as the army, and Canadian ones, such as its universities, she said.

CUPE passed a second motion to send statements to universities asking them to allow debates on Israel to happen on their campuses, she said.

The Jewish Defence League, meanwhile, is planning a meeting for tomorrow night to discuss how to oppose the resolution now that its been adopted.

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Pulse:

Edinburgh University Student Occupation Wins Demands

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the Heathlander:

Students at Hampshire College explain why they have become the first college in the US to divest from Israel’s occupation:

Archbishop Desmond Tutu comments:

“This is a monumental and historic step in the struggle for Palestinian equality, self-determination and peace in the Holy Land by non-violent means. I see what these students have accomplished as a replica of the support of their College of our struggle against apartheid in South Africa. Hampshire College’s decision to divest should be a guiding example to all institutions of higher learning.”

For more see here and here.

source

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the Guardian:


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13-2-2009 Update:

P U L S E

Hampshire College becomes first college in U.S. to divest from Israeli Occupation

with 10 comments

10 Responses to 'Hampshire College becomes first college in U.S. to divest from Israeli Occupation'

Subscribe to comments with RSS or TrackBack to 'Hampshire College becomes first college in U.S. to divest from Israeli Occupation'.

1. For more: http://www.hsjp.org/

   

   ann

   12 Feb 09 at 6:32 pm

2. Hampshire College has not divested from Israel. The College, at the behest of SJP, re-examined their investments. They moved to a new index because of an independent consultant who made the recommendation based on over 100 companies that were deemed socially irresposible. This new investment has nothing to do with the conflict nor SJP’s politics.

   Read the statement from the Board of Trustees, President and Dean of Faculty Here:

   http://www.hampshire.edu/news/11271.htm

   

   Hampshire Student

   12 Feb 09 at 7:53 pm

3. Please read the statement from the board of trustees about this. It is not a divestment from Israel!

   http://www.hampshire.edu/news/11271.htm

   

   Jon Bottom

   12 Feb 09 at 7:55 pm

4. While I sincerely applaud your efforts, though I hope I am wrong, I believe such an action may be against the law. There are laws preventing US citizens from boycotting Israel or blacklisted companies, cf The Office of Anti-Boycott Compliance.

   http://www.bis.doc.gov/antiboycottcompliance/oacrequirements.html

   Who Is Covered by the Laws?
   The antiboycott provisions of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) apply to the activities of U.S. persons in the interstate or foreign commerce of the United States. The term “U.S. person” includes all individuals, corporations and unincorporated associations resident in the United States, including the permanent domestic affiliates of foreign concerns. U.S. persons also include U.S. citizens abroad (except when they reside abroad and are employed by non-U.S. persons) and the controlled in fact affiliates of domestic concerns. The test for “controlled in fact” is the ability to establish the general policies or to control the day to day operations of the foreign affiliate.

   The scope of the EAR, as defined by Section 8 of the EAA, is limited to actions taken with intent to comply with, further, or support an unsanctioned foreign boycott.

   What do the Laws Prohibit?
   Conduct that may be penalized under the TRA and/or prohibited under the EAR includes:

   Agreements to refuse or actual refusal to do business with or in Israel or with blacklisted companies.

   Agreements to discriminate or actual discrimination against other persons based on race, religion, sex, national origin or nationality.

   Agreements to furnish or actual furnishing of information about business relationships with or in Israel or with blacklisted companies.

   Agreements to furnish or actual furnishing of information about the race, religion, sex, or national origin of another person.
   Implementing letters of credit containing prohibited boycott terms or conditions.

   The TRA does not “prohibit” conduct, but denies tax benefits (”penalizes”) for certain types of boycott-related agreements.

   

   Dominic Catusco

   12 Feb 09 at 8:04 pm

5. Thank you for taking this stand. A truly admirable thing to do.

   

   Roger

   12 Feb 09 at 8:04 pm

6. I went to Hampshire, and while I am glad the school listened to the group supporting justice for Palestine, I am equally disturbed by the mealy-mouthed way the College will not make a statement against Israel.

   Berman was on my Div. III committee, so I will follow up with him.

   

   Styve

   12 Feb 09 at 8:30 pm

7. Dominic, your post answers the objection raised by the two earlier anti-BDS commenters. It is obvious to both HC and SJP what the divestment is all about, but in order to stave off legal repercussions HC cannot specifically name a country. This is understandable. The important thing is the implications of this — divestment from Israel — are lost on no one. For this reason, Styve, it is also not necessary that HC make any explicit statements.

   

   m.idrees

   12 Feb 09 at 8:44 pm

8. You’re either with the Nazi’s or with the Rest of us. Sorry.

   

   Neil

   12 Feb 09 at 8:49 pm

9. When Hampshire College first divested from Apartheid South Africa years ago, the Administration did what it could to distance itself from the situation then, too, with then-President Adele Simmons calling it a “big non-issue.”

   The Administration may be making this PR move to salvage its own reputation, but the truth is that divestment from these corporations was the result of a 2-year campaign by Students for Justice in Palestine that centered around six corporations because of their involvement in the Israeli Occupation. This is not about divestment from Israel, but from the Israeli Occupation. And it is the result of a student movement that has been in the works for years, and an intensive, specific campaign that has been in the works for two.

   

   Hampshire Student

   12 Feb 09 at 8:59 pm

10. congratulations to hampshire college. the student campaign goes back much farther than two years. i remember attending student meetings there as far back as 2001 or 02 planning divestment actions. the student speaker at graduation in either 2003 or 2004 was louai abu-osba, who called for divestment in his speech, causing the president to practically choke.
    
    

    source
    

From: Facebook <notification+osc4a_sc@facebookmail.com>
Date: 2009/2/12
Subject: "Manchester University Occupation - Solidarity with Gaza " sent you a message on Facebook...
To:


Katan Alder sent a message to the members of Manchester University Occupation - Solidarity with Gaza.

--------------------
Subject: Student Palestinian group in the US wins divestment campaign!

Hi,

Just some news of a huge victory for students campaigning for Palestine in the US, with Hampshire college being forced to divest from companies involved in the occupation!

This victory just goes to show that the similar demands put forward us- the occupying Manchester students- are winnable.

Well done everyone and on the victories so far and lets keep fighting!

katan



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE


Hampshire College becomes first college in U.S. to divest from Israeli Occupation!

Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, has become the first of any college or university in the U.S. to divest from companies on the grounds of their involvement in the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

This landmark move is a direct result of a two-year intensive campaign by the campus group, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). The group pressured Hampshire College's Board of Trustees to divest from six specific companies due to human rights concerns in occupied Palestine. Over 800 students, professors, and alumni have signed SJP's "institutional statement" calling for the divestment.

The proposal put forth by SJP was approved on Saturday, 7 Feb 2009 by the Board. By divesting from these companies, SJP believes that Hampshire has distanced itself from complicity in the illegal occupation and war crimes of Israel.

Meeting minutes from a committee of Hampshire's Board of Trustees confirm that "President Hexter acknowledged that it was the good work of SJP that brought this issue to the attention of the committee." This groundbreaking decision follows in Hampshire's history of being the first college in the country to divest from apartheid South Africa thirty-two years ago, a decision based on similar human rights concerns. This divestment was also a direct result of student pressure.

The divestment has so far been endorsed by Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Rashid Khalidi, Vice President of the EU Parliament Luisa Morganitini, Cynthia McKinney, former member of the African National Congress Ronnie Kasrils, Israeli historian Ilan Pappe, John Berger, Tariq Ali, Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire, and Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, among others.

The six corporations, all of which provide the Israeli military with equipment and services in the Occupied West Bank and Gaza are: Caterpillar, United Technologies, General Electric, ITT Corporation, Motorola, and Terex (see attached info sheet for more information on these corporations.) Furthermore, our policy prevents the reinvestment in any company involved in the illegal occupation.

SJP is responding to a call from Palestinian civil society for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) as a way of bringing non-violent pressure to bear on the state of Israel to end its violations of international law. SJP is following in the footsteps of many noted groups and institutions such as the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education in the UK, the Israeli group Gush Shalom, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, and the American Friends Service Committee.

As well as voicing our opposition to the illegal occupation and the consistent human rights violations of the Palestinian people, we as members of an institute of higher education see it as our moral responsibility to express our solidarity with Palestinian students whose access to education is severely inhibited by the Israeli occupation.

SJP has proven that student groups can organize, rally and pressure their schools to divest from the illegal occupation. The group hopes that this decision will pave the way for other institutions of higher learning in the U.S. to take similar stands.
--------------------

To reply to this message, follow the link below:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?inbox/readmessage.php&t=1089749008940&aref=22731670


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6 Comments »

1. 

   Komsan said

   February 9, 2009 @ 9:10 am

   Solidarity with all of you. You’ve all shown tremendous bravery and tenacity in your occupation, especially in the face of police threats and uni management being unco-operative (which is unsurprising considering the treatment we got at Sheffield Hallam).

   I’m passing through Manchester today, and will pop along to try and bring you something else other than humous, crisps perhaps, maybe some chocolate and stuff. If you need help outside the occupation, then I’d be happy to help, even if it were just for a short while.

   Solidarity and all the best!

2. 

   zainab said

   February 9, 2009 @ 9:43 am

   oh so much optimism!
   good luck, really glad its going welll.

3. 

   mo said

   February 9, 2009 @ 1:12 pm

   komsan,

   thanks for your offer. please make sue you dont bring any nestle or coca cola as we need to make sure our boycott of the zionists is maintained. dairy milk is welcomed!

   inshallah

4. 

   laila Namdarkhan said

   February 9, 2009 @ 2:31 pm

   Sending wishes of solidarity and support to all the students who have engaged with the 60year oppression of the Palestinian people…..Insha Allah your President wakes up from his slumbers and understands that unless the University divests itself of its dealings with Israel then it has to admit it is partial toward that regime and all its inhumane actions against the defenceless people of Palestine…..everyone needs to know the history of the Ethnic Cleansing programme that has been in operation since 1948 orchestrated by the West and USA in response to their guilt for ignoring the plight of Jewish people in Europe from early 1930’s onwards…..In Peace and Understanding Laila

5. 

   Margaret Farrell said

   February 9, 2009 @ 10:57 pm

   You have my full support for your actions. It gives me hope when I see young people who have the courage to speak up and take action while world leaders have been and continue to be accomplices to Israeli oppression of the Palestinian population. Keep up the good work. People can make a difference. Proud of you.
   A Mancunian grandmother living in Rome

6. 

   ludek said

   February 10, 2009 @ 12:45 am

   excellent work guys, keep it up!

   in solidarity,
   ludek, strathclyde uni
   
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