NEW JERSEY SOLIDARITY WELCOMES VICTORY OF FREEDOM OF SPEECH, LOOKS FORWARD TO CONFERENCE

July 17, 2003

NEWARK- New Jersey Solidarity, the host organizing group of the Third North American Conference of the Palestine Solidarity Movement, welcomes the news of today's victory for freedom of expression, as Governor Jim McGreevey has recognized New Jersey Solidarity's right to host the conference at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ, where it is a registered student organization.

New Jersey Solidarity member Charlotte Kates said, "It is about time that the Governor recognizes that students in the state of New Jersey have the right to freedom of speech and organization." The governor announced today following a meeting with Rutgers University President Richard McCormick in Newark, NJ, that he will respect the University's decision to recognize the conference as a student free speech issue, stating "This is America. In America, we have a right to free speech."

Student organizations, including the Islamic Society of Rutgers University, the Rutgers University Society of Arab Students, the Caellian, Students for Environmental Awareness, the Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority and Rutgers Acts for Peace and Justice, had called upon McCormick and McGreevey to "reject political baiting and attempts at repression of student organizations and the student community at Rutgers University." In addition, Palestine solidarity groups from across North America, such as the Palestine Solidarity Group of Vancouver, Al-Awda: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, the University of Massachussetts Palestine Action Coalition, and Students for Justice in Palestine - Yale University, had called upon McGreevey to step away from comments critical of the conference, stating that "the criminalization of student activism cannot be tolerated."

McGreevey's comments, made at a press appearance in Totowa, NJ, "continued to perpetuate the practices of stereotyping and criminalization that have marked the governor's treatment of our movement," said Kates. "The governor stated that we had been 'cleared' by the office of counterterrorism of promoting terrorism. We are a student political organization, targeted for our solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for national liberation. To connect us to 'terrorism' is absurd. The real terrorism is taking place with F-16s, Apache helicopters and Caterpillar bulldozers, perpetrated by the Israeli military upon the Palestinian people."

New Jersey Solidarity member Noel Winkler stated, "We are relieved to not have the pressure of a constant free speech battle throughout the conference preparation period. We are looking forward to organizing, promoting and further building the conference." The conference, scheduled for October 10-12 at the Douglass College Center, is expected to draw hundreds of student and community activists to discuss divestment from the state of Israel and corporations that do business with it, strategies for the Palestine solidarity movement, and provide historical and educational overviews of the Palestinian struggle for national liberation, the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes, and the connection between apartheid South Africa and apartheid Israel.

Winkler continued, "Nonetheless, we are concerned that McGreevey continued to state that the situation will be 'monitored'. This situation needs no monitoring. Our conference can and will take place as scheduled, and will bring our movement together for solidarity and action."