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Across the country,
an increasing number of university students and faculty are coming together
in a movement reminiscent of past struggles against global injustice-a
campaign to divest from investment in Israel and companies engaged in
major trade with Israel. In the 1980s, university communities standing
in opposition to the South African apartheid regime carried on a hard-fought
campaign to call upon university endowments to divest from South Africa.
This divestment campaign, leading to not only university divestment, but
broader economic restrictions upon South Africa, is credited as being
widely influential in the international consensus that arose in opposition
to South African apartheid.
We face a similarly
immoral regime today. Israel has created for Palestinians an outright
apartheid regime, built on separation, oppression and dispossession. It
has violated numerous UN resolutions and committed war crimes in its attacks
upon the Palestinian people. Despite Israel's human rights record, our
government continues to support Israel with $4 billion in annual aid,
and numerous corporations-in which our universities invest as part of
their foundation portfolios-engage in trade with Israel, military and
nonmilitary. This trade and economic support allows the Israeli government
to continue its occupation of Palestinian land and the oppressive, apartheid
conditions under which Palestinians live.
Investment cannot
be seen as a mere economic transaction, devoid of social responsibility
and social importance. Money can be an instrument of support or a weapon
of oppression. As students, faculty and alumni, we believe that our universities
have a responsibility to take on social responsibility in their investments.
We call upon our university foundations, therefore, to divest from Israel
and companies doing business with Israel until its illegal occupation
of Palestinian land and its institution of apartheid conditions upon Palestinians
ceases. To that end, we will petition, demonstrate, educate and advocate,
calling for divestment from Israel and social responsibility from our
universities. The November 13, 2002 International Day of Action is part
of that campaign.
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