Author: sjpwest

UC Irvine Repeatedly Failed to Protect the Rights of SJP Members

From Palestine Legal:

Palestine Legal has written to the University of California, Irvine (UCI) to describe the chilling impact of years of unaddressed discrimination against students who advocate for Palestinian freedom and to urge administrators to take action to protect the rights of their students.

Right-wing Israel-aligned groups have long sought to put an end to a vibrant tradition of student activism for Palestine at UCI. They have demanded criminal prosecution of student activists, filed baseless complaints to the federal government, targeted students in defamatory poster campaigns on campus. Last year, Israeli soldiers surveilled and harassed Palestinian students and their allies.

Capitulating to the demands of Israel-aligned groups, UCI administrators investigated and punished Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at UCI for exercising their First Amendment right to engage in peaceful protest in both 2016 and 2017.

Unable to rely on campus administrators, SJP members have taken their own steps to protect themselves from in-person and online harassment. These efforts range from cutting down on publicizing campus events to covering their faces when speaking publicly about Palestine. But these efforts also limit the size of their audience and their ability to communicate their message.

In a letter sent today, Palestine Legal explained, “These chilling effects are deeply concerning at a time when the stakes are so high for communities of color and for social justice and human rights issues. Universities should be empowering their students to engage on difficult issues. Instead, these students feel inhibited and silenced by the university’s pattern of punishing them for expressing their views, rather than protecting their speech rights from attacks by outside groups aiming to undermine them.”

Palestine Legal called on UCI to issue a public statement that SJP’s advocacy on campus is protected speech; to condemn outside harassment groups that have targeted UCI students for their pro-Palestine activism; and to cease punishing students for protected expression.

Please click here for the PDF of the letter.

Associated Students of UC Davis Pass Resolution Condemning Cyberbullying Website Canary Mission

[caption id="attachment_175009665" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Students celebrate resolution passage[/caption]

Read more at the Electronic Intifada

ASUCD Senate Resolution #19

May 24, 2018

An ASUCD Senate Resolution to recognize and condemn the various forces that threaten student activism at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis), and reinforce its support of safeguarding the work of student activists at UC Davis.

WHEREAS, the work of student activism has a rich and important tradition at UC Davis, and it is the responsibility of the campus to ensure that it is safeguarded; and,

WHEREAS, the continued operation of campus watch-lists including, but not limited to, Canary Mission, Professor Watch list, etc. threaten the security of student activists, as well as create a toxic atmosphere of fear and paranoia among fellow students, thus infringing upon students’ ability to freely express their opinions; and,

WHEREAS, Canary Mission in specific is a campus watch-list with a history of relying on student-given footage and material to target pro-Palestinian student activists: causing direct personal repercussions, including limiting their movement and employment opportunities; and, [1]

WHEREAS, certain Registered Student Organizations (RSOs) on-campus have been known to collect material on pro-Palestinian student activists, thus helping perpetuate the toxic atmosphere of fear, mistrust, and silence that these watch-lists seek to create; and,

WHEREAS, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal agency known for their separation of families and criminalization of undocumented individuals. Although the University of California & UC Davis have committed to not voluntarily work with ICE officials, we have seen student groups throughout the University of California take direct actions to encourage peers in reporting undocumented classmates to ICE. The presence and thought of ICE on campuses and neighborhoods has increased the anxiety level, stress, fear among undocumented students, fostering an unwelcoming environment for immigrant communities; and, [2]

WHEREAS, UC Davis allows plainclothes police officers to operate on-campus; that it is a historical fact local police departments have collaborated with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other law enforcement agencies, who have systematically engaged in intimidation and surveillance of activists throughout the nation. Student activists have been monitored and intimidated; this violates their freedom of expression; and,

WHEREAS, student activists have advocated for their respective communities and the larger work of justice for decades, in the process helping build a more vibrant campus: that they should be safeguarded from forces that threaten to intimidate or silence them, and by extension the communities they fight for.

THEREFORE LET IT BE RESOLVED THAT, the Associated Students, University of California, Davis (ASUCD) recognizes the presence of factors that threaten student activism, as well as the dangerous precedent it sets for the future of activism on-campus; and,

THEREFORE LET IT BE FURTHER RESOLVED THAT, the ASUCD declares its intention to be strongly vigilant and proactive in safeguarding the rich tradition of student activism; and,

THEREFORE LET IT BE FURTHER RESOLVED THAT, the ASUCD strongly condemns watch-lists that engage in intimidation and surveillance of student activists; and,

THEREFORE LET IT BE FURTHER RESOLVED THAT, the ASUCD strongly condemns Registered Student Organizations, departments, or other campus groups that record or send material against fellow students to these aforementioned watch-lists; and,

THEREFORE LET IT BE FINALLY RESOLVED THAT, copies of this resolution shall be sent to: the Office of Campus Community Relations, Center for Student Involvement, Chancellor Gary May, Provost Ralph Hexter, University of California President Janet Napolitano, the University of California Students Association, Davis Enterprise, and The California Aggie.

California State University – East Bay passes divestment resolution

The Student Government of CSU East Bay Endorses a Resolution Calling for Divestment from Corporations Complicit in the Illegal Military Occupation of Palestine

For immediate release

Hawyard, May 23, 2018: Associated Students, Incorporated (ASI) Board of Directors of California State University, East Bay voted unanimously in favor of a resolution in support of divestment from corporations that profit from the occupation of Palestine.

The resolution, which was authored and introduced by a coalition of diverse student organizations and individuals at CSU East Bay, spearheaded by the Muslim Student Association, calls upon the university’s trustees to review their investments and divest from any companies found to be complicit in the violation of international law. Some corporations were specifically mentioned, such as Caterpillar, Hewlett Packard, G4S, and Motorola Solutions, for being directly involved in allowing the Israeli government to maintain and enforce the occupation and construct Jewish-only settlements, walls and barriers, and checkpoints.

Under international law, Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian Territories, which include the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, is illegal and inhumane. The occupation restricts the movement and freedom of Palestinians in these territories, and monitors and controls Palestinian lives and livelihoods as well as removing them from the lands they live on through the use of the separation barrier, checkpoints, and Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank which are also considered illegal under international law, as well as a military blockade surrounding the Gaza Strip. The corporations named in the divestment resolution each contribute to and enable the military occupation by providing materials, equipment, and services. The resolution cited the ASI Board of Directors’ mission to effectively and responsibly represent its diverse student population and promote student welfare, as the occupation of Palestinian territory directly affects students of the university, many of whom have family living in the occupied areas and who are affected by its dangerous and inhumane nature.

Calls for divestment from corporations complicit in the illegal occupation have been common across the United States over the past several years, and join other non- violent forms of resistance to the occupation that were called upon by Palestinian civil society in 2005. The vote in favor of the resolution by the ASI Board of Directors today follows other such votes on university campuses across the nation, including other CSU schools San Jose State University and CSU Long Beach, paving the way for a potential future such decision by the trustees of the California State University System.

Contact: csuebdivestment@gmail.com

Full text of resolution is below:

(more…)

Representatives from across the UCs Call on Regents to Divest from Human Rights Abuses

For Immediate Release
March 14, 2018

Representatives from UCs Call on Regents to
Divest from Human Rights Abuses

 

Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) across the Universities of California (UC) statewide and allies call for Divestment During Today’s Regents meeting at UCLA

Los Angeles, CA — Today, students, campus workers, and allies from across the University of California system are in Los Angeles to call on the UC Regents to listen to student voices and divest university funds from corporations that profit from human rights abuses against the Palestinian people. Following the UC Regents’ signing of the United Nations’ Principles for Responsible Investments in 2014 and clear votes in support of divestment by the University of California Student Association (UCSA), UC Graduate Student Worker Union (UAW 2865), and Student Governments on eight out of nine UC campuses, students are demanding the UC Regents ensure that the UCs reflect the values we all hold dear: freedom, justice, and equality.  

The UCs are invested in the following corporations profiting from rights abuses, as documented by reputable human rights organizations:  Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, Caterpillar, Cemex, HP, General Electric, 3M, Perrigo Company, Atlas Copco, Ford and Hyundai. Lockheed Martin, for example, manufactures Apache helicopters that have killed Palestinian civilians, including children, and Caterpillar supplies bulldozers to the Israeli military to demolish the homes of Palestinian families to make way for illegal Israeli settlements. Instead of investing in corporations that harm communities, universities should be investing in corporations that do business ethically.

Given the current political climate, it is critical that universities do all they can to support students and hear their concerns. Students, university workers, and allies are tired of their voices being ignored, despite widespread calls for action. The fact that eight of the nine UC campuses as well as the Graduate Student Worker Union and University of California Student Association have voted to support this campaign shows that there is overwhelming support for divestment and Palestinian rights at nearly every democratically elected decision-making body of the UC system.

The challenge now is to persuade the unelected body of UC Regents to heed the voices of the UC system and act to support human rights. Our money is our responsibility, and we are liable for the ways in which the UC invests out tuition dollars, especially if these investments impede upon the fundamental human rights of other people, including the families of Palestinian students on campus. If not us, who else will take responsibility for where our money is going and who it is hurting?

On Wednesday, March 14th, we will be delivering our demands directly to the UC Regents, as well as engaging in a day of education and movement building to strengthen the UC wide call for divestment. We will be there, building lines of solidarity and for the future goals of our united communities.

After student pressure, the UC relented to the call for divestment from companies supporting Apartheid South Africa in the 1980s, from companies involved in human rights violations in Sudan in the 2000s, and from some of the worst corporate polluters and destroyers of the environment in the 2010s. We expect that the UC will see the call to respect Palestinian rights in the same terms as those prior calls and cease to invest in corporations whose activity is tied to the violation of human rights in Palestine and around the world. There is no other way to abide by the Principles for Responsible Investments which they signed onto, and no other way to respond to the democratic will of the student governments of the UC system.

We expect the University of California Regents to take action to demonstrate they truly support responsible investment. They have an opportunity to show they value human rights and freedom for all peoples.  

A detailed list of demands is available here.

 

Students for Justice in Palestine is a grassroots student-led organization that advocates for Palestinian freedom, justice and equality.

 

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Students for Justice in Palestine Demand that the UC Regents Divest from Corporations Violating Palestinian Human Rights!

Answer the Calls of the UC Students and Student Bodies!

WE DEMAND that the University of California Regents recognize the Human Rights Violations committed by the Israeli state and its contracted corporations, against Palestinian peoples in the forms of military weapons sales (1) and illegal settlement expansion (2).

WE DEMAND that the University of California Regents adhere to the United Nations’ Principles for Responsible Investment, which the Regents adopted in September of 2014. The Principles promote“social responsibility” (3) by demanding that the UC divest from companies that profit from human rights abuses against Palestinians puts forth the following guidelines: “businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights; and make sure that they are not complicit in human rights abuses.”

WE DEMAND that the University of California Regents recognize the 172 Israeli human rights violations committed against the Palestinian people (4), as reported by the United Nations, Amnesty International (5), and Human Rights Watch (6).

WE DEMAND that the University of California Regents introduce a screening process that can screen and target companies for their potential human rights violations, including human rights violations committed by the Israeli state against the Palestinian people.

WE DEMAND that the University of California Regents implement guidelines to supplement the United Nations Principles of Responsible Investment that take into consideration the 172 Humans Rights Violations committed by the Israeli state against the Palestinian people through military and colonial occupation of Palestine.

WE DEMAND that the University of California Regents implement system-wide (and for the regents), guidelines to supplement its divestment criteria to include nations or corporations that are actively committing numerous human rights violations, as documented by the United Nations and the International Community.

WE DEMAND that the UC Regents thus terminate all investments in corporations violating Palestinian Human Rights that exist within the UC Regents’ Investment Funds.

WE DEMAND that the University of California Regents adhere to and enact the decision of the University of California Student Association (UCSA), the “official representation of the student body of the University of California and the various campus student governments to the University of California Office of the President, the University of California Board of Regents, and other University related entities,” in their resolution to “Divest from Corporations Violating Palestinian Human Rights”(7).

WE DEMAND that the University of California Regents adhere to and enact the decisions of the Associated Students leadership at the University of California, Berkeley; University of California, Davis; University of California, Merced; University of California, Los Angeles; University of California, Irvine; University of California, Riverside; University of California, San Diego; and University of California, Santa Cruz (8) in their resolutions to disinvest University funds from companies that invest in the occupation of Palestine and in the violation of Palestinian human rights.

WE DEMAND that the University of California Regents adhere to and enact the decisions of the UC Graduate Student Worker Union, UAW 2865, representing over 17,000 teaching assistants, tutors, readers, research assistants, and graduate students at the University of California, in their majority vote to “divest from corporations implicated in the violation of Palestinian Human Rights.”

WE DEMAND that the University of California System disinvest all tuition dollars, investments, and stocks from the following companies that have violated the universal right “to life, liberty, and security of person;” “to education;” to “privacy, family [and] home;” “to own property, and …[not to] be arbitrarily deprived of property and consequently violate Palestinian human rights (9): Lockheed Martin, United Tech, Boeing, G.E., HP, Caterpillar, Ford, Hyundai , Cemex, Raytheon, 3M, Northrop Grumman, Perrigo Company, and Atlas Copco.

In order to adhere to a more comprehensive and accurate Human Rights Screening Process, WE DEMAND that the University of California divest from the following corporations on the basis that Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the United Nations’ have documented and condemned the companies’ participation in Human Rights Violations against Palestinian people, along with their complicity in Operations Cast Lead and Protective Edge. The United Nations has ruled that Israel’s Operation Cast Lead (10) and Operation Protective Edge (11) are in violation of International Human Rights Law.

WE DEMAND that the University of California uphold Afrikan Black Coalition’s demands, and immediately divest from all corporations complicit in and profiting from the violation of Palestinian Human Rights, the prison industrial complex (12), and fossil fuels (13), including the following:

  • WE DEMAND that the University of California divest from Lockheed Martin Corporation (14), which is in violation of the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (15), as it has committed human rights violations in its manufacturing of Apache helicopters that targeted and killed 1,394 Palestinian civilians–including minors– in Gaza in 2008-9 during Israel’s Operation Cast Lead (16).
  • WE DEMAND that the University of California divest from HP (17), which is in violation of the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (18), as it manages the Israeli government’s population registry and its systems that are used to segregate Palestinian residents of the West Bank, as well as provides all the PCs for the Israeli military since 2009, the year of Israel’s attack on Gaza through Operation Cast Lead.  
  • WE DEMAND that the University of California divest from Caterpillar (19), which is in violation of the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (20), as it is a long-standing supplier of the Israeli army, providing Israel with several models of the D9 armored bulldozer used for large-scale home demolitions in Gaza and the West Bank, as well as for land-clearing missions on Palestinian land to expand Israel’s illegal land annexation and settlement expansion (21).
  • WE DEMAND that the University of California divest from Cemex (22), which is in violation of the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (23), as it owns, operates, and provides concrete elements for the construction of military and settlement infrastructure across the Occupied West Bank, which has been condemned internationally by the United Nations.
  • WE DEMAND that the University of California divest from 3M (24), which is in violation of the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (25), as it is the sole provider of ceramic aircraft armor for Boeing’s AH-64 Apache Attack Helicopter, as well as for other military aircrafts in use by the Israeli Air Force that targeted civilians in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead and Operation Protective Edge (28).
  • WE DEMAND that the University of California divest from Northrop Grumman (26), which is in violation of the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (27), as is has provided missiles and firing systems used in Israeli airstrikes on densely populated civilian areas in violation of International Law, as well as provided key equipment during the attack on Gaza during Operation Protective Edge (28).

WE DEMAND that the University of California Regents utilize its students’ call to Divest to enact Socially and Ethically responsible investments system-wide, and truly fulfill the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (29).

WE DEMAND that the University of California Regents implement a student oversight-committee to ensure and enforce the University of California’s adherence to the Principles of Responsible Investments (30).

 

  1. http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session22/A-HRC-22-63_en.pdf
  2. https://www.un.org/press/en/2016/sc12657.doc.htm United Nations deem Israeli settlement expansion illegal
  3. https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/university-california-joins-un-supported-principles-responsible-investment
  4. http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session22/A-HRC-22-63_en.pdf See United Nations Report on Israeli Human Rights Violations
  5. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2017/06/israel-occupation-50-years-of-dispossession/
  6. https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/06/04/israel-50-years-occupation-abuses See Human Rights Watch Report on Israeli Human Rights Violations
  7. https://ucsa.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/ResolutionCallingfortheUCRegentstoDivestfromCorporationsViolatingPalestinianHumanRights.-01.2015.pdf See UCSA Resolution to Divest from Corporations Violating Palestinian Human Rights
  8. Comprehensive list of passed UC divestment resolutions: http://sjpwest.org/bds/sjp-west-bds-campaigns/ UC Irvine: http://www.asuci.uci.edu/legislative/legislations/print.php?cnum=r48-15&gov_branch=asuci  UC San Diego: http://as.ucsd.edu/governing_documents/acts.php?show_id=464&session=2012-13  UC Berkeley: http://senator.kleinlieu.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/SB160FinalDraft.pdf  UC Riverside: http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/divestment-passes-university-california-riverside  UC Los Angeles: https://usac.ucla.edu/documents/resolutions/USAC%20Divestment%20Resolution%20(11-13-2014)_no%20sponsors.pdf UC Davis: http://asucd.ucdavis.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/SR.9.Fall_.14.do
  9. https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/ Universal Declaration of Human Rights
  10. http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/12session/A-HRC-12-48.pdf United Nations rules Cast Lead in violation of international human rights law
  11. http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/CoIGazaConflict/Pages/ReportCoIGaza.aspx United Nations rules Protective Edge in violation of international human rights law
  12. http://afrikanblackcoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Prison-Divestmen-final-resolution.pdf See Afrikan Black Coalition’s Prison Divestment Resolution
  13. https://www.ucop.edu/investment-office/sustainable-investment/ statement-on-fossil-fuels-climate-change-and-ucs-investment-strategy.html See UCOP’s Fossil Fuels and Sustainable Investment Statement
  14. http://investigate.afsc.org/company/lockheed-martin Lockheed Human Rights Violations
  15. https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/university-california-joins-un-supported-principles-responsible-investment
  16. http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/12session/A-HRC-12-48.pdf “UN’s Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict”
  17. http://investigate.afsc.org/company/hp-inc HP Human Rights Violations
  18. https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/university-california-joins-un-supported-principles-responsible-investment
  19. http://investigate.afsc.org/company/caterpillar-inc Caterpillar Human Rights Violations
  20. https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/university-california-joins-un-supported-principles-responsible-investment
  21. https://www.un.org/press/en/2016/sc12657.doc.htm United Nations Declares Israel’s Settlement Expansion is Illegal
  22. http://investigate.afsc.org/company/cemex-sab-de-cv Cemex Human Rights Violations
  23. https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/university-california-joins-un-supported-principles-responsible-investment
  24. http://investigate.afsc.org/company/3m-company 3M Human Rights Violations
  25. https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/university-california-joins-un-supported-principles-responsible-investment
  26. http://investigate.afsc.org/company/northrop-grumman Northrop Grumman Human Rights Violations
  27. https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/university-california-joins-un-supported-principles-responsible-investment
  28. http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/CoIGazaConflict/Pages/ReportCoIGaza.aspx See UN Report on Operation Protective Edge and Israel’s Human Rights Violations in the Attack on Gaza
  29. https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/university-california-joins-un-supported-principles-responsible-investment
  30. https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/university-california-joins-un-supported-principles-responsible-investment

 

Why is Hillel at Stanford supporting an Islamophobic group?

The Stanford Israel Alliance recently invited Reservists on Duty, an organization of Israeli Defense Forces reserve soldiers infamous for its virulent Islamophobia and anti-Arab racism, to present an event at Stanford Hillel last Monday, Oct. 16. This group of foreign soldiers tours U.S. college campuses with the explicit goal of opposing student activism for Palestinian rights.

Over the course of a week in May this year, members of Reservists on Duty engaged in a series of racist and Islamophobic attacks against Palestinian activists and allies at UC Irvine. These adult Israeli soldiers, in their verbal tirades against the group of students, repeatedly equated Islam with terrorism. They wore shirts that read, in Arabic, “Israel is the only candle in a region of darkness.” One soldier threatened a student in Arabic, saying, “You want me to stick it in you, don’t you?” They told a Jewish student demonstrating in solidarity with Palestinians to remove his kippah because he was not a real Jew. They recorded and videotaped students without permission and threatened to leak their personal information to Canary Mission, a website that aims to sabotage the careers of students and faculty who support Palestinian rights. One camera operator even physically assaulted multiple students, shoving one and knocking a protest sign into another’s face.

In the aftermath of these events, Reservists on Duty spearheaded a smear campaign against the brutalized students, claiming that they were the victims of anti-Semitic bigotry. Six organizations, including the Center for Constitutional Rights, the National Lawyers Guild and Palestine Legal, wrote a letter to the UC Irvine administration demanding that UC Irvine take action to protect Palestine-solidarity activists after these attacks.

It is deeply irresponsible for a Stanford student group to consider hosting a group of soldiers with this demonstrated history of violence on college campuses. Under pressure, the Stanford Israel Alliance canceled the original Reservists on Duty event last Sunday, Oct. 15. Yet, last Monday afternoon, Hillel released an email announcing that the event would be taking place at the Chabad House, another organization that serves the Jewish community at Stanford. Hillel endorsed the event in an email, referring to Chabad as Hillel’s “off-campus partner” and encouraging students to join Hillel Executive Director Rabbi Jessica Kirschner in attending the event.

Two of the Reservists from the UC Irvine delegation were present at the Chabad House. The speakers engaged in what has become normalized rhetoric in pro-Israel communities: lionizing Israel and its accomplishments and claiming that nonviolent movements to boycott Israel are anti-Semitic. Blatantly Islamophobic rhetoric prevailed without reproach. One of the reservist delegates, Dema Taya, claimed that Arab women who live in countries other than Israel “are afraid to talk, because maybe in this primitive ideology, her husband or her brother or her father doesn’t allow her to.” She described Israel, England, the United States and Canada as “the good civilization” with “the nice behavior” and claimed that the reason that majority-Arab countries do not have democracy is because “their government is also Arab.”

Hillel is a community center meant to serve the Jewish community at Stanford and be a welcoming space for all Stanford students. It is unacceptable for Hillel to promote and endorse a group known for its verbal and physical harassment of Arab and Muslim students and their allies. Hillel’s Rabbi Kirschner even admitted at the conclusion of the event that Hillel was aware of concerns for student safety around hosting Reservists on Duty. Still, she thought it was “wonderful” that the event happened and promised her support in hosting Reservists on Duty at Hillel in the future.

As Jews, it is particularly distressing that two major campus organizations that serve the Stanford Jewish community worked together to organize this event. We, Jewish Voice for Peace, demand that Stanford Hillel and Chabad issue a public apology to the Stanford community for actively endorsing a group that promotes Islamophobia, anti-Arab sentiment and hateful rhetoric that threatens and terrorizes our communities at Stanford and beyond.

— Jewish Voice for Peace

Erwin Chemerinsky should address Palestine exception to free speech

This article appears at The Daily Cal

Erwin Chemerinsky, the new dean of Berkeley Law, has been making waves in campus politics regarding free speech issues. Chemerinsky is a major constitutional law scholar, an outspoken liberal and a free speech absolutist. He’s the perfect figure to defend the UC Berkeley’s administration from people who are angry about far-right provocateurs and hundreds of cops being on campus. At speaking events and in writing, he has mainly argued that the administration is following First Amendment requirements to not discriminate on the basis of political ideology.

At a recent administration-sponsored Faculty Panel on Free Speech, the audience applauded when professor john a. powell said “the defining issue of the country is white supremacy” and not free speech. It was refreshing to hear this after every other panelist (including Chancellor Carol Christ and Chemerinsky), all of whom were white, failed to even mention the issue.

Free speech does matter, but discussing it is useless without the pressing context of racism. “Free speech” alone cannot explain why the administration just spent $800,000 on an unsponsored, 15-minute appearance by the racist Milo Yiannopoulos. To explain that, we have to include an analysis of the growing far right movement that is trying to use Berkeley as a hunting ground. We have to contrast the city’s protection of racists to its rejection of thousands of anti-racist protesters, to whom it denied rally space Aug. 27. When we talk about free speech, we have to talk about the “Palestine Exception to Free Speech,” the administration’s temporary suspension of a Palestine-related course last year, and chilling posters on campus smearing Palestine scholars as “terrorist supporters.” Both the administration and Chemerinsky, however, disregard this context of racism.

Chancellor Christ has only once publicly mentioned “racism,” and that was only to describe how it makes “the issue of free speech even more tense.” The administration, by not discussing the serious threat posed by violent bigots and police militarization, gives legitimacy to the far-right’s facade of “free speech.” Chemerinsky unfortunately contributes to and legitimizes this distorted conception of free speech sans racism. This also means that suppression of anti-racist speech is left out of the conversation, which instead becomes exclusively about how the rights of racists and right-wingers are supposedly under attack.

Chemerinsky’s new book, Free Speech on Campus, exemplifies this flawed approach. His central thesis is that “all ideas and views should be able to be expressed on college campuses, no matter how offensive or how uncomfortable they make people feel.” He makes a strong case, going through a history of abolitionists, socialists and anti-war activists fighting for their right to speak freely about important causes, expanding the protections of the First Amendment  which later helped to protect the civil rights movement. His point is that liberal students should care about free speech because “social progress has come about, not as a result of silencing certain speakers, but by ensuring that previously silenced or marginalized groups are empowered to find their voice and have their say.”

The problem, however, is that the book’s comprehensive title, Free Speech on Campus, is not reflected in its content. Chemerinsky does not discuss the campaign against pro-Palestine activism, which Glenn Greenwald refers to as the “greatest threat to free speech in the West.” In a 2015 report on “The Palestine Exception to Free Speech” and a 2016 update, the Center for Constitutional Rights and the Palestine Legal detail hundreds of incidents of suppression of Palestinian human rights advocacy, the majority of which are on college campuses.

Chemerinsky focuses almost exclusively on calls to silence racist and right-wing speech. He makes only one mention of Steven Salaita, whose offer for a tenured position at the University of Illinois was withdrawn because of his critical tweets about Israel during its 2014 invasion of Gaza. That is one of only three mentions in the book of suppression of pro-Palestine advocacy. This is especially troubling because of Chemerinsky’s explanation of why many liberal students today are not free speech absolutists. He says the problem is that his generation grew up when anti-war activists were facing state repression of their speech, but the current generation “did not grow up at a time when the act of punishing speech was associated with undermining other worthwhile values.” However, Salaita is just one of hundreds of examples of the concerted, ongoing campaign to punish anti-racist speech. Chemerinsky fails to foreground or seriously discuss this major campus free speech issue and in doing so actually  contributes to the problem of non-association between speech and “other worthwhile values” like anti-racism.

Everyone opposed to white supremacy should defend the right to free speech, because we need it to build a strong movement . We should reject Christ’s use of “free speech” as a cover to militarize the campus and provide a $800,000 platform for far-right provocateurs, and we should criticize Chemerinsky’s inattention to the Palestine exception to free speech. Anti-racists need to develop and assert a fuller vision of the right to free speech.

Mukund Rathi is a law student at UC Berkeley.

California State University Long Beach Passes Motion to Divest from Corporations Aiding Oppression of Palestinians

CSU Long Beach becomes the 13th California campus to pass a boycott or divestment measure.

From the Daily 49er

The Associated Students, Inc. Senate passed in a (15,7,1) roll call vote a divestment resolution from companies that profit from Palestinian oppression.

One side of the gallery restrained their cheers and jitters, while the other side donned dispirited, reddened faces as the ASI Senate tallied their votes.

This resolution would encourage the university to divest from companies that receive monetary gain from Palestinian oppression. The ASI Senate also passed two similar resolutions the same day that encouraged the divestment from companies that profit from LGBTQ+ oppression and private prisons.

Now that all of the divestment resolutions have passed in the Senate, the university at large and its auxiliaries, such as the 49er Foundation and the 49er Shops, will decide whether or not they will support it.

Since the inception of the divestment resolution regarding Palestinian oppression, the Farber Senate chambers have been filled with Jewish and Palestinian people alike, as well as campus members interested in the outcome of the resolution, all voicing their thoughts on the controversy of the Israel and Palestine conflict taking place overseas.

The culmination of emotion before the vote was led by loud claps, cheers and snaps from the audience. Attendance at ASI’s last Senate meeting of the semester was at its highest due to the great controversy over the resolution. Students, faculty and others passionate about the topic sported t-shirts and held up signs advocating for their cause.

The victory, which passed 3 total votes over the span of one month, came amid efforts to suppress and intimidate student senators, covered by Palestine Legal and in the Daily 49er. Students hailed the vote as precedent for further action in support of social justice.

Claremont Students for Justice in Palestine announces boycott victory

Pitzer College Student Senate Approves Budgetary Boycott Amendment

On Sunday April 16, in an important victory at Pitzer College, the Student Senate voted (22 aye, 0 nay, 4 abstentions) to adopt an amendment to the Budget By-Laws which reads in part, “Student Activities Funds shall not be used to make a payment on goods or services from any corporation or organization associated with the unethical occupation of Palestinian territories.”

This is an important step in our fight to build the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement in support of the basic rights and dignity of the Palestinian people. The BDS movement was started in 2005 from a call by a range of over 170 Palestinian civil society organizations in order to increase pressure on the state of Israel until it:

Ends its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands occupied in June 1967 and dismantles the Wall; recognizes the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and respects, protects and promotes the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN Resolution 194.

Although we live in a country that now gives 3.8 billion dollars in military aid a year to Israel, adopting this amendment is an important first step in reducing our complicity with a country that maintains an illegal military occupation and regularly commits war crimes against an indigenous population.

Claremont Students for Justice in Palestine is committed to standing up against our colleges complicity in supporting companies and organizations that serve to benefit from continued violence on behalf of the state of Israel. We will continue working to build a movement in solidarity with the liberation of Palestinians and all oppressed people in the US and around the world. The final copy of the newly adopted Pitzer College Student Senate Budget Bylaws can be viewed here: http://pitweb.pitzer.edu/…/Pitzer-College-Student-Senate-Bu…

Contact:
Claremont Students for Justice in Palestine
claremontcollegesjp@gmail.com

Students ask UC not to partner with Israel Innovation Authority

End the UC Memorandum of Understanding with the Israel Innovation Authority

An Open Letter to the Office of President Janet Napolitano

Dear President Napolitano,

We students of the University of California write to you with serious concerns and grievances regarding the most recent Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between the University of California and the Israel Innovation Authority. We must say that we are not surprised to see your office continuously disregard student, worker and faculty voices of dissent that have voted repeatedly to end all normalization with the Israeli state and its institutions until such a time that it ends its military siege of the Gaza strip, occupation of the West Bank, ensures equity for all of its Arab citizens and until it allows all Palestinian refugees and exiles the right to return to their homeland in accordance with UN resolution 194.  Still, we find it critical to write this letter for three reasons.

First, we are adding our voice of opposition to the historical record. Second, we are committed to exposing and challenging your administration’s policies and practices of repression that stifle meaningful pedagogy, intellectual inquiry, cultural exchange, and democratic and transparent administrative practice. Third, it is an imperative duty for all people of conscience to challenge your administration and the broader historical role of the UC in ongoing systemic oppression of people of color and working class people here in the US and Third world people across the globe, including the Palestinians in Palestine.

President Napolitano, the world is changing and the era of liberal diversity and tolerance has now become a faint shadow of the past. It is clear you are attempting to sustain a national imaginary that privileges these concepts and ideals within the UC system which will prove to be ever more difficult because of the inauguration of Donald Trump, as evidenced by some of the many statements and policies your office has issued within the last several months, particularly the November 30th, 2016 statement which pertains to limiting UC cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). However, now, people will be able to identify what are truly meaningful practices of freedom, equity, justice, and inclusion. Your students know when and how these ideals only become used as tropes within rhetoric to assuage peoples’ movements and redirect blame versus when they are truly reflected by institutional change. For many of our communities here in the UC, liberal ideals of diversity and tolerance have never quite applied to us in full. Rather, they have long been used to subjugate our oppression further as is evident in the egregious conflation of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism that the UC Regents has incorporated, ironically, in the 2016 released Statement of Principles Against Intolerance.

Donald Trump has indeed raised the bar. Your office is now expected to signify how institutions can maintain democratic and inclusive ideals in spite of increasingly explicit draconian policies, repression, and infringement on democratic freedoms implemented at the federal level. Unfortunately for you, this era will mean your constituencies will be asking more of you to safeguard civil and human rights, women’s rights, rights of LGBTQ communities, and to condemn all forms of anti-immigrant, anti-refugee, anti-Black, xenophobic, racist, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic and ableist, oppression. We Palestinians and Palestine solidarity activists within your constituency will not shy away from holding you to the same expectation when it comes to withdrawing all complicity in the illegal Israeli occupation and ending all forms of repression on Palestine solidarity students, staff and faculty.

Your cooperation with the Israel Innovation Authority signifies, once again, your own complicity in systemic oppression and that your interest in leading this institution is based on economic profit and the procurement and securing of political alliances; that shouldn’t exactly have been a surprise to us considering your previous post as the Head of Homeland Security and the scores of resultant deaths and other rights violations that occurred under your tenure. Now, in your new position, rather than working diligently to end the privatization of our public education system; to ensure that students do not experience food insecurity and housing shortages; that your constituencies are safe, protected, nurtured and feel welcome as part of the UC family; and that our education system is truly the rubric to be followed both with regards to its ideals and its innovative and intellectual production, you are making deals with Israeli institutions that are the architects of global repression and represent all that is antithetical to public education.

You are normalizing oppression and you are imposing complicity on your constituencies without our vote. This new cooperation tells us, your students, that you will go to all measures to maintain power and profit at the expense of public education, human rights, and at the expense of what your students want, need and are saying to you and have been telling you over and over again. Democratic ideals mean nothing to you when it comes to your blinding allegiance to Israeli institutions and Zionist organizations in the US. We do not want to partner with Israeli institutions. Associated Student governing boards at seven of your nine campuses, told you this on their majority votes calling on the regents to divest from companies profiting from the Israeli occupation. 14,000 teaching assistants, tutors and readers told you this when they voted to endorse a full boycott, divestment and sanctions referendum in December 2014. Your faculty have told you this time and time again through endorsements for the academic boycott in the American Studies Association (ASA), the Native and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA), the Critical Ethnic Studies Association (CESA), the Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS), the National Association of Chicana and Chicano Studies (NACCS). You and your administration are working so hard to criminalize these calls to action. Why are you silencing us? This new MOU signifies to us once again that no matter how many people are hurt along the way and no matter what your own constituency, your actions are motivated not by the principles of public education, not by principles of social justice and diversity or what your constituencies want and need.

For many Palestinians in the UC system, the process of shouldering the extra work to leave a trace of ourselves, atop of our already inundated, fragmented and precarious racial positionality, is something we know well. Many of us wake each morning and dig deep into ourselves to muster up the energy, courage, will, determination and spirit to be part of a UC and broader US social, political, cultural and racial climate; that which is often not welcoming and incredibly volatile to us. But for Palestinians in the Diaspora, we see this as the minimal thing that we can in fact achieve for our people, struggle, and our homeland. So we do it, to make it a little more challenging for all those who are attempting to eliminate and erase us from the historical record as they have supported a settler-colonial project that has ethnically cleansed us from our homeland and to criminalize our very existence and speech, as well as those of our friends who have joined us in the pursuit of freedom, justice, and liberation.

We write to you today to tell you that we are vigilantly committed to maintaining the perseverance of Palestinian life and to condemn all forms of systemic oppression impacting our communities, including the Israeli occupation of Palestine. We urge you to immediately end the UC Regents partnership with the Israel Innovation Authority and to respect the will of your constituents as well as Palestinian lives and rights.