Activist groups: No funds for Israel

By Andrew Beale | DAILY LOBO
A group of students at UNM is following the University of California Berkeley’s trend by starting a “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions” campaign against Israel.

This means the removal of school funds from groups that make a profit in Israel, said Nada Noor, a spokeswoman for UNM’s Coalition for Peace and Justice in the Middle East.
“Our aim is not to target Israel for the sake of targeting Israel but rather target companies engaging in and profiting from illegal, destructive and inhumane behavior,” she said. “Unfortunately, this will take a lot more than a Google search to locate.”

UC Berkeley and UC San Diego students recently brought motions to their student senates, but both were ultimately shot down, Noor said.
“A senate vote in favor of a divestment resolution would be nice, but a silent vote in favor is less significant than a prolonged debate. If you think about it, that’s why UC Berkeley’s campaign was still a great success,” she said.

The group is working to investigate which companies that have contracts with UNM are profiting from illegal activities in Israel, Noor said. She said the wave of student movements from the campaign is similar to student movements against the South African apartheid.
“As we know, the BDS campaigns against South Africa’s apartheid system began with students at universities around the country,” she said.
Donald Gluck, president of the Israel Alliance at UNM, said he thinks protests that are aimed against Israel, such as movements for BDS, are inherently racist.

“What bothers us is it doesn’t seem like Israel behaves worse than other countries,” he said. “If Israel behaves just as well as Somalia, or better than them, how come they come down on Israel? Because Jews are there.”

Noor said her group is working for BDS against other countries that have committed human rights abuses.

“Other issues members are serious about include divestment from ongoing human rights violations in Sudan and China,” she said. “This should be applied to this particular issue as well as other human rights and environmental issues.”

Israel Alliance spokeswoman Lynn Provencio said a BDS campaign could end up hurting the people it’s trying to help.

“We think this is a bad deal from several directions. (The Palestinian) economy relies on the Israeli economy quite a bit, so if you harm Israel’s economy you’re not doing Palestine any good,” she said. “This isn’t a movement aimed at helping the Arabs. It’s aimed at hurting Israel.”

Marc Prowisor, who spoke at UNM last week and works with security projects in Israel, said the BDS movement is likely to hurt Palestinian residents of Israel.

“I think it’s ridiculous. … The more companies that are hurt, the people really getting hurt are the Arab residents,” he said. “People just don’t realize the reality there, because they don’t live it.”

The best solution to any conflict in Israel is “to understand the full dynamics. I’ve always gotten along with my Arab neighbors,” Prowisor said.

“There’s so many different parties involved. It’s classic Middle East. There are parties that want to live in peace, and there are parties that simply don’t,” he said. “People prefer war to peace. It’s more profitable, I guess.”

The campaign won’t have any serious effect on Israel’s economy, Noor said.

“The goal of BDS was never to change Israel’s behavior or policies,” she said. “In fact, even a decent BDS campaign is unlikely to exert any economic pressure on Israel at all.”

That doesn’t mean the campaign is worthless, Noor said, because it still gets people to talk about the issue.

“It sheds light on the direct relationship we have with the Palestinian/Israeli conflict and the effects their conditions (have) on ours. The issue seems far too distant in mainstream media,” she said.

Noor said her group is also working for “Socially Responsible Investing.”

“SRI is about more than divesting from the bad; it is also about investing in the good and improving current investments,” she said.

“Socially Responsible Investing (means) taking responsibility for our direct and indirect actions.”
http://www.dailylobo.com/index.php/article/2010/05/activist_groups_no_funds_for_israel

Arab Students Demonstrate at the Hebrew University

In the last couple of days the Hebrew University campus in Jerusalem witnessed several demonstrations made by the Arab students movements. The Arab movements Aljabha, tajamo, Abnaa albalad, Watan, Ikra and Alreslaeh called the students to participate in a demonstration which was made last Tuesday to demonstrate against Israel’s policy in East Jerusalem.

More than one hundred fifty students participated in the demonstration while holding posters and shouting slogans asking from the Israeli government to end occupation in East Jerusalem and putting an end to the settlements building in the city.
A few Israeli rightist students started to attack the demonstration while cursing and threatening those who participated in it. The University security and Israeli policemen protected the Israeli students and arrested some of the Arab students. Six students were arrested and three were injured.

The Arab student movements sent an objection letter to the Dean of the university accusing the University security of taking part in the attack against the Arab students instead of protecting them from the rightist Israeli students. The Arab movements also accused the university of taking part in the attack, which was made; the entrance to the university was closed while the students were trying to go back into the campus.
The Dean office replied that the university would respond to the letter soon and stated that the right of freedom of expression is something that the university respects. On Wednesday the incidents developed since the Arab students declared a strike for two hours between twelve and two o’clock. The Dean office and the security men called the Arab movement’s representatives and ordered them to end the strike and ask from the students to leave the University forum. The Arab movements asked for a response from the dean office regarding the objection letter but the latter refused to give any immediate response. The Arab movements refused to end the strike and the Dean office threatened to punish those who are in charge of the sit in the forum of the university. The Dean office also threatened to freeze the Arab movements work in the campus.

The Arab movements threatened to expand the demonstrations and accused the university of preventing the Arab students from expressing their opinions and national identity.
http://www.middleastpost.com/1706/arabs-students-demonstrate-hebrew-university/

The Brave Eleven and Peaceful Resistance

Eleven students who study at University of California, Irvine interrupted the Israeli ambassador Michael Oren while he was giving a speech about Israel’s policy at the university. The result was that they were immediately taken out of the hall, charged with disrupting the peace, and might face suspension or expulsion from the university.

The United States and Europe witnessed many demonstrations and protest since the last war on Gaza. Most of the incidents occurred when Israeli officials were invited to make a speech about Israel’s policy and justification for its hostility against Palestinians. Most of the demonstrations were faced with excessive force by the authorities and the protestors were punished for expressing their opinion.

These eleven students like many others felt that they want to express their feelings about the killing of the children and the continuous occupation of the Palestinian territories which happens to be the last in the world. Their expression was refused and their presence was not welcomed. They were called terrorists and they were obliged not to say what they wanted the world to hear. Not only that they were prevented from freedom of expression but also they might face suspension from their university because they were charged with disrupting the peace.

This did not happen only at UCI but in many other places where minorities are not welcomed, any sign of Islam is considered terrorism, and those who defend the Palestinian case are considered disrupting and violent. I wonder why Israel was not brought up in discussion of peace and hostility. Israel continues to violate the International Law every day by continuing its occupation in the Palestinian territories and the Arab lands, imprisons thousands of Palestinians, uses apartheid policy in East Jerusalem, and minds any kind of political settlement by continuing to refuse any Palestinian demand regarding the settlements, the occupied lands, Jerusalem, and the prisoners.

Not only that the makers of the International law refuse to bring to justice those who violate it, but also refuse to hear those who only want to demonstrate against the violators. Freedom of expression turned into a subject which is flexible. In other words it lost any kind of freedom in it and became a right which only certain people can enjoy.

These eleven students and every other student and human who wants to express his/her opinion should enjoy this right not because of the side which they defend but in order to assure that everyone’s voice is heard and freedom exists.

I do believe that peaceful resistance which doesn’t take place only in the West Bank and Nilin, but in the whole world is the only way which will make the world understand that justice must be made and that occupation must end. The obstacles which this kind of resistance finds in its way will only make it stronger and make more people know about facts which some try to hide for a long time. These facts became clear today…these facts assure that there is a people called Palestinian, and there is a land which this people has the right to live in and that occupation must end.
http://www.middleastpost.com/1657/brave-eleven-peaceful-resistance/#more-1657

PLIGHT OF GAZA STUDENTS CONTINUES TO GROW

Many students in the Gaza Strip aspire to a higher education abroad but the Israeli-Egyptian blockade deprives them of setting out on their journey.

Hundreds of Gaza graduates receive scholarship to attend universities abroad, but they are trapped in the impoverished coastal enclave. They are going to lose their scholarships according to a report by Press TV correspondent

Ayman Quader is one of these students. He has finished his bachelor’s degree and was awarded a scholarship yet he cannot leave Gaza. The first term of his scholarship begins in February.

Quader told our correspondent that he is being prevented from going out by the complete siege of the Gaza Strip. Quader calls on all those who are concerned with humanitarian conditions in Gaza to support him and his peers who seek a brighter future in schools abroad.

Israel has imposed crippling restrictions on the Gaza Strip since 2007, preventing the shipment of food, fuel and other essentials into the populated region, pushing its impoverished population to the verge of starvation.

The condition has been further worsened by Egypt’s refusal to open the Rafah crossing — the only alternative which is a border terminal not controlled by Israel —.

Along with the other residents of the Gaza Strip, students must wait until the next opening of the Rafah crossing. But there are no scheduled openings of the only gate for the 1.5 million Palestinians in the blockaded region.

Academicians in Gaza argue that traveling abroad is one of the fundamental rights of students which must not be violated by political disputes.

“I’m disappointed and frustrated as a teacher because my students are losing golden opportunities to pursue their studies abroad,” said a Gaza University teacher, Akreem Habeeb.

Habeeb expressed regret that many of his students with scholarships from European and American universities lost their chance because they have not been allowed to leave the Gaza Strip.

“These students are living in a great fear of losing their seats and universities,” Gaza Education Minister Ahmad al-Najjar told Press TV, warning “their future is in a great danger.”

Students in the Gaza Strip have held several protests against the enclosure of their homeland, calling upon Egyptian authorities to facilitate their traveling abroad, requests that appear to fall on deaf ears in Cairo.
http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2010/01/26/plight-of-gaza-students-continues-to-grow/