A GLOBAL CAMPAIGN FOR ETHICAL INVESTMENT
ON BEHALF OF PALESTINIAN HUMAN RIGHTS
AND A JUST AND VIABLE PEACE IN ISRAEL-PALESTINE
May 2008
An Ongoing Review of Diverse Approaches
by Groups and Individuals Worldwide
By the Palestine-Israel Action Group (piag_@mac.com),
a subcommittee of the Peace and Social
Concerns Committee of Ann Arbor Friends Meeting (Quakers).
The
campaign is not formally endorsed by the Ann Arbor Meeting.
n Church-
& Faith-based Organizations p.
1
n
Jewish &
Palestinian Groups
p. 8
n
Secular Groups & NGOs
p. 11
n Individuals
p. 19
n
Governmental-Political
p. 20
n
Universities
p. 21
CHURCH &
FAITH-BASED ORGANIZATIONS
WCC advocates selective divestment from US companies like Caterpillar that profit from the Occupation, and from Israeli companies that depend on settlements for materials and labor, or that produce military equipment used to violate Palestinian human rights.
Churches with investment funds have an opportunity to use those funds responsibly in support of peaceful solutions to conflict. “Economic pressure, appropriately and openly applied, is one such means of action. “ (Adopted 2/05; reaffirmed 8/06) (media@wcc-coe.org)
Sabeel
(a Jerusalem-based international organization representing Palestinian
Christians)
“There
is a spiritual dimension to all investment.”
1. Earning money through investment in companies whose products and services are used to violate International Law and human rights is equivalent to profiting from unlawful acts and the oppression of others.
2. Continuing such investments, once the facts are brought to our attention, constitutes enabling harm to innocent civilians under Occupation and condoning illegal settlement policies that lead to human rights violations.
Sabeel cites
Israeli human rights lawyer Shamai Leibovitz: “If the Jewish people are ever to
become ‘a light of all nations’ and return to their core values of justice and
human dignity, Israelis and Jews of conscience must call for effective measures
to end the occupation of millions of Palestinians. I believe that selective
economic pressure is the most effective way to end the brutal occupation.”
“The churches have exhausted all other options,” says Sabeel founder Naim Ateek, a Palestinian-Israeli Anglican priest. (See “Morally Responsible Investment: A Nonviolent Response to the Occupation,” 8/05.) (www.fosna.org)
Anglican
Church of England: General Synod, 2/06
Supported by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, the Synod overwhelmingly
votes to support “morally responsible investment in the Palestinian occupied territories and, in particular to disinvest from companies profiting from the illegal occupation, such as Caterpillar Inc, until they change their policies.” The Synod asks its Ethical Investment Advisory Group (EIAG) to engage Caterpillar in “intensive discussions . . . with a view to its withdrawing from supplying or maintaining either equipment or parts for use by the State of Israel in demolishing Palestinian homes.”
The Synod urges EIAG to visit Palestinian lands to see
recent house demolitions and “to give weight to
the illegality under
international law of the activities in which Caterpillar Inc.’s equipment is
involved.
”The Episcopal Bishop of Jerusalem urges action, asking the Synod if the church
must “wait until there are no homes and no trees for our people to wake up . . . ” (www.anglicancommunion.org/)
Anglican
Church of England: Virginia Water Parish, Guildford Diocese. 10/06
The
parish decides to implement the decision of the General Synod on its own. It withdraws its funds from its Church
of England investment account in order to disinvest from companies such as
Caterpillar that are profiting from Israel's occupation of Palestine. The Central Board of Finance (CBF),
which manages investment funds, has so far declined to implement the General
Synod's decision. "We are
simply doing what the local Church in Palestine and the General Synod has asked
us to do," says Vicar Stephen Sizer. "If the CBF will not withdraw
our money from Caterpillar, then we will do it for them. We are looking for an investment fund with a more
ethically sound policy." (info@imri.org.uk)
Anglican
Consultative Council. 5/05
Calls
for “active engagement” by Anglican communions worldwide to wrestle with
companies that support the occupation of Palestinian lands or violence against
innocent Israelis. It encourages
investment that supports the infrastructure of a future Palestinian State. (www.anglicancommunion.org/)
Anglican Church of Kenya, 7/05
Joins in urging movement toward divestment from companies whose activities contribute to the
occupation of Palestinian land or to violence against innocent Israelis. “You only have to go there and [you will] sympathize with the Palestinians,
especially when it comes to the separation wall. . . and the mistreatment of
the women and men at the roadblocks,” said
Bishop Gideon Ireri, speaking after the Kenyan synod backed the 5/05 call of
the Anglican Consultative Council. (www.episcopalchurch.org)
Anglican
Church of Canada, 11/05
The
Council of General Synod unanimously
passed a resolution asking the eco-justice committee, with the help of Kairos, a Canadian
ecumenical justice group, to research the activities of companies believed to
be contributing to violence in Israel and Palestine, as well as those contributing
to peace and economic stability in that region. The committee, along with the Financial Management
Development Investment Subcommittee, should “explore a range of socially responsible investment
strategies, including corporate engagement and positive investment or
divestment.” (anglicanjournal.com/132/01/canada15.html)
Ecumenical
Campaign to End the Illegal Occupation of Palestine: Support a Just Peace in
the Middle East. The campaign, begun in 2002, aims to mobilize member churches and
ecumenical partners of the World Council of Churches through advocacy, prayer,
building awareness of the issues and of churches' and secular groups' work in
addressing the conflict, and accompaniment of Israelis and Palestinians engaged
in nonviolent actions. The
Campaign calls for a boycott of all products from Jewish settlements and an
arms embargo until Israel withdraws from
the Occupied Territories and complies with UN resolutions. (www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/international/palestine/campaign-home.html)
Episcopalian
Executive Council (US), 10/05
EEC directs its Committee for Social Responsibility in Investments to undertake the following:
1. Corporate
engagement via dialogue and shareholder resolutions, as appropriate, to encourage companies to adopt socially
responsible practices that advance
positive changes in Israeli government policy and end the Occupation.
2. Urge
the Palestinian Authority to oppose violence as a means of resistance.
3.
“Positive investment” – encourage companies to invest in the economic
infrastructure of the West Bank and Gaza:
“A stable Palestinian state will make for a more secure Israel.” Seek opportunities, with others, to
make loans to “support economic justice and development in support of a future
Palestinian State.” Palestine,
like Israel, has a right to an economy that flourishes.
4. Urge
members of the Church to visit church partners and others in Israel and the
Palestinian Territories in order to understand the complexities of the conflict. (www.episcopalchurch.org/)
Evangelical
Lutheran Church of America (ELCA),
8/07
Evangelical
Lutherans, with nearly 5 million US members, back "exploration of the
feasibility of refusing to buy products produced in Israeli settlements," and of supporting the purchase of Palestinian
products, in measures adopted by The Churchwide Assembly, the denomination's
key legislative body. The Assembly calls for examination of the denomination's
"entire investment activity," excluding divestiture. These economic initiatives are part of
a decision to "recommit to the Churchwide Strategy for Engagement in
Israel and Palestine through awareness-building, accompaniment [visits with
Holy Land hosts], and advocacy." The initiative builds on the Peace Not
Walls campaign the Assembly adopted in 2005, and will be undertaken in
consultation with Evangelical Lutheran churches in Jordan and the Holy
Land.
(www.elca.org/news/Releases.asp?a=3718)
Interfaith Council for Peace and Justice
The Ann
Arbor, Michigan interfaith group, in 5/03
adopted a resolution that recognizes the US government’s complicity in
violations of human rights, and calls for
suspending military aid and arms sales to Israel. It asks the University of
Michigan, the city of Ann Arbor and members’ religious organizations to exert
their influence, and, along with individuals, to divest from companies that
sell arms or other military hardware to Israel. The goal is to bring about Israel’s compliance with UN
resolutions and the Geneva Convention.
(info@icpj.net)
Pax
Christi: Catholic International Peace Movement. 7/06
Pax
Christi announces support for a UK campaign aimed at multi-national companies
that profit from the Occupation, including Volvo, Caterpillar, Daewoo and
Sainsbury's. Australian Pax Christi convenor Fr. Claude Mostowik calls for the
campaign to expand as a worldwide boycott. (cathnews.com/news/607/60.php)
The 2006 General Assembly votes to continue its policy of economic engagement in the denomination’s work for peace in Israel-Palestine. The new resolution makes the geographic scope and the substantial reach of the project more explicit, urging that the church’s investments “as they pertain to Israel, Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the West Bank, be invested in only peaceful pursuits.” The resolution, overwhelmingly adopted, states that “the proper vehicle for achieving this goal” is the “customary corporate engagement process of the Committee on Mission Responsibility Through Investment (MRTI).” MRTI aims to persuade corporations to change their practices through correspondence, direct talks, proxy voting, shareholder resolutions, and if need-be through a recommendation for divestment. Rev. Gretchen Graf, Moderator of the GA Peacemaking Committee, affirms that MRTI “as a last resort” could recommend divestment to the next General Assembly in 2008 despite the absence of the words “phased selective divestment,” in this year’s resolution. That phrase in the 2004 GA document aroused the ire of organizations that considered it punitive toward Israel, although the phrase had drawn praise from organizations that believe it may persuade Israel to end its occupation more effectively than have decades of urgent requests.
The 2006
resolution asks MRTI to ”identify affirmative investment opportunities as they
pertain to Israel, Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the West Bank.” The Presbyterians also explicitly ask the entire church “to work through peaceful means” to end
the occupation, to end violence against civilians, and for the “creation of a
socially, economically, geographically, and politically viable and secure
Palestinian state, alongside an equally viable and secure Israeli state, both
of which have a right to exist.”
Finally, the GA supports “fair criticism” of the wall: “To the extent that the
security barrier violates Palestinian land . . . the barrier should be
dismantled and relocated."
.
(http://www.pcusa.org/worldwide/israelpalestine/resources/divestmentfaqpart2.pdf)
Presbyterian Church, USA,
Detroit Presbytery.
2/08.
Temporary Suspension of
Military Aid to Israel: The
Presbytery votes to ask the 2008 General Assembly to 1)reaffirm the right of
Israel to exist; 2)deplore suicide bombings and terror attacks; and
3) call for temporary
suspension of US military aid to Israel until it complies with the Arms Export
Control Act and the Foreign Assistance Act. These laws prohibit the use of US
weapons against civilians or civilian infrastructure and bar aid to countries
that engage in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally
recognized human rights.
General Assemblies have repeatedly
addressed denial of aid to Israel and have called for an end to further
settlements and land appropriation. Yet, since 1948, Israel has driven
Palestinians from their homes, lands and towns, confined them to refugee camps,
destroyed their commerce with blockades, and built a wall that divides
families, separates children from school and sick persons from hospitals. It has arrested and imprisoned people
without trial and created fear and loss of life through random military attacks
on civilians. Christian
communities are being eliminated. US military aid, now over 10 million dollars
a day, is crucial to the continuance of these human rights violations. The Presbytery deplores all violence,
including suicide bombings and other terrorist acts, as well as violence
perpetrated by an occupying army. Heeding the call of the prophets, of Jesus,
and of the denomination's own Book of Order, the Presbytery affirms that all
human life is precious. The cycle of violence must
stop.
(Middle East Work Group (MEWG) of the Presbytery of Detroit
<http://mewg.org/overture218/>)
Presbyterian
Church of Scotland. 5/06
The
General Assembly, meeting in Edinburgh, calls on European authorities and the
World Council of Churches to clearly identify products from Israeli settlements
in the West Bank “to enable consumers to make informed choices.” The
General Assembly has no investments directly relevant to its concerns about
Israel and the Palestinians. (ekklesia.co.uk/content/news_syndication/article_060524cofs.s)
Religious Society of Friends (Quakers): American
Friends Service Committee (AFSC).
3/08.
AFSC is affiliated with the Religious Society of Friends
(Quakers). The AFSC Board adopts
an "investment screen" barring investments in companies that provide
products or services (including financial services) used by Israeli governmental
or military bodies or Israeli or Palestinian organizations or groups "to
facilitate or undertake violent acts against civilians or violations of
international law." The
screen would bar investment in companies that help maintain Israel's military
occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, or that help
maintain and expand Israeli settlements or the Separation Wall. The Board
states, "We take this action as a matter of conscience and an expression
of our unwillingness to remain complicit with violence and oppression occurring
daily in Palestine and Israel, which is contrary to all that we know to be true
and right." <www.afsc.org/israel-palestine/default.htm>
Religious
Society of Friends (Quakers): Atlanta Meeting (Georgia), 7/06, and Olympia
Meeting (Washington State).
8/06
“By
using US-supplied weapons to attack Gaza and Lebanon, Israel
is violating the terms of the US Arms Export Control Act and Foreign Assistance
Act. The Arms Export Control Act restricts the use of US weapons
to legitimate self-defense and internal policing; US weapons cannot be used to
attack civilians in offensive operations.
The Foreign Assistance Act prohibits US aid of any kind to a country that
routinely kills civilians as a result of its military operations. … We urge the
President and Congress to stop all foreign assistance and military equipment
exports to Israel until it ceases military attacks outside of its
internationally recognized borders.” (atlanta.quaker.org)
(olyfriends.homestead.com)
Roman
Catholic: Mercy Investment Program, Sisters of Mercy, Maryknoll Sisters,
Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia, Sisters of Loretto and Jewish Voice for
Peace. 4/05
The
Sisters’ Caterpillar shareholder resolution asked Cat to investigate whether
its sale of bulldozers to Israel violates the company’s own code of conduct: “It is a matter of public record that since September 2000,
the Israeli government has used Caterpillar equipment to destroy more than
3000 homes, hundreds of public buildings and private commercial properties and
vast areas of agricultural land,” uprooting “hundreds of thousands of olive
trees as well as orchards of dates, prunes, lemons and oranges causing
widespread economic hardship and environmental degradation in rural areas of Palestine.” The resolution
received a 3% vote at the shareholders’ meeting --“a remarkable success,” said
JVP. The goal was "to put
this issue front and center in the minds of the Caterpillar board.”
(sistersofmercy.org) (iccr.org/)
Roman
Catholic: National Coalition of American Nuns. 8/07
The coalition, founded in 1969 for individual nuns dedicated
to issues of social justice and human rights, backs municipal boycotts of
Caterpillar machinery and a boycott of Israeli goods at its August 2007 board meeting, stating: "Because Caterpillar (CAT)
bulldozers are used as weapons of war in the Occupied Territories in violation
not only of the U. S. Arms Export Control Act, but also of international law
and the corporation’s own code of conduct, we call for divestment from Caterpillar, municipal
boycotts of CAT machinery, and a consumer boycott of other CAT
products." Further, "We
call on the U. S. government to begin at once to withdraw from its occupation
in Iraq and to withdraw support of the Israeli occupation in the West Bank and
Gaza. We encourage a boycott of Israeli
goods in order to hasten a more just civil order in the Holy Land." (www.journalnow.com)
Roman Catholic: Sisters of Loretto.
As shareholders in Caterpillar, Inc., the Sisters
community filed a resolution in 2004, asking Caterpillar to stop providing arms
to Israel. A Sister addressed the annual
shareholders meeting, telling the executives, “You understand the
implications of improvement in clean emissions, equal employment opportunity,
environmental impact of mining and logging. But with sales to the Israeli Army through the Department of
Defense, you have stepped up Caterpillar's role in the public arena. Caterpillar
bulldozers are tools of war now and
Caterpillar is an arms dealer, sharing in responsibility for the horrendous use
of those weapons.” The resolution
won 4% of the shareholders’ votes, assuring its reconsideration in 2005. (catdestroyshomes.org) (lorettocommunity.org)
South African Council of
Churches (SACC). 5/05
The Council, representing
millions of South Africans, endorses the call for boycott issued by the
Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. The endorsement was joined by over a
hundred prominent South African academics. (www.aidc.org.za/?q=book/view/586)
Unitarian-Universalist
Association of Congregations.
6/02
The 2002 General Assembly of the
Unitarian Universalist Association opposes Israeli settlements, land
confiscation, house demolitions, and other violations of international law, as
well as "all attacks on civilians, whether by suicide bombers, F-16 or
helicopter gunships, or any other means." The US government "is responsible for a significant
portion of arms sales to this over-armed region" and the GA calls on
the US to "suspend all transfers of those types of weapons and munitions
used to commit human rights violations until Israel is clearly in compliance with the terms for arms transfers as expressed in United
States law and bilateral agreements."
The Assembly urges UU
congregations to become educated on Middle East issues, to support Israeli
peace activists, to give encouragement to Jewish Americans and others who
support Israel but oppose
its occupation of Palestine, and
to support a central United Nations role in seeking a comprehensive,
just, and lasting peace. (uua.org/socialjustice/socialjustice/statements/13983.shtml)
United Church of
Canada (Presbyterian, Methodist,
United Church of Christ). 8/06
The UCC General Council
adopts a Pro-Peace Investment Strategy “to
invite the
membership, congregations, and organizations of The United Church of Canada to
invest in companies that contribute to peace and a secure and economically viable
Palestinian state alongside a secure and economically viable State of Israel”
and to “make financial investments, as they pertain to Israel, Gaza, East
Jerusalem, and the West Bank, with . . . companies that are engaged only in
peaceful pursuits in the region.” UCC is Canada’s largest Protestant denomination. It
rules out investment in companies supporting the occupation and settlements, as
well as in firms serving “any government or organization that refuses to
recognize the legitimate rights of the State of Israel, including its right to
exist as a Jewish state.” The
denomination denounces acts of violence
perpetrated against persons on all sides of the conflict. It commits to raising one million
dollars to support projects of groups working for peace in Palestine and
Israel.
(www.united-church.ca/news/2006/0818.shtm)
United
Church of Christ (UCC), Twenty-fifth General Synod. 7/05
The
Use of Economic Leverage in Promoting Peace in the Middle East: Ask pension boards, conferences, local
churches and members to use economic leverage: advocating reallocation of US foreign aid to constrain
Middle East militarization; contributing to groups and partners committed to
nonviolent resolution of the conflict; challenging corporations’ practices that
gain from the conflict and occupation; and divesting from companies that refuse
to change these practices. Educate
congregants about how economic leverage may help support the development of
Palestine and Israel as two independent, secure, economically viable
states. Continue dialogue with
Jewish, Christian and Muslim partners to work for Israel-Palestine peace. (ucc.org)
United Methodist Church: General Conference.
4/08
The General Conference of the denomination's 7.9 million
members will consider calls from eight regional conferences and from UMC social
justice bodies to consider ethical investment approaches at its session in Fort
Worth, Texas, 4/08. Establishment
of a churchwide "socially responsible investment task force" is
proposed by the UMC Church and Society Board (9/07), calling for "targeted
divestment with businesses directly involved with the oppression of
Palestinians and the humanitarian crisis in Darfur," reports Rev. Steve Sprecher, chair of the C & S
board.
A resolution titled
"Divestment and Caterpillar" will also go before the General Conference, asking UMC members, churches, regional
conferences, and pension agencies to divest from the company. James Winkler, UMC public affairs head,
met with CAT's CEO Jim Owens in 1/08 to convey opposition to sales to Israel of
CAT equipment used for "illegal destruction of Palestinian homes, orchards
and olive groves ...and to clear Palestinian land for illegal Israeli
settlements, segregated roads and the Separation barrier." The UMC pension board reportedly holds
$5 million in Caterpillar shares. (http://www.ekklesia.co.uk)
United
Methodist Church:
Baltimore-Washington Conference. 6/07
The Conference joins a significant number of regional
Methodist bodies in calling for a vigorous response to the occupation. It states that "our General Rules hold
us first accountable to 'Doing no harm.'" But "financing the
oppression and violence caused by the military occupation...with our
investments harms every Israeli and Palestinian, including Christian, child,
woman and man." The Conference joins "a
proven means of non-violent protest to actively promote a peaceful resolution to the political violence [that is] harming,
maiming and killing Israelis and Palestinians" -- violence that in fact
"violates Christian principles, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
and international law." The Conference calls upon Methodist boards of
pensions and health benefits, administrators, and financial councilors to
determine which corporations supported by Methodist investments profit from the
Occupation, as by demolishing homes, constructing the wall, or supporting
violence against Israelis or Palestinians. They are to engage such corporations to end such practices
and, if they fail, they are to sell the investments and notify all member
churches. The Conference concludes
with the prayer that these actions "will give hope to Palestinians and
Israelis...including our Christian brothers and sisters in the region who have
not been forgotten." (UMC.org)
United Methodist Church: California-Nevada Conference. 6/06
The Conference calls on Methodist churches, boards and
foundations "to review and identify companies that profit from sales of
products or services that are used as tools of occupation or oppression against
the Palestinians by the State of Israel and divest from these companies."
It urges the 2008 General Conference to take similar action on behalf of the
entire United Methodist denomination in the United States. (UMC.org)
United Methodist Church: California-Pacific Conference. 6/06
The Conference affirms "Israel's right to exist within
permanent, recognized and secure borders, and Palestinians' rights to
self-determination and formation of a viable state, whether it is through a
one-state or two-state solution." It cites the denomination's Book of
Resolutions on "Avoidance by Divestment" that prohibits investment in enterprises that have morally
reprehensible policies or practices.
It calls on all who are investing United Methodist funds to review and
identify companies that profit from sales or services that harm Palestinians or
Israelis and to divest from these companies. It supports other religious partners, such as the
Presbyterian Church (USA) and the United Church of Christ, who are also
divesting., and calls on the 2008 General Conference to take similar action. (UMC.org)
United Methodist Church: New England Conference. 6/07.
Resolution on “Divesting from Companies that are
Supporting, in a Significant Way, the Israeli
Occupation of Palestinian Territories.” Ending
the Israeli occupation is a stated goal of The United Methodist Church, says
Bishop Peter Weaver. The
settlements and Israel’s wall on Palestinian land violate the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, the Geneva Conventions, UN resolutions, and the
2003 Roadmap. The Church
affirms the right of Christians,
Jews, and Muslims to
freedom of movement in the Holy Land and the maintenance of Jerusalem as an
open city for people of all three faiths.
The Divestment Task Force, established in 2005, communicated with key companies found
to support the Occupation. Twenty
companies have now been placed
on a divestment list and shared
with Methodist churches and investment managers. They are Lockheed Martin,
Blockbuster, Alliant Tech Systems, Boeing, Caterpillar, Cement Roadstone
Holdings, General Dynamics, General Electric, Globecomm Systems, Magal Security
Systems, Motorola, Northrop Grumman, Oshkosh Truck Corp, Raytheon, Silicon
Graphics, TEREX, United Technologies, Veolia Environnement, ITT, and Volvo. "Selective divestment is
consistent with the United Methodist commitment to a just and sustainable peace
for all the people of the Middle East," says William Aldrich, of the
Divestment Task Force. Divestment offers "a tangible way of working toward
this goal." (www.neumc.org)
United Methodist Church: North Central New York Conference. 6/06.
The Conference cites the destructiveness of the Occupation
and the resulting hopelessness, frustration, and humanitarian crisis, adding
that "targeted assassinations, suicide bombings and attacks against
civilians by both Israelis and Palestinians heighten the fear and suffering of
all." Meanwhile, "people in the United States, through their taxes,
provide over $10 million per day (IfAmericansKnew.org) in economic and military
assistance to the State of Israel, which allows for the building of bypass
roads and settlements that are illegal according to the Fourth Geneva
Convention." The Conference
calls on Methodist churches and boards to identify companies that are
supporting the occupation "in a significant way" or causing harm to
Palestinians or Israelis and to "begin the phased selective process using
dialogue, shareholder actions, and as a last resort divestment." (UMC.org)
United Methodist Church: Northern Illinois Conference. 6/07
The Conference calls on the U.S. Congress, the Israeli
Knesset, and the Palestinian Parliament to reject aggression and violence, to
respect the equality and dignity of all the region's people, and to forge
solutions based on the principles of international law and human rights. It rejects terrorism and acts of provocation that lead
to violence, and it believes that security for one people can never be achieved
by denying security to others. The
Conference aims to make all United Methodists and other Americans aware of
their unwitting participation in human rights violations that violate Christian principles and international law.
Palestinians are in crisis, with
soaring unemployment, malnutrition, restrictions on movement, denial of medical
care, denial of access to agricultural lands, humiliation at checkpoints, and
extended lockdowns called curfews. Nearly two million live in poverty, with no
access to their own lands, while Israel continues to take land and water for
ever-expanding settlements, Israeli-only roadways, and construction of a giant
wall and fence that is confiscating a significant portion of the Palestinian
West Bank.
The Conference sends a
resolution to the 2008 General Conference, calling on the United Methodist
Church to begin a process of phased, selective divestment (beginning with
dialogue) from multinational corporations profiting from violence in the area, from demolition of Palestinian homes, construction of the
wall, confiscation of land, and continuing the Occupation, as well as
divestment from institutions that perpetrate or support violence against
Israelis. The Church should review its investments, evaluate alternative means
of economic intervention, and invest in companies that "make a positive
contribution" to its basic social goals, rather than profiting from
illegal activities. (www/umc.org/nilconf/)
United Methodist
Church: Oregon-Idaho Conference.
6/07
UMC "should not profit from
the illegal (as defined by UN Resolution 242) Israeli occupation of Palestinian
land or the destruction of Palestinian homes, orchards, and lives," says
the O-I Conference in a resolution sent to the 2008 General Conference. UMC's Standing Resolution on Investment
Ethics prohibits UMC investment in enterprises with policies or practices
deemed "morally reprehensible" -- historically, liquor, tobacco,
gambling, and, often, major military contractors. Under the UMC policy of "Avoidance by Divestment,"
some church investors divested from companies doing business in South Africa
under apartheid, making public
their action as a moral statement.
In this tradition, the Oregon-Idaho Conference proposes that UMC boards
of pensions and finance "review and identify companies that profit from
sales of products or services that cause harm to Palestinians or Israelis and
divest from these companies." (www.umoi.net/docbuilder/journal2007/ -
actions/resolutions p.172)
United
Methodist Church: Virginia. 6/05
Affirms
Israel's right to exist within permanent, recognized, and secure borders, and
Palestinians' right to self-determination and the formation of a viable
state.
The Conference calls upon the United Methodist Board of
Pensions to review its investments and undertake a process of phased,
selective divestment from any
multinational corporations that are profiting from the illegal demolition of
Palestinian homes, destruction of the Palestinian economy, and confiscation of
Palestinian land.
(UMC.org)
York
and Hull District Methodist Synod, England. 4/05.
Recommend
to the UK Methodist Conference that it follow the lead of the World Council of
Churches and Presbyterian Church, undertaking a review of all investments under
its control, with a view to divesting from
any corporations or activities that support the illegal occupation of the West
Bank and Gaza Strip. “International
Law is the basis of the Conference resolution.
This fact should be well publicized.”
JEWISH AND PALESTINIAN ORGANIZATIONS
European Jews for a Just Peace (EJJP)
“No Other Way,” adopted at the 2005 annual plenary,
calls for economic pressure targeted at the Occupation. The
rationale for these measures highlights: 1) Their nonviolent nature and 2) The
fact that the need to resort to these steps is a result of the failure of other
means. Opposing the Israeli
occupation cannot be construed as anti-Semitic.
Under “Divestment Actions,” EJJP calls for pressure by
boycott and information campaigns on companies, institutions, organizations,
and individuals that profit from
involvement in or contribution to the Occupation, such as Caterpillar, Intel,
and Soda Club. It includes Israeli
companies that produce military equipment used to violate Palestinian human
rights, and also universities, research institutions, and individuals that
contribute to the perpetuation of the Occupation.
The purchase of Israeli arms and weapons should be banned,
and governments are asked to stop selling Israel arms used to continue the
Occupation. Settlement products
should be boycotted, based on the Gush Shalom list, as well as products with
labels that do not differentiate between settlement products and those made in
Israel.
(ejjp.org)
Gush Shalom
“Peace Bloc” in Hebrew, Gush is
a highly active Israeli peace organization that started an ongoing National
Boycott of Settlements’ Products in 1997,
providing a list of products produced in settlements’ industrial parks to tens
of thousands of Israeli households on request. The list is constantly revised
and is used by international groups seeking such information.
(gush-shalom.org)
1. Selective divestment from companies that profit from the Occupation, e.g., Caterpillar, and from
Israeli companies that depend on settlements for materials or labor or that produce military equipment used to violate Palestinian human rights
2.
Reminds churches with investment funds that they have an opportunity to use
those funds responsibly in support of peaceful solutions to conflict. Economic pressure is one such means of
action. Calls for churches to:
A.
Exert pressure on companies to discontinue business that supports the
occupation.
B.
When pressure fails, divest from such companies.
(lucia@icahd.org)
Jewish Voice for Peace, US
The
group includes American Jews and Israeli peace activists. It supports the
Presbyterian Church’s “selective divestment from
companies, including Caterpillar, that profit from Israel’s occupation of the
West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem and from Israeli companies that use
settlements as a source for materials and labor or that produce military
equipment used to violate Palestinian human rights. General
divestment from Israel itself is not now advised; rather: target the Occupation
and the Israeli military complex that
sustains it.
JVP
counters Caterpillar’s claims that the company is not involved with Israeli
violence because it does not sell its house-wrecking equipment directly to the
IDF. In fact, the company’s
bulldozers are sold to Israel through the US Foreign Military Sales Program (as
Cat CEO Jim Owens wrote JVP in 2003).
JVP
notes that US military aid since 1949 “represents the largest transfer of
funds from one country to another in history.” However, by law, 75% of
US military aid to Israel must go to US corporations, so US companies are major
financial beneficiaries of the Occupation. (www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org)
Jewish Voice for Peace. Germany 8/07
Protestors demonstrated against
settlement food products during
"Israel Week" at a Berlin department store, Galeria Kaufhof. The protestors, joined by Middle East
Workshop Berlin and Solidarity with Palestine, targeted Amnon and Tamar
(spices). (www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/894796.html)
Jews for a Just Peace, Vancouver, Canada
8/06
There
is no such thing as a benign occupation. Appeals to the Israeli government to end
their harsh treatment of Palestinian have simply not worked. “That’s why
stronger measures are called for, measures such as selective divestment . . .”
Israel’s occupation is being
institutionalized and made permanent.
As Jeff Halper says: “Neither security nor terrorism are really the
issue; Israel’s policies of annexation are based on a pro-active claim to the
entire country . . . Terrorism on all sides is wrong . . . but to demand
that resistance cease while an occupation is being made permanent is
unconscionable.”
“In Gaza, the siege continues. Israel has kidnapped elected Palestinian officials, shelled
and bombed, conducted military operations resulting in civilian deaths, and
destroyed civilian infrastructure -- power grids, bridges, government buildings
and more. Still understood as Occupation under international law, Israel
controls Gazan airspace, borders and ports.
“We support the views of the
prominent Israeli writer, the late Yeshayahu Leibovitz, who wrote: ‘We must
free ourselves from the curse of dominating another people.’” (www.jewsforajustpeace.com)
Matzpun (the Hebrew word
for "Conscience"). 10/06
This group of Israeli citizens
and Jews of other nationalities "whose families have been victims of
racism and genocide in past generations, and who feel they cannot remain
silent" says that Palestinians have been imprisoned in ghettos, while the
Israeli government reduces their existence to bare survival and depopulates
their territories. Matzpun asks
people everywhere to "organize and boycott Israeli industrial and
agricultural exports and goods, as well as leisure tourism, in the hope that it
will have the same positive result that the boycott of South Africa had on
Apartheid." They ask
individuals to start practicing the boycott on a personal level, telling
shopkeepers why they will not buy Israeli products. They also urge organizing to
press governments to end commercial ties with Israel and to rescind
preferential economic treaties. Matzpun's online appeal can
also be circulated. (www.matzpun.com/)
New Profile
An Israeli
peace group, active with army Refusers, women’s groups, and other peace groups,
2/05, New Profile “opposes the Occupation on three counts: 1.
Its destruction of Palestinian life, society, land, and property. 2. Its role in maintaining militarism
in Israel. 3. Its erosion of
Israel’s socio-economic and moral fabric.”
“We
therefore seek non-violent means of ending this catastrophic Occupation. One such means is using economic
sanctions to pressure the government to change its policy. To this end New Profile welcomes and
supports selective divestment aimed at divesting from companies that contribute
to the continuation of the Occupation by supplying arms, other equipment, or
staff . . . [E]nding the occupation is not only to the benefit of the
Palestinians but also necessary for the welfare of Israel, its youth, and
future generations. Over 20,000
Israeli soldiers have died in its wars since 1948. Enough.” (www.newprofile.org)
Not in My Name (NIMN)
NIMN supports Selective Divestment as a Tool to Oppose
the Occupation. This
predominantly Jewish US group stated in 1/05, “We continue to add our voices to the growing anti-Occupation
movement and make it clear that Israel neither speaks nor acts in the name of
all Jews.”
“[T]he Occupation is
destroying Israeli society by increasing poverty, violence, and insecurity.
Therefore actions that oppose the Occupation are, in fact, pro-Israeli. Furthermore,
we believe that such actions are in keeping with our vision of a Judaism that
is based on the principle of justice.”
“We believe that the Israelis and Palestinians deserve a
chance to live together in peace and we support self-determination for both
peoples. We oppose the obstacles
that prevent the creation of a just and lasting peace, and believe that the
Occupation and the U.S. support for it are primary obstacles. We also oppose
such things as the illegal Jewish-only settlements and bypass roads in the
Occupied Palestinian Territories, home demolitions, all forms of collective
punishments, and extrajudicial assassinations. We also oppose the Wall that
imprisons entire Palestinian villages and separates Palestinians from their
farmlands, schools, religious and economic centers, and their water . . .
Well-designed
divestment campaigns can help focus public discourse on the Occupation. They
can also have a positive material impact, as has been shown by such projects as
the grape boycott to support the United Farm Workers and the opposition to
South African apartheid.”
“Therefore, NIMN urges its members and supporters to investigate and actively support selective divestment and boycott campaigns that target corporations that profit from the Occupation.” (nimn.org)
Palestinian
Civil Society (170 organizations) 7/05:
“Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel Until it Complies
with International Law and Universal Principles of Human Rights”
1. South Africa apartheid is a historical
precedent
2. End the Occupation and dismantle the
wall
3. Recognize the rights of the
Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel
4. Palestinians’ right of return re: UN
resolution 194
(www.badil.org)
Palestine Solidarity Campaign - UK: Sports Boycott. 2007
The PSC coalition seeks an international sporting boycott against Israeli teams until Israel ends the
Occupation. With petitions, lobbying, and demonstrations at
British stadiums, PSC demands "Fair Play for Palestinians" and asks
football associations worldwide to "Kick Israeli Apartheid out of
football!" Jews for Boycott of
Israeli Goods and other groups support this campaign. (www.palestinecampaign.org)
Palestinian Filmmakers, Artists and Cultural Workers
Call for a Cultural Boycott. 8/06
Artists and filmmakers of good
conscience around the world are asked to cancel all exhibitions and other
cultural events that are scheduled to
occur in Israel and to “speak out against the current Israeli war crimes and
atrocities,” as they did in boycotting South African art institutions. The
group asks the international community
“to join us in the boycott of Israeli film festivals, Israeli public
venues, and Israeli institutions supported by the government, and to end all cooperation with these cultural and
artistic institutions that to date have refused to take a stand against the
Occupation, the root cause for this colonial conflict.” A goal of the campaign is to “appeal to the Israeli people to
give up their silence, to abandon their apathy, and to face up to their
responsibility in the destruction and
killing their elected government is wreaking.” People can endorse this call by sending an email with name,
position and country to <pal.filmmakers@gmail.com>
Architects
and Planners for Justice in Palestine,
2/06
This
British group calls for an economic boycott of the Israeli construction
industry. They protest the building of Israeli settlements and
the Wall in the Occupied Territories. Architects and others working on Israeli
projects in the occupied territories are “complicit in social, political and
economic oppression.” The
“construction disciplines are being used to promote an apartheid system of
environmental control.” A leader of the group, architectural critic Charles
Jenckes, told The Independent, ”I understand fully that security is
the problem for Israel and they have the right to protect themselves. But this is not the solution. It
is an extremist measure which foments extremism, by incarcerating and
intimidating Palestinians.” The group may target Israeli-made
construction materials and Israeli architects and construction companies.
(news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article344510.ece)
ASN
Bank, Holland, 11/06
This
Dutch Bank announced that it would end its relationship with all companies that
benefit from Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory, including the French
multi-national firm Veolia Transport, involved in a light rail system that aims
to connect illegal settlements with Israeli cities. (Haaretz 12-3-06)
British
Doctors, 5/07
130
British doctors call for a boycott of the Israeli Medical Association and
its expulsion from the World Medical
Association.
Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine.
12/05
CJPP, based
in Quebec, launches a campaign of “boycott, divestment, and sanctions, to force
Israel to respect international law,” stating, “We must stop believing in the
false pronouncements of peace of the Israeli State and in the roadmap of its US
sponsor. Because, in practice, under
the cover of the hyper-showcased Gaza 'disengagement,' Israel is moving ahead
with a much more significant expansion of its settlements in the West Bank, and continues the illegal construction of its apartheid
wall, gradually reducing the occupied Palestinian territories into a disconnected
patchwork of mini-bantustans.” The
campaign will cover 1) the boycott of Israeli products and products of
companies that are contributing to the occupation, 2) the retrieval of
investments from these companies, and 3) sanctions against the Israeli State,
starting with opposition to the Canada-Israel free trade agreement. The targets
initially identified by the CJPP for Phase One are Caterpillar and Israeli wines.
(cjpp.org/}
Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). 5/06
The Ontario division of Canada’s largest union,
representing 200,000 workers, voted in 5/06 to support the international campaign of boycott, divestment,
and sanctions until Israel recognizes “the Palestinian people’s inalienable
right to self-determination” and “the right of Palestinian refugees to return
to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.” The group asks the Canadian Labor
Congress to “join us in lobbying against the apartheid-like practices of the
Israeli state and call for the immediate dismantling of the wall.” CUPE will develop an education campaign
about the political and economic support of Canada for these practices.
(www.cupe.on.ca/)
Collectif
Urgence Palestine (CUP) (Swiss). 2005-2006
CUP protests the “Judization of Jerusalem” by boycotting Connex, a French company hired to run
a light railway system connecting Jewish-only settlements in Jerusalem. In 3/06, CUP protested a contract for
Connex to operate public transport services in Geneva, stating: “Switzerland,
as depository of the Geneva Conventions, should not deal with companies that
violate international law and support Israeli Apartheid in Palestine.” In 2005, CUP petitioned the Swiss parliament
to nullify the purchase of Israeli military equipment worth 150 million Swiss
francs. In May 2006, CUP hosted an
international conference with ECCP: “For a Just Peace in Palestine and Israel:
Enforce International Law!” which called for divestment and boycott.
(www.urgencepalestine.ch)
Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU).
10/04
The Congress, representing 1.2 million workers, calls for a
comprehensive boycott of Israel as championed by a coalition including Landless
People's Movement, Physicians for Human Rights, South African NGO Coalition.
The call was led by the Palestine Solidarity Committee. In 6/06 COSATU representative Patrick
Craven says the trade union’s policy is to support the Palestinian struggle for
freedom because his own people in South Africa were also forced to fight a
war of independence using similar tactics against harsh oppression.
(www.aidc.org.za/?q=book/view/586)
Dance Europe
This London-based dance
magazine, with a circulation of 17,500, joins
the cultural boycott. “We are opposed to the occupation,” says
advertising director Naresh Kaul. Dance
Europe screens its ads: “If any company in Israel cooperates with us by adding
a disclaimer saying it is opposed to the occupation, settlements and everything
else, we will cooperate with them.”
The magazine prints Israeli ads if the
advertiser includes a statement saying the firm disapproves of the occupation. (www.danceeurope.net)
Edinburgh International
Film Festival. 8/06
The Festival returned a donation to the Israeli Embassy and
cancelled several Israeli films). The Israeli donation was to underwrite the attendance of
Israeli director Yoav Shamir at the showing of his documentary “Five Days,”
about the withdrawal of Israel from Gaza.
The festival decided to show the film nevertheless and offered to fund Shamir’s
expenses itself. Seven Israeli
films were cancelled of the eighteen originally scheduled for screening. Festival artistic director Christophe
Postic explained, “(T)he war in
Lebanon changed the picture. We couldn’t present only Israeli films for three
days and ignore what is happening.”
(www.ynetnews.com/articles)
European
Coordinating Committee of NGOs on the Question of Palestine (ECCP), 7/05
Members of the civil society of EU-member states
petition their governments, the EU Council, and the UN “to take political and
economical measures, including sanctions,
to prevent Israel from continuing the construction of the wall and to force it
to respect the International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion” [which ruled
that the Wall on Palestinian soil is unlawful]. They urge their governments to
cease military exchanges and agreements with Israel, to provide no aid in
construction of the Wall, to honor their commitment to the Fourth Geneva
Convention and UN Resolutions, and to suspend the EU-Israel Association
Agreement.
(eccp@skynet.be)
FAWU - Food and Allied Workers Union, South Africa. 1/07
The union condemns South African retailers for importing
produce from Israel, saying "experience in the apartheid South Africa era
should have taught us to set the standard when it comes to condemning racist,
oppressive behaviour." Union
head K. Masemola says Israel produces avocadoes, for example, under
"slave-like conditions," using child labor--forbidden under International Labor Organization (ILO)
conventions.
(fawu-media-releases@google
groups.com)
Global Exchange
This international human rights organization working for
social, economic, and environmental justice says Palestinians in Israel
“live as third class citizens, facing legal, economic, and social
discrimination. In the
occupied territories, Israel continues to subject the Palestinians there to
home demolitions, closures and checkpoints, extrajudicial detentions and
assassinations, immobilizing curfews, and countless other daily abuses and
forms of oppression. The system of apartheid that Israel has developed closely
resembles that which South Africa once had. Apartheid in South Africa was
eventually abolished in large part because of an international grassroots
movement to stop financial support of the apartheid regime.” They add: “Through divestment
(stopping capital investment in companies that do business in Israel) and
boycott (not buying Israeli products) we can bring justice to the Israelis and
Palestinians as well.” (statement updated 8/23/05)
(www.globalexchange.org)
Global
Palestine Solidarity (GPS). 2/07
Palestine
Solidarity groups from Europe, Canada, and Australia start a coordinated
"conflict diamond" campaign.
Valentine's Day 2007 marked a partial roll-out, with groups such as
Ireland-PSM contacting retail jewelers associations, requesting "Israeli
Free" diamonds for consumers who want to avoid diamonds that help
support the Israeli economy and illegal occupation of Palestinian land, including "the creeping ethnic
cleansing" of East Jerusalem, the detention of over 10,000 Palestinian
prisoners, many without charge, including juveniles, and dozens of
democratically elected Palestinian lawmakers
and ministers," said Sean Clinton, the Irish spokesperson.(sc3@bds-palestine.net)
Human Rights Watch. 12/04
HRW reports that
the Israeli military uses the D9 bulldozer as its primary weapon to raze
Palestinian homes, destroy agriculture, and shred roads in violation of the
laws of war and international human rights laws. The group urges the company to cease D9 sales that go to the
Israeli military
Caterpillar’s
CEO claims the firm lacks “the
practical ability or legal right to determine how our products are used after
they are sold.” HRW says this
stance ignores international standards on corporate social responsibility. Since 2003, the United Nations has been
developing standards for corporations. The “UN Norms on the Responsibilities
of Transnational Corporations and Other Business Enterprises with Regard to
Human Rights” states that companies should not “engage in or benefit from”
violations of international human rights or humanitarian law and that companies “shall further seek to
ensure that the goods and services they provide will not be used to abuse human
rights.” (HRW.org)
The Interfaith Group for Morally Responsible
Investment (IMRI)-UK
This consortium sees “no prospect for peace without the
intervention of the international community.” They support the decision
of the Synod of the Anglican Church of England, 2/06, to commence disinvestment
from companies that support the illegal occupation. IMRI asks individual
Anglican parishes to shift their investment funds away from Caterpillar. IMRI members include concerned
Anglicans, and the Amos Trust, Friends of Al Aqsa, Interpal, Jews for Justice
for Palestinians, Just Peace-UK, the Palestinian Return Centre, and Pax
Christi. (info@imriorg.uk; stephen.sizer@btinternet.com)
Irish Academics tell EU: "Halt financial support
to Israeli academic institutions." 9/06.
"Israel appears impervious to moral appeals from
world leaders and to longstanding United Nations resolutions" to end the Occupation, say 61 Irish academics. (haaretz.com/hasen/spages/766389.html)
Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU). 7/07.
The ICTU biennial conference adopts
motions to "actively and vigorously" promote a policy of boycott
and divestment. The Congress, representing trade unions and workers from all
sectors of industry and employment throughout the island of Ireland,
criticizes the British and Irish governments and the European Union for the
failed policy of "constructive engagement," which is, in effect "appeasement
of the Israeli aggression and territorial expansionism." The
EU has failed to end preferential trading status with Israel although
"(t)he litany of human rights abuses, atrocities
and war crimes should long ago have led to the ending of the agreement."
They note that the European Parliament has already on two separate
occasions called on the EU Council of Ministers to take this action. ICTU
will register direct complaints to its governments and to the EU and will seek
to mobilize EU-wide trade union action. The Congress's statement contains an
eloquent and powerful summary of Israel's oppressive treatment of
Palestinians. (www.pacbi.org/boycott_news_more.php?id=
A557_0_1_0_M)
ISM Italy. 2/06.
A huge inflatable snake floated on the River Po during
the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. It
was launched by the Italian branch of ISM (International Solidarity Movement),
citing Israel’s refusal to comply with the 2004 International Court of Justice
ruling on the illegality of the Wall. The creature, designed by artist Piero
Gilardi, bore the slogan “Free
Palestine! Boycott Israel!” (info@ism-italia.it)
Labor for Palestine, US.
LFP emerged in the
US as a response to Palestinian workers’ exploitative conditions. US labor union pension funds are
said to have about 5 billion dollars invested in State of Israel Bonds. Divestment
from these bonds is a central platform of Labor for Palestine.
(www.laborforpalestine.org)
Labour for Palestine, Canada. 8/07
LFP Canada addressed US labor unions with a ringing defense
of BDS in August 2007. The group
works within the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) to promote the BDS
campaign in Canadian labor unions.
Its 8/07 Its 106-page informational digest is available from
www.womensbookstore.com.
(www.labour@caiaweb.org)
Lussas Documentary Film Festival, France, 8/06
Lussas cancelled screenings of Israeli documentary films
following the outbreak of the massive
Israeli attack on Lebanon.
Festival directors wrote the Israeli directors that they planned to
substitute a program of Lebanese and Palestinian films “that will show our
opposition to the war.” (newsbusters.org/node/7136)
National Lawyers Guild
Resolution To Divest, In Principle And Practice, From
Israel (NLG National
Convention, 10/04)
WHEREAS the Israeli government with its illegal occupation
and expansionist program in the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip is
engaged, and has been engaged in grave human rights violations including but
not limited to: the use of live ammunition on unarmed civilians (including men,
women, and children); massive and disproportionate use of force including the
firing of missiles from Apache helicopter gunships against defenseless civilian
populations; illegal mass arrests and institutionalized torture (including men,
women, and children); the willful destruction of agricultural land; the
deprivation of water; forced malnutrition with concomitant health consequences
including stillborn deaths and irreversible developmental damage to children;
the mass demolition of homes and confiscation of land; hostage taking and
extra-judicial assassinations; denial of medical services to the sick and
wounded; the use of human shields (including children); the targeting of
schools, and hospitals; the building of illegal fortified
"Jewish-only" Israeli colonies/settlements on confiscated land
connected by "Jewish-only" bypass roads, and the heavily subsidized
transfer of hundreds of thousands of its own civilian population into these
colonies/settlements;
WHEREAS the International Court of Justice has ruled that
Israel's Apartheid Wall violates international humanitarian law which governs
Israel's administration of the Palestinian territories it has occupied since
1967 as well as the fundamental human rights of the Palestinians;
WHEREAS by virtue of, but not limited to, the Principles of
the Nuremberg Charter and Judgment; The United Nations Declaration of Human
Rights; International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights; The Geneva
Conventions, in particular, but not limited to the 4th Geneva Convention, the
Convention Against Torture, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Protocol
1, Additional to the Geneva Conventions, as well as other international
covenants and the general humanitarian principles of international law, these
acts constitute war crimes, and in some cases crimes against humanity.
WHEREAS, the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, 22 USC
sec. 2304, provides that "no security assistance may be provided to any
country the government of which engages in a consistent pattern of gross
violations of internationally recognized human rights;"
WHEREAS, the UN General Assembly on October 22, 2003,
reaffirming the principle of the inadmissibility of the acquisition of
territory by force, and . . . reiterating its opposition to settlement
activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories almost unanimously, with the
exception of the US, Israel
BE IT RESOLVED that the NLG seeks, in principal and
practice, to support national and international campaigns to divest from Israel
. . . and (a) support divestment campaigns to make full public disclosure of
any and all investments it or other institutions have in Israel and of any and
all profits earned from companies invested in Israel, and (b) either
immediately divest from those companies, or cause such companies to disinvest
from Israel until all of the following conditions are met: 1) Withdraw armed
forces; 2) Permit interested refugees to return to their homes and compensate
the rest; 3) End torture; 4) Vacate all Jewish-only settlement/colonies; 5) Compensate all Palestinian
victims. (www.nlg.org)
National Union of Journalists-UK. 5/07.
NUJ votes for a boycott of Israeli
goods in protest of last year’s Lebanon war and Israeli “aggression” in the
territories.
Palestine Solidarity Campaign-Ireland.
Atlantic Homecare, a large Limerick store, removed all
Israeli stock from its shelves in response to a picket by I-PSC (11/06). A pre-Valentines Day street protest
(2/07) urged Dublin jewelers to "Give consumers the right to choose
Israel-free Diamonds," and warned
passers-by that "Israeli Blood Diamonds Are Forever...On Your
Conscience." Hundreds of people
signed petitions and accepted informational leaflets. (www.ipsc.ie;
www.pacbi.org/boycott_news_more.php?id=A405_0_1_0_M)
Palestine
Solidarity Campaign-Scotland
In 7/06 S-PSC
helped stop the use of Prestwick Airport for transhipment of US weapons to
Israel for attacks on Lebanon. It
forces changes in venues for cricket games with Israeli teams. It boycotts Disney outlets in Scotland, citing Disney’s plans to add to its sizeable
investments in Orad, an Israeli firm that provides electronic monitoring
equipment for the Wall. (Disney
also holds large investments in Tadiran, an Israeli military equipment
firm.) “[T]his money
will be used to help Israel continue its policies of colonization, land theft
and slow ethnic cleansing.”
(www.scottishpsc.org.uk)
Palestine Solidarity
Campaign-UK
PSM asks consumers to Boycott
Israeli Goods via the “BIG” Campaign. “BIG” stages colorful anti-import demonstrations in major
British cities, focusing on items like avocadoes, peppers, flowers, or dates.
It buys shares in companies like Tesco to pressure corporate boards to
eliminate Israeli imports. In
6/06, Tesco agreed to phase out Israeli peppers due to consumer pressure. A key
boycott target is Agrexco, Israel's largest exporter of fresh agricultural
produce, selling in England under the Carmel, Coral and Jaffa brands. The
company is 50% owned by the Israeli state. Much of its produce comes from illegal settlements that hire
Palestinian workers at exploitative wages and working conditions.
The BIG campaign also boycotts
Israeli tourism and Israeli cultural, sporting, and academic institutions and
individuals who do not condemn the occupation. It seeks to end trade agreements between the EU, UK, and Israel,
and it promotes an end to the arms trade, citing “Israel's appalling
human rights record, grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and its
ongoing occupation and settler-colonisation of Palestinian lands” and noting “widespread
concerns that British-made equipment is being used against Palestinian
civilians, in defiance of UK export criteria.” Finally, BIG seeks to increase trade in Palestinian goods.
(www.bigcampaign.org)
Palestine Solidarity
Movement - US. 2/06
PSM asks US universities,
churches and other institutions to end financial support for companies linked with Israeli injustice. Their campaign
is modeled after the successful effort to
end apartheid in South Africa. PSM
hosted university students and community activists in its 5th annual conference at Georgetown
University, Washington, DC,
2/06.
(palestinesolidaritymovement.org)
People's Food Co-op - Ann Arbor. 6/07
Over 400 Co-op members and hundreds of passers-by signed a
petition asking the popular
Co-op grocery store to hold a referendum on a boycott of Israeli goods. The drive, initiated by B.I.G. (Boycott Israeli
Goods)-Ann Arbor, spread
information during weeks of leafletting and sidewalk discussions focusing on
Palestinians' suffering and loss of basic human rights under Israeli
repression. However, opponents threatened to withdraw their membership in the
Co-op, harming its economic viability, and the formal vote by members failed in
9/07. Weavers Way Co-op in
Philadelphia (2004) and Rainbow Co-op in San Francisco report similar
experiences.
<gloriaharb@comcast.net>
Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice
RCF held a Peace Works Conference in 4/06 in Olympia,
Washington, hometown of murdered activist Rachel Corrie. International speakers championed
divestment and activism. One
termed the Oslo peace process the “P-I-E-C-E process” since it “designated
Palestinian areas for the first time, allowing Israel to create a system of
more than 700 military checkpoints surrounding these areas in order to limit
movement
of Palestinians. Fewer
than 30% of Palestinians can apply for a permit to travel to and from
Palestinian areas, and only 10% of Palestinians get permits.” (rachelcorriefoundation.org)
Sanctions
Against Israel Coalition - South Africa branch. 1/07
"We are
making a call to mobilise South African workers," says Shaheed Mohamed, of SAIC - SA. We want all diamonds from Israel to be
treated as conflict diamonds. We urge people not to buy diamonds from
Israel." Mohamed says Israel imports
South African diamonds, polishes, cuts them, and sells them back "at
almost ten times the original value." Israel imports diamonds worth $430
million a year from South Africa, he says, adding that fully 30
percent of Israel's annual GDP (gross domestic product) comes from diamonds.
(Inter Press Service (IPS), Johannesburg, 1/27/07)
Stop Cat
Coalition
Stop Cat sponsors
an annual Day of Action focused on Caterpillar headquarters in Peoria,
Illinois, to demand that Caterpillar
“cease all sales to the Israeli military and government” and abide by its own code of conduct which states “as a
company, we strive to contribute toward a global environment in which all
people can work safely and live healthy, productive lives.” The
Coalition says Caterpillar’s D-9 bulldozer ”is directly implicated in
grave abuses of human rights by Israeli Defense forces, including the
collective punishment of the Palestinian people through house demolitions, clearing a path for and constructing the
Apartheid Wall and murder of civilians”-- actions that “are illegal under
international law -- specifically violating the Fourth Geneva Convention, the
Rome Statute of the International Court and the Hague Conventions.” The sale of
the D-9 to the IDF also violates the US Arms Export Control Act. On
the annual
International Day of Action Against Caterpillar, protests are held in cities worldwide, and
are organized in the US by Stop Cat, Jewish Voice for Peace, and the US
Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation.
Demonstrations at Caterpillar dealers are
also held.
Stop Cat provides informational videos and PowerPoint presentations.
(stopcat.org/catdestroyshomes/org)
Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU) - UK. 7/07
This British workers' union calls on its 800,000 members to
boycott Israeli-made products based on Israel's "criminal policies in
Palestinian territories."
UNISON - UK. 6/07
The major British public services
union asks members to stop purchasing Israeli products, stating that
"ending the occupation demands concerted and sustained pressure upon
Israel, including an economic, cultural, academic and sporting
boycott." The intention is not
to discriminate against the Israeli people themselves, says delegate Tracy
Morgan: "The occupation needs to end so that everyone can live together.
And I believe that Israelis and Palestinians do want to live together."
The union will produce material on Palestine to build knowledge among members. (www.unison.org.uk/news/)
United Nations International Conference of Civil
Society in Support of Middle East Peace
A
Call to Action (9/06): The annual conference, meeting in Geneva, calls on
the UN and its member states "To encourage and impose sanctions, in the
form of ending the murderous arms trade with Israel, and to end sanctions that have been
imposed against the elected Palestinian Authority and the collective punishment of the Palestinian people." The
group will expand its global campaign of Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions,
adopted in 2005, and will mark the 40th anniversary of the Occupation with a
global Day of Action on June 9, 2007, under the slogan "The World Says No
to Israeli Occupation." The Civil Society's follow-up work is carried out
by ICNP, the International Coordinating Committee on Palestine.
(www.un.org/depts/dpa/qpalnew/dpr.htm)
US
Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation
The
US Campaign supports municipal and state divestment initiatives. It
provides divestment resources to inform, educate and mobilize the public about
the US government’s role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the way
cities, states, trade unions and other organizations help sustain the
occupation through investment funds.
The Campaign's member groups call on municipal, state and federal
governing bodies to issue statements opposing the occupation. There is no single way to approach divestment. It is up to activists to decide what practices would work
best in their localities. A key focus in 2008 is
Motorola Corp, which supplies radar devices for settlements and the separation
wall, fuses for aerial explositves like cluster bombs, and specialized
cellphones for the IDF. The
Campaign has a continuing focus on Caterpillar Corp.
(www.endtheoccupation.org/}
U2U,
Belgian Hi-Tech Company Joins EU Trend. 9/06
"U2U does not wish to tie itself with Israeli
products," the firm's manager told his Israeli suitor, citing "the
devastating and inhumane war crimes Israel perpetrated in Lebanon" and
"the apartheid regime"
it inflicts on Palestine. The Israeli hi-tech representative says he
countered that "Israel is a technological hub and that many of the
Microsoft products which [you use] are developed here in Haifa." The
Belgian manager, however, declined.
Israel's Ynet News reports similar refusals from numerous
European firms that took the stance of the
U2U manager: "I hope that the
political situation in your country will radically change and will be based on
peace and respect to non-Jewish cultures." (www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3308579,00.html)
Veterans
for Peace
VFP, a
20-year-old US veterans’ organization, adopted
Economic Support For Justice And Peace In Palestine at its National Conference, 8/05. The resolution states that the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a major international flashpoint; people of the
region are suffering from militarization; the US is the largest single source
of governmental financial aid to Israel; and all forms of intervention have
failed to achieve Israeli compliance with international law as embodied in UN
resolutions and world court decisions (and supported by peace activists in
Israel). Therefore, inspired by
the South African struggle and the international solidarity which made it
effective, and in support of the call by more than 170 Palestinian
political parties, unions, and organizations for such economic actions, “Veterans
For Peace calls for boycott, divestment, and other actions against economic
activities that support Israel’s continued occupation and colonization of Palestinian
lands and the denial of fundamental human rights to Palestinians both in Israel
and in the occupied territories until the
Government of Israel complies with international law and the universal
principles of human rights. VFP urges members and chapters to support such
economic actions which seem to them best calculated to bring about a change in
Israeli government policy for the benefit of both the Israeli and Palestinian
people.”
(veteransforpeace.org/)
Vlaams Palestina Komitee. Flanders. 6/05
Protestors launched a boycott of Israeli goods, stripping supermarket shelves of Yarden wines, Sabra salads, and Jaffa and Carmel fresh
produce, while urging customers to stop buying Israeli products.
(www.vlaamspalestinakomitee.be)
War on Want
WoW (UK) asks people “to challenge the global
structures which sustain poverty across the world.” In Palestine, it says,
“Caterpillar’s armoured bulldozers have been responsible for the destruction of
thousands of Palestinian homes, schools, wells and olive groves” in a
systematic campaign to destroy the Palestinian economy and demoralize
residents. Caterpillar
bulldozers are currently used in almost every significant operation by Israeli
forces, and in fact they are, according to one Israeli military commander, ‘the
key weapon.’ WoW reported in 2005 that the Israeli army currently
has around 100 D9s in operation. D9s
are modified by state-owned Israeli Military Industries and by Ramta, a division of Israel Aircraft
Industries. Some bulldozers have
customized packages, including machine gun mounts, smoke projectors and grenade
launchers. The Israeli
military recently ordered 25 D9 armored bulldozers reinforced by Israel
Aircraft Industries, while the US Department of Defense acquired 14 armored
Caterpillar D9Rs from the Israeli army for use in Iraq. WoW asks people to boycott Caterpillar
products—from construction equipment to clothing and footwear—and
to buy Zaytoun fair-trade olive oil to help redress the damage caused to Palestinian
farmers.
(mailroom@waronwant.org)
West Asia Conference on War, Imperialism and
Resistance. New Delhi, 3/07
The conference calls for
boycott, disinvestments and sanctions on Israel as long as it continues its occupation of Palestinian and Arab
territories, demands that the Government of India immediately break its military and security ties with
Israel, noting that India has become the largest importer of arms from
Israel. The Conference "welcomes the advisory judgement of
the International Court of Justice on the Apartheid Wall and calls for immediate measures by the international
community for dismantling this illegal Wall. The Wall built by Israel across
the West Bank has cut off the Palestinian people from each other, cutting up
the Palestinian territory into a number of enclaves, with large Israeli
settlements established on lands confiscated from Palestinian people. Israel’s
so-called 'disengagement' is in fact a re-arrangement of Occupation. It has
turned all of Gaza into a vast prison with the Palestinian population there
under continuous, murderous assaults and a permanent state of siege. "
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom
(WILPF), Canadian Section
In 12/05, WILPF-Canada wrote INTEL’s Board Chairman and CEO: “Let INTEL not be
wooed by Israel’s $525 million grant incentive to expand INTEL’s existing microprocessing factory in
Israel. The site of the proposed expansion is Kiryat Gat, on land
expropriated from the Palestinian village of Iraq Al-Manshiya. By further building there, you are
denying Palestinian refugees the right to return to their land.”
(joandgord@shaw.ca)
Women in Black Boycotts Israel Philharmonic in Los
Angeles (2/07)
"Maybe it's the artists and musicians who will
finally bring peace and justice to Israel, Palestine and the region." This was the
plea of Women in Black-Los Angeles, asking members of the Israel Philharmonic
to make a public call for an end to the Occupation, thus creating "a huge
positive ripple effect on Israeli society." Receiving no such assurance, silent vigilers held candles
outside Disney Hall during two performances. The Philharmonic is called "Israel's flagship" by
conductor Zubin Mehta, and is supported by the Israeli government. It has played for soldiers in the field
and is an instrument of government policies, says Women in Black. WIB is an international movement of
both women and men, standing against violence and for justice. It was founded
in Israel in 1988 to oppose the Occupation. The L.A. vigils were endorsed by the Middle East Peace
Fellowship of Southern California, by A.N.S.W.E.R. and by Campaign to End
Israeli Apartheid (CEIA).
(www.wib-la.org)
INDIVIDUALS
Corrie
Family Lawsuit vs. Caterpillar, Inc. (3/15/05). A civil action seeks compensatory and
punitive damages against Caterpillar for violations of international and state
law committed against Rachel Corrie, including war crimes; aiding and abetting
her extra-judicial killing; complicity in cruel, inhuman, or degrading
treatment or punishment . . . that resulted in her death; negligence; and
wrongful death.
The
suit, filed in US District Court in Seattle, Washington, states:
“On
March 16, 2003, Rachel Corrie, a peace activist and United States citizen, was
killed by a Caterpillar bulldozer while protesting the demolition of a
Palestinian home.
“2. This
lawsuit alleges that Caterpillar, Inc., has aided and abetted or otherwise been
complicit in the Israel Defense Forces (hereinafter “IDF”) in the
above-mentioned human rights violations and war crimes by providing the
bulldozers used to demolish homes of Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian
Territories in violation of international law when it knew, or should have
known, that such bulldozers were being used to commit human rights abuses.
“3. The IDF
has destroyed approximately 10,000 Palestinian homes since 1967 leaving approximately 50,000 men, women, and children
homeless. Over the last four years, the IDF has destroyed 4,100 homes. Upon
information and belief, Caterpillar, Inc. has supplied bulldozers to the IDF
that have been used in such demolitions since 1967.” (www.catdestroyshomes.org/downloads/final.corriecomplaint.3.15.pdf)
International
authors, film-makers, musicians and performers ask colleagues not to visit,
exhibit or perform in Israel. By 12/06, nearly 100 artists, including Brian Eno,
Sophie Fiennes, and Arundhati Roy had signed a boycott letter written by noted
author John Berger, stating "the day to day brutality of the Israeli army
in Gaza and the West Bank continues.
Ten Palestinians are killed for every Israeli death,. . .UN resolutions
are flouted, human rights violated
as Palestinian land is stolen, houses demolished and crops destroyed. For Archbishop Desmond Tutu...the
situation of the Palestinians is worse than that of black South Africans under
apartheid. Meantime, Western
governments refer to Israel's 'legitimate right' of self-defence, and continue
to supply weaponry. The challenge of apartheid was
fought better. The non-violent international response was boycott,
divestment, and finally UN sanctions that enabled the regime to change without
terrible bloodshed." Artists
can endorse the letter at <info@bricup.org.uk>
Ken Loach, British film director who won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2006, announces
his support for an Israeli boycott, 8/06:
“Palestinians are driven to call for this boycott after forty years of
the occupation of their land, destruction of their homes and the kidnapping and
murder of their civilians,” Loach said. “They have no
immediate hope that this oppression will end. As British citizens we have to acknowledge our own
responsibility. We must condemn the British and US governments for supporting
and arming Israel.” He added, “I would decline any invitation to the Haifa Film
Festival [to which he had been invited] or other such occasions."
(www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/755249.html)
Rock Star Roger Waters
says in Israel: "Tear Down This Wall!." 6/06.
Waters moved a June 2006 concert
away from Tel Aviv, met with Palestinian artists, and called openly for
"an end to Israeli oppression" during his Israeli performance. The
Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel said
Waters "came a long way" towards observing their boycott principles,
which entail taking a stand against Israel's occupation and refusing to come to
Israel for performances, conferences, or festivals except in "the context
of supporting the struggle."
(www.pacbi.org/boycott_news_more.php?id=A255_0_1_0_M)
GOVERNMENTAL AND POLITICAL ORGANIZATIONS:
Dublin Tram
System, 8/06. Tram drivers refused to allow the Dublin tram system (“Luas”) to
be used to train Israeli drivers and engineers for a new light-rail system in
East Jerusalem that will serve illegal settlements. In response, the local Irish authority, Veolia, cancelled
its training plan with Connex, the French firm that will operate the Israeli
system (and that also operates Dublin trams). “When you do business with Israel, you
invariably do business with the Occupation,”
says a representative of the Irish Palestinian Solidarity Committee,
congratulating the tram drivers on their stand. “We must cut ties with Israel
in order to force it to end its Occupation.”
(www.scottishpsc.org.uk/)
Green
Party, US, 11/05, “calls for
divestment from and boycott of the State of Israel until such time as the full
individual and collective rights of the Palestinian people are realized. The
party calls on all civil society institutions and organizations around the
world to implement a comprehensive divestment and boycott program. The party calls on all governments to
support this program and to implement state-level boycotts.”
(intcomm@gp-us.org)
The
Norwegian Provincial Parliament of the Soer-Trondeleim district, representing about 7% of the population of Norway,
including Trondheim, the third largest
city, voted on 12/05 to “completely and totally” prohibit the
purchase or sale of Israeli products by all provincial government bodies and to
launch an awareness campaign calling on the populace to do the same. Significantly, this Parlia-ment was the first Norwegian government body
to boycott South African Apartheid. (fup@palestina.no)
UK House of Commons Select Committee on International
Development. 1/31/07
The Select Committee reports
severe limitations on Palestinian trade and development caused by Israeli
restrictions on movement and access to goods and markets. Meanwhile, the European Union continues
to boost the Israeli economy by giving preferential treatment to Israeli
products in European markets through a trade agreement. The Select Committee notes this
"incongruity" and says "the UK should urge the EU to use its
Agreement with Israel as a lever for change and to consider suspending the
Agreement until there are further improvements in access arrangements." (www.parliament.uk/indcom)
United Kingdom government officials barred US
flights from Prestwick Airport in
Scotland. 8/06. The planes
were carrying bombs to Israel for attacks on Lebanon. Diversion to RAF military
bases for refueling followed talks between the Scots Secretary and the UK
Defense and Foreign Secretaries.
After a meeting with the US Consul, Scottish Parliament Member Patrick Harvie
of the Green Party reported: “We
tried to convey the extreme concern, indeed disgust, among the Scottish public
and politicians that a Scottish airport is being used to ferry arms to
Israel.“
(dailyrecord.co.uk/news/)
Numerous universities have divestment drives which inform and activate. Here are three approaches:
Howard University, 3/07.
The faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences voted
overwhelmingly to ask the Board of Trustees to divest from companies that are
"offering material support to Israeli Occupation." The resolution adopted the approach of
the University of Wisconsin Platteville faculty (see below) and a recent
divestment action citing Sudan for violations in Darfur. The movement in this historically Black
university in Washington, DC, was initially stymied when Howard President
Patrick Swygert rejected it outright.
Faculty leaders planned to reintroduce it "in the hope that the
resolution spread around the country and generate action comparable to the
anti-apartheid movement of the 1980s." (www.jai-pal.org/content.php?page=501)
The University of Wisconsin Divestment from
Israel Campaign,
A coalition of groups and individuals in the
University and the state, began in 2005 circulating a petition, asking the
University of Wisconsin Board of Regents “to divest from any company doing
business with or in the State of Israel until . . . Israel accepts and
facilitates the full implementation of the individual and collective human
rights of the Palestinian people.”
The petition cites Israeli “policies of encapsulation, expropriation, and ethnic cleansing against the
indigenous Palestinian population,” depriving them of “residency rights, the
right to work, and the right to equality before the law.”
In a related action, The Association of University
of Wisconsin Professionals (TAUWP), a
statewide local of the American Federation of Teachers-Wisconsin, representing
faculty and academic staff from 25 UW campuses, in 4/05 adopted a divestment
resolution, naming companies that “provide material aid to the Israeli Army in
the form of weapons, equipment, and supporting systems used to perpetrate human rights abuses against
Palestinian civilians” –
including Boeing, Caterpillar, General Dynamics, General Electric,
Lockheed-Martin, Northrop-Grumman, and Raytheon. TAUWP’s resolution notes that the Regents’ policies prohibit
such investments. Divestment is a
positive step that may lay “the groundwork for a just and enduring peace and is
therefore an expression of the hope for a free and secure future for every
Israeli and Palestinian currently suffering under the burden of conflict.” Notably, the Faculty Senate of one
UW branch (Platteville) was the first such faculty body in the nation to pass a
divestment resolution (1/25/05),
citing “violations of international law and the human rights of the Palestinian
people,” enabled by the named U.S. arms companies. (mkabed@wisc.edu)
The University of Michigan Campaign On
the Question of Divestment from Israel/Palestine:
In 2/05, the UM-Dearborn campus
Student Government passed a resolution calling for immediate divestment from
Israel. This was the first time any UM student group had passed such a
resolution, and was one of the first nationwide.
The students called for outright
divestment, but faculty decided to follow a more formal process. As spelled out
by the UM Regents in 1978: If an issue "involves serious moral or ethical
questions which are of concern to many members of the University community,
then "an advisory committee will be appointed." These conditions were
employed with respect to South Africa in 1978 and with tobacco stocks in 2000.
In both cases divestment was recommended and implemented.
An ad hoc group of faculty members
from the Dearborn and Ann Arbor campuses drafted a "Letter of Support
for an Inquiry into Divestment" and
began circulating a petition calling on the UM administration, not to
divest, but simply to establish an advisory committee and investigate if
divestment is warranted. The inquiry would lay out the full extent of
University investments in both Israel and Palestine and determine which, if
any, are implicated in illegal and immoral actions occurring there. The
committee would solicit comments from members of the UM community, weigh the
arguments, and then make a recommendation.
Petition Calling for the
Formation of a University of Michigan Divestment Committee on
Israel/Palestine: The petition states in part: “Whereas, the undersigned
believe that any University investments in entities contributing to human
rights violations by either Israelis or Palestinians is inappropriate, the undersigned call for the formation by the University
of Michigan of an advisory committee consisting of members of the University
Senate, students, administration and alumni to determine if any University
investments are questionable and in need of appropriate corrective
actions.” The petition, signed by
faculty, staff, students, and alumni, will be presented to UM Regents, UM
President Mary Sue Coleman, and other officials. (wthomson@umich.edu)
London School of Economics
Student Union (LSESU). 2/08
After weeks of debate, nearly 400 LSESU students voted 6-to-1
to call on their university and on the National Union of Students to divest
from companies that provide military and commercial support for the Israeli
occupation. The Union also resolved to join international campaigns to
end the siege of Gaza and to publicize Israel's discriminatory policies more
widely. (su.soc.palestine@lse.ac.uk)
National Association of Teachers in Further and
Higher Education (UK) 5/06
Britain’s largest faculty association voted to urge its
67,000 members to “consider the appropriateness of a boycott” of Israeli
faculty who fail to “publicly dissociate themselves” from Israel’s “apartheid
policies, including construction of the exclusion wall and discriminatory
educational practices.” They ask
British college teachers “to consider their own responsibility for ensuring
equity and nondiscrimination in contacts with Israeli educational institutions
or individuals.”
(www.natfhe.org.uk/)
University
and College Union (UCU) - UK.
5/07
UK university and other higher education teachers vote
to support a campaign for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions at the
first Annual Congress of their new
union, UCU, in 2007. UCU, with 100,000 members,
combines two previous UK academic unions that merged in 2006. Members are asked to initiate one year of informed debate on British
campuses, to consider the moral implications of links with Israeli
universities, to review the Palestinian boycott call, and to link with
Palestinian educational institutions. The move echoes the 2006 call of 61 Irish
academics for a boycott of Israeli universities. However, the
future of the UCU boycott appeared in doubt in 8/07 when lawyers retained by
union leaders termed an academic boycott illegal, a decision strongly disputed
by BRICUP (British Committee for the Universities of Palestine). (www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/09/382271.html; www.bricup.org.uk)
<PIAG_@mac.com>