Palestinian students call for academic boycott of Israel

Appeal, Palestinian Students' Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel, 7 June 2009

The following appeal was issued on 29 May 2009:

"Gaza today has become the test of our indispensable morality and common humanity" -- Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) National Committee

The Palestinian Students' Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel (PSCABI) calls upon freedom-loving students all over the world to stand in solidarity with us by boycotting Israeli academic institutions for their complicity in perpetuating Israel's illegal military occupation and apartheid system. We note the historic action taken by thousands of courageous students of British and American universities in occupying their campuses in a show of solidarity with the brutally oppressed Palestinian people in Gaza. We also deeply appreciate the decision by Hampshire College to divest from companies profiting from the Israeli occupation. Such pressure on Israel is the most likely to contribute to ending its denial of our rights, including the right to education.

In this regard, we fully endorse the call for boycott issued by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, PACBI, in 2004.

We emphasize our endorsement of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) call issued by more than 170 Palestinian civil society organizations in July 2005.

We also support the call from Gaza issued by a group of civil society organizations in the second week of the Gaza massacre.

Our goal, as students, is to play a role in promoting the global BDS movement which has gained an unprecedented momentum as a result of the latest genocidal war launched by Israel against the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip. We address our fellow students to take whatever step possible, however small, to stand up for justice, international law and the inalienable rights of the indigenous people of Palestine by applying effective and sustainable pressure on Israel, particularly in the form of BDS, to help put an end to its colonial and racist regime over the Palestinians.

We strongly urge our fellow university students all over the world to:

(1) Support all the efforts aimed at boycotting Israeli academic institutions;

(2) Pressure university administrations to divest from Israel and from companies directly or indirectly supporting the Israeli occupation and apartheid policies;

(3) Promote student union resolutions condemning Israeli violations of international law and human rights and endorsing BDS in any form;

(4) Support the Palestinian student movement directly.

To break the medieval and barbaric Israeli siege of Gaza, people of conscience need to move with a sense of urgency and purpose. Israel must be compelled to pay a heavy price for its war crimes and crimes against humanity through the intensification of the boycott against it and against institutions and corporations complicit in its crimes. As in the anti-apartheid struggle in solidarity with the black majority in South Africa, students concerned about justice and sustainable peace have a moral duty to support our boycott efforts.

This appeal by the Palestinian Students' Campaign for the Academic Boycott of Israel (PSACBI) has been endorsed by the Progressive Student Union Bloc, Fatah Youth Organization, Progressive Student Labor Front, Islamic Bloc, Islamic League of Palestinian Students, Student Unity Bloc, Students Affairs (University of Palestine).