stanford

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

Stanford Student Senate Votes to Divest from Occupation of Palestine

For Immediate Release
February 18, 2015

Press Contacts: EKela Autry eautry@stanford.edu; Sherif Ibrahim sherif10@stanford.edu

STANFORD, Calif. – On February 17, the Undergraduate Senate of Stanford University voted 10-1-4 to pass a resolution to divest from the occupation of the Palestinian Territories. The resolution, entitled A Resolution to Divest from Companies Violating Human Rights in Occupied Palestine, calls on Stanford to stop investing in multinational corporations facilitating human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

The Senate Chair and Senate Deputy Chair motioned to reconsider the resolution after it was narrowly defeated by one vote last week (9 for, 1 abstention, 5 against). The senators stated that the hostile environment opponents of divestment created at last week’s hearing impeded their ability to vote with clarity and requested the opportunity to align their votes with their true opinions. In the original vote, the two senators had respectively abstained and voted no. After their motion to reconsider passed in Tuesday’s hearing, they changed their votes to a ‘yes’ and ‘abstain.’ The re-vote followed a two hour-long hearing and ended in a historic vote in favor of divestment with 10 senators voting in support, one abstention, and 4 against.

Organizers of the campaign were surprised that the Senate decided to vote on the resolution again and expressed excitement about the Senate vote.

“After months of hard work, it is gratifying to witness the Senate answer our call and affirm our efforts towards divestment.” said sophomore Ramah Awad. “Our next step is to pressure the Board of Trustees to follow through. We ask the Board and President Hennessy directly: ‘Are you going to listen to the student voice?’”

Another student expressed support for the senators who decided to reconsider their vote.

“Students from the campaign against divestment have written us acknowledging their ‘hateful and spiteful’ behavior during last week’s hearing,” said senior Manny Thompson. “We appreciate that the Chair and Deputy Chair spoke up about how they felt intimidated to vote their conscience and that the Senate ultimately reaffirmed its majority support for divestment.”

The resolution focuses on multinational corporations and identifies multiple actors as being complicit in the violations against Palestinians living under occupation, including the governments of Israel, Egypt, Hamas, and the Palestinian Authority. The resolution states that the Undergraduate Senate is not connected to the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement and affirms both Israelis and Palestinians’ rights to life, safety, and self-determination.

The resolution was brought forth by the Stanford Out of Occupied Palestine (SOOP) coalition. The diverse coalition consists of 19 student groups including the Black Student Union, MEChA, and Stanford Students for Queer Liberation. The resolution called on the University to evaluate its investments and divest from companies fitting the following criteria:

  1. Maintaining the illegal infrastructure of the Israeli occupation, in particular settlements and separation wall.
  2. Facilitating Israel and Egypt’s collective punishment of Palestinian civilians.
  3. Facilitating state repression against Palestinians by Israeli, Egyptian or Palestinian Authority security forces.

Stanford Out of Occupied Palestine came together in pursuit of selective divestment as a response to the call from Palestinian civil society to exert economic pressure to end to the violations of their basic human rights.  Over the course of seven weeks SOOP’s campaign gathered immense student support; over 1,600 Stanford students signed SOOP’s petition.

With tonight’s vote, Stanford joins a growing number of student governments–most notably the University of California Student Association–in responding to a call from Palestinian society for divestment. After this vote, SOOP will work with Senators to pressure the Board of Trustees to divest from the violation of Palestinian human rights.

“As a student in the movement, I look forward to continuously engaging the campus in this conversation,” said junior Natasha Patel, “We are not done uplifting the call of Palestinian peoples nor are we finished pushing our University to conduct an ethical review of its investments.”

Stanford Divestment Resolution Achieves 9-5 Majority; Campaign Pushes on Despite Lack of Supermajority

Original Link: http://www.soopalestine.org/updates/stanford-divestment-resolution-achieves-9-5-majority-campaign-pushes-on-despite-lack-of-supermajority

For Immediate Release
Press Contacts: EKela Autry eautry@stanford.edu; Sherif Ibrahim sherif10@stanford.edu

STANFORD, Calif. – The Undergraduate Senate of Stanford University just voted on a resolution to divest from the occupation of the Palestinian Territories. The resolution, entitled A Resolution to Divest from Companies Violating Human Rights in Occupied Palestine, called on the University to divest from multinational corporations facilitating human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian territories. The vote followed a four-hour long Senate hearing and ended with 9 senators voting yes, 5 voting no, and one abstention.

“Stanford Out of Occupied Palestine commends university senators who voted in favor of the divestment resolution and aptly represented their constituents,” said EKela Autry. “As members of Stanford community, we are proud to be in solidarity with the Palestinian people. We resolve to continue our commitment to justice as a vehicle for peace. No rest ‘till we divest!”

“It was a victory that a majority of the Senate supported the text of the resolution,” said Manny Thompson. “This is indicative that the conversation around the occupation of Palestine is shifting, something we’ve witnessed in our monthss of campus work.”

The resolution focused on multinational corporations and identifies multiple actors as being complicit in the violations against Palestinians living under occupation, including the governments of Israel, Egypt, Hamas, and the Palestinian Authority. The resolution stated that the Undergraduate Senate is not connected to the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. The resolution affirmed both Israelis and Palestinians’ rights to life, safety, and self-determination.

“The senators’ internal discussion of the resolution preceding the vote was incredibly calm and reasoned,” said Sid Patel. “We applaud our senators for having such a nuanced conversation, recognizing that this issue is not black and white, and we appreciate that they took into account the perspectives of the entire community.”

On Tuesday evening, over 400 hundred Stanford students and affiliates gathered in the Tresidder Oak Room to witness the Undergraduate Senate vote on the divestment resolution brought forth by the Stanford Out of Occupied Palestine (SOOP) coalition. The diverse coalition consists of 19 student groups including the Black Student Union, MEChA, and Stanford Students for Queer Liberation. The resolution called on the University to evaluate its investments and divest from companies fitting the following criteria:

  1. Maintaining the illegal infrastructure of the Israeli occupation, in particular settlements and separation wall.
  2. Facilitating Israel and Egypt’s collective punishment of Palestinian civilians.
  3. Facilitating state repression against Palestinians by Israeli, Egyptian or Palestinian Authority security forces.

Stanford Out of Occupied Palestine came together in pursuit of selective divestment as an effective response to the call from Palestinian society for university students to exert pressure for an end to the violations of their basic human rights. Over the course of six weeks SOOP’s campaign gathered immense student support; over 1600 students signed SOOP’s petition and about 400 supporters gathered at Tuesday’s hearing.

Student organizers point to the growing number of student associations that have chosen to take a step towards ending their institutions’ complicity in the violation of Palestinian human rights. On Sunday, the University of California Student Association System voted in favor of two divestment resolutions calling for an end to the system’s investments in Palestinian suffering.

“The campus movement for Stanford to divest from companies complicit in the suffering of the Palestinian people will continue,” said Autry. “As long as Palestine is occupied, our work must continue.”

J Street head Jeremy Ben Ami writes to oppose Stanford Divestment

To the Student Government of Stanford University,

J Street strongly opposes the views and positions such as those captured at the Palestinian BDS National Committee’s website, www.bdsmovement.net. As laid out in that site, the BDS movement fails to explicitly to recognize Israel’s right to exist and it ignores or rejects Israel’s role as a national home for the Jewish people. In addition, the promotion by some in the BDS movement of the return to Israel of Palestinian refugees from 1948 and their families indicates support for an outcome incompatible with a two-state solution to the conflict.

J Street recognizes the legitimate and urgent concerns related to peace, justice and human rights that have motivated calls on college campuses and beyond to boycott certain Israeli products or divest from U.S. companies that support continuing Israeli policies of occupation and settlement expansion, or for governments to impose sanctions on Israel. We recognize that the sluggish pace of diplomatic progress toward a two-state solution motivates some of these efforts. However, the urgent need for peace will not be reached through alienation. J Street believes that a peace resolution will be reached through international, and more specifically regional, cooperation. Long-term progress will be achieved through diplomatic means, not isolation.

We oppose the occupation of the West Bank and the expansion and entrenchment of settlements there. We also oppose encroachment on Palestinian areas of East Jerusalem, which must be part of a future Palestinian capital if a two-state outcome is to be achieved.

J Street believes, however, that these legitimate concerns are best addressed through urgent pursuit and implementation of a two-state resolution to the conflict. A two-state resolution is, in our view, the only way for Israel to guarantee long-term international recognition and security.

For these reasons, J Street urges that you vote against the BDS resolution under consideration.

Sincerely,

Jeremy Ben-Ami