ucsa

Palestinian students welcome UCSA resolution condemning California Assembly Bill HR 35

Palestinian Students’ Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PSCABI) in the Gaza Strip welcomes a resolution passed by the University of California Student Association (UCSA), representing students of all 10 UC campuses, that reaffirms the right of its members to organize in support of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel, being this the nonviolent tactic chosen by Palestinians to gain their inalienable rights, including the right to self-determination, denied by Israel for over 60 years.[1] The UCSA resolution condemns Bill HR 35, passed in the California State Assembly, that calls on the university authorities to curb student action in opposition to Israel’s three-tiered system of occupation, colonization and apartheid.[2] Bill HR 35 is a reaction to the growing effectiveness of the BDS movement around the world in holding Israel accountable and its ability to expose the true nature of Israel’s oppression of Palestinians that run contrary to the narrative of Israel disseminated for decades in the US. To blur honest debate, pro-Israel lobby groups have resorted to smear tactics and intimidation to misrepresent the intentions of Palestine solidarity activists and to “lawfare”- a form of legal harassment – to stifle freedom of speech guaranteed under First Amendment rights.[3]

The UCSA motion “encourages all institutions of higher learning to cleanse their investment portfolios of unethical investments in companies implicated in or profiting from violations of international human rights law.” UC students have been among the most vocal in calling on their administration to divest funds from companies that actively enable Israel’s occupation. In 2010, UC Berkeley students ran a high-profile divestment campaign on campus that showed through moving testimonies the consequences of UC’s investment in companies that are directly responsible for human rights abuses against Palestinians, a debate which found national projection and fostered much needed debate in the US.[4] UC-wide divestment targets include Caterpillar Inc., supplier to the Israeli army of bulldozers used to destroy Palestinian homes, a war crime under the IV Geneva Convention[5]; and Hewlett Packgard, supplier of biometric monitoring systems to Israeli military checkpoints inside the occupied West Bank and technological solutions to Israel’s army and illegal colonial settlements, contributing to the caging of Palestinians in fragmented ghettos.[6]

In 2005 Palestinian civil society called on people of conscience around the world to implement Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) of Israel owing to decades of impunity and the failure of states to hold Israel accountable for persistent violations of international law. The global movement that from there emanated aims to reinstate in full the inalienable rights of Palestinians inspired by the belief in universal values which by definition rejects all forms of racism, including anti-Semitism. Students around the world have responded to the Palestinian BDS call with divestment campaigns to end all forms of complicit with Israel’s violations of international law. This mode of campus activism in US campuses is not new and is inspired by previous student struggles in support of equality, justice and human rights, among them the South African anti-Apartheid movement in which UC students played an important role.

As the South African Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu noted, students campaigning for divestment from Israel “are doing that which is incumbent on them as humans who believe that all people have dignity and rights, and that all those being denied their dignity and rights deserve the solidarity of their fellow human beings.”[7] Echoing Tutu’s words, PSCABI salutes UC students efforts to bring the BDS debate to your campuses as an expression of principled solidarity with Palestinians and we look forward to more inspiring campaigns to end UC’s complicity with Israel’s protracted occupation.

[1] http://calsjp.org/?p=1297

[2] http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml;jsessionid=d4df7d3510900146efbbc88f1045?bill_id=201120120HR35

[3] http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/blow-zionist-censors-california-backs-professors-right-call-israel-boycott-state

[4] http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2010-04-15/article/35024?headline=No-Final-Decision-on-UC-Berkeley-Israel-Divestment-Bill-after-Marathon-Meeting–By-Riya-Bhattacharjee-

[5] http://www.bdsmovement.net/2012/israel-cited-in-caterpillars-delisting-from-influential-investment-index-9168

[6]  http://www.whoprofits.org/HP

 

Angela Davis writes in support of UC Students Association

Angela Davis: Dismissal of Palestinians is reminiscent of Jim Crow days

In my home state of California, elected officials have gone so far as to encourage the violation of First Amendment rights in order to control opposition to Israel. Largely in response to University of California students’ support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel, state legislators recently passed an Assembly Bill (HR 35) that, while unbinding, calls upon campus authorities to restrict student activism that is critical of Israel.

Such desperate measures implicitly proclaim that curbing criticism of Israel is more important than safeguarding constitutional rights. Perhaps those who support these measures fear the increasingly widespread use of the “apartheid” label to describe Israel, employed not only by students but also by such prominent figures as President Jimmy Carter and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

If they fear the emergence of a new anti-apartheid movement, this time directed against Israel, they may very well be correct. The boycott movement is rapidly gaining support: This past spring, the eighth annual Israeli Apartheid Week was observed on campuses in South Africa and throughout Europe, North America and the Arab World.

Shortly after the passage of HR 35, the University of California Student Association passed a strong resolution that not only opposed HR 35 but recognized “the legitimacy of boycotts and divestment as important social movement tools” and encouraged “all institutions of higher learning to cleanse their investment portfolios of unethical investment in companies implicated in or profiting from violations of international human rights law, without making special exemptions for any country.”

We here in the U.S. should be especially conscious of the similarities between historical Jim Crow practices and contemporary regimes of segregation in Occupied Palestine. If we have learned the most important lesson promulgated by Dr. Martin Luther King — that justice is always indivisible — it should be clear that a mass movement in solidarity with Palestinian freedom is long overdue.

Jewish students support UCSA vote on HR 35

by Isabel Sausjord

Original at the Daily Cal

In the wake of the UC Student Association’s decision to take a stance for free speech and the human rights of Palestinians and all people, I was disappointed by the Daily Cal’s decision to publish three opinion pieces decrying this as an attack on the Jewish community. As a Jewish student who advocates for justice for Palestinians, I was frustrated by these portrayals that ignored my existence and mischaracterized the ideals I stand for.

Anti-Semitism should never be condoned. But HR-35, a resolution passed by the California legislature, was absolutely wrong to conflate anti-Semitic hatred with the pro-Palestinian human rights movement. Not only incorrect, HR-35 encourages the silencing of pro-Palestinian voices, chilling our attempts to educate about and advocate against Israel’s racism and human rights abuses toward Palestinians. The UCSA, with input from two UC Berkeley students including a Jewish Israeli, rejected this silencing and affirmed the need for the university’s investments to reflect its values.

I, along with several other Jewish students I know at Cal, was thrilled by the UCSA decision. The self-designated “leaders of the Jewish community” do not speak for us when they defend Israel’s occupation and human rights violations and support attempts to silence pro-Palestinian activists. The Jewish community is not a monolith, and we don’t have to be loyal to the government of Israel no matter what it does. Many of us, as throughout history, see the struggle for justice and human rights for all as a fundamental part of our Jewish identity.

Previous op-eds on the UCSA decision lament that the issue of divestment — removal of university funds from companies complicit in Israeli human rights violations — is “divisive.” I am also disappointed that this issue is so divisive. But not because disagreement on an issue should be silenced, rather the fact that support of human rights should not be contentious. It should be a no-brainer to support human rights of Palestinians, and to instead prioritize defending Israel’s government from criticism, no matter what it does, is profoundly anti-human.

The claim that advocates of BDS are unfairly singling out Israel is wrong. I and other pro-Palestinian advocates care deeply about human rights across the world. We organize around the rights of Palestinians in large part because of the U.S.’s close military and economic ties to Israel — consider that the U.S. finances Israel’s military on the order of $3 billion dollars per year — mean that Americans are involved in its human rights violations, and that we also have a great potential to effect change. As we help build the movement for boycott, divestment, and sanctions, we can create the pressure necessary to force Israel to end its injustices against Palestinians, much as a similar movement a few decades ago forced the South African government to cease its apartheid policies.

In the 1980s, UC Berkeley students voted to divest from South African apartheid. It’s time to be on the right side of history again. We have to prioritize our commitment to justice and humanity over loyalty to any government, including Israel. Jewish students are part of the coalition across UC and across the world fighting for equality and dignity for Palestinians, and this UCSA decision is an important victory in our struggle.

Isabel Sausjord is a sophomore at UC Berkeley.

Full text of Landmark UCSA Decision 9/15/2012

A Resolution Regarding California Assembly Bill HR 35

Approved by the University of California Student Association,

9/15/2012 (12 for, 2 abstain, 0 against)

WHEREAS a marketplace of ideas where no political speech is suppressed is crucial to a healthy democratic process, AND

WHEREAS universities are important traditional centers of free speech and academic freedom. AND

WHEREAS students and student organizations, motivated by belief in human rights, justice and equality, and who exercise their First Amendment rights to criticize Israeli policies are a welcome addition to campus dialogue and debate. AND

WHEREAS HR 35, introduced in the California State Assembly, calls upon public postsecondary educational institutions in California to directly suppress legitimate criticism of Israeli policy and Palestine solidarity activism, and stifles robust political debate on public university campuses1. AND

WHEREAS HR 35 calls upon public postsecondary educational institutions in California to increase efforts to swiftly and unequivocally condemn student and faculty sponsored divestment, and sanction campaigns against Israel and those companies supporting Israel’s Human rights violations.2 AND

WHEREAS Boycotts, divestment and sanction campaigns are a recognized form of free speech protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution. AND

WHEREAS HR 35 constitutes a serious attack on academic freedom and the rights of students and faculty to raise awareness about human rights abuses by US-backed governments3 AND

WHEREAS While HR 35 is a non-binding resolution, the resolution may embolden university administrators to explicitly curb freedom of expression, as has already been advocated by the recent campus climate report commissioned by UC President Mark Yudof.4 AND

WHEREAS While HR 35 purports to oppose anti-Semitism, much of HR 35 is written to unfairly and falsely smear as “anti-Semites” those who do human rights advocacy focusing on Israel’s illegal occupation, alleging that the UC faculty and staff involved in such work are motivated by anti-Semitism5 rather than by the political ideals of equality and respect for universal human rights they affirm, ideals UCSA and most California students share. AND

WHEREAS organizations and student governments on campuses throughout the UC system have passed resolutions and been involved in actions critiquing and responding to Israeli policies, and this demonstrated campus unity refutes claims that these actions are motivated by anti-Semitism6 AND

WHEREAS The misuse of terms like anti-Semitism does a disservice not only to those falsely smeared but also to the legacy of anti-Semitic racism and actual victims of anti-Semitism. AND

WHEREAS HR 35 reflects a complete ignorance of the wealth of scholarship and legal opinion (important pieces of it coming from scholars at the UC) affirming the applicability of terms such as racism and Apartheid in the context of Israeli policies.7

BE IT RESOLVED that the UCSA President will issue a letter to the Assembly and UC Regents in strong opposition to HR 35 and expressing the UCSA’s opposition to all racism, whether it be the racism of campus and global anti-Semitism or the racism of Israel’s human rights violations, neither of which our campuses should tolerate, support, or profit from.

BE IT RESOLVED that the UCSA recognizes the legitimacy of boycotts and divestment as important social movement tools, and encourages all institutions of higher learning to cleanse their investment portfolios of unethical investments in companies implicated in or profiting from violations of international human rights law, without making special exemptions for any country;

BE IT RESOLVED that the UCSA supports free speech on campus, including criticisms and critiques of foreign governments,

BE IT RESOLVED that the UCSA recognizes HR35 as one in a series of attempts to stifle legitimate speech by UC students by falsely conflating speech critical of Israeli policies with anti-Semitism.

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http://calsjp.org/?p=1297