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Author: sjpwest

Students ask UC not to partner with Israel Innovation Authority

March 26, 2017 by sjpwest

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.

Posted in: News Tagged: israel innovation authority, napolitano

In a first, De Anza College passes divestment motion in support of Palestinian rights

March 22, 2017 by sjpwest

De Anza College is the first community college to support divestment from Israel’s human rights abuses

Student body passes resolution supporting Palestinian rights in the occupied territories by 12-4-2


Students at De Anza Community College in Cupertino, CA, representing a wide coalition of students from all backgrounds and sectors of campus, celebrated a milestone victory for social justice with the passage of a resolution “In Support of Divestment from Companies That Profit from the Israeli Occupation of Palestinian Territories.” The resolution was approved by De Anza Associated Student Body by an overwhelming majority, and marks the first time a community college student body has voted in support of divestment from corporations violating Palestinian human rights.

The resolution, sponsored by Viana Marie Roland and Kenneth Gabbard, passed by a 12-4-2 margin. Noting that De Anza College is “committed to the values of civic engagement for social justice,” and had previously “selectively and publicly, divested from companies engaged in fossil fuel emissions,” the resolution named Hewlett-Packard Enterprises, Motorola Solutions, G4S, and Caterpillar as companies that “affect the De Anza community directly, including students whose families experience occupation, systematic discrimination, death, injury, and other forms of human rights violations,” and called upon the Foothill-De Anza Foundation to “adopt a Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) policy that includes a human rights screen for human rights violations,” and to “accordingly divest from companies that violate international human rights.”

Invigorated by the student body’s support for Palestinian rights, as well as the overwhelming support they received from community members, Students for Justice at De Anza (SFJ) is now ready to take the resolution to the Foothill-De Anza Foundation Board to request  a socially responsible investment policy and divestment from the named companies, and others determined to be engaged in similar human rights violations. SFJ  believes this vote  lays a principled foundation from which students from myriad backgrounds can continue to educate and organize in support of all social justice causes, of which Palestinian rights is just one.  

The full text of the resolution is available here and reprinted below:

 

De Anza Associated Student Body Government, De Anza-Foothill Community College District, Foundation Board Resolution

In Support of Divestment from Companies That Profit from the Israeli Occupation of Palestinian Territories

WHEREAS, the students of De Anza College and the De Anza Associated Student Body Government as their representative body, have a rich history in student advocacy and progressive leadership;

WHEREAS, De Anza College is committed to the values of civic engagement for social justice;

WHEREAS, “As a public institution, De Anza College contributes to the development of local, state, national and global communities. De Anza College views their students and themselves as agents of change, responsible for building the world in which all people are able to realize their dreams in ways that are environmentally sustainable and in alignment with the United Nations’ Declaration of Human Rights” [1];

WHEREAS, Foothill-De Anza Foundation is “dedicated to developing a broadly educated and socially responsible community” [3] and has selectively and publicly divested from companies engaged in fossil fuel emissions [2];

WHEREAS, as defined by Foothill-De Anza Foundation, “It is the responsibility of the Investment Committee to consider how the social and ethical goals of the Foundation, as expressed by the Board, should be reflected in the portfolio. In this regard, the Investment Committee may issue periodic restrictions of specific investments or related strategies [6];

WHEREAS, international human rights law recognizes the rights of all people, including Palestinians, to life, security [4] and political and economic self-determination;

WHEREAS, Israel has been recognized by international law since 1967 as an occupying power in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and Gaza [11];

WHEREAS, the following is an illustrative and non-exhaustive list of companies which enables human rights abuses and violence;

WHEREAS, Caterpillar, G4S, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, and Motorola Solutions 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” as stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights [4];

WHEREAS, Caterpillar is responsible for supplying Israel with D9 bulldozers, which are used by the governing regime, to demolish Palestinian homes and violate human rights in the occupied Palestinian Territories [10];

WHEREAS, Motorola Solutions services “MotoEagle Surveillance,” which is used by the Israeli regime to control Palestinian movement through security maintenance of illegal Israeli settlements, the West Bank separation wall, the wall around Gaza, and military bases [9];

WHEREAS, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has provided biometric identification systems used at Israeli military checkpoints, which restrict the freedom of movement of Palestinians, facilitate discrimination against Palestinians, and reinforce a stratification of citizenship [8];

WHEREAS, HPE profits from global mass incarceration and provides prisoner data systems for the United States Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs (ICE) Law Enforcement Support Center [8];

WHEREAS, G4S provides security services to businesses in the illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. G4S has also provided full body scanners and luggage scanning equipment to various checkpoints throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territories [7];

WHEREAS, the consequences of these companies’ actions also affect the De Anza community directly, including students whose families experience occupation, systematic discrimination, death, injury, and other forms of human rights violations;

WHEREAS, the only way to achieve financial neutrality in such situations is to end our investment in and implicit support for such companies through divestment;

WHEREAS, investment in these companies shows implicit support for the decisions and actions of these companies, as well as their consequences, which include the killings of civilians;

WHEREAS, our peers in numerous university student associations, including Wesleyan University, Oberlin College, DePaul University, Evergreen State College, UC Irvine, UC Berkeley, UC Riverside, UC San Diego, UCLA, UC Davis, San Jose State University, and Stanford University have passed resolutions calling for divestment from companies that violate international law and human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories;

LET IT BE RESOLVED, by the De Anza Associated Student Body Government exercising its representative authority on behalf of all students;

LET IT FURTHER BE RESOLVED, that the DASB (De Anza Associated Student Body) calls upon the Foundation to adopt a Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) policy that includes a human rights screen for human rights violations such as but not limited to those listed below, and to accordingly divest from companies that violate international human rights law by:

  1. Maintaining the illegal infrastructure of the Israeli occupation, in particular settlements and separation wall. This includes companies like Caterpillar Inc. [10]
  1. Facilitating Israel’s collective punishment of Palestinian civilians. This includes companies like Hewlett Packard Enterprise [8]
  1. Facilitating state repression against Palestinians by Israeli security forces. This includes companies like G4S [7] and Motorola Solutions Inc. [9]

UNTIL  the Israeli Government:

  1. Ends its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantles the Israeli West Bank Barrier
  2. Recognizes the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality
  3. Respects, protects, and promotes the rights of Palestinian refugees, to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in United Nations Resolution 194

LET IT FINALLY BE RESOLVED, that the DASB calls upon the Board of Directors of the Foothill-De Anza Foundation to withdraw investments in securities, endowments, mutual funds, and other monetary instruments with holdings in Caterpillar, Hewlett Packard, Motorola Solutions, G4S, and all corporations that are similarly complicit in violating these criteria, at such time and in such manner as to be determined by the Board of Directors with the goal of maintaining the divestment until they cease these specific practices deemed as unethical by the De Anza College community.

[1] https://www.deanza.edu/emp/EMP_Approved_by_College_Council_6_11_15.pdf

[2] http://deanza.edu/news/2013fossildivest.html

[3]  http://www.fhda.edu/_about-us/#sthash.xlppUoLz.dpuf

[4] Universal Declaration of Human Rights

http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/

[5] https://www.dodgeandcox.com/pdf/shareholder_reports/dc_international_holdings.pdf page 1

[6] https://foundation.fhda.edu/what-we-do/statement_of_investment.html

[7] http://investigate.afsc.org/company/g4s-plc

[8] http://investigate.afsc.org/company/hewlett-packard-enterprise

[9] http://investigate.afsc.org/company/motorola-solutions-inc

[10] http://investigate.afsc.org/company/caterpillar-inc

[11] Geneva Convention, UN, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch;

http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE15/007/2009/en/4c407b40-e64c-11dd-9917-

ed717fa5078d/mde150072009en.html#2.2.1.2.%20Law%20of%20occupation|outline

RESOLVED, that DASB will make this document public and will present this resolution to all affected parties, including: De Anza College President, Brian Murphy; Associated Vice President, Marisa Spatafore; Vice President of Finance and College Operations, Susan Cheu; Vice President of Student Services, Stacey Cook; Vice President of Instruction, Christina Espinosa-Pieb; Foothill-De Anza Foundation President Don Aoki and affiliated Foothill-De Anza Foundation Board members; Chancellor, Judy C. Miner, Vice Chancellor of Business, Kevin Mcelroy; Director of Office Of College Life, John Cognetta; La Voz Newspaper; and the CEOs of Hewlett Packard, Motorola Solutions, Caterpillar, and G4S.

 

Posted in: Activism, News Tagged: bds, community college, deanza, divestment

UC Riverside Votes 13-0 to Remove Israeli Military-Associated Company Sabra Hummus from Campus Dining

February 2, 2017 by sjpwest

On February 1, 2017, the Associated Students of UC Riverside passed the following resolution in opposition to the presence of Sabra products on campus – due to the company’s associations with the Israeli military and its role in violence against the Palestinian people:

 

WHEREAS, ASUCR is committed to diversity, justice, inclusion, fairness, and opposes racism, colonialism, and more; and,

WHEREAS, ASUCR Senate has passed resolutions addressing a number of student concerns, among those being resolutions in support of divestment from prisons in order to counteract the prison industrial complex, fossil fuel industries, and divestment from companies complicit with the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories; and,

WHEREAS, the Strauss Group, parent company to Sabra Dipping Company, LLC is a company that is known to have considerable ties to the Israeli military, which is known to be responsible for violation of the Palestinian people’s basic human rights through racist and colonialist policies internationally recognized as illegal; and,  

WHEREAS, institutions, activist organizations, and university students worldwide have campaigned against the sale of Sabra for its ties to the Israeli military; and,  

WHEREAS, dining at the University of California, Riverside has independently, without coercion, previously made the decision to remove Sabra at the request of some students; and,

WHEREAS, UCR’s administration replaced Sabra, on the shelves in April 2015 without demand from the UCR community; and, 

WHEREAS, ASUCR considers administration’s decision to have been intended to satisfy external, off-campus, non-UCR related special interests; and,

WHEREAS, ASUCR considers UCR admin’s decision to be part of a larger trend of UC administrations prioritizing loyalty and obedience to pro-Israel interests rather than the interests of their students, faculty, and overall campus community, especially when involved in pro-Palestine activism; examples of which include the suspension of a student-run class on Palestine at UC Berkeley, the draconian punishments leveled against the Irvine 11, and the UC president’s support for a restrictive interpretation that attempted to conflate anti-Semitism with anti-Zionism; and,

WHEREAS, 239 UC faculty have signed a petition spearheaded by Jewish Voice for Peace condemning consideration of the State Department definition of anti-Semitism “which conflates the critique of Israeli state policy with bigotry and discrimination against Jews”

RESOLVED, That the Associated Students of University of California, Riverside,  

  1. Declares its supports for the discontinuation of the sale of Sabra at UCR
  2. Condemns UC administration’s disregard for free speech, obedience to external pro-Israel interests, and bias against pro-Palestine activists; demanding stronger administrative statements condemning all forms of repression of Palestine solidarity activists on campus and commitment to principles of inclusion and diversity based on ideas of social justice, racial equality, free speech and civic engagement.

 

Posted in: Activism, News Tagged: boycott, sabra, uc riverside

UC Berkeley Suspends and Reinstates Course on Palestine

October 19, 2016 by sjpwest

During the fall semester of 2016, pressure on UC Berkeley administrators from off campus organizations resulted in the suspension of a student led course on Palestine – Ethnic Studies 198: Palestine: A Settler Colonial Analysis.

The cancellation of the course was a violation of free speech and academic freedom and raised a number of questions about governance and procedure at the university. This marks the second time  that an anti-Palestinian organization has attempted to cancel a student led course on Palestine at the UC system.

After strong pushback from students, faculty, lawyers, and academic associations, the course was formally reinstated on September 19th, 2016.

Relevant links regarding the issue are below:

Pressure letter led by AMCHA Initiative and other groups

Palestine Legal Letter

Statement by students of Ethnic Studies 198

Analysis by Academe Blog

Electronic Intifada Coverage

Middle East Studies Association Letter

California Scholars for Academic Freedom Letter

Palestine Legal Statement on Reinstatement of Ethnic Studies 198

Posted in: News Tagged: amcha, berkeley, california scholars for academic freedom, free speech, uc berkeley

SJP-West Relieved that UC Regents Affirmed Legitimacy of Anti-Zionism, Looks Forward to Continuing to Grow Movement for Palestinian Rights

March 27, 2016 by sjpwest

Response to UC Regents “Statement of Principles Against Intolerance”

As a result of dedicated activism over the last months,  the University of California Regents have chosen not to issue a blanket condemnation of anti-Zionism, not to adopt the false claim that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitic, and not to adopt a definition of anti-Semitism that included criticism of Israel. This recognition of the inherent legitimacy of our activism was a position endorsed not just by SJP and Jewish Voice for Peace, but also by the Afrikan Black Coalition, legal groups (ACLU, Palestine Legal), unions (UPTE-CWA, UAW 2865), the UC Academic Senate, the LA Times, and individual faculty members from across the political landscape. We thank all of these groups for their efforts to protect our constitutional rights and the legitimacy of our work. 

Nevertheless, we reject the process that has led to this statement, the tokenization of other communities whose concerns were never taken sincerely, and the unsubstantiated efforts by off-campus groups to label our activism as bigoted.

The choice not to label anti-Zionism a form of discrimination means that there will be no enforceable changes to the conditions for campus activists at the UC system. In fact, in rejecting a blanket condemnation of anti-Zionism, the Regents agreed that anti-Zionism in itself is legitimate, as long as it isn’t anti-Semitic. This distinction has always been the position of SJP and we are glad it is being recognized by the Regents. We hope this recognition of the legitimacy of our positions will make it more difficult to censor us in the future.

Going forward, we intend to continue our work educating the campuses about Palestine and pushing for our universities to end their complicity with Israel’s human rights abuses against the Palestinian people. We will be working harder than ever to educate and organize our fellow students.

Although some may still choose to use the vague formulations in Regents’ statement to justify attempts at censorship, we are well prepared to fight for and preserve our First Amendment rights – and we have a long track record of doing just that. Efforts to censor SJP have a long history and we do not anticipate that they will cease anytime soon. But we are confident that our First Amendment right to free speech will allow us to continue making our arguments for Palestinian freedom, justice and equality – arguments that have and will continue to persuade large numbers of students on our campuses to support our positions, join our groups, and support our campaigns. We will continue to struggle until we triumph.

 


 

Q and A:

What is anti-Zionism and why is it a legitimate position, as the Regents now recognize?

Although Zionism is most commonly understood to be support for Israel, it is a term with a more complex history and holds multiple strains of interpretation with highly variant political implications. A worthwhile summary written in the context of these events is located here. Anti-Zionism is a principled anti-racist position that is held by many members of the UC community who are opposed to unjust policies and practices that are associated with the real world actions taken in the name of Zionism – including the expulsion of Palestinians during and after the creation of the state of Israel and the ongoing violent occupation of the Palestinian territories. Palestinian students whose families and communities were and continued to be affected by Israel’s actions have the right to speak out about their experiences, and people of conscience throughout the UC should be able to oppose the actions of the Israeli government without fear of administrative reprisal. Far from having “no place” in the University of California, these narratives and principled political activism are a vital component of UC cultural life that directly affects scores of individuals across the UC system.

 

What was wrong with the process?

As the Regents’ working group openly admits in its contextual statement, the process was largely closed to UC input, besides one listening session at UCLA and an opportunity to send emails about intolerance to campus administrators. Although we raised serious concerns throughout the process, the working group was not constructed in a way that allowed for campus organizations to have meaningful input in the process, and therefore we were consistently left in the dark as to developments, or provided no avenue to articulate our concerns to the working group.

We also note that the choice of “experts” was an all male panel comprised of two off-campus partisans, one faculty member implicated in reducing Black, Latinx and Native enrollment at the UC system as an architect of the disastrous Proposition 209, and one faculty member who admitted to not being an expert on the term Zionism. Although the working group was concerned with issues that directly  concern Palestinians, it conspicuously chose not to consider or hear any Palestinian perspectives, while praising itself for inclusivity and diversity. The categories of experts omitted by the working group is too long to list and certainly indicates a lack of effort to gather a comprehensive understanding of these issues. The Regents’ lack of accountability is part of a pattern experienced by multiple communities on campus.  

 

Why do we say other communities were tokenized?

The working group’s contextual statement is a tacit admission that the inclusion of examples of intolerance towards other groups was not a result of an organically derived interest in their well being, but rather a solution for a stumbling block that occurred when the Regents felt that the statement was too narrowly focused on only one group. This correlates to our experiences with the process as well, and helps explain the sense of tokenization expressed by many groups whose issues were cited to boost the legitimacy of the statement but not engaged with in a meaningful or credible way. See the Afrikan Black Coalition’s statement for examples of their problems with the process and statement, as well as the pushback from many Muslim students in response to language in the document that implicitly frames Islamophobia as a product of terrorism, rather than a form of bigotry – a framing that places blame on victims of racism and fails to live up to the Department of Education’s letter urging serious efforts to protect Arab and Muslims students in the wake of a documented rise in Islamophobia, anti-Arab, and anti-refugee discourse. We have absolutely no confidence that the UC Regents understand or even care about the issues facing other groups, including Palestinian, Arab and Muslim communities that the Department of Education has warned are under increased threat on campuses during a period of ongoing hate speech and racist incitement by political figures.

 

What are examples of  off-campus groups  baselessly smearing campus pro-Palestine activism?

Many times during the discussion of these issues, horrifying examples of anti-Semitism were brought forward. These are terrible incidents that we condemn and wish never to see occur on campus. But the perpetrators of these incidents were either not known, or known not to be related to SJP. Nevertheless, partisan groups who have made clear their opposition to SJP’s work repeatedly used these incidents to defame  SJP. Our organizations have a long record of clear opposition to anti-Semitism and internal educational work in our groups to learn about anti-Semitism and how to combat it in our spaces (1). But we are not responsible for acts that are unconnected to us. AMCHA and Brandeis’s strategy of asking the UC administration to censor speech critical of Israel pre-dates also the growth of divestment campaigns on campuses, disproving the assertion that divestment is at fault. Moreover, we don’t even need to speculate on the motives of these off-campus advocacy organizations. The founder of the AMCHA Initiative, Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, made clear that she seeks to classify BDS and many other forms of pro-Palestinian activism as anti-Semitism.

 

What other reservations do we still hold about the amended version of the statement?

Originally in the statement, the working group claimed that “anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism and other forms of discrimination have no place at the University of California.” On Wednesday, the UC Regents board approved and adopted an amended version of the statement that read instead that “anti-Semitism, anti-Semitic forms of anti-Zionism and other forms of discrimination have no place at the University of California.”

While SJP West supports the move away from condemning anti-Zionism as a form of discrimination and the embrace of academic freedom, we still have concerns regarding the amended version and its implication that anti-Zionist action and expression is  more prone to anti-Semitism. Students for Justice in Palestine groups are secular organizations committed to opposing racism in all its forms, which include both anti-Semitism and the policies of the Israeli government, and supporting democratic principles of self-determination for all peoples. By its very definition, Students for Justice in Palestine opposes anti-Semitism in all its forms, and has continuously expressed this commitment in both statement and record. Hence, the specific attention focused on anti-Zionism as opposed to a blanket condemnation of all forms of anti-Semitism plays into unfair and unfounded assumptions about SJP and the students involved in it, perceived primarily as Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim.

UC Berkeley professor Judith Butler addresses this problem by asking, “If we think that we solve the problem by distinguishing forms of anti-Semitic anti-Zionism, then we are left with the question of who identifies such a position, and what are their operative definitions?  These terms are vague and overbroad and run the risk of suppressing speech and violating principles of academic freedom. There already exists University policy and state and federal law, developed over many years that provide an effective framework for resolving these issues. If we start to associate anti-Semitism with specific political positions, then perhaps we should include forms of anti-Semitism that are associated with, say, the Republican Party, Christian evangelicals, right wing Catholicism, various forms of nationalism and fundamentalism, versions of anti-capitalism as well as versions of anti-communism.  The list would be long, so why stay focused on anti-Zionism […] The abuse of the allegation of anti-Semitism deprives it of its power and meaning. It ought not to be exploited for political purposes.”

 

(1) See for example, UCLA SJP Article Responding to Anti-Semitic Incident, UCSC statement regarding Anti-Semitic incident, UC Berkeley SJP Guiding Principles, UCLA SJP Constitution. More examples are available upon request.

Posted in: News Tagged: anti-semitism, anti-zionism, regents, zionism

Irish firm CRH, key target of UC SJPs’ Divestment Campaigns, ends its financial complicity with violations of International Law and Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories

January 20, 2016 by sjpwest

SJP-WEST
For Immediate Release

1/20/2016
Contact: west.sjp [at] gmail.com

On January 8, 2016, the Irish firm CRH (previously known as Cement Roadstone Holdings) released a financial report stating that it was selling its holdings in the Israeli cement industry. CRH has been a target of UC wide divestment efforts due to its investment in Israeli companies that provide building materials and cement used to construct the Wall and settlements inside the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Irish Palestine Solidarity Groups, which had been vigorously pressuring CRH to cease its cooperation with the occupation for years, hailed the announcement as a major victory. Irish news reports cited pro-Palestinian pressure as a central issue – noting years of protests at the company’s annual shareholder meetings and citing growing pressure from shareholders as well.

SJPs in the UC system have long placed CRH on its divestment list due to the UC Regents investment in the firm. Student governments at UC Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, and Santa Cruz, as well as the umbrella group the UC Student Association, have passed motions calling for divestment from companies violating Palestinian human rights, including CRH. Other schools in California, like Stanford‘s undergraduate senate, have passed motions calling for divestment from corporations fitting specific criteria. These criteria include the activities in which CRH had been involved.

CRH’s cessation of involvement with the nearly 50 year long Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories is an important victory for all Palestinians living under occupation, particularly those affected by the wall and settlements.

It is also a victory for advocates of corporate social responsibility. Recently, Human Rights Watch stated that businesses operating in the settlements are by nature contributing to violations of international law and should pull out – a recommendation that will only gain traction as more companies apply socially responsible investment principles to their business practices. 

Finally, CRH’s move is a confirmation of the power of public pressure to end corporate complicity with violations of international law and human rights, and an admission that continued involvement with violations of Palestinian rights is not in the interests of investors or corporations. Its actions further reflect a major victory for the students of the UC system who, through their divestment campaigns, have helped raise international public pressure on the corporation to cease its involvement in the occupation. 

Now that CRH has ended its complicity with the occupation, it will no longer be included in calls for divestment by SJPs. SJPs rightly celebrate this victory and look forward to other companies targeted for divestment ending their financial cooperation with the occupation in the near future.

 

Posted in: Activism, News Tagged: bds, CRH, divestment

Interview with Tallie Ben-Daniel regarding dangers to speech and activism posed by UC Regents’ “Statement of Principles Against Intolerance”

January 11, 2016 by sjpwest

 

In this half-hour interview on KPFK Radio, hosts Estee Chandler and Nagwa Ibrahim talk to JVP Academic Advisory Council head Tallie Ben-Daniel about the UC Regents proposed, “Statement of Principles Against Intolerance,” the issues of transparency surrounding its writing, the problematic list of experts that have been consulted, and the problematic definition of anti-Semitism being considered. The interview also discusses the effect of speech policing on scholarship and activism at the UC, and explains the difference between principled criticism of Israeli state policies and anti-Semitism.

For more, please see the UC SJP position paper on this issue.

Posted in: Activism Tagged: anti-semitism, intolerance, jvp, regents

UCSC Divestment Victory: SUA Appeal Overturns 2014 Divestment Nullification

December 28, 2015 by sjpwest

UCSC Student Government votes to overturn former UCSC President Shaz Umer’s unconstitutional overruling of divestment bill.  Vote means that UCSC is officially the 7th of 9 UCs voting for divestment, joining UC Berkeley, Irvine, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, and Davis.  

Reprinted via City on a Hill Press

With a 28-5-7 vote, the Student Union Assembly (SUA) approved Students for Justice in Palestine’s (SJP) appeal of former SUA Chair Shaz Umer’s controversial decision to nullify a divestment resolution passed in May 2014. The University Socially Responsible Investment Resolution (USRIR), which calls for the UC to divest from companies “complicit in the severe violation of Palestinian human rights” is in effect as of SUA’s meeting on Nov. 18.

The decision took more than two hours of discussion and presentations from SJP and Slugs for Israel (SFI), including questions from students in the crowd of about 70. The appeal didn’t address opinions about divestment, but solely on due process and whether Umer’s action in 2014 was constitutional. During that meeting, USRIR passed, but under unclear and allegedly illegal suspension of bylaws.

In May 2014, when the resolution was one vote shy of passing the required two-third majority, a member motioned to suspend the bylaw to lower the approval to a simple majority. The motion to lower the threshold passed by exactly a two-thirds majority, allowing the resolution to be voted on again. The resolution, only needing a simple majority in the second vote, passed 22-14-1.

Two days after the resolution supposedly passed, Umer decided to review USRIR and the bylaw’s suspension after objection from pro-Israel student groups. This review carried on for 17 days, and Umer ruled that the incorrect bylaw had been suspended, rendering the resolution’s passage invalid.

SUA follows Robert’s Rules of Order, a notoriously complicated set of governing practices used to make decisions. The legality of motioning to suspend a bylaw and was one point of contest regarding Umer’s decision. SJP maintained that the resolution should be valid, according to the details of the bylaw.

SUA president Julie Foster said she felt both sides had the opportunity to voice their concerns in this week’s meeting, but either might feel like they hadn’t finished expressing their full thoughts.

“That’s the flaw of Robert’s Rules and parliamentary procedure,” Foster said. “They are designed for us to take action and not to have a facilitated discussion. SUA’s responsibility is to take action. People [were able to] voice their concerns at the senate meetings.”

After SJP presented the appeal last week, the decision was tabled to this week’s meeting. In the meantime SUA representatives discussed the appeal in their respective college senate meetings and SJP representatives attended some to answer questions. After the appeal passed, SJP members Camellia Boutros and Melissa Otero said despite people pushing the conversation toward divestment and away from the legality of Umer’s decision, there’s an overwhelming relief after the resolution’s passage.

“It’s really good SUA was so concerned about democratic process, because that’s really important and it’s important to know there is due process at this school,” Boutros said.

Five of the six elected SUA officers voted to pass the appeal.

During heated parts of the discussion, more than 20 students would be on stack to comment but when a motion was made it had to be voted on, and the stack discontinued. “Call to questions” were frequently made to claim repeated back-and-forth argument. SUA’s community agreements allow for “points of privilege” to include allowing people to educate others on using inclusive language or voicing that they were offended by certain arguments. Those take precedent over people on stack, and raise issues regarding personal concerns of members and attendees.

“As for the space, I feel like many students were incredibly silenced throughout the meeting last night, from all sides of the appeal,” said elected Stevenson College representative Daniel Bernstein in an email. “The use of the ‘call to question’ was taken advantage of and utilized as a means to cease conversation on important issues.”

Fellow Stevenson College representative Gema Rodriguez said she believes divestment isn’t even a resolution SUA should consider.

“My understanding of the SUA is that we are a body of students elected to represent our college and eventually the student body as a whole,” Rodriguez said in an email. “I believe that by voting in the matter of divestment we are neglecting and oppressing bodies, because there will never be a situation in which both parties are satisfied when it comes to a yes/no vote.”

In the beginning of its presentation, SFI suggested the idea of a neutral, third-party judiciary committee to review the appeal. Foster said creating the committee would be a long process, since it would require the creation of a new bylaw, but also that even a third-party committee might struggle to remain neutral.

During SFI and SJP’s presentations, both organizations said they would feel unsafe if the vote did not go in their favor. SFI pointed to anti-Semitic incidents on campus and UC-wide, and said at universities where BDS [boycott, divestment and sanction] resolutions have passed, Jewish students have felt more unsafe. SJP discussed incidents at events on campus last year, like its mock Israeli military checkpoints around campus, where they said its members were threatened.

In a letter from Chancellor George Blumenthal dated May 20, 2014, he wrote that USRIR “may create an environment in which some of our Jewish students feel alienated and less welcome on our campus.” The letter, which was part of SFI’s presentation, marked another controversial point of the meeting since some SUA members who were on the assembly two years ago said they had never seen it. Scott Hernandez-Jason, UCSC’s news and media director, confirmed the letter’s validity after the meeting.

During the meeting SJP member Boian Boianov said the reason the appeal is so controversial is because it makes powerful people, like administrators and regents, feel uncomfortable.

“If you would have voted for this appeal if it was anything else besides divestment, you’re doing the same thing [former SUA Chair Shaz Umer] did,” SJP member Katherine Berjikian said in the meeting. “You’re saying that there are two sets of bylaws and two sets of rules — one for controversial things and one for non controversial things. You’re saying that the SUA bylaws exists vaguely and only for things that don’t matter. This really does matter.”

Stevenson College SUA representatives said they will discuss their next steps during their senate meeting this week. Their main option to overturn this decision would be to propose a new resolution that nullifies USRIR, which would have to pass through SUA.

Posted in: Activism, News Tagged: bds, divestment, uc santa cruz

UC SJPs Issue Position Paper on UC Regents’ Proposed “Statement of Principles Against Intolerance”

December 5, 2015 by sjpwest

UC SJP Position Paper on Regents’ Statement of Principles Against Intolerance

Posted in: News Tagged: anti-semitism, intolerance, racism, regents, statement

Students for Justice in Palestine at San Jose State University Celebrates Passage of Divestment Resolution

November 21, 2015 by sjpwest

sjsu divest

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 18, 2015

San Jose State University Students Pass Resolution to Divest from Corporations that profit from the Israeli Occupation.

On Wednesday November 18, 2015, San Jose State University became the first California State University to pass a student government resolution to divest from companies complicit in the Israeli occupation of Palestine. This was achieved in a 10-5-0 vote (10 yes, 5 no, 0 abstained)

During the hearing, Students for Justice in Palestine, the Black Student Union, Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (Chicano Student Movement of Aztlan), and other student organizations stood in solidarity with the black students of the University of
Missouri by raising their fists in the black power salute during the pledge of allegiance.

The Associated Students resolution calls on the Board of Directors of the Tower Foundation to remove San Jose State University’s holdings from four companies that play an active role in the human rights violations committed by the Israeli Government in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. This resolution is endorsed by 28 organizations, the vast majority of which are student organizations of diverse backgrounds. The first corporation mentioned in the resolution, Caterpillar, is responsible for supplying Israel with D9 bulldozers that are used by the governing regime to demolish Palestinian homes and violate human in rights in the occupied Palestinian Territories.

The second corporation mentioned in the resolution, Motorola Solutions, services the “MotoEagle Surveillance System” which is used by Israel to control Palestinian movement in vast “special security zones” which surround illegal Israeli settlements. Israel bans Palestinians from entering these areas, even if Palestinians own them, which in effect, confiscates land from Palestinians. Israel has implemented this system in over 20 illegal Israeli settlements, and has implemented this system at the illegal separation wall.

The third corporation mentioned in the resolution, Hewlett Packard, owns EDS Israel; which is a company that provides the Israeli ministry of defense with the Basel system. The Basel System is an automated biometric access control system, which includes a permit system for Palestinian workers, with hand and facial recognition, installed in checkpoints in the Occupied West Bank.

The fourth corporation mentioned, G4S, provides security services to businesses in the illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. G4S has also provided full body scanners and luggage scanning equipment to various checkpoints throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The checkpoints in Qalandia and Bethlehem help sustain the illegal Israeli Annexation of Jerusalem.

The Associated Students of San Jose State University demands that the Board of Directors of the Tower Foundation end its complicity in human rights violations by divesting from the above companies that are complicit in the Israeli occupation of the occupied Palestinian territories. Students for Justice in Palestine would like to thank interim President Susan Martin and the rest of the San Jose State University administration for acknowledging the concerns of the student body and respecting the student’s right to freedom of speech and the discussion of thought provoking issues on the San Jose State University campus.

Students for Justice in Palestine, San Jose State University

Read the full resolution here.

Posted in: Activism, News Tagged: california state university, divestment, san jose state university, sjsu
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