Activism

Initiatives by SJP West and member groups

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

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

 

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

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

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.

 

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

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.

 

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

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.

 

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

 

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.