Click to enlarge image.
Click to enlarge image.
Click to enlarge image.
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Thursday, April 5, 2012
"MichiganBDS invites all students to join us in demanding the University not serve as an accomplice to apartheid in Israel."
Viewpoint:
"Boycott, Divest and Sanctions"
BY ABBAS ALAWIEH, BAYAN FOUNAS, AND AHMED HASAN
"Boycott, Divest and Sanctions"
BY ABBAS ALAWIEH, BAYAN FOUNAS, AND AHMED HASAN
MICHIGAN DAILY
(University of Michigan, Ann Arbor campus)
April 6, 2011
At: http://michigandaily.com/opinion/viewpoint-divest-israel
As we write this piece, more than 5,300 Palestinians are imprisoned in Israeli jails. Zero Israelis are imprisoned in Palestinian jails. A total of 24,813 Palestinian homes have been demolished by Israel since 1967.
Zero Israeli homes have been demolished by Palestinians since then. Some 172 Jewish-only settlements and 101 “outposts” have been erected on confiscated Palestinian land.
Zero Palestinian settlements exist on any Israeli land. These facts and many like them make clear that what is happening in Israel and the Palestinian territories is not simply a “conflict.”
It’s a decades-long colonial campaign led by the Israeli military that aims to disenfranchise the indigenous race and to purify the land of non-Jews by implementing an apartheid system.
MichiganBDS is a new student organization that is dedicated to the philosophy that students have the power to help end apartheid in Israel and the Palestinian territories. This power is derived from our ability to hold our University accountable for its complicit role in injustice: Our University invests in corporations — such as weapons manufacturers Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, among many others — that profit off the injustices in the Middle East.
Our initiative does this by bringing together a diverse group of student activists dedicated to responding to the 2005 global call by Palestinian civil society for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions.
BDS is defined by a rights-based approach that aims to launch broad boycotts, implement divestment initiatives and demand sanctions against the Israeli government until it meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination and until it meets its obligations by:
1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands occupied in June 1967 and dismantling the wall separating the Palestinian territories.
2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality.
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN Resolution 194.
MichiganBDS is not concerned with implementing a particular state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian impasse.
We are rights activists who focus on pressuring the Israeli and American governments — since America gives $8 million per day in military aid to Israel — to end racist practices that deny the rights of Palestinian refugees, of Palestinians in Israel proper and of Palestinians in the occupied territories.
For example, Jewish-only roads and illegal Israeli checkpoints are located throughout the West Bank — restricting Palestinian movement and freedom.
Humiliated, Palestinians must routinely wait hours for access through these checkpoints as they attempt to live their daily lives. Furthermore, Palestinians within Israel are treated as second-class citizens. Israel has more than 30 main laws that both directly and indirectly discriminate against their Palestinian citizens. One law passed explicitly outlaws citizenship to non-Israeli non-Jews who marry Jews.
These realities are too reminiscent of the institutionalized racism that existed in South Africa, the United States and elsewhere in the world not too long ago., The inspiration for BDS as a tool for resisting the racist policies of the Israeli state comes from the victory of the South African anti-apartheid movement’s boycott call, which pressured firms that profited from the South African apartheid regime. The movement empowered masses in the United States and elsewhere to demand that institutions boycott the apartheid regime.
University students were at the forefront of that struggle and have long been committed to divestment as a legitimate method for ensuring that our University is not complicit in injustice. In 1978, a group of students successfully convinced the Board of Regents to withdraw its deposits from and discontinue purchasing short-term money market instruments from banks who dealt with the racist South African regime. This momentous success gives us hope that one day the University will divest from the racist practices of the Israeli government as well.
MichiganBDS invites all students to join us in demanding the University not serve as an accomplice to apartheid in Israel.
Our University needs to divest from companies that profit off selling equipment to the Israeli government that is used to oppress Palestinians. We have a moral obligation to demand that our University divests from socially irresponsible companies. MichiganBDS will work tirelessly to make that happen.
*******************************************
April 6, 2011
At: http://michigandaily.com/opinion/viewpoint-divest-israel
As we write this piece, more than 5,300 Palestinians are imprisoned in Israeli jails. Zero Israelis are imprisoned in Palestinian jails. A total of 24,813 Palestinian homes have been demolished by Israel since 1967.
Zero Israeli homes have been demolished by Palestinians since then. Some 172 Jewish-only settlements and 101 “outposts” have been erected on confiscated Palestinian land.
Zero Palestinian settlements exist on any Israeli land. These facts and many like them make clear that what is happening in Israel and the Palestinian territories is not simply a “conflict.”
It’s a decades-long colonial campaign led by the Israeli military that aims to disenfranchise the indigenous race and to purify the land of non-Jews by implementing an apartheid system.
MichiganBDS is a new student organization that is dedicated to the philosophy that students have the power to help end apartheid in Israel and the Palestinian territories. This power is derived from our ability to hold our University accountable for its complicit role in injustice: Our University invests in corporations — such as weapons manufacturers Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, among many others — that profit off the injustices in the Middle East.
Our initiative does this by bringing together a diverse group of student activists dedicated to responding to the 2005 global call by Palestinian civil society for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions.
BDS is defined by a rights-based approach that aims to launch broad boycotts, implement divestment initiatives and demand sanctions against the Israeli government until it meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination and until it meets its obligations by:
1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands occupied in June 1967 and dismantling the wall separating the Palestinian territories.
2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality.
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN Resolution 194.
MichiganBDS is not concerned with implementing a particular state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian impasse.
We are rights activists who focus on pressuring the Israeli and American governments — since America gives $8 million per day in military aid to Israel — to end racist practices that deny the rights of Palestinian refugees, of Palestinians in Israel proper and of Palestinians in the occupied territories.
For example, Jewish-only roads and illegal Israeli checkpoints are located throughout the West Bank — restricting Palestinian movement and freedom.
Humiliated, Palestinians must routinely wait hours for access through these checkpoints as they attempt to live their daily lives. Furthermore, Palestinians within Israel are treated as second-class citizens. Israel has more than 30 main laws that both directly and indirectly discriminate against their Palestinian citizens. One law passed explicitly outlaws citizenship to non-Israeli non-Jews who marry Jews.
These realities are too reminiscent of the institutionalized racism that existed in South Africa, the United States and elsewhere in the world not too long ago., The inspiration for BDS as a tool for resisting the racist policies of the Israeli state comes from the victory of the South African anti-apartheid movement’s boycott call, which pressured firms that profited from the South African apartheid regime. The movement empowered masses in the United States and elsewhere to demand that institutions boycott the apartheid regime.
University students were at the forefront of that struggle and have long been committed to divestment as a legitimate method for ensuring that our University is not complicit in injustice. In 1978, a group of students successfully convinced the Board of Regents to withdraw its deposits from and discontinue purchasing short-term money market instruments from banks who dealt with the racist South African regime. This momentous success gives us hope that one day the University will divest from the racist practices of the Israeli government as well.
MichiganBDS invites all students to join us in demanding the University not serve as an accomplice to apartheid in Israel.
Our University needs to divest from companies that profit off selling equipment to the Israeli government that is used to oppress Palestinians. We have a moral obligation to demand that our University divests from socially irresponsible companies. MichiganBDS will work tirelessly to make that happen.
*******************************************
, more than 5,300 Palestinians are imprisoned in Israeli jails. Zero Israelis are imprisoned in Palestinian jails. A total of 24,813 Palestinian homes have been demolished by Israel since 1967. Zero Israeli homes have been demolished by Palestinians since then. Some 172 Jewish-only settlements and 101 “outposts” have been erected on confiscated Palestinian land. Zero Palestinian settlements exist on any Israeli land. These facts and many like them make clear that what is happening in Israel and the Palestinian territories is not simply a “conflict.” It’s a decades-long colonial campaign led by the Israeli military that aims to disenfranchise the indigenous race and to purify the land of non-Jews by implementing an apartheid system.dicated to the philosophy that students have the power to help end apartheid in Israel and the Palestinian territories. This power is derived from our ability to hold our University accountable for its complicit role in injustice: Our University invests in corporations — such as weapons manufacturers Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, among many others — that profit off the injustices in the Middle East. Our initiative does this by bringing together a diverse group of student activists dedicated to responding to the 2005 global call by Palestinian civil society for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions. BDS is defined by a rights-based approach that aims to launch broad boycotts, implement divestment initiatives and demand sanctions against the Israeli government until it meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination and until it meets its obligations by:d dismantling the wall separating the Palestinian territories.oting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN Resolution 194.on to the Israeli-Palestinian impasse. We are rights activists who focus on pressuring the Israeli and American governments — since America gives $8 million per day in military aid to Israel — to end racist practices that deny the rights of Palestinian refugees, of Palestinians in Israel proper and of Palestinians in the occupied territories. For example, Jewish-only roads and illegal Israeli checkpoints are located throughout the West Bank — restricting Palestinian movement and freedom. Humiliated, Palestinians must routinely wait hours for access through these checkpoints as they attempt to live their daily lives. Furthermore, Palestinians within Israel are treated as second-class citizens. Israel has more than 30 main laws that both directly and indirectly discriminate against their Palestinian citizens. One law passed explicitly outlaws citizenship to non-Israeli non-Jews who marry Jews. These realities are too reminiscent of the institutionalized racism that existed in South Africa, the United States and elsewhere in the world not too long ago.*********************
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
"...Carleton University students pass Israel occupation divestment resolution by large margin"
Video on YouTube at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xke7SiXjFP4
________________________________________
"In Canadian first, Carleton University students pass Israel occupation divestment resolution by large margin"
Source: Electronic Intifadah, at: http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/world-first-carleton-university-students-pass-israel-occupation-divestment
Graduate students at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada have overwhelmingly voted for divestment from companies profiting from Israeli occupation and human rights abuses.
The referendum win is almost certainly Canada’s first such result, and only the second time in the world such a resolution has been passed by a student body-wide vote.
Elections for the Carleton University Graduate Students Association (GSA), a local of the Canadian Federation of Students, included the following referendum question:
"In Canadian first, Carleton University students pass Israel occupation divestment resolution by large margin"
Source: Electronic Intifadah, at: http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/world-first-carleton-university-students-pass-israel-occupation-divestment
Graduate students at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada have overwhelmingly voted for divestment from companies profiting from Israeli occupation and human rights abuses.
The referendum win is almost certainly Canada’s first such result, and only the second time in the world such a resolution has been passed by a student body-wide vote.
Elections for the Carleton University Graduate Students Association (GSA), a local of the Canadian Federation of Students, included the following referendum question:
"Do you support Carleton University adopting a binding socially responsible investment policy that would require it to divest from companies complicit in illegal military occupations and other violations of international law, including but not limited to: BAE Systems, Motorola, Northrop-Grumman, and Tesco Supermarkets?"
The question passed by 204 “yes” votes to 77 “no” votes, or by 72% of valid votes cast according to the results posted on the Graduate Student Association’s website. The election results must be ratified by the GSA in April.
A major milestone
Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) at Carleton University hailed the result as a major milestone for their campaign in a statement posted online:
"It is one of many results of nearly four years of intensive campaigning by SAIA. The graduate students’ will to divest adds further strength to SAIA’s growing divestment campaign, which consists of 2500+ petition signatories and the endorsements of over 25 student clubs, academic workers’ unions, and university service centres in an expanding student movement across campus."
The statement also said it was a world first however that distinction belongs to Evergreen State College, whose students passed divestment resolutions in a June 2010 referendum.
Nonetheless, the Carleton vote is almost certainly the first such result in Canada.
The statement noted that SAIA was formed in 2008 in response to the Palestinian civil society call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel. SAIA is working to get the Carleton University administration to divest the institution’s pension funds from firms complicit in Israeli occupation and human rights abuses.
The Carleton vote is a another milestone in divestment activist in Canada. In February the University of Regina Student Union passed a resolution supporting divestment.
Administration resists
A video released by Carleton SAIA campaigning for divestment explains that an ethical divestment policy will be beneficial not only for Palestinians, but to oppose other human rights abuses around the world.
However, the SAIA statement, noted:
"Although Carleton’s administration has shown little interest in divesting from the aforementioned companies or in adopting a binding mechanism to prevent unethical investments in companies that violate international law, students have spoken out and grad students have voted explicitly in favor of divestment."
In 1988, according to the statement, “the Carleton Anti-Apartheid Action Group forced the university to divest from South African apartheid.”
****************************************************
Sunday, April 1, 2012
Boycott "Israel" -- Protest at Ann Arbor City Council
Boycott "Israel" --
Photo from a Protest at Ann Arbor City Council
___________________________________
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
