A Zionist group claimed that Dr. David Delgado Shorter violated university policy by offering his students weblinks to information on the Palestine solidarity movement.
The fight foracademic freedomand freedom of speech on US campuses continues as Zionist groups attempt to intimidate university officials into censoring faculty and students who criticize Israeli policies.
Dr. David Delgado Shorter, a University of California, Los Angeles professor of world arts and cultures/dance, was recently accused by the Amcha Initiative — an outside Zionist group which has filed numerous complaints against professors who hold discussions on Israeli policies — that his course included reading materials which “seek to demonize and delegitimize the Jewish state.” Unbeknownst to Shorter, a faculty colleague began an investigation of Shorter’s course material based on Amcha’s complaint.
However, despite the unprecendented review, the Zionist censors failed to prove that their claims hold any merit.
After learning about the investigation into his course, Shorter himself asked for a review of Amcha’s complaint by the UCLA’s Academic Senate Committee on Academic Freedom. The committee found that “no evidence was provided” in which principles of professional standards and university policy were violated, and that “no complaint by a member of the course was received.”
The Amcha Initiative has a history of vitriolic intimidation and legal threats against faculty who lead discussions on Israeli policy (or who simply link to websites with information on the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions movement) in the University of California and the California State University systems. The group accused Shorter of “using his official UCLA class website for the purpose of promoting the academic and cultural boycott of Israel” (“A question about academic freedom,” 29 March 2012).
These claims revolved around a class Shorter taught in the Winter 2012 quarter entitled “Tribal Worldviews.” Shorter told The Electronic Intifada that the class incorporates “how indigenous people use media and technology to engage with or combat globalization.”
On the course’s website, Shorter included pages of non-required links and background material that students were free to peruse if they found the information helpful in their research. Included amongst the dozens of links were the website for the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI) and a book review published on The Electronic Intifada.
ome 155 university and college faculty members have signed a petition calling for an academic boycott of the Ariel University Center.
In the petition, the lecturers state their "unwillingness to take part in any type of academic activity taking place in the college operating in the settlement of Ariel." Furthermore, the petition states that "Ariel is not part of the sovereign state of Israel, and therefore it is impossible to require us to appear there."
Among the signatories are three Israel Prize laureates - professors Yehoshua Kolodny of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Benjamin Isaac of Tel Aviv University and Itamar Procaccia of the Weizmann Institute of Science.
"We, academics from a variety of fields and from all the institutions of higher learning in Israel, herein express publicly our opposition to the continued occupation and the establishment of settlements," the petition states. "Ariel was built on occupied land. Only a few kilometers away from flourishing Ariel, Palestinians live in villages and refugee camps under unbearably harsh conditions and without basic human rights. Not only do they not have access to higher education, some do not even have running water. These are two different realities that create a policy of apartheid," the petition also says.
The signatories state that Ariel was an illegal settlement whose existence contravened international law and the Geneva Convention. "It was established for the sole purpose of preventing the Palestinians from creating an independent state and thus preventing us, citizens of Israel, from having the chance to ever live in peace in this region."
The petition was initiated and organized by Nir Gov of the Weizmann Institute's Department of Chemical Physics. Unlike other such initiatives, over a third of the list's signatories are from the natural and exact sciences.
Gov, who started organizing the petition a few weeks ago, said it was important to show that not only people known from other petitions support a boycott of Ariel, and therefore this petition has among its signatories many scholars who are not from the social sciences and the humanities.
"Israeli academia must differentiate itself from the 'settlement' academia," said Gov. "Only significant differentiation can help our supporters abroad who are working against an academic boycott of Israel. This assistance is important, but all in all it is secondary to the principled stand that the goal of the establishment of the college at Ariel was not teaching and academic research, but political. It may be too late, but we felt a need to state in the clearest language that Israeli academia must not be involved in the settlement project," Gov also said.
Gov said he encountered some colleagues who agreed with the message of the petition but were afraid to sign. He said such fear, "in the current atmosphere, is understandable, tangible. Even if there is no official action against the signatories, we may pay some sort of price."
About three weeks ago, the Council For Higher Education issued a public statement against calls by Israeli academics for an academic boycott of Israel. The council, which is headed by Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar, said such calls "undermine the foundations of the higher education system."
However, Gov said there is no contradiction between the council's statement and the petition. "The council says rightly that there is a danger of delegitimization of the academic system in Israel. We say the source of this danger is Ariel and the settlements."
Yigal Cohen-Orgad, chairman of the Ariel college's executive committee, said: "A tiny and bizarre minority of some 150 lecturers is behind the petition, out of 7,000 faculty members. The cooperation between the Ariel University Center and many hundreds of scholars from universities in Israel and many hundreds more from 40 universities abroad, is the response to this petition. We know the heads of the universities oppose the call for a boycott and all it entails. I am sure that academia will continue to cooperate with us."
Open letter, Abnaa el-Balad, Iqraa Student Association, National Democratic Assembly, 11 November 2009
The following open letter to the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim was issued on 9 November 2009 by Arab students at Israeli universities. The university's board is due to consider a measure supporting the academic boycott of Israel:
We are Arab students at the Israeli universities writing to you in support of the proposed academic boycott of Israeli academic institutions. We believe that the boycott is timely and hopefully will help in upholding moral values of fairness, justice and equality which have been sorely missed in our region.
While the reason for the boycott is rightly what has been going on in the 1967 occupied territories [West Bank and Gaza Strip], we propose another angle which affirms the need for boycott, namely our daily experience as Arabs in Israeli institutions. We are the lucky ones who have been able to pursue our studies in institutions of higher education, to which we arrived against great odds. Only very few among our generation have been qualified to attend universities due to the state's discriminatory policies. Our schools mostly lack the basic facilities needed for education, and the curriculum is structured to serve the state's goal in socializing the pupils for self-estrangement. It contains very little, if any at all, on our history and culture. Additionally, it aims to erase our historical memory and promote the official policy line of divide and rule. In short, it is modeled on curriculums that dark regimes, like apartheid South Africa, have used to indoctrinate rather than educate. We arrive to universities with this "educational" baggage.
The idea that Israeli universities adhere to the values of free academic institutions, where academic freedom, objectivity and meritocracy prevail, is widely accepted in the West. From our experience we attest -- and indeed prove beyond doubt -- that this is not the case. In recent years Israeli universities have changed the criteria of acceptance to various faculties in order -- as a certain president of an Israeli university put it -- to prevent large number of undesirable (i.e. Arab) students from attending prestigious faculties such as medicine and natural sciences. Moreover, lecturers who presented findings which are at odds with the official ideology -- such as Ilan Pappe and Neve Gordon -- are bullied and harassed or forced to resign. Meanwhile raw racist statements by many lecturers are considered by the administrations of the universities as benign or even objective statements. For example, recently Dr. Dan Scheuftan stated in one of his lectures: "The Arabs are the biggest failure in the history of the human race ... there's nothing under the sun that's more screwed up than the Palestinians;" "Throughout the Arab world, people fire guns at weddings in order to prove that they have at least one thing that's hard and in working order that can shoot."
It goes without saying that none of these lecturers has ever been disciplined. Moreover, foreign students are warned by the security authorities of Haifa University not to visit Arab villages or towns.
Although some Israeli universities -- such as the University of Haifa -- pride themselves on promoting "co-existence," nothing is further from the truth than this. We are prevented from forming our [own] (i.e. Arab) students union, and racial discrimination against us -- under the pretext of not serving in the army -- is widely practiced in the granting of scholarships, as well as in the provision of housing at the universities' residential halls. This is particularly grave as the universities are located in Jewish towns, and Arab students face many obstacles and hardships in finding appropriate housing due to prevailing prejudices and anti-Arab sentiments in Israeli society.
Yet, the restrictions imposed on our freedom of expression are more stifling. We are not allowed to express our collective sentiments or ideas publicly. It is quite often that our public gatherings are not only violently interrupted by extreme right-wing Jewish students, but also in various occasions the universities called on the police to intervene. In several occasions, as during our peaceful demonstration at Haifa University against the war on Gaza, the police sent in large number of its special units which are infamous for their brutality. Needless to say that they do the job they are trained for. Moreover, the universities collaborate with the internal security services (the feared Shin Bet) and provide them with names of the activists among the students who are regularly summoned, investigated and threatened.
In the end, we are hopeful that you will take a decision which reaffirms the true meaning of human values, and provide a proof that racism, religious tribalism, obfuscation and disregard for human dignity are no longer tolerated.
Undersigned:
Abnaa el-Balad - The Student Movement Iqraa Student Association - Islamic Movement National Democratic Assembly (NDA) - The Student Movement
Press release, LSE SU Palestine Society, 27 October 2009
The following press release was issued by the London School of Economics Student Union Palestine Society on 26 October 2009:
Students protested and disrupted a lecture tonight at the London School of Economics (LSE) by Daniel Ayalon, the controversial Deputy Foreign Minister of Israel.
More than 50 students and activists greeted Ayalon outside of the lecture on LSE's campus with placards and banners, while inside audience members heckled the controversial minister as a "racist" and "murderer" in relation to the illegal occupation and violence carried out by the Israeli state.
Ayalon was in the UK to meet British government officials and speaking at the LSE ahead of these talks in a lecture titled "The Middle East: The View From Israel." Security at the university was tight, with private security and police officers keeping a close watch on protesters. The minister began and ended his lecture amid boos and chants of "Free, Free, Palestine" while his speech was interrupted relentlessly throughout with audience members questioning Israel's atrocities.
The action was organized by the LSE Students' Union Palestine Society and the Palestine Solidarity Initiative. The London School of Economics Students' Union is officially twinned with An-Najah University [West Bank] and has previously voted to divest funds from those companies profiting from the Israeli occupation of Palestine. The motion also called on LSE to respect human rights and follow suit in embracing a divestment agenda with regards to such companies.
Mira Hammad who attended the lecture and is the Chair of the LSE SU Palestine Society said after the protest, "The Palestine Society at LSE has grown in support since the atrocities committed in Gaza which explains the huge turnout tonight. We will continue to support the growing international resistance against the occupation of Palestine until a just peace is achieved."
Merna Al Azzeh, a Palestinian masters student who was in the audience, added, "As an LSE student, I find it disgusting that LSE could invite a Minister to speak from a racist government that has been committing war crimes for the last 60 years."
"The recent Goldstone Report overwhelmingly condemns the genocide waged against Gazan civilians last winter and as a Palestinian I am reassured by the growing international resistance to Israeli apartheid."
There is so much material circulating about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that it is almost impossible for a casual observer to wade through it all. Palestine Monitor has decided to try and make this easier by finding, viewing and making available documentaries, lectures, debates and interviews which will help our readers make sense of events on the ground.
Stay tuned to Palestine Monitor for updates, tell your friends and enjoy…
Copy and paste on your browser the bold movie’s link to watch
March 12th, 2009 - Feature Documentary A heart from Jenin (2008)
This is the story of Ahmeds heart. Ahmed was a Palestinian boy who lived in Jenin in the West Bank. In November, 2005, the 12-year old Ahmed was shot by an Israeli sniper. Ahmeds parents decided to donate their sons heart to Israel. The film is also about Samah, the Israeli girl who now lives with Ahmeds heart. Ahmeds parents says that the donation was made in the spirit of Salam (peace) with Israel and that their son lives on through this girl. A gift can transform and drill a hole in the wall, when there is someone on the other side willing to receive that gift. March 10th, 2009 - Viva Gaza Convoy MP Galloway’s speech at a Gaza solidarity protest during the massacre in Gaza
MP Galloway’s triumphant speech upon entering the Gaza Strip on March 9th, 2009.
Lectures, Interviews and Debates
Center for American Progress - American Involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Walter Russell Mead discussed his new article about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Foreign Affairs, "Change They Can Believe In," with Daniel Levy. Steve Clemons moderated. This event at the New America Foundation was titled "A Pro-Israel Approach that Delivers on Palestine."
This debate, on the American alternative news network, Democracy Now!, features Professor Norman Finkelstein squaring off against the staunch defender of Israel, Professor Alan Dershowitz. (each part is approximately one hour)
Part 1(http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=finkelstein&emb=0&aq=f#)
Part 2(http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=finkelstein&emb=0&aq=f#)
Speaking on his book, the Holocaust Industry, at the Art Institute of Chicago, Dr Finkelstein takes CSPAN viewers on a rare journey into understanding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The video is approximately 2 hours.
A one hour lecture about image and reality of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict given in 2007 – there is more available from this event online for interested viewers. Norman Finkelstein debates Wolf Blitzer – November 1989
In this rather old debate, Norman Finkelstein squares off against former AIPAC spokesman, and current chief anchor of the CNN news network, Wolf Blitzer. The debate is 55 minutes long.
Dr Said deconstructs the myths behind Dr Samuel Huntington’s 1993 thesis, ‘The Clash of Civilizations’. It is an excellent lecture for anyone interested in better understanding the Dr’s masterpiece, ‘Orientalism’, and how it runs up against mainstream theories of race, culture and political exchange. (approximately one hour)
Memory, Inequality and Power: Palestine and the Universality of Human Rights
Dr Said’s hour and a half lecture at the University of California Berkeley. Stressing the role of collective memory in the survival of Palestinian people in the diaspora, Said argues for acknowledging the rights of the Palestinians as a people, since human rights are universal.
John Pilger details the war in Palestine through interviews of Palestinian and Israelis. It details the progress of peace and the strategies and policies at work on both sides of the issue. The documentary was published in 2002, but is still relevant today. It is approximately 1 hour.
Jenin Jenin, directed and co-produced by Palestinian actor and director Mohamed Bakri, includes testimony from Jenin residents after the Israeli army’s Defensive Wall operation, during which the city and camp were the scenes of fierce fighting. The operation ended with Jenin flattened and scores of Palestinians dead. In the wake of the destruction in Gaza, Palestine Monitor reminds you: This is not the first time massacres have taken place.
A one-hour film by Ed Hill based on a two-week visit to Palestine by a group of international peace activists in autumn 2005. The film aims to present a concise understanding of the history, politics and culture of Palestine. It dramatically explains the construction of the Separation Wall, the checkpoints, the apartheid system of passes, separate road networks, the continual Israeli military oppression and creeping ethnic cleansing, together with the spirited culture and resistance of a brave people.
No Child is Born a Terrorist
A brief documentary exploring the recent bloody history of the Jenin Refugee Camp, and one Palestinian theater’s efforts to restore normalcy, hope courage. Unreported World - Israels Wild West
This brilliant, one-hour documentary by Palestinian director Mohammed Alatar explores the multiple physical and psychological layers that constitute the occupation of Palestine. The movies title was coined by one of the late forefathers of the Zionist movement, Vladimir Jabotinsky.
A 79 minute documentary released in 2004 by Sut Jhally and Bathsheba Ratzkoff which "provides a striking comparison of U.S. and international media coverage of the crisis in the Middle East, zeroing in on how structural distortions in U.S. coverage have reinforced false perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."
A beautiful documentary crafted by Israeli citizen Julian Merr Khamis about the work of his mother Arna in the West Bank during the Intifada. Juliano, who continues the work of the Freedom Theatre today in the Jenin Refugee Camp, takes us on a journey through the tragic lives of the young men and women they work with. The video is approximately 80 minutes long and is a must-see for anyone interested in learning about the consequences of occupation on the lives of children.
Sondra Hale, a UCLA professor in the anthropology and women’s studies departments, is an organizing committee member of the recently launched U.S. Campaign for the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel.
Eleven of the 15 organizing committee members represent California universities, and four of them are from the University of California. Nearly 200 faculty members from universities across the nation are endorsing the boycott.
The committee was formed in response to a call for support by Palestinian civil society and follows the guidelines drafted by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, which was launched in 2004, according to its Web site.
The call is “inspired by the struggle of South Africans against apartheid and in the spirit of international solidarity, moral consistency and resistance to injustice and oppression,” according to its mission statement.
Although there have been local efforts to boycott and divest from Israeli companies in the past, this is the first attempt in the United States to organize an academic and cultural boycott on a national level, Hale said.
The U.S. boycott was largely provoked by the recent attack on Gaza, in which hundreds of children were killed, Hale said.
“The bombing of the Islamic University of Gaza was an important impetus,” she added. “That made us think Israeli academics should take a stand and put pressure on their universities, which are highly implicated in the developing of weapons through scientific research, not unlike other universities.”
However, the boycott is institutional and is not aimed at individual academics and cultural figures, Hale said.
It means that foreign exchange and cooperative programs with Israel would cease, but it doesn’t mean that Israeli academics would stop being invited to speak at UCLA or that their work would cease to be published, Hale added.
The academic and cultural boycott of Israel is part of a global boycott, divestments and sanctions movement supporting Palestine.
On Feb. 7, Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass., became the first college in the United States to divest from Israel due to its occupation of Palestine.
It was also the first college or university to divest from South Africa during the apartheid struggle.
However, for various reasons, not all professors support the boycott.
Since Hampshire College divested, Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard law professor, has put pressure on the college to rescind its statement, Hale said.
Marc Trachtenberg, a UCLA professor in the political science department is also against the boycott.
“The main reason I’m against the boycott is because it is very one-sided,” Trachtenberg said.
“The key to a settlement is to put pressure on both sides. The more one side is castigated, the more power the other side feels and the less pressure they feel to act,” he said. “It’s counterproductive. The trick to policy is to structure incentives.”
Trachtenberg said he would feel the same way about extreme action taken by the other side as well.
Still, the U.S. Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel campaign believes it is time to take a stance, “especially in light of the censorship and silencing of the Palestine question in U.S. universities, as well as U.S. society at large,” according to the campaign’s mission statement.
Hale, who is also the chair of the Faculty Advisory Committee of the Center for Near Eastern Studies and the co-chair for Islamic Studies, said she feels this pressure at UCLA in the form of internal and external complaints.
“After the Center for Near Eastern Studies held the Jan. 21 ‘Human Rights and Gaza’ panel, we received an enormous amount of pressure from administrators complaining that our panel was not balanced enough,” Hale said.
“It has a chilling effect,” Hale added.
She said would like to be able to discuss this controversial subject with clarity and respect for both sides on the UCLA campus.
Chancellor Gene Block was not immediately available for comment, but his office recently released a statement in early February regarding academic freedom at UCLA.
In his statement, Chancellor Block discussed the controversy surrounding the conflict in the Middle East and specifically in Gaza.
In response to complaints about the “Human Rights and Gaza” panel, he wrote about the importance of protecting freedom of expression and maintaining scholarly balance.
“We have a responsibility to protect the freedom of expression. We also all have a responsibility to listen and engage, respectfully, even as we must understand that not every campus forum on a controversial topic will satisfy passionate and concerned members of the campus and broader communities,” he said in his statement.
Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI)
CALL FOR ACADEMIC AND CULTURAL BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL
Whereas Israel’s colonial oppression of the Palestinian people, which is based on Zionist ideology, comprises the following:
· Denial of its responsibility for the Nakba -- in particular the waves of ethnic cleansing and dispossession that created the Palestinian refugee problem -- and therefore refusal to accept the inalienable rights of the refugees and displaced stipulated in and protected by international law;
· Military occupation and colonization of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and Gaza since 1967, in violation of international law and UN resolutions;
· The entrenched system of racial discrimination and segregation against the Palestinian citizens of Israel, which resembles the defunct apartheid system in South Africa;
Since Israeli academic institutions (mostly state controlled) and the vast majority of Israeli intellectuals and academics have either contributed directly to maintaining, defending or otherwise justifying the above forms of oppression, or have been complicit in them through their silence,
Given that all forms of international intervention have until now failed to force Israel to comply with international law or to end its repression of the Palestinians, which has manifested itself in many forms, including siege, indiscriminate killing, wanton destruction and the racist colonial wall,
In view of the fact that people of conscience in the international community of scholars and intellectuals have historically shouldered the moral responsibility to fight injustice, as exemplified in their struggle to abolish apartheid in South Africa through diverse forms of boycott,
Recognizing that the growing international boycott movement against Israel has expressed the need for a Palestinian frame of reference outlining guiding principles,
In the spirit of international solidarity, moral consistency and resistance to injustice and oppression,
We, Palestinian academics and intellectuals, call upon our colleagues in the international community to comprehensively and consistently boycott all Israeli academic and cultural institutions as a contribution to the struggle to end Israel’s occupation, colonization and system of apartheid, by applying the following:
Refrain from participation in any form of academic and cultural cooperation, collaboration or joint projects with Israeli institutions;
Advocate a comprehensive boycott of Israeli institutions at the national and international levels, including suspension of all forms of funding and subsidies to these institutions;
Promote divestment and disinvestment from Israel by international academic institutions;
Work toward the condemnation of Israeli policies by pressing for resolutions to be adopted by academic, professional and cultural associations and organizations;
Support Palestinian academic and cultural institutions directly without requiring them to partner with Israeli counterparts as an explicit or implicit condition for such support.
Endorsed by:
Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees; Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions; Palestinian NGO Network, West Bank; Teachers’ Federation; Palestinian Writers’ Federation; Palestinian League of Artists; Palestinian Journalists’ Federation; General Union of Palestinian Women; Palestinian Lawyers’ Association; and tens of other Palestinian federations, associations, and civil society organizations.
Despite the on-going attempts by university administrations to silence and repress Palestine solidarity activism on campuses, Israeli Apartheid Week 2009 promises to be more successful than ever.
Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is taking place in more than 40 cities across the globe (the number of cities is growing daily). This year, IAW happens in the wake of Israel's brutal military assault on the people of Gaza. In Toronto, the birthplace of IAW, a full week of lectures, films, and actions will make the point that these latest massacres further confirm the true nature of Israeli Apartheid. The theme for IAW 2009 in Toronto is "Standing United with the People of Gaza", events will take place at the University of Toronto, Ryerson University and York University. IAW 2009 will continue to build and strengthen the growing Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement at a global level.
We are very proud to announce our two Toronto keynote speakers for IAW 2009:
- Omar Barghouti is an independent Palestinian researcher, commentator and human rights activist. He is a founding member of the Palestinian campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) to force Israel to uphold international law and universal human rights. He holds a bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering from Columbia University, NY. He contributed to the philosophical volume, "Controversies and Subjectivity" (John Benjamins, 2005) and to "The New Intifada: Resisting Israel's Apartheid" (Verso Books, 2001). He advocates an ethical vision for a unitary, secular democratic state in historic Palestine.
- Ronnie Kasrils was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, 1938. Grandparents Jewish immigrants from Czarist Russia (Lithuania). Joined ANC 1960 after Sharpeville massacre. This led to a lifetime of political activism. Was a member of ANC's military wing at its inception in 1961. Became chief of military intelligence, operated from exile in neighbouring African states and clandestinely in South Africa. For many years member of both ANC and Communist Party national executive committees. Appointed deputy minister of defence in South Africa's first democratic government (1994-99); Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry (1999-2004); Minister Intelligence Services (2004-2008). Has retired from government and devotes himself to writing, lecturing and Palestine solidarity. Autobiography "Armed & Dangerous" (publisher Jonathan Ball, Johannesburg). Married to a fellow struggle veteran and has two adult sons.
Each evening of IAW 2009 has a specific theme and expert speakers on different topics. Mark your calendars with the different topics for each evening:
ALL EVENING EVENTS BEGIN AT 7pm @ Ryerson and the University of Toronto St.George Campus (http://toronto.apartheidweek.org/) ALL DAY-TIME EVENTS BEGIN AT 12:30pm @ York University (http://toronto.apartheidweek.org/node/147)
Monday, March 2: Resisting Apartheid: Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Our keynote speaker, Omar Barghouti will launch Israeli Apartheid Week 2009. Library Building Room: LIB072 Ryerson Univesity 350 Victoria St.
Tuesday, March 3: Education Under Occupation
A panel discussion on the challenges faced by students in Palestine and by indigenous students here on Turtle Island as they fight for their right to education while living under occupation. Featuring: Thaer Aliwaiwi, Yafa Jarrar and Karolyn Givogue Walberg Building, Room 116 University of Toronto 184-200 College Street Hosted by SAIA- UT, a working group of OPIRG – Toronto
Wednesday, March 4: Gaza: Breaking the Siege
A panel discussion focused on the recent military assault and on-going Siege on Gaza. Speakers will provide historical background information and commentary on the current situation in Gaza. Featuring: Laila El-Haddad and Jon Elmer Walberg Building, Room 116 University of Toronto 184-200 College Street Hosted by SAIA- UT, a working group of OPIRG – Toronto
Thursday, March 5: Globalization, Labour and Poverty in Palestine and First Nations communities in Canada
A panel discussion on the economic situation in Palestine and Canada's financial and military ties to Israeli Apartheid. Speakers will also draw links between Apartheid in Israel and the economic exploitation of First Nations communities in Canada. Featuring: Leila Farsakh, Robert Lovelace and David McNally Koffler Institute Room 108 569 Spadina Avenue Hosted by SAIA- UT, a working group of OPIRG – Toronto
Friday, March 6: Turtle Island, South Africa to Palestine : The Struggle Continues
The final night of Israeli Apartheid Week 2009 will focus on lessons from South African Apartheid and the on-going struggles of the Palestinian people and indigenous people on Turtle Island. Featuring: Mike Krebs and Ronnie Kasrils Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University - TRS1067 575 Bay Street
Saturday, March 7: International Women's Day - Rally and March
Rally: 11am OISE Auditorium, 252 Bloor St. West March: Join the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid and allies as we march under the banner "Standing United with the Women of Gaza". Contingent will meet at 12:45pm at the corner of Bloor St. West and Bedford Rd (next to OISE). Look for banners and Palestinian flags!
Full schedule with speakers' biographies is available at www.apartheidweek.org
Israeli Apartheid Week Toronto is organized by: Students Against Israeli Apartheid U of T (a working group of OPIRG), Students Against Israeli Apartheid York, and Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights Ryerson.
Israeli Apartheid Week Toronto is endorsed by the following organizations: * Canadian Arab Federation * Palestine House * Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid * Caribbean Studies Student Union (UofT) * Equity Studies Student Union (UofT) * Health Studies Student Union (UofT) * CUPE Ontario International Solidarity Committee * CUPE Local 3907 * CUPE Local 3903 * CAW Sam Gindin Chair in Social Justice and Democracy * Not In Our Name: Jewish Voices Opposing Zionism * Critical Area Studies Collective (UofT) * Centre for Middle Eastern Studies * No One Is Illegal * Ontario Coalition Against Poverty * Always Question (UofT) * Canadian Forum for Justice and Peace in Sri Lanka * Barrio Nuevo * NOCOPS (Newly Organized Coalition Opposing Police in Schools) * Women in Solidarity with Palestine * Common Cause * Faculty for Palestine * Palestine House Youth Program * Filipino Canadian Youth Alliance-Ontario * Toronto Women's Bookstore * SPHR National * Latin America Solidarity Network
To ENDORSE Israeli Apartheid Week in Toronto, to make a DONATION or GET INVOLVED with the organizing please email saia@riseup.net.
CALL to JOIN The U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel Mission Statement:
Responding to the call of Palestinian civil society to join the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction movement against Israel, we are a U.S. campaign focused specifically on a boycott of Israeli academic and cultural institutions, as delineated by PACBI (Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel):
“In light of Israel’s persistent violations of international law, and Given that, since 1948, hundreds of UN resolutions have condemned Israel’s colonial and discriminatory policies as illegal and called for immediate, adequate and effective remedies, and Given that all forms of international intervention and peace-making have until now failed to convince or force Israel to comply with humanitarian law, to respect fundamental human rights and to end its occupation and oppression of the people of Palestine, and In view of the fact that people of conscience in the international community have historically shouldered the moral responsibility to fight injustice, as exemplified in the struggle to abolish apartheid in South Africa through diverse forms of boycott, divestment and sanctions;
Inspired by the struggle of South Africans against apartheid and in the spirit of international solidarity, moral consistency and resistance to injustice and oppression, We, representatives of Palestinian civil society, call upon international civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era. We appeal to you to pressure your respective states to impose embargoes and sanctions against Israel. We also invite conscientious Israelis to support this Call, for the sake of justice and genuine peace.
These non-violent punitive measures should be maintained until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law by:
1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall;
2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.”
[For more information: http://www.pacbi.org /campaign_statement.htm]
PACBI and the entire movement for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (representing the overwhelming majority among Palestinian civil society parties, unions, networks and organizations) emphasize fundamental Palestinian rights, sanctioned by international law and universal human rights principles that ought to be respected by Israel to end the boycott. We struggle to achieve an end to Israel’s three-tiered injustice and oppression: 1) occupation and colonization in the 1967-occupied Palestinian territory; 2) denial of the refugees’ rights, paramount among which is their right to return to their homes of origin, as per UN General Assembly Resolution 194; and 3) the system of racial discrimination, or apartheid, to which Palestinian (all non-Jewish) citizens of Israel are subjected to.
The principles guiding the PACBI campaign and the three goals outlined above are also points of unity for the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USCACBI). We believe it is time to take a public, principled stance in support of equality, self-determination, human rights (including the right to education), and true democracy, especially in light of the censorship and silencing of the Palestine question in U.S. universities, as well as U.S. society at large. There can be no academic freedom in Israel/ Palestine unless all academics are free and all students are free to pursue their academic desires.
If you are committed to these principles of unity, and wish to work on a campaign of boycotting academic and cultural institutions guided by this approach, please join our campaign. [See information below.]
Urgent Appeal: We are also responding to the Open Letter to International Academic Institutions from the Right to Education campaign at Birzeit University in Palestine (January 17, 2009), calling on the international academic community, unions and students “to show support and solidarity with the people of Gaza by calling upon their respective governments to impose immediate boycott, divestment and sanctions against the state of Israel.”
Gaza is but the latest incident in a series of ongoing massacres–from Deir Yassin (1948 ) to Kafr Kassim (1956) to Jenin (2002) to the wars on Lebanon (from 1980s to 2006)—which demonstrate a pattern of violence by a state which will not end its violations of international law without international pressure. As academics working in the U.S., we wish to focus on campaigns in our universities and in institutions of higher education to advocate for compliance with the academic and cultural boycott, a movement that is growing internationally across all segments of global civil society.
This call for an academic and cultural boycott parallels the call in the non-academic world for divestment, boycott and sanctions by trade unions, churches, and other civil society organizations in countries such as the United States, Canada, Italy, Ireland, Norway, the United Kingdom, Brazil, South Africa, and New Zealand.
Endorsement: As educators and scholars of conscience in the United States, we fully support this call. We urge our colleagues, nationally, regionally, and internationally, to stand up against Israel’s ongoing scholasticide and to support the non-violent call for academic boycott, disinvestment, and sanctions.
If you wish to endorse this call for an academic and cultural boycott, please email us at: uscom4acbi [at] gmail.com. If you are willing to indicate your support publicly, please send us your name and institutional/organizational affiliation (for identification purposes only).
For more information on actions suggested by the boycott campaign, please join one of the discussion groups linked on the top right-hand corner of this website.
Actions you can take: Since Israeli academic institutions (mostly state-controlled) and the vast majority of Israeli intellectuals and academics have either contributed directly to maintaining, defending or otherwise justifying the above forms of oppression, or have been complicit in them through their silence, we call upon our colleagues to comprehensively and consistently boycott all Israeli academic and cultural institutions as a contribution to the struggle to end Israel’s occupation, colonization and system of apartheid, by engaging in the following actions. We aim at the full implementation of all these steps. However, recognizing that different actions may be feasible and appropriate under the many different academic and political circumstances that pertain in US institutions, we urge our colleagues to undertake as many of the following initiatives as possible:
1. Support Palestinian academic and cultural institutions directly without requiring them to partner with Israeli counterparts as an explicit or implicit condition for such support;
2. Encourage your university and college administrations to institute funding for scholarship sand fellowships for Palestinian students;
3. Request your administration/president to issue a public statement censuring Israeli destruction of and interference with Palestinian schools and universities, archives and research centers, both in Gaza and throughout occupied Palestine.
4. Work toward the condemnation of Israeli policies by pressing for resolutions to be adopted by academic, professional and cultural associations and organizations;
5. Organize teach-ins or similar events with campus and community organizations at which the campaign for the economic, cultural and academic boycott of Israel can be fully and openly discussed;
6. Refrain from participation in any form of academic and cultural cooperation, collaboration or joint projects with Israeli institutions;
7. Advocate a comprehensive boycott of Israeli institutions at the national and international levels, including suspension of all forms of funding and subsidies to these institutions;
8. Promote divestment and disinvestment from Israel by academic institutions, and place pressure on your own institution to suspend all ties with Israeli universities, including collaborative projects, study abroad, funding and exchanges.
