Hampshire College becomes first U.S. college to divest from Israeli Occupation!

[grassfed]

Hampshire has become the first college in the US to divest from the Israeli occupation.

As the Students for Justice in Palestine press release points out,
Hampshire was also the first college in the US to divest from South Africa 32 years ago.

http://bdsmovement.net/?q=node/301

[sinkingfeeling]

1. I hope this becomes as popular as divestment from South Africa did.

[shira]

21. yeah.....collective punishment on all Israelis...and eventually Palestinians.....good job!

Taken to the extreme, let's imagine this leads to the end of settlements and occupation in the W.Bank, as well as the end to the "siege" in Gaza.

Terror spikes, Intifada III makes the last 2 pale in comparison. Israel retaliates and FAR more deaths result, Hamas controls the W.Bank, and peace is nowhere on the horizon. Just thousands (or tens of thousands) of more people dead.

Is this the intended goal?

[Tarc]

2. A good start

Thank you, Hampshire College.

[The Second Stone]

25. I think this is a good idea

Let's hope that it starts a movement like the one against Apartheid

[LeftishBrit]

3. Note that this isn't an academic boycott.

It's a divestment from corporations,which provide the Israeli military with equipment and services in the Occupied West Bank and Gaza.

As such - fine with me!

[Idealism]

9. Likewise

Academic boycotts are not the way to get change, just to way the breed ignorance and fear among the people whom you try to keep intellectually in the dark

[Violet_Crumble]

23. This is definately the sort of action that should be taken...

...and I hope that it does spread in the US. There should be no support whatsoever for companies that are involved in settlements or providing military equipment in the Occupied Territories...

[grassfed]

4. Israeli Apartheid Week coming to New York

Mark your calendars - the 5th Annual Israeli Apartheid Week will take place across the globe from March 1-8, 2009!

First launched in Toronto in 2005, IAW has grown to become one of the most important global events in the Palestine solidarity calendar. Last year, more than 25 cities around the world participated in the week's activities, which also commemorated 60 years since the expulsion of the Palestinian people from their homes and land in 1947-1948. IAW 2008 was launched with a live broadcast from the South African township of Soweto by Palestinian leader and former member of the Israeli Knesset, Azmi Bishara.

This year, IAW occurs in the wake of Israel's barbaric assault against the people of Gaza. Lectures, films, and actions will make the point that these latest massacres further confirm the true nature of Israeli Apartheid. IAW 2009 will continue to build and strengthen the growing Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement at a global level.

Highlights include:

From Johannesburg to Jerusalem: Anti-Apartheid Organizing in the US
What: Showing of critically acclaimed film "Have you heard from Johannesburg?" followed by a discussion with David Wildman of the United Methodist Church and Mahmoud Mamdani of Columbia University
When: Monday, March 2, 7pm
Where: St Mary's Episcopal Church, 521 West 126th St, NYC

The Art of Resistance: Culture and the Boycott of Israel
What: Panel discussion with best-selling author Ahdaf Soueif, Palestinian activist and political analyst Omar Barghouti, and NYC poet Remi Kanazi; moderated by Brooklyn College Professor Mustafa Bayoumi
When: Friday, March 6, 7pm
Where: Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South, NYC

If you're not in New York, check out http://apartheidweek.org to find events near you.

[ProgressiveMuslim]

13. And to many other cities as well!

[ProgressiveProfessor]

20. Its come up here...no one is going to do anything with it.

Just about everyone realizes that calling it apartheid is clearly intellectually dishonest

[EFerrari]

33. "Just about everyone"? Hardly.

Monday, 29 April, 2002,
Tutu condemns Israeli 'apartheid'

South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu has accused Israel of practising apartheid in its policies towards the Palestinians.

The Nobel peace laureate said he was "very deeply distressed" by a visit to the Holy Land, adding that "it reminded me so much of what happened to us black people in South Africa".

The Jewish lobby is powerful - very powerful. Well, so what?

In a speech in the United States, carried in the UK's Guardian newspaper, Archbishop Tutu said he saw "the humiliation of the Palestinians at checkpoints and roadblocks, suffering like us when young white police officers prevented us from moving about".

The archbishop, who was a leading opponent of apartheid in South Africa, said Israel would "never get true security and safety through oppressing another people".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1957644.stm

And the consensus continues to grow.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

38. He is wrong

Words have meaning and its dishonest, particularly for someone of his stature, to play fast and loose with them. It up there with calling opposing the Sharia racist.

[EFerrari]

39. No. CF today on Zacharria's "GPS" both reps, one from Israel and one Palestinian

were discussing bantustans.

The Israeli leadership and some of its supporters also suffer from the delusion that they are exceptional and that ethics do not apply to them.

[HamdenRice]

41. Actually, most South African human rights experts agree with Tutu

that Israel now has something very similar to apartheid -- but much, much worse. Justices of the SA high court, the SA Intelligence chief, human rights workers who have taken trips to Israel/Palestine all agree.

It's hardly intellectually dishonest, therefore.

[oberliner]

42. Actually, they don't

In fact, a group called the South African Human Rights Delegation including leading South African human rights activists such as Zackie Achmat, Geoff Bundlender, Edwin Cameron, and John Copelyn (among many others) recently returned from a trip to Israel and the Occupied Territories and concluded that such a comparison was not worth their time.

[HamdenRice]

44. You managed to get it exactly backwards if you mean the 2008 delegation

Are you referring to this delegation, in which Edwin Cameron, participated? How on earth did you come to your conclusion? Everyone is entitled to their own opinions; everyone is not entitled to their own facts. The main way that participants noted the difference between Israel/Palestine and apartheid South Africa, was that most noted that the situation in Israel/Palestine was materially worse and more evil.

Here's the coverage from Haaretz:

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1000976.html

Twilight Zone / 'Worse than apartheid'
By Gideon Levy

I thought they would feel right at home in the alleys of Balata refugee camp, the Casbah and the Hawara checkpoint. But they said there is no comparison: for them the Israeli occupation regime is worse than anything they knew under apartheid. This week, 21 human rights activists from South Africa visited Israel. Among them were members of Nelson Mandela's African National Congress; at least one of them took part in the armed struggle and at least two were jailed. There were two South African Supreme Court judges, a former deputy minister, members of Parliament, attorneys, writers and journalists. Blacks and whites, about half of them Jews who today are in conflict with attitudes of the conservative Jewish community in their country. Some of them have been here before; for others it was their first visit.

...

Edwin Cameron, a judge on the Supreme Court of Appeal, tells his hosts: "We came here lacking in knowledge and are thirsty to know. We are shocked by what we have seen until now. It is very clear to us that the situation here is intolerable." A poster pasted on an outside wall has a photograph of a man who spent 34 years in an Israeli prison. Mandela was incarcerated seven years less than that. One of the Jewish members of the delegation is prepared to say, though not for attribution, that the comparison with apartheid is very relevant and that the Israelis are even more efficient in implementing the separation-of-races regime than the South Africans were. If he were to say this publicly, he would be attacked by the members of the Jewish community, he says.
...

Equally harsh are the remarks of the editor-in-chief of the Sunday Times of South Africa, Mondli Makhanya, 38. "When you observe from afar you know that things are bad, but you do not know how bad. Nothing can prepare you for the evil we have seen here. In a certain sense, it is worse, worse, worse than everything we endured. The level of the apartheid, the racism and the brutality are worse than the worst period of apartheid.

"The apartheid regime viewed the blacks as inferior; I do not think the Israelis see the Palestinians as human beings at all. How can a human brain engineer this total separation, the separate roads, the checkpoints? What we went through was terrible, terrible, terrible - and yet there is no comparison. Here it is more terrible. We also knew that it would end one day; here there is no end in sight. The end of the tunnel is blacker than black.

<end quote>

Here is coverage by the Independent

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/this-is-like-apartheid-anc-veterans-visit-west-bank-865063.html


'This is like apartheid': ANC veterans visit West Bank

By Donald Macintyre in Hebron

Veterans of the anti-apartheid struggle said last night that the restrictions endured by Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territories was in some respects worse than that imposed on the black majority under white rule in South Africa.

Members of a 23-strong human-rights team of prominent South Africans cited the impact of the Israeli military's separation barrier, checkpoints, the permit system for Palestinian travel, and the extent to which Palestinians are barred from using roads in the West Bank.

After a five-day visit to Israel and the Occupied Territories, some delegates expressed shock and dismay at conditions in the Israeli-controlled heart of Hebron. Uniquely among West Bank cities, 800 settlers now live there and segregation has seen the closure of nearly 3,000 Palestinian businesses and housing units. Palestinian cars (and in some sections pedestrians) are prohibited from using the once busy streets.

"Even with the system of permits, even with the limits of movement to South Africa, we never had as much restriction on movement as I see for the people here," said an ANC parliamentarian, Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge of the West Bank. "There are areas in which people would live their whole lifetime without visiting because it's impossible."

<end quote>

More links here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=124&topic_id=225061&mesg_id=225710

[oberliner]

46. Here is a quote from the delegation's press release on their website

There is a movement to equate the situation to apartheid. This would enable the international community to be more effectively mobilised. Discussions on this issue tend to get bogged down and lead to dead ends, diverting from the important issues. As a delegation we agreed that this was probably not a useful way to spend our time.

http://www.humanrightsdelegation.org/press_item.asp?id=26&page=1

[HamdenRice]

48. Read through their entire website. They said the star of david is being used like a swastika

I realize that you have an inflexible, fact-impervious view of this issue. I searched and did a review of our prior debates. There is no convincing you, so I don't see the point of continuing the debate.

Your own sources say that this delegation concluded that the situation is analogous to apartheid -- only worse. Your quote simply says that for tactical purposes, they don't want to get bogged down in semantic arguments, while their actual conclusion was that the physical, material, political reality is that the situation in Palestine is worse and more evil and more racist than anything they experienced under apartheid.

Your attempt to spin it otherwise is simply profoundly silly and a bit sad.

Whether their conclusions are right or not is I suppose debatable; whether those were their conclusions is not.

[oberliner]

50. I claimed that they said such a comparison was not worth their time

The quote I provided from the website says exactly that.

Another quote: I could not avoid the conclusion that the simple Zionism=Apartheid equation is also a simplistic one.

Similar conclusions can be found in the various press releases hosted at that site.

[HamdenRice]

45. More evidence that the delegation you cite concluded Israel is worse than apartheid South Africa

Here is a first hand report by a pro-Israeli student in Cape Town, who described what Geoff Budlender said upon his return, and why she found his comments disappointing. Where on earth are you getting your "facts"? She notes that several members of the delegation said that apartheid was too weak, and a better analogy was the holocaust.

http://quidproquoza.blogspot.com/2008/08/samantha-beckbessinger-israelpalestine.html

The other three speakers were even more disappointing. Budlender, who has so thoughtfully championed the causes of the oppressed in South Africa, disengaged himself from the issue by saying that the Occupation was “worse than anything ’d ever seen” and that he saw no hope for peace, worryingly claiming that “only cataclysmic violence will displace Israeli power, terrifying as this is for all of us”.

All of the speakers used the analogy of Apartheid to condemn the occupation, but used this as an emotional pejorative rather than as a useful site to explore the political realities at play. Govender and Isaacs went a step further than this, claiming that the Occupation mimics the violence of the Holocaust. Both speakers spoke about the “manipulation of memory” at Yad Vashem (the Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem) and their speeches soon degenerated into shocking allegations that they provided no evidence for (“children tied to Israeli jeeps as human shields”) and, in the case of Fared, an argument that Israel as a Jewish state has no right to exist at all (although a Palestinian state, which would similarly be based upon ethnicity, does).

<end quote>

[oberliner]

47. Work together to break the cycles of violence and build on the spirals of peace.

"Work together to break the cycles of violence and build on the spirals of peace. There are no solutions. Peace is a process. Muddle along. Let the solutions emerge by building on the initiatives that work and eliminate those that don't."

That is a quote from Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge, also from their website, linked above.

[HamdenRice]

49. And what's that got to do with the price of beans in Mexico?

The issue is whether they concluded that the situation is analogous to, but worse than, apartheid. They did.

Of course they would want to build on peace efforts. That's what they did under apartheid. The two positions are not only not contradictory; they are perfectly consistent, given their backgrounds and history.

[oberliner]

51. Contradicts the statement in your post

Your post contains this:

he saw no hope for peace, worryingly claiming that “only cataclysmic violence will displace Israeli power, terrifying as this is for all of us”.

Statements on the website appear to contradict that sentiment.

[HamdenRice]

52. No contradiction at all

He did not condone violence. He said he didn't see how Israeli power could be dislodged without cataclysmic violence, which he said would be terrifying.

There is no contradiction at all. Besides, you are engaging in strategic irrelevant nitpicking. Their conclusion was that the situation was worse than apartheid.

[oberliner]

53. Honestly I do not mean to nitpick

I just think the apartheid analogy is less than helpful and it appears that this group agrees with that from what I am reading on their website.

[shaayecanaan]

56. The issue of whether it is helpful

and the issue of whether it is true are largely separate.

[grassfed]

5. Dershowitz threatens boycott of Hampshire College

Alan Dershowitz certainly doesn't waste any time in trying to shut down academic freedom.
Hampshire SJP is reporting that Dershowitz has already contacted them with a threat.

From the Hampshire SJP blog:

Allen Dershowitz has just called SJP members and has threatened to start an international campaign to divest from Hampshire College - we need your support!
We will be beginning an international fundraising drive to help Hampshire the negative backflash for this stand against the illegal occupation of Palestine.
We will also have other ways to support us.

Please stay tuned!

Not sure what exactly divesting from Hampshire would look like, but this does seem a bit ironic from the person who has railed against the academic boycott of Israel.

http://www.hsjp.org/2009/02/12/allen-dershowitz/

[Howardx]

6. dershowitz is a bully

he needs a smackdown.

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Crunchy Frog]

22. Is that really the way you see him? I see him as just an asshole myself,

but to each his own. :shrug:

[Jefferson23]

7. Dershowitz wastes no time, why this man is so afraid of dissenting

voices is obvious to most who have read his bullshit. He has as much credibility on this subject as Rush Limbaugh. Thanks for this information grassfed.

[oberliner]

40. His son went to Hampshire

Just FYI

[Jefferson23]

54. And that is suppose to give Dershowitz credibility here?

From Dershowitz: snip* "My son, who went to Hampshire College, has urged me to take this action. We have supported the college through tuition payments and occasional gifts. No more! I now call on all decent people - supporters and critics of Israel alike - to make no further contributions to a school that now promotes discrimination and is complicit in evil. There must be a price paid for bigotry, and the actions of Hampshire College in singling out only Israel for divestiture is bigotry plain and simple. Silence is not an option. Inaction is not an option. Fighting back against the likes of Cynthia McKinney is mandatory for all people of good will."

http://cgis.jpost.com/Blogs/dershowitz/entry/stop_contributing_to_hampshire_college

[oberliner]

55. No - it's to show why he might be overreacting

And unwittingly bringing more attention to the action.

[Tarc]

10. my god, Dershowitz is such an asshole

Prime Agitator #1 of the "Criticism of Israel is Antisemitic" meme.

[grassfed]

17. Videos: Voices of Divestment HAMPSHIRE!

http://www.hsjp.org/voices-of-divestment/

[Scurrilous]

8. Irish trade unionists plan boycott of Israeli goods in aftermath of Gaza op

<snip>

"Irish trade unionists said this week that they plan to launch a boycott of Israeli goods in 2009. Meanwhile, Manchester University Student Union adopted a resolution supporting a boycott of Israel.

In moving ahead with plans to boycott Israel, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) says it is relying on "evidence" left in the aftermath of the Israeli invasion into Gaza in December.

It also said to be drawing from a "fact-finding mission" to Gaza by a dozen of its senior members more than a year ago. Leaders within the Irish Congress of Trade Unions are to hold a conference this year to act as "a springboard" for their campaign.

"The trip was over a year ago but its campaign will move up a gear this year with a major conference to highlight the Palestinian/Israeli situation, while research on a boycott of Israeli goods to press for a settlement will also be finalized," a statement by the organization read.

In a meeting on Wednesday by the Manchester University Student Union, the organization voted in favor of joining the global Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement "by divesting from Israel and boycotting all companies that support or benefit from the Israeli occupation."

more

[GoesTo11]

11. This is a good way to smoke out the Zionists on the faculty

getting them to show their true stripes.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

19. And issue them yellow badges and armbands

[ProgressiveMuslim]

35. Today, people are targetted by license plate.

[eyl]

36. Oh? in what way n/t

[ProgressiveMuslim]

12. Three cheers fo Hampshire! Lead the way!!!

[Purveyor]

15. Good for them. Thank you for posting. kick n/t

[Vegasaurus]

16. Little hippy school, who cares? nt

[ProgressiveMuslim]

34. This little hippy school kicked off the Divestment campaign that ended Apartheid in South Africa.

Tickety tock.

[oberliner]

43. What are you counting down to exactly? nt

[EFerrari]

18. I saw that! n/t

[varelse]

24. Six corporations are targeted for divestment

Source: http://bdsmovement.net/files/PressKit-Hampshire_College_Divestment.pdf

Caterpillar NYSE:CAT - supplies bulldozers to the IDF, which uses these to destroy Palestinian homes, orchards and olive groves in the Occupied Territories. They are also used to clear Palestinian land for illegal Israeli settlements, segregated roads and the “Separation Barrier.”

United Technologies NYSE:UTX produces Blackhawk helicopters that are used by the Israeli military to attack Palestinian cities, refugee camps and villages.

General Electric NYSE:GE - supplies the propulsion system for Israel's AH-64 Apache Assault Helicopter, which is used in Israeli attacks on Palestinian towns.

ITT Corporation NYSE:ITT - provides the IDF with intensifier tubes for night vision goggles and has previously provided battlefield communication radios.

Motorola NYSE:MOT - is engaged in a 400 million NIS ($93 million) project to provide radar systems for enhancing security at illegal West Bank settlements deep inside Palestinian territory. Motorola also has a $90-million contract to provide the Israeli army with an advanced "Mountain Rose" cell phone communications system.

Terex NYSE:TEX - subsidiary American Truck Company (ATC) signed a $54 million agreement to supply 302 medium tactical trucks and associated logistical support to the Israeli army

[Dick Dastardly]

31. I have had stock in all these companies at one time. I just picked up

Terex and ITT which are excellent buys right now. I am also looking at GE which is was at a 52 week low but has solid fundamentals and is starting to bounce back. I think its a steal right now and add to that the protest factor against the bogus apartheid smears and ridiculous divestment campaign and this is probably a done deal.

The divestment campaign is never going to get off the ground because most Americans realize the apartheid claims are utter nonsense. There may be a few supporters like this insignificant college but it wont amount to anything that would even be felt in the slightest by these companies or Israel. It is an exercise in futility. Even if there were some major institutions that joined the divestment and the sale of such large blocks would drop the stock significantly it would only be temporary as others will jump on such an opportunity and the stock would bounce back. Even the companies would use the opportunity to buy back its stock on the cheap. Come to think of it I hope it succeeds because of all the investment opportunity I mentioned.

[varelse]

37. I believe there are legitimate moral reasons for divesting from these companies

and boycotting them where possible. The divestment campaign is a world-wide effort, and it may succeed despite the attitude of "most Americans". It even has some support from within Israel.

http://www.naomiklein.org:80/articles/2009/01/israel-boycott-divest-sanction

Every day that Israel pounds Gaza brings more converts to the BDS cause, and talk of cease-fires is doing little to slow the momentum. Support is even emerging among Israeli Jews. In the midst of the assault roughly 500 Israelis, dozens of them well-known artists and scholars, sent a letter to foreign ambassadors stationed in Israel. It calls for "the adoption of immediate restrictive measures and sanctions" and draws a clear parallel with the antiapartheid struggle. "The boycott on South Africa was effective, but Israel is handled with kid gloves.… This international backing must stop.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

26. Are these kinds of actions a breach of feduciary duty?

Always wondered about that.

[EFerrari]

32. On the contrary. An agent's duty is to be responsible for the ethical conduct

of the business in their charge.

[varelse]

27. The college's board of trustees had a different reason for this divestiture

The college's board of trustees apparently did review the fund at the request of the students, but they are "disappointed" that the student group issued the statement linking this decision to Israel's policies.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/02/hamphire_colleg.html

But in a statement released today, university officials said the decision to divest from the fund was made "without reference to any country or political movement."

Instead, trustees concluded that the fund held stocks in more than 200 companies engaged in business practices that violated the college’s policy on "socially responsible investments." These violations included unfair labor practices, environmental abuse, military weapons manufacturing, and unsafe workplace settings, trustees said.

University officials acknowledged they reviewed the fund at students' request, but said the divestment decision "expressly did not pertain to a political movement or single out businesses active in a specific region or country."

Sigmund Roos, chairman of the board of trustees, said in a phone interview that while the board reviewed the fund's investments it never reviewed the group's petition, which accuses Israel of implementing "apartheid policies" against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

"We never took it up," he said. "Students know that."

Roos said he was disappointed that students had portrayed the board's decision as a protest of Israeli policy. The fund represented about one-quarter of the college's investments.

I do support the divestiture and do not believe it constitutes a "breach in fiduciary duty" because clearly the trustess are working within a defined policy structure ("socially responsible investments) in making this kind of decision. I don't agree with the student organization's willingess to put words in the trustee's mouths with respect to the reasons for the divestiture, however. That was not right, imo.

[shira]

28. no, it's not right

just another lie in an ocean of lies, propaganda, and hyperbole - that only the demented, the mentally impaired, and useful idiots buy into.

[varelse]

30. I suppose I should make it clear where I stand

I support the student group's efforts as well - and I certainly don't see them as demented, mentally impaired, or idiotic. I just don't like their misleading statement as to the intentions of the trustees. It might be good politics but it doesn't sit right with me.

[oberliner]

29. Statement of Clarification Regarding Trustees’ Actions on College Investments

The investment committee’s decision, however, was based on the consultant’s finding that the State Street fund included 200-plus companies engaged in multiple violations of the college’s investment policy; the decision expressly did not pertain to a political movement or single out businesses active in a specific region or country.

http://www.hampshire.edu/news/11271.htm