Berkeley student government approves divestment against Israel.The vote was 16-4.

"ASUC Bill Opposes UC Investment in Israel"

Full article in the "Daily Californian" at:

http://www.dailycal.org/article/108743/asuc_bill_opposes_uc_investment_in_israel

March 18, 2010

By Allie Bidwell
Contributing Writer

The ASUC Senate considered a bill Wednesday night urging the University of California to divest from companies who have supplied the state of Israel with materials used in alleged war crimes.

A final vote, not available as of press time, was expected to be close, and numerous supporters both for and against the bill came to the meeting to voice their opinions. While proponents said the bill is the first step in an expected long-term process to convince the UC Board of Regents to pull total investments of about $135 million from five companies currently supplying Israel with electronics and weapons, opponents contended it unfairly targets Israel.

According to graduate student Emiliano Huet-Vaughn, a member of Students for Justice in Palestine who co-authored the bill, companies such as Hewlett-Packard and General Electric are supplying Israel with the technology necessary to allegedly attack civilian populations in Lebanon, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

"Investments in companies militarily and materially helping to support war crimes and helping support systemic long-standing violations of human rights should not be companies the university supports," he said...

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Comments:

Oh my god!

That's amazing! It was the UC's divestment from South Africa that got the ball rolling to end apartheid...this is just so wonderful!

Carl Randall

it passed 16-4

plenty of amendments, but still a bill that divides the campus and isn't good at representing the ideals of the student body

Russell Bates

having just returned home after being at the meeting for over 3 hours.i was impressed by the turnout and particularly impressed with the comments of pro-palestinian israeli jews and american jews who were there..they stuck and continue to stick their necks out in order to relate to the suffering of the people of palestine.all the folks there in favor of the bill struck me as reasonable and sane versus the indoctination of the pro-israeli wackos there who brought out all the worn-out lies of 'the only democracy in the middle-east',palestinians use human shields,they only want peace(piece of west bank,gaza,syria,lebanon,etc.).the folks of sjp make me think and with enough thinking,people can make peace WITHOUT government interference and political games.maybe this is the year.maybe

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