Supplemental Information & Letters of Support

Supplemental Information
& Letters of Support

For A Resolution to Divest from Companies Profiting from
Violations of International Law and Human Rights

ASUW 2014
Updated May 14, 2014
2
A Resolution to Divest ASUW 2014
This information booklet is designed to accompany the
Resolution R-20-39, submitted to the Associated Students
of the University of Washington in April 2014.
Compiled by SUPER UW.
www.superuw.org

In the spirit of transparency, ethical investment, a belief in human rights and the
power and responsibility of students and educational institutions to affect real
change, students of conscience present this resolution.
3

Table of Contents
History of Social Responsibility .................................. 4

Our Divestment Criteria .............................................. 5

Companies Recommended for Divestment ................ 6
Caterpillar, Northrop Grumman, Hewlett Packard, Motorola
Solutions, G4S, Elbit Systems, Veolia Environnement

Letters of Support and Endorsements ........................ 10
Including Local, National, and International Support, and
Endorsements of Divestment by Public Figures

Petition in Support of Ethical Divestment ................... 62
As of May 14, 2014: 651 signatures of UW faculty, students, and
community members in support of Resolution R-20-39

Resolution .................................................................. 63
Registered Student Organizations at the University of Washington
that endorse Resolution R-20-39:
- D.A.S.A. (Disability Advocacy Students Alliance)
- Disorientation UW
- ISO (International Socialist Organization)
- MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chican@ de Aztlan)
- 3WF (Third Wave Feminists)
- Solidarity with UW Custodians
- UW Black Student Union
- USAS (United Students Against Sweatshops)
- SSA (Somali Student Association)

4
The University of Washingtons vision states:
We are compassionate and committed to the
active pursuit of global engagement and
connectednessWe embrace our role to
foster engaged and responsible citizenship as
part of the learning experience of our
students, faculty and staff.
History of Social Responsibility
The University of Washington takes pride in a
history of student activism against injustice,
including divesting from South African
Apartheid and genocide in Sudan.
The Resolution to Divest From Companies Profiting From Violations of International
Law and Human Rights aligns with the University of Washingtons tradition and
vision of social responsibility.
The Associated Students of the University of
Washington passed resolution R-18-19 stating:
THAT, the ASUW solely supports the investment
of university money in firms that are socially
responsible; and THAT, the ASUW take steps to
create a position or committee that will work with
the UW Treasury office to make recommendations
on socially responsible investment activity.
ASUW Resolution R-18-19, 2012
http://depts.washington.edu/asuwsen/aero/legislations/view/656
5

Our Divestment Criteria
In the past many have worried about divestment unlawfully interfering
with the discretionary powers of fund trustees to manage the invest-
ments in their care. While of course it is possible to draft a resolution
urging for divestment in terms that would interfere with the discretionary
authority of fund trustees, this resolution very clearly does not make this
mistake.
This resolution expressly asks that fund trustees be in-
structed to divest from targeted companies "within
the bounds of their fiduciary duties."
This means divestment happens in feasible ways, on time frames that
allow the stable transfer of funds to socially responsible investment
options that will yield an equivalent amount of returns to the institution.
Avenues of university social justice are
not mutually exclusive student scholar-
ships are not sacrificed when the UW has
a more ethical investment strategy for its
endowment.

UW students have already begun to
meet with the UW Treasury Department
about these issues.
Divestment and socially responsible investment
does not stand in the way of university profits and
the ability of our institution to provide for its students
and staff.
6

Caterpillar knowingly sells bulldozers specifically designed for the Israeli
Army that are armored and weaponized by the companys sole representa-
tive in Israel and are systematically used in the demolition of Palestinian
The following illustrative and non-exhaustive
list of companies are knowingly and directly
complicit in ongoing human rights violations:

The University of Washington currently has investments in companies that
provide equipment or services used to directly maintain, support, or profit from
the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, including
a) the demolition of Palestinian homes and the development of illegal Is-
raeli settlements;
b) the building or maintenance of the Separation wall, outposts, and segre-
gated roads and transportation systems on occupied Palestinian territory,
and
c) illegal use of weaponry and surveillance technology by the Israeli mili-
tary against Palestinian civilian populations.
Companies for Divestment
Caterpillar has supplied the IDF with bulldozers used for home demolitions since 1967. Caterpillar has
sold D9 bulldozers to the IDF knowing they would be used to unlawfully demolish homes and endan-
ger civilians in the OPT. Caterpillar continued to sell D9s directly to the IDF even though it knew that
the bulldozers were being used to commit war crimes and other serious violations of law. Caterpillar
has had constructive notice of the human rights violations committed with its bulldozers since at least
1989, when human rights groups began publicly condemning the violations.
In May 2004, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights sent a letter to
Caterpillar corporations CEO in the United States warning that the bulldozers which the manufacturer
sells to the Israel Defense Forces are used for acts that may be deemed human rights violations and that
their deliver to the Israeli government with knowledge that they were being used for illegal demolition
might involve complicity or acceptance on the part of [the] company to actual and potential violations
of human rights, including the right to food.*
*Razing Rafah. Human Rights Watch. October 17, 2004. http://www.hrw.org/en/node/11963/section/3
7

8
Hewlett Packard owns EDS Israel, which merged into HP and since 2009 is called: "HP Enterprise
Services". EDS has provided the Israeli ministry of defense with the development, installation,
maintenance and on-going field support of the Basel System. The Basel System is an automated
biometric access control system which includes a permit system for Palestinian workers, with hand
and facial recognition, installed in checkpoints in the Occupied West Bank and Gaza. The system
was financed by the US government following the Wye River Memorandum.

HP has provided services and technologies to the Israeli army, among which is the administration of
the Israeli navy's IT infrastructure. The Israeli navy enforces the naval blockade on the Gaza Strip
since 2007. The IT infrastructure provided by HP to the Israeli navy was used by the Israeli military
as a pilot for implementing the same system to the entire army, a virtualization project contract won
by HP in 2009. In the same year, HP Global won another contract to supply all computer equipment
to the Israeli military. The contract was signed for three years with an option to prolong it for another
two years.
Our research has identified four types of activity performed by G4S Israel, which
participate in different facets of the Israeli occupation. First, the company has provid-
ed security equipment and services to incarceration facilities holding Palestinian pris-
oners inside Israel and in the occupied West Bank. These are incarceration facilities
that hold Palestinian political prisoners in violation of international law and in which
torture and systematic violations of human rights occur. Second, the company has
provided equipment and maintenance services to Israeli military checkpoints in the
West Bank. Some of these checkpoints are inside occupied territory and they are all
part of the Separation Wall complex which was deemed illegal by the International
Court of Justice. Third, the company offers security systems and security guards to
businesses in Israeli West Bank settlements, and are thus supporting these illegal
settlements. Finally, the company has also provided security systems for the Israeli
police headquarters in the West Bank which is located next to the Ma'ale Adumim
settlement.
Technologies of Control: The Case of Hewlett Packard (HP). Who Profits: The
Israeli Occupation Industry. Coalition of Women for Peace, Feb 2010. http://
www.whoprofits.org/HP
From Coaltion of Women for Peace:
The case of G4S: Private Security Companies and the Israeli Occupation. Coa-
lition of Women for Peace: The Israeli Occupation Industry. March 2011. http://
www.whoprofits.org/g4s_report
9

Veolia Environnement. Who Profits? http://www.whoprofits.org/company/
Elbit Systems is one of two main providers of the electronic detection fence to the seam-
line and Wall project in the occupied West Bank.
Specifically, ES received the contract to the Jerusalem Envelope section of the Wall
(Masu'a system) with the US Detekion. Subsidiaries Elbit Electro-Optics (El-Op) and Elbit
Security Systems (Ortek) supplied and incorporated LORROS surveillance cameras in
the Ariel section and for the A-ram wall.
The company supplied UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) to the Israeli army, which are
in operational use in during combat in the West Bank and Gaza. The cameras in these
UAV are manufactured by Controp Precision Technologies.
According to reports, the company developed an armed UGV (Unmanned Ground Vehi-
cle) for patroling the seamline with Controp Precision Technologies and Tomcar.
Veolia is a multinational French company operating in the fields of water, waste management,
energy and transport services. The company holds full control of Veolia Environnement Israel.
Veolia Environnement Israel provides services to the Israeli ministry of Defense.
Through its subsidiary - Veolia Transdev, the company has a 5% share in the CityPass consor-
tium, which was contracted to establish and operate the light rail project in Jerusalem. The light
rail was designed to connect the city of Jerusalem with the illegal settlements around it. Addi-
tionally, Veolia Transdev fully owns Connex Jerusalem, the company which operates the trains.
In 2010, Veolia Transdev (then Veolia Transportation) declared it will sell its shares in Citypass
to Egged and 80% of the shares in Connex Jerusalem. Yet, as to February 2014 the sale was
not executed.
Through its subsidiary Veolia Environnement Services Israel (which has bought T.M.M. Inte-
grated Recycling Services), Veolia Environnement owns and operates the Tovlan Landfill in the
occupied Jordan Valley. The Waste transferred to Landfill originates from recycle factories from
within Israel and from settlements in the West Bank. The company uses captured Palestinian
land and natural resources for the needs of Israeli settlements from both side of the green
line. The Tovlan landfill is operated by Veolia Environnement Services Israel's subsidiaries
TMM and Y.R.A.V Sherutei Noy 1985.
Elbit Systems. Who Profits? http://www.whoprofits.org/company/elbit-systems
10
To The Associated Students
of the University of
Washington:

M
y name is Ron Smith, I am
a professor of Interna-
tional Relations at Buck-
nell University, and I received my
PhD from the University of Wash-
ington in December of 2010. I am
writing in reference to the new reso-
lution being considered by the
ASUW. As a graduate student at
UW, I conducted my research in the
West Bank and Gaza Strip, and I
worked in numerous Seattle and
campus initiatives for social change.
It gives me great pride to learn that
ASUW is considering a divestment
resolution, and I would like to offer
my utmost support for the resolu-
tion. I urge all students of con-
science to support this resolution
with confidence that it is a move in
an ethical and moral direction.
My interest in the conflict began as a
teenager, when I traveled to Israel
on a Bnai Brith youth trip. While
the trip was designed to foster con-
nections between American Jews
and the Israeli state, I saw some of
the brutality of the First Intifada
first hand. Our group was escorted
by armored jeeps, and I saw soldiers
attacking young unarmed Palestini-
ans in a refugee camp outside of
Jericho. This experience made me
question several of the myths that
underpin the unflagging support
that Israel enjoys in the United
States. As an undergraduate student
at The Evergreen State College, I
was able to piece together the poli-
tics and the realities that I saw on
the ground. The steps taken by the
student body at Evergreen to pro-
mote divestment are part of a proud
tradition of social justice organizing,
one that University of Washington
students can support as well.
For 6 years, as a PhD student at UW,
I conducted research in the West
Bank and Gaza. As my family are
Jewish Israelis, I had no small theo-
retical understanding of the injustic-
es of the Israeli occupation of his-
torical Palestine. Even this prepara-
tion, however, in no way lessened
the shock of the daily violence and
mistreatment that I witnessed. The
checkpoints, the wall, the home de-
molitions, and the arbitrary arrests
and incarcerations work together to
make Palestinian lives unliva-
ble. These policies are justified
through the mobilization of racist
stereotypes of Palestinians as terror-
ists, suicide bombers and enemies of
peace. The truth is that the vast ma-
jority of Palestinians never engage
in violent activities against Israelis,
even as their livelihoods, freedoms,
and birthrights are stolen by Israeli
settlers, the Army, and the Israeli
state. I cannot even hope to fully
document these abuses in this short
space, but I will provide a few points
that make clear the gravity of the
situation.
In villages where I conducted my
research, I saw the collapse of entire
economies, as Palestinians were de-
prived of their resources while these
were provided at subsidized rates for
Israeli settlers. In the Qalqiliyah dis-
trict, formerly home to greenhouses
and agricultural abundance, I saw
the results of a military order pre-
venting Palestinians from drilling
new wells and maintaining older
ones since 1967. As Israelis drew
ever more water from the aquifer,
Palestinian villages once flush with
fresh water were forced to buy water
at exorbitant rates from the Israeli

I urge all students
of conscience to
support this
resolution with
confidence that it
is a move in an
ethical and moral
direction.
Ron Smith
Bucknell University
11

water company, Mekorot, or worse,
pay for tanker trucks to bring mini-
mal supplies of water while neigh-
boring Jewish-only settlements filled
swimming pools, maintained mani-
cured lawns, and ran fountains in
the mid-summer heat.
In my research, I attended a military
hearing for 4 children between the
ages of 12 and 16. These children
are arrested, tried, and incarcerated
in a military prison system. They
have no access to proper representa-
tion, the hearings are conducted in
Hebrew while they speak Arabic,
and they were sentenced in a man-
ner of minutes to harsh sentences
of more than a year a piece for mi-
nor infractions that would result in,
at worst, a ticket or a warning from
police officers in the US, or for Is-
raeli youth accused of the same
charges. Israel also maintains a sys-
tem of administrative detention for
adults, wherein Palestinians can be
sent to prison for multiple 6-month
sentences without charge, without
representation, and these sentences
can be repeated indefinitely. Many
of these detainees dont even know
why they are in prison, and the pris-
ons themselves are sites of numer-
ous, grave human rights abuses.
In my research, I describe the effects
of the apartheid wall and check-
points across the West Bank as a
system of graduated incarceration:
meaning that all Palestinians are in-
carcerated by Israel, but some places
are far more dangerous for Palestini-
ans than others. The checkpoints are
nothing new, and are sites of fo-
cused intense violence for Palestini-
ans on a daily basis. I personally wit-
nessed and documented extreme
violence against Palestinian civilians,
many of whom were young chil-
dren, at these checkpoints, including
acts I would characterize as sadism.
In 2009, I saw a young girl, 8 years
old, at the Qalandiya checkpoint, her
eyes covered with gauze as her fa-
ther tried to take her to the St John
Eye Hospital in Jerusalem. As her
father passed through the turnstile
that defines much of the experience
of Palestinian travel in the West
Bank, a soldier with a remote con-
trol trapped the young girl inside the
turnstile, and taunted her. She was
unable to see why she was trapped,
and was terrified, crying and calling
out for her father. All the while I
saw the Israeli soldier pointing at her
and laughing, and I saw the father
powerless to rescue her until the sol-
dier grew bored with his game.
Gaza is often described as an open-
air prison. With the support of a
number of NGOs, including the
Rachel Corrie Foundation in Olym-
pia, I have been fortunate to gain
access to the besieged Gaza Strip on
numerous occasions. Here you see a
territory, including some of the
most densely populated places on
earth: Al-Shati and Jabaliyya Refugee
Camps. 1.7 million Palestinians are
trapped in Gaza, with no options for
growth or development. Young peo-
ple are desperate to leave the flood-
ing sewers, the poisoned water, the
16-hour daily electrical blackouts
and the lack of jobs or opportuni-
ties, but are trapped by a wrong-
headed and disastrous siege policy
put into place by Israel and support-
ed by our own government. At
times, there are daily invasions and
drone attacks in the strip, and deaths
from Israeli snipers are so common
that they often go unreported, even
in the Arabic press. Gazan lives are
rapidly deteriorating.
I personally
witnessed and
documented
extreme violence
against
Palestinian
civilians.
12
Through all of these violations the
governments of the international
community either sit idly by, or pro-
mote the policies that Israel main-
tains. World governments, with a
few small, but notable exceptions,
refuse to take any action that could
upset the United States and its spe-
cial relationship with Israel. Aca-
demics who challenge Israel are of-
ten the targets of slanderous cam-
paigns attempting to stifle any cri-
tique. This is a direct challenge to
academic freedom, and the very act
of open and prompt debate regard-
ing the resolution is a stand to pro-
tect those very freedoms that uni-
versities are designed to protect.
Communities across the globe are
tired of watching their taxes and
their diplomatic corps support the
ongoing violence. They are taking
stands every year, every week, to
support the nonviolent movement
of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanc-
tions. The goals are clear: Israel
must abide by international law. The
means are direct: individuals, com-
munities, and institutions can take a
stand simply by refusing to support
the Israeli occupation by purchasing
products from companies that profit
from the occupation. These actions
have the full support of Palestinian
civil society, and even some sectors
of Israeli society have realized that
BDS represents the best hope for
change, and support the boycott
through groups like Boycott from
Within, and the Shministim, High
School students who have publicly
refused to join the military (60 stu-
dents have publicly refused this year
alone, citing the human rights viola-
tions of the Israeli military).
The wording of the ASUW resolu-
tion targets companies directly prof-
iting from the misery and exploita-
tion of the occupation. These com-
panies are prolonging the conflict by
their presence and support for the
misconceived government policies
enacted by Israel against Palestini-
ans. There is a growing grassroots
movement across the country and
across the world to stand up to the
injustices of a state immune from
state pressure, and to use nonviolent
action to promote a new space of
understanding and rapprochement
between Israelis and Palestinians. It
is absolutely vital that the UW join
the right side of history and join
students, working people, and peo-
ple of conscience the world over in
their condemnation of companies
profiting from the occupation.

I am proud to be a UW and TESC
graduate, and I feel so privileged to
know the family of Rachel Corrie,
the Evergreen student who died
nonviolently defending Palestinian
civilians in the Gaza Strip in 2003.
Her family continues to work tire-
lessly to defend Palestinian rights,
and promote equality and justice in
the Middle East and here at home.
We must support Rachels legacy,
and the efforts of her family, and
countless others who demand justice
and accountability for all in the Mid-
dle East. This resolution is a brilliant
opportunity to send a powerful mes-
sage, that UW students recognize
the gravity of the conflict, but also
the possibilities that grassroots
movements like BDS provide.
Sincerely,
Ron J Smith
Assistant Professor
Department of International
Relations
The wording of the
ASUW resolution
targets companies
directly profiting
from the misery
and exploitation of
the occupation.
13

Dear senators,

S
eattle CISPES believes in human
rights and self-determination of
peoples across the world. We
take inspiration from international soli-
darity organizing that has contributed to
various struggles for economic and so-
cial justice. The rich history of campus
solidarity organizing proves the power
students have in confronting injustice,
as in the fight against apartheid in South
Africa. We encourage UW students to
again stand for justice and support this
resolution.
The resolution lays out several reasons
why divestment is the right action for
the university to take as an institution.
By moving away from investments that
further the occupation of Palestinian
land, the university would be taking a
principled stand for international human
rights. Divestment serves as a concrete
pressure tactic to oppose ongoing settle-
ment expansion and strategic division of
the occupied territories to benefit the
Israeli state at the detriment of the Pal-
estinian people.
This is an opportunity for the University
of Washington to join with other US
college campuses in divesting from in-
justice.

Sincerely,
Allen Hines
Coordinator of Seattle CISPES
Support Letter
from Allen Hines
of CISPES,
Seattle
By moving away
from investments
that further the
occupation of
Palestinian land,
the university
would be taking a
principled stand for
international
human rights.
14
April 16, 2014
To Whom it May Concern:
A
ntioch Students for Justice in
Palestine (SJP) strongly sup-
ports SUPER UWs divestment
resolution. We believe it is morally im-
perative to divest from companies that
profit from the Israeli occupation of
Palestine. Divesting from these compa-
nies is the responsible and ethical thing
to do and will show that UW prioritizes
social justice. Divestment aligns the
University of Washington with interna-
tional law and human rights by with-
holding support for the illegal actions of
the government of Israel. These actions
include the continuing expansion of
Israeli settlements on Palestinian lands;
the building of a Separation Wall that
annexes Palestinian land under the pre-
text of security for Israel; and the on-
going blockade of Gaza, which has re-
sulted in lack of food, medicine, and
other basic necessities for people living
in the Gaza Strip, just to name a few.
Divesting is a step toward a vision of
socially responsible investing setting an
example to the students and other
stakeholders of the University of
Washington.
Sincerely,
Beverly Stuart
Antioch SJP
A tear gas canister with a flower planted in it
hangs on barbed wire in the village of Bilin, near
the city of Ramallah, Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2013.
The tear gas canisters were collected by Palestin-
ians during years of clashes with Israeli security
forces. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
Divesting is a step
toward a vision of
socially responsible
investing, setting an
example to the
students and other
stakeholders of the
University of
Washington.
15

I
sraels occupation of Pales-
tine is the most bizarre and
barbaric land grab and con-
trol of people in the history of
colonialism. The BDS move-
ment is a peaceful means for ed-
ucational institutions to respond
to Israels violence that govern-
ments and corporations would
rather profit from. I urge ASUW
to behave as people of con-
science and pass this resolution
to divest from complicit compa-
nies, starting with Caterpillar.
Be remembered for your wis-
dom, courage and compassion.
Aaron Dixon
To whom it may concern,
W
e at Students United for Pal-
estinian Equal Rights
(SUPER) here in Portland,
Oregon are writing to offer our support
for UW's divestment resolution. Many
of our members have been directly af-
fected by the ongoing occupation of the
West Bank, Gaza Strip and historic Pal-
estine including ongoing struggles to
keep citizenship in East Jerusalem.
We fully support SUPER UW in your
efforts and hope that the student body
considers the entire weight of the mat-
ter. We recognize solidarity with our
brothers and sisters on the US-Mexico
border, our indigenous brothers and sis-
ters in North America and our brothers
and sisters across the world continuing
to struggle against racism and settler
colonialism.
Support Letter from
Aaron Dixon,
Author of My People Are
Rising: Memoir of Black
Panther Party Captain.

Participant of the African
Heritage Delegation to
Israel-Palestine, 2012
Sincerely,
Students United for Palestinian
Equal Rights
@ Portland State University
super.info.pdx@gmail.com
Many of our members have
been directly affected by the
ongoing occupation of the
West Bank, Gaza Strip and
historic Palestine including
ongoing struggles to keep
citizenship in East Jerusalem.
The BDS movement is
a peaceful means for
educational
institutions to
respond to Israels
violence.
16
Alumni Support
for ASUW Divestment
W
e are University of
Washington alumni who
are deeply concerned
that UW is likely investing in com-
panies that prot from Israels
occupation of the Gaza Strip, the
West Bank, and East Jerusalem.
Some of these companies provide
weapons and covert surveillance
supplies that maintain the occupa-
tion by force. Others enable Israeli
military and settlers to take or
exploit Palestinian resources, in-
cluding scarce water and even the
land itself. All prot from Israels
violations of international law and
international human rights stand-
ards.
As graduates of University of
Washington, we are proud that UW
offers first-rate academics, and
also, as stated in the UW Statement
of Values, sees the work of the
university as educat[ing] a diverse
student body to become responsi-
ble global citizens and future lead-
ers.
The university is an important site
for not just instilling but also en-
acting those values. We are proud
of the legacy UW students have
created by using their time on cam-
pus to transform the world beyond
Red Squarefrom the 1970 UW
student strike in protest of the Vi-
etnam War to the UW out of South
Africa Committee which fought for
and won divestment from Apart-
heid South Africa in the 1980s.
We are University
of Washington
alumni who are
deeply concerned
that UW is likely
investing in
companies that
prot from Israels
occupation of the
Gaza Strip, the
West Bank, and
East Jerusalem.
(Continued on next page)
17

It is in the spirit of this legacy,
that we wholeheartedly support
the UW Student Senate resolu-
tion to divest from companies
profiting from the Israeli Occu-
pation. Divestment is a time-
honored nonviolent tactic used in
social justice movements through-
out the world. Student tuition,
alumni donations, and Washington
State tax dollars should not be
contributing to ongoing denials of
human rights and violations of
international law. We call on
ASUW Senators to stand on the
right side of history and support
divestment today.
Signed,
J. Leah Hughes, Class of 2008
Selma Dillsi, Class of 2009 &
2010
Destry Taylor, Class of 2011
Evemarie Theryn
Kigvamasudvashti, Class of
2011
Eva Dale, Class of 2004
Cindy Sousa, PhD 2012, MPH
2008
James William Alyson, Class
of 2010
Trevor Griffey, Class of 2011
Ariel Federow, Class of 2003
Susan Koppelman, MSW '05,
IDCP '05
Naomi Goldenson, Class of
2012
Linda Bevis, Class of 1990,1996
(JD, MAIS, M.Ed)
Zarah Kushner, Class of 2010 &
2012
Lloyd Johnson, M.D., Class of
1956
Wendy Somerson, Class of
1999
Danielle Friedman, MSW 2005
Nicole Ramirez, Class of 2011
Aditya Ganapathiraju, Class of
2010
Christopher Patterson, Class
of 2013
Aaron Lerner, Class of 2013
Jill Mangaliman, Class of 2003
Mona Atallah, Class of 2010
Katherine Flowers, Class of
2010
Nathaniel Shara, Class of 2008
Marie A. Goines, MSW 2007
shelby handler, Class of 2013
Hanady Kader, Class of 2007
Sean Power, MSW 2005, MPH
2006
(Continued from previous page)
18
Examples of Divestment Victories
Hampshire College, a 1970s pioneer in the
struggle against apartheid South Africa, was
once again the first US college to vote for di-
vestiture. In 2009, it decided to divest from
some 200 companies that violated the col-
leges standards for social responsibility, in-
cluding six companies with close connections
to Israels occupation.
Hampshires actions have since been followed
by students at Evergreen State College in
Olympia, Washington, who in 2010 voted to
divest the College Foundations funds from
companies profiting from Israels illegal occu-
pation. (See pages 20-21)
In 2011, the University of Johannesburg offi-
cially cut ties with Israels Ben-Gurion Univer-
sity due to the Universitys support for the ille-
gal occupation through its academic endeav-
ors. The decision was taken following a cam-
paign backed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu
and over 400 South African academics.
2012 proved to be a year of rapid escalation
for the international solidarity movement
against Israels human rights violations, wit-
nessing many BDS victories. Those are there-
fore presented in greater detail in the following
page. Amongst these victories, we find the
student body of the University of Reginas de-
cision to adopt BDS as a means of pressur-
ing Israel to comply with International and hu-
man rights law and the University of Massa-
chusetts Bostons undergraduate student gov-
ernment passing a resolution to divest from
Boeing. Other resolutions to support divest-
ment were passed at the graduate and under-
graduate level at Arizona State University,
Wits University in Johannesburg, UC Irvine
and York University.
In 2013, following UC Irvines Associated Stu-
dents unanimous vote to call for divestment
from companies profiting from human rights
abuses, UC San Diego and UC Riverside
have passed similar resolutions by wide mar-
gins or unanimity.
19

1. University of California, Riverside. SJP @ UCR
2. University of Southern California. SJP @ USC
3. University of California, San Diego. SJP @ UCSD
4. California State University, Northridge. SJP@ CSUN
5. UM. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. SAFE
6. UWM. University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. SJP @ UWM
7. UNM. University of New Mexico. SJP @ UNM
8. Rutgers University (New Jersey). SJP @ Rutgers
9. The University of Kansas. KU Students for Justice in the MIddle East
10. SJP at University of Illinois-Chicago
11. SJP at University of Illinois- Urbana-Champaign
12. The DC-Maryland-Virginia Students For Justice in Palestine
13. George Mason University Students Against Israeli Apartheid
14. American University Students For Justice in Palestine
15. George Washington University Students for Justice in Palestine
16. Georgetown University Students For justice in Palestine
17. University of Maryland Students for justice in Palestine
18. The DC-Maryland-Virginia Students For Justice in Palestine
19. Harvard College Solidarity Committee
20. SJP at California Polytechnic University, Pomona.
21. SJP at University of California, Davis.
22. SJP at UMN - The University of Minnesota
23. SJP at The University of California, Santa Barbara
24. SJP at UCLA, University of California, Los Angeles
25. SJP at Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI
National List
of Students
for Justice in
Palestine
who express
their support
20
M
y name is Dan Berger, and I
am an assistant professor of
comparative ethnic studies at
the Bothell campus of the University of
Washington. I am writing in reference
to the resolution being considered by the
ASUW pertaining to divestment from
the Israeli occupation. I write as a pro-
fessor who studies issues of inequality
and justice, as an employee of the Uni-
versity of Washington, and an American
Jew whose mother is Israeli and grand-
parents survived the Holocaust. I sup-
port this resolution as an effort to ensure
that our University respects human
rights and operates with a strong ethical
and moral compass.
The Israeli occupation is both illegal
under international law and involves
extensive and ongoing violations of hu-
man rights and international law that are
systemic in nature and thoroughly docu-
mented by a range of internationally
respected organizations. Corporations
that collaborate with and profit from the
occupation are themselves therefore
complicit in the perpetration of human
rights violations. Furthermore, a deci-
sion to divest from corporations that
profit from these fundamental violations
is in keeping with the commitment to
respect for human rights, non-
discrimination and ethical values that is
a cornerstone of any universitys moral
and intellectual mission. Such divest-
ments helped end apartheid in South
Africa and curtail the use of sweatshops;
I hope they can now be used to support
an end to the Israeli occupation and help
secure justice for Palestinian people.
As you well know, the movement to
boycott, divest from, and leverage sanc-
tions upon (BDS) the Israeli occupation
is growing. Last fall, the members of the
American Studies Association, includ-
ing myself, the largest and oldest inter-
disciplinary professional association of
scholars studying American culture and
history, adopted a resolution boycott of
Israeli academic institutions for their
connection to the illegal occupation.
Despite some media speculation that the
move would hurt the ASA, the associa-
tion membership rolls have grown in
response to the vote, which was the
largest vote in the history of the ASA.
Similar resolutions have been adopted
by Association for Asian American
Studies and the Native American Stud-
ies Association; the Modern Language
Association voiced its disapproval of
Israeli state censorship of academic
freedom by denying academics access
to Gaza and the West Bank. Similar
resolutions are being debated by univer-
sities around the country.
This resolution is an exciting opportuni-
ty to send a powerful message, that UW
students recognize the gravity of the
conflict, but also the possibilities that
grassroots movements like BDS pro-
vide. It is clearly in keeping with the
University of Washingtons own stated
commitment to the active pursuit of
global engagement and connectedness
and to fostering engaged and responsi-
ble citizenship. I hope that the univer-
sity can be a leader in this urgent issue
of justice.
Sincerely,

Dan Berger, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor,
Comparative Ethnic Studies
To The Associated
Students of the University
of Washington,
April 17, 2014
21

22
I
urge you to vote in support of the
resolution to divest from companies
that are profiting from the Israeli
occupation and colonization of Palestin-
ian land and resources.
After completing my MSW & IDCP at
the UW, I went on to live in Ramallah
for five years, working with a Palestini-
an collective organizing for water jus-
tice. While I was living in Palestine, I
also trained for nearly 500 hours inside
of Israel to become a yoga teacher. I
understand well the nuances and the
complexities of what it means as a
Jewish person from the US to be in
relationship with family and friends
inside of Israel, while also taking action
to end the Israeli states violations of
international law and human rights.
The resolution itself makes an extreme-
ly compelling argument: outlining
human rights committed by the State of
Israel; referencing independent docu-
mentation by the UN, as well as by
international, Palestinian and Israeli
human rights groups of these violations;
documenting the complicity of interna-
tional corporations who are profiting
from the development of infrastructure
that entrenches these human rights
violations; situating this resolution
within the call for solidarity by Palestin-
ian civil society; and accurately framing
BDS as a non-violent strategy to bring
about corporate and state accountability
for human rights violations.
As I write to you, Im concerned that
the facts of Israeli and corporate viola-
tions impacting every sector of life for
the Palestinian people, may be over-
shadowed by discourses of 'one sided-
ness.' We may begin hearing that ac-
countability of the State of Israel for its
human rights violations is offensive or
somehow makes Jewish students less
safe. Please let us hold compassion for
the ongoing suffering of the Palestinian
people at the hands of Israeli policy and
international corporations, alongside
compassion for the historical oppression
of the Jewish people and ongoing lega-
cies of anti-Semitism. With this com-
passion for all who are suffering, it is
important to distinguish between per-
ceived threats to safety, and actual
threats to safety, such as the demolition
of Palestinian homes and water reser-
voirs, mass arrests of Palestinian youths,
inhuman restrictions on freedom of
movement, the commandeering of
civilian homes and use of civilians as
human shields, and the Israeli militarys
practice of firing into civilian neighbor-
hoods unprovoked to elicit return fire,
or in the case of Gaza, to punish civil-
ians for voting for Hamas.
It is inaction in the face of injustice that
makes all members of our UW commu-
nity less safe. It does not do anyone in
our community any good to have our
university investment dollars supporting
human rights violations.
With love and solidarity,
Susan Koppelman
MSW 05, IDCP 05
Dear ASUW,
I am writing to you as a UW alum (MSW
05, IDCP 05), a Jew, a granddaughter of
a Holocaust survivor, and a direct
descendant of the earliest Ashkenazi
pioneers of the State of Israel.
23

To the Associated Students
of the University of
Washington:
T
he Rachel Corrie Foundation for
Peace and Justice respectfully
urges the Associated Students of
the University of Washington to support
and adopt the divestment resolution
proposed by students of conscience. The
resolution calls upon the University of
Washington to divest from companies
that support the Israeli occupation of
Palestinian land and that profit from
human rights that the occupation
engenders. We further urge you to
support the resolution provision that
calls, as a first measure, for divestment
from Caterpillar Inc., and for
cooperation with The Evergreen State
College to honor a 2010 vote by the
Evergreen student body to divest of
Caterpillar Inc. investments held by the
Evergreen State College Foundation and
housed with the UW Consolidated
Endowment Fund.
The Rachel Corrie Foundation was
founded by community and family
members after Rachel was killed in
Rafah, Gaza, in 2003. She had
completed her studies at The Evergreen
State College and traveled to Israel/
Palestine in solidarity with Palestinians
who were challenging the decades old
Israeli occupation with nonviolent direct-
action resistance in the tradition of
Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther
King. A Caterpillar D9R militarized
bulldozer operated by Israeli soldiers ran
over Rachel as she stood between the
bulldozer and the home of a Palestinian
family threatened with demolition.
Members of the family watched through
a crack in their garden wall as the
bulldozer approached, proceeded over
Rachel, stopped, and then backing, went
over her again. Rachel died shortly after.
Human Rights Watch reported in
Razing Rafah that from 2000-2004, the
Israeli military destroyed the homes of
16,000 Palestinians in Rafah. The study
indicated, The pattern of destruction
strongly suggests that Israeli forces
demolished homes wholesale, regardless
of whether they posed a specific threat,
in violation of international law.
In most of the cases, Human Rights
Watch found the destruction was carried
out in the absence of military
necessity. Caterpillar Inc. was on
notice long before this that its machines
were being used in the commission of
human rights violations. Yet to this day,
the corporation continues to sell and
service equipment and parts through
foreign military sales to the Israeli
Government.
In our work at the Rachel Corrie
Foundation, we have witnessed the lack
of intention or will on the part of the
Israeli and U.S. Governments to ensure
freedom, equality, self-determination,
and security for all in Israel and
Palestine. We are, therefore, all the
more heartened by the resolution that
has come before you, and by the
prospect of the important conversation
you will likely have around this issue.
We urge the Associated Students of the
University of Washington to honor the
2005 call from Palestinian civil society
for BDS, and also that of students of
conscience at the University of
Washington students who believe
their university should not be invested
in companies that help to sustain the
Israeli occupation and its violations of
Palestinian human rights. We strongly
urge you to join other colleges and
universities that have taken a stand for
BDS and against injustice. Refusing to
divest is not a neutral position. Profiting
from the Israeli military occupation
makes us complicit in its human rights
abuses and violations of international
law.
Sincerely and
with very best
wishes,
The Rachel
Corrie
Foundation for
Peace and
Justice
Rachel Corrie
1979-2003

24
I
n the spring of 2010, the student
body of the Evergreen State Col-
lege passed two resolutions, one
calling for divestment from compa-
nies profiting off of Israels occupa-
tion of Palestine, and the other for
the creation of a CAT Free Zone,
prohibiting the use of Caterpillar
Inc. equipment on campus. The re-
sult of the vote, the first student-
wide one of its kind, was a resound-
ing victory for both resolutions,
passing with 79.5% and 71.8% re-
spectively.
The voter turnout set a record at Ev-
ergreen, and was more than double
the average turnout in student elec-
tions nationwide. Following the
vote, the Geoduck Student Union
unanimously passed resolutions sup-
porting the student vote and direct-
ing the Board of Trustees to respond
in a timely manner to the request of
the student body. The Board of Trus-
tees refused to publicly discuss the
resolutions, the reason given being
that Evergreens endowment hold-
ings are directly tied to the UW Con-
solidated Endowment Fund. Conse-
quentially, Evergreens ability to re-
spect the voice of the student body
and divest has been made contingent
upon the University of Washington.
In 2005, 170 Palestinian civil society
groups issued a call for Boycott, Di-
vestment, and Sanctions (BDS)
against Israel and institutions com-
plicit in and profiting from the occu-
pation of Palestinian land. BDS is a
non-violent challenge to a conflict
which is militarily one-sided. BDS
was instrumental in ending the
Apartheid regime in South Africa,
and, like with the Palestinian call for
action, campuses and students are on
the forefront of social justice.
Refusing to divest is not a neutral
position; refusing to divest puts us
on the side of military occupation
and makes us complicit in human
rights abuses. Israels occupation of
Palestinian lands has been found, by
the United Nations and the Interna-
tional Court of Justice, to be in vio-
lation of International Law. A divest-
ment resolution may be criticized as
divisive; however, like in all matters
of social justice, there is no position
that is not.
As well as being one of the defining
human rights struggles of our time,
the abuses of Israels occupation
have direct ties to students in the
Washington state. In 2003, Ever-
green student and lifelong Olympia
resident Rachel Corrie was killed by
a Caterpillar bulldozer, designed
specifically for the Israeli Defence
Forces, while defending a Palestini-
an home in the Gaza Strip from ille-
gal demolition. In honoring this leg-
acy, the 2005 call by Palestinian civ-
il society, and Evergreens 2010 stu-
dent body vote to divest from the
occupation, we urge the University
of Washington to stand on the right
side of history and to pass this reso-
lution to divest from companies
profiting from violations of interna-
tional law and human rights.
Dear Associated
Students of the
University of
Washington:
Sincerely,
The Evergreen State Colleges
Students for Justice in Palestine
The Native Student Alliance (NSA)
at Evergreen
Movimiento Estudiantil Chican@
de Aztln (MEChA) de Evergreen
25

W
e, the undersigned
members of the
faculty at The
Evergreen State College,
affirm our support for
ASUW Resolution 20-39,
A Resolution to Divest
from Companies Profiting
from Violations of
International Law and
Human Rights.
We applaud students at the University
of Washington for taking this important
step, which seeks to protect the human
rights of Palestinians subject to Israels
illegal occupation of their territories.
We fully endorse the well-documented
and well-reasoned statement they
prepared in support of their demands.
The Evergreen State College has a
history of engagement with this
issue. We have held many public fora,
and the complexities of the problem
ha ve be e n di s s e c t e d i n our
classrooms. As the UW students noted,
one of our own students, Rachel Corrie,
was killed by an Israeli soldier as she
nonviolently attempted to defend a
Palestinian home from demolition. In
2010, our student body voted by a 78%
margin in favor of having the college
divest from companies that profit from
the illegal occupation.
As the ASUW resolution makes clear,
Evergreen cannot fully implement its
divestment from companies complicit in
these human rights abuses until the
Universi t y of Washington also
acts. Solidarity between TESC students
and faculty and UW students and
faculty can be an impetus for real
change on both campuses.
We express our support for the students
at Evergreen and UW who have taken
the lead in putting their institutions on
the side of legality, human rights, justice
and peace.
Therese Saliba,
Ph.D.
English and
International Feminism

Greg Mullins,
Ph.D.
American Studies

Anthony
Zaragoza, Ph.D.
American Studies and
Political Economy

Savvina
Chowdhury, Ph.D.
Feminist Political
Economy

Naima Lowe, MFA
Experimental Media

Jose Gomez, J.D.
Constitutional Law

Michael Vavrus
Ph.D.
Education and Political
Economy

Lin Nelson, Ph.D.
Social Science

Larry Mosqueda,
Ph.D.
Political Science

Jeanne Hahn,
Ph.D.
Political Economy

Anne Fischel,
Ph.D.
Documentary Media and
Community Studies

Peter Bohmer,
Ph.D.
Economics

Arun Chandra, DMA
Music Composition and
Performance

Alice Nelson, Ph.D.
Latin American Studies

Zoltan Grossman,
Ph.D.
Geography

Amjad Faur, MFA
Photography

Sarah Williams,
Ph.D.
Feminist Theory

Paul McMillin, MA
Sociology, MLIS

Miranda Mellis,
MFA
Literary Arts

Lori Blewett, Ph.D.
Communications Studies

Zahid Shariff, DPA
Political Theory

Chico Herbison,
Ph.D., English and
African American Studies

Karen Gaul, Ph.D.,
Anthropology

Grace Huerta,
Ph.D., Educational
Leadership & Policy
Studies

Elizabeth
Williamson, Ph.D.,
English
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
Faculty of The
Evergreen State
26
27

T
he Palestinian Campaign for
the Academic and Cultural
Boycott of Israel (PACBI) sa-
lutes Students United for Palestinian
Rights and Equality at the University
of Washington (SUPER UW) for
their principled efforts in submitting
a resolution for consideration by the
Associated Students of the University
of Washington (ASUW) senate. The
resolution calls on the University of
Washington to divest its endowment
from companies profiting from the
Israeli governments abuses of human
rights and violations of international
law. [1]
The divestment resolution amounts to
a clear attempt to challenge the no-
tion that complicit companies and
investments in Israels abuses can be
"normal" business partners of any
self-respecting institution or associa-
tion. Over the past 20 years, Israel
has intensified its construction of ille-
gal colonies in the occupied Palestini-
an territory. It continues to bomb and
kill Palestinian civilians in Gaza and
maintains its medieval siege of 1.8
million Palestinians there. Its wall,
condemned as illegal by the Interna-
tional Court of Justice in 2004, is still
standing and expanding, separating
Palestinians from their livelihoods,
schools and farms. Israels ethnic
cleansing of Palestinian communities
in the Naqab (Negev), East Jerusalem
and the Jordan Valley was con-
demned by a ranking UN official as
constituting a strategy of exclusion
and discrimination [2]. Its policy of
home demolitions, uprooting trees
and denial of freedom of movement
have intensified in recent months. It
still maintains more than 50 racist
laws [3] that are condemned by inter-
national and local human rights or-
ganizations. Even the U.S. Depart-
ment of State has censured Israels
system of institutional, legal and
societal discrimination against Pal-
estinian citizens of the state. [4] In-
vestments in Israeli companies or
companies that benefit from Israels
abuses of Palestinian rights cannot be
ethically defended or justified.
SUPER UW has proven beyond
doubt that effective solidarity with
the oppressed is the most morally and
politically sound contribution to the
struggle to end oppression and to pro-
mote human rights and justice. And
solidarity starts with withdrawing
support, as a fundamental first step,
from a system of injustice, as Martin
Luther King Jr. says. We are certain
that this outstanding expression of
solidarity and support for the Pales-
tinian BDS movement will further
galvanize academics across the Unit-
ed States as well as in other countries
to issue similar calls for the boycott
of the Israeli academy and its com-
plicit institutions. As in South Africa
during apartheid, only by isolating
these institutions can there be any
chance of ending their complicity in
Israels multi-tiered system of op-
pression against the Palestinian peo-
ple.
PACBI wishes to acknowledge, with
gratitude, the determined efforts of all
the students who are diligently and
strategically working on passing this
resolution. Considering the prevailing
climate of intimidation in the US
academy when it comes to voicing
the slightest criticism of Israels vio-
lations of international law, it indeed
takes courage to advocate for divest-
ment from companies profiting from
the human rights abuses of the Pales-
tinians.
A Salute to
SUPER UW on
their Divestment
Resolution
Notes: [1] http://superuw.org/dawgsdivest/ [2] http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/02/12/un-report
-accuses-israel-of-pushing-palestinians-from-jerusalem-west-bank/ [3] http://adalah.org/eng/
Israeli-Discriminatory-Law-Database [4] http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2010/
nea/154463.htm Posted on 22-04-2014 on http://pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=2413
Signed,
BDS National
Committee (BNC)

And the
Palestinian
Campaign for the
Academic and
Cultural Boycott of
Israel
BNC and PACBI
28
Calling for boycott, divestment, and
sanctions against those who violate
fundamental human rights is a long
enshrined American practice, certainly
among American Jews. My father was
an early supporter of the civil rights
movement, which included the Mont-
gomery Bus boycott. In high school I
marched with my classmates in support
of Soviet Jews whose human rights
were being violated. Jews supported the
1974 Jackson-Vanick amendment that
restricted trade with the Soviet Union,
just as many supported the divestment
movement against the treatment of
blacks under South African apartheid.
The global BDS movement calls upon
the State of Israel to recognize and pro-
tect the human rights of the Palestinians
in accordance with international resolu-
tions and human rights standards. Vot-
ing for divestment will not only promote
the cause of the downtrodden and op-
pressed, but it will send a message to
the Israeli government that there is a
price to paythough smallfor the
ongoing suppression of the fundamental
human rights of the Palestinians.
Will a BDS victory make peace more
difficult? On the contrary, the BDS
movement and especially the pro-
posed ASUW divestment campaign
will strengthen the forces of justice and
peace on both sides. As an Israeli I can
tell you that every BDS success brings
the moral morass of the Occupation into
the public light. When a recording artist
cancels his appearance, its front page
news in Israel. Such successes empower
peace-minded politicians and public
intellectuals to explain to the average
Israelis the cost of the Occupation and
to argue that the Occupation is not
something they can shut out of their
lives.
By contrast, failing to act on the BDS
call allows the ongoing suppression of
human rights to continue. The forces of
the status quo would like to do every-
thing they can to keep the Occupation
from the public eye. They will tell you
about a United Jerusalem but they
wont tell you how certain Palestinian
neighborhoods in Jerusalem lack proper
sewage, water, and even police forces.
They will tell you about economic
growth for the Palestinians on the West
Bank, but they wont tell you that this
progress is limited to a narrow stratum
of Palestinians associated with the Pal-
estinian Authority in Area A, and is
subject to the whim of the Israel govern-
ment, that life for Palestinians in Area C
is a nightmare of land expropriations,
permits, and harassment. They will tell
you about how Palestinian Israeli citi-
zens have the right to vote, but they
wont tell you that for over sixty years
Arabs have enjoyed virtually no politi-
cal power because they have been sys-
tematically excluded from government
coalitions.
Dear UW Students,
Charles Manekin
The University of
Maryland
A
s an American
Israeli, a veteran of
the Israel Defense Force,
a life-long Zionist, and a
committed, orthodox
Jewish studies scholar,
whose children and
grandchildren live in
Israel, I am writing in
support of ASUW
Resolution 20-39, A
Resolution to Divest from
Companies Profiting
from Violations of
International Law and
29

Charles H. Manekin
So what means do the Palestinians have
at their disposal in their fight for jus-
tice? They dont have armies. They
cannot use violence. They are prevented
by the Israeli military in engaging in
non-violent protest. They are penalized
by Israel if they pursue statehood at the
UN, or join international organizations.
Israel, which became a state unilaterally
over the protest of the majority of the
people of Palestine, will not allow Pal-
estinians to do anything unilateral.
That leaves the BDS movement. Divest-
ment from companies that benefit from
the Occupation will not hurt the average
Israeli but will send a clear message to
her government: Enough! Get serious
about a just solution, and dont think
that the world will accept your rule over
the Palestinians forever.
The Bible teaches us, Justice, justice,
you shall pursue. The divestment cam-
paign is about one thing: justice. I urge
you to support this initiative.
Professor of Philosophy

Director of the Joseph and
Rebecca Meyerhoff Program and
Center for Jewish Studies

The University of Maryland
Such successes
empower peace-
minded politicians
and public intellec-
tuals to explain to
the average Israe-
lis the cost of the
Occupation and to
argue that the Oc-
cupation is not
something they
can shut out of
their lives.
Will a BDS victory
make peace more
difficult?
On the contrary...
30
T
he International Committee
of the National Lawyers
Guild (NLG) and the Seattle
Chapter of the National Lawyers
Guild support Students United for
Palestinian Equal Rights (SUPER-
UW) and other students of con-
science who are asking their Stu-
dent Senate to adopt a resolution
requesting divestment from compa-
nies that support, maintain or profit
from the occupation of Palestinian
land. This University of Washing-
ton student initiative responds to
representatives of Palestinian civil
society who, in 2005, called on the
international community to boy-
cott, divest and sanction (BDS) the
State of Israel until it meets its
obligations to recognize and com-
ply with international law in its
treatment of Palestinians.
The BDS movement seeks by non-
violent means to achieve three
goals that are recognized as legally
enforceable under international
law: equal rights, the restoration of
lands stolen by an occupying pow-
er, and the right of unlawfully dis-
placed people to return to their
homes.
Further, the resolution on the table
does not ask the University and its
financial managers to injure its
investments in any way. The re-
quest honors the UW trustees le-
gally binding fiduciary duty and
To whom it may concern:
31

the feasibility to implement is un-
questioned.
The resolution is in keeping with
the UWs vision statement which
calls on its students to be engaged
and responsible citizens. UW stu-
dents have a history of acting for
human rights and peace, adopting
divestment resolutions directed at
apartheid in South Africa and gen-
ocide in Sudan. With this resolu-
tion, UW students join a vibrant
and growing human rights move-
ment on campuses in the U.S. and
Europe.
The NLG has a long history of
support for academic freedom and
expressive rights. We believe that
universities have a responsibility to
expose students to the rich variety
of perspectives on issues of public
importance. Universities and other
institutions across the country have
been permeated with a climate that
stifles discussion of divestment and
Palestinian human rights. We hope
the Senate will avail itself of this
opportunity to engage in dialogue
and debate, including about the
norms of international law.
And finally, we ask the Student
Senate to adopt the Resolution to
Divest from Companies Profiting
from Violations of International
Law and Human Rights.
The National Lawyers Guild,
founded in 1937 as a racially inclu-
sive organization, is the oldest and
largest public interest and human
rights bar association in the United
States. Guild lawyers participated
in the founding of the United Na-
tions and since then the Interna-
tional Committee of the Guild has
sought to assist movements in the
United States and around the globe
which promote peace, justice,
health, equality, openness, and a
better world. At its 2007 Conven-
tion, the National Lawyers Guild
resolved to divest from Israel until
Israel had withdrawn from the ter-
ritories it occupied in 1967, ex-
tended equal rights to all its inhab-
itants, and fully implemented the
right of return for all refugees and
their descendants. The 2007 resolu-
tion also called for an end to U.S.
military, economic and other assis-
tance to Israel.

Signed:

International Committee of
the National Lawyers Guild
Natasha Lycia Ora Bannan, Co
-Chair
Suzanne Adely, Co-Chair
Jeanne Mirer, Co-Chair
www.nlginternational.org

Seattle Chapter, National
Lawyers Guild
Neil Fox, President
http://nlgseattle.org
nationallawyersguildseattle@gmail.com

32
I
am proud and honored to support
the current resolution to divest the
University of Washington of its
shares in firms that support Israels
illegal occupation of the West Bank.
We all know that companies such as
HP, Caterpillar, Northrop Grumman,
Hewlett-Packard, Motorola Solutions,
G4S, Elbit Systems, and Veolia Envi-
ronnement, among others, provide
electronic and data services to maintain
checkpoints, materials to build the
illegal apartheid wall, bulldozers that
are used to demolish Palestinian homes
and olive groves in violation of interna-
tional law, and weapons systems that
are used against Palestinians in violation
of our own Arms Export Control Act
prohibiting the use of U.S. weapons and
military aid against civilians.
I know something about the facts on
the ground in the West Bank and East
Jerusalem, having spent the better part
of January 2012 visiting the region. I
witnessed first-hand the checkpoints,
the separation wall, the crumbling, half-
constructed buildings, the fatigue-clad
and heavily armed Israeli security forces
checking IDs, the freshly paved settler
roads, the ever-expanding Jewish settle-
ments rising from hilltops laying siege
on Palestinian villages below. I heard
testimony from Palestinian families
forced out of their homes in the Sheikh
Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem;
walked through the souk in Hebron
littered with bricks and garbage and
human feces thrown at Palestinian
merchants by messianic settlers; negoti-
ated the narrow, muddy pathways sepa-
rating overcrowded multi-storied shacks
in the refugee camps in Nablus or Jenin
or Bethlehem; met mothers who had to
give birth on the side of the road or
watched their severely ill children die
for want of emergency care because
they were held up at an Israeli check-
point; spoke with parents whose boys
had been detained, maimed, or even
killed for throwing rocks at tanks.
I also know something about the value
of divestment as a non-violent strategy
for social justice. (And I will add, as one
who spent part of my childhood in
Seattle, Washington, in the shadows of
your great institution, I do know that
UW and your city have a long and noble
history of promoting the principles of
social justice.) Thirty years ago, as a
UCLA graduate student, president of
our campuss African Activist Associa-
tion, and chair of the Los Angeles Ad
Hoc Committee to Keep South Africa
Out of the Olympics, I added my voice
to the movement calling on the Univer-
sity of California to divest its holdings
from apartheid South Africa. This was
my generations Boycott, Sanctions,
Divestment moment, and many of us
put our bodies on the line building
makeshift shanty towns on campus and
sitting in at the South African Consulate
in Beverly Hills. The movement was
not popular at first, but we educated our
community, built momentum, and by
the summer of 1986 succeeded in per-
suading the U.C. Regents to divest its
$3.1 billion worth of holdings from
South Africa and Namibia. Although it
took nine years, and the University of
California took longer to divest than
most major banks (including Citibank,
Chase Manhattan, and Barclays), its
leaders ultimately decided to abide by
the wishes of the students and faculty
and take an ethical stance against apart-
heid.
We understood then and nowthat
apartheid did more than strip black
South Africans of voting and civil
April 13, 2014

Dear UW Students and
ASUW Senators,
Robin D. G. Kelley
University of California
Los Angeles
33

rights. The regime dispossessed Afri-
cans from their land, and through legis-
lative and military acts, razed entire
communities and transferred Africans to
government townships and Bantustans.
It was a system of racial classification
and population control that limited the
movement of Africans in towns and
cities, denied them social and economic
privileges based on race, outlawed
organizations that challenged the apart-
heid state, and used violence and deten-
tion to suppress opposition. Israel has
been practicing a form of apartheid
since its inception. After destroying
some 380 Palestinian villages, and
ethnically cleansing Palestinian towns
and neighborhoods in mixed cities in
1948, confiscating land without com-
pensation, Israel passed The Absentees
Property Law (1950), effectively trans-
ferring all property owned or used by
Palestinian refugees to the state, and
then denied their right to return or re-
claim their losses. The land grab con-
tinued after the 1967 war and military
occupation of Gaza, the West Bank, and
East Jerusalem. In violation of the
Fourth Geneva Convention, Jewish
settlements in the Occupied Territories
have expanded exponentially since
1967. Currently, there are over 500,000
settlers living in the West Bank, and at
least 43% of the land has been allocated
to settler regional and local councils,
and therefore is off-limits for Palestini-
an use.
Furthermore, the most recent violent
racist attacks on African immigrants in
Israel represent some of the worst exam-
ples of human rights violations. Some
60,000 undocumented workers, many
having fled war-torn or economically
devastated countries such as Sudan and
Eritrea, are denied refugee status, sub-
ject to deportation and imprisonment for
up to a year without trial, and endure
horrifying violence from racist mobs.
The South African experience proves
that peace and reconciliation is possible,
but will remain elusive without justice,
nor will it be achieved as long as we
continue to financially support a regime
that violates international law with
impunity. The occupation is illegal, it
perpetuates more than a half century of
dispossession, it does not serve the
interests of the majority of Israeli citi-
zens, and it is costing American citizens
some three billion dollars a year. The
University of Washington, a leading
global light in public higher education,
should not profit from occupation and
dispossession. Divest Now!
Robin D. G. Kelley

Acting Chair
Afro-American Studies IDP
Gary B. Nash Professor of Ameri-
can History

University of California at
Los Angeles
34
April 14, 2014
Regarding: A Resolution to Divest from Companies
Profiting from Violations of International Law and
Human Rights
To whom it may concern;

T
his is a letter of support for the
Associated Students of the Uni-
versity of Washington resolution
to divest from companies that are profit-
ing from violations of international law
and human rights in the Occupied Pales-
tinian Territories. As part of the interna-
tional boycott, divestment, and sanction
call, we recognize the responsibility of
universities to invest in a socially con-
scious manner in keeping with the prin-
ciples of the university and we support
efforts to apply economic pressure to
end the Israeli occupation and the egre-
gious treatment of Palestinians in the
territories. As a health and human
rights delegation, we have visited Israel
and the West Bank annually for the past
ten years and understand the on-the-
ground realities of the occupation, the
high cost to the Palestinian population,
and the unwillingness of the Israeli gov-
ernment to engage in meaningful politi-
cal change. We understand that our
support of global corporations that are
the instruments of occupation and sup-
pression of the Palestinian population
make us all culpable and that is the re-
sponsibility of institutions concerned
with justice to support the nonviolent
resistance movements that are working
to end these injustices. For these rea-
sons, we applaud the courage of the
University of Washington students and
hope that the university will act posi-
tively on their resolution.
Alice Rothchild, MD
Co-organizer
American Jews for a Just Peace,
Health and Human Rights Project

www.ajjpboston.org
Dear allies at ASUW,
W
e write from the other side
of the US in support of
your proposed Resolution
to Divest from Companies Profiting
from Violations of International Law
and Human Rights. We are proud to
have you join the global movement to
impose boycotts, sanctions and divest-
ment initiatives against Israel in order
to force it to meet its obligation to rec-
ognize the Palestinian people's right to
self-determination and fully comply
with international law. BDS has been
endorsed by over 170 Palestinian par-
ties, organizations, trade unions, and
movements representing Arab-
Palestinian citizens of Israel, and it is
the most effective non-violent and
morally consistent means of achieving
justice and genuine peace in the region
through concrete international pres-
sure.
In solidarity,
Adalah-NY
Adalah-NY: The New York Campaign
for the Boycott of Israel is a local,
grassroots, non-hierarchical volunteer-
only group of concerned individuals
that advocates for justice, equality, and
human rights for the Palestinian people
through educational activities and cam-
paign-building.
Dr. Alice Rothchild
Physician, Author,
Activist
AJJP-Boston is dedicat-
ed to furthering a just
and peaceful resolution
to the Israeli/
Palestinian conflict, a
resolution that will
provide justice, safety,
security and freedom for
Jews, Palestinians, and
others living in the
region.
35

I
emphatically endorse the well-
crafted and principled divestment
resolution put forth by Students
United for Palestinian Equal Rights
(SUPER) at the University of Washing-
ton.

We must not see UWs pledge of being
compassionate and committed to the
active pursuit of global engagement and
connectedness as mere words on the
page. UW Students have taken a bold
step in refusing to stand idly by as their
university likely invests in corporations
that profit off an internationally con-
demned occupation that is defined by
land theft, illegal settlements, segregat-
ed roads, home demolitions, separation
walls, and consistent violations of inter-
national law.

South African Archbishop Desmond
Tutu, supporter of campus divestment,
famously proclaimed, If you are neu-
tral in situations of injustice, you have
chosen the side of the oppressor. I ap-
plaud the tremendous efforts by SUPER
UW and urge the ASUW to absorb the
clear case for divestment in the resolu-
tion presented. Standing on the right
side of history and against complicity in
systems of oppression is always the
right thing to do, from the Jim Crow
South to Apartheid South Africa to oc-
cupation in Palestine. As members of
the global community, it is essential
that we cut our direct lines of complic-
ity with human rights violations. Di-
vestment is the next step. The time for
action is now.
Letter of support from Remi Kanazi
Sincerely,
Remi Kanazi
Poet and Writer
We must not see UWs
pledge of being
compassionate and
committed to the active
pursuit of global
engagement and
connectedness as mere
words on the page.
36
Dear University of
Washington Students,
A
s a national coalition of more
than 400 groups around the
country that support freedom,
justice, and equality for all, we are writ-
ing to thank you for your efforts to pass
a resolution at the University of Wash-
ington calling for divestment from com-
panies that profit from occupation and
apartheid and are complicit in Israels
crimes against the Palestinian people.
Every day Palestinians suffer ongoing
displacement, discrimination, and exile
as a consequence of Israels abusive
policies. Whether its Palestinians living
under brutal military occupation in the
West Bank and Gaza, or Palestinian
refugees who cannot return to their
lands because they have the wrong eth-
nic or religious background, or Palestin-
ian citizens of Israel who face more than
50 laws enshrining their status as second
-class citizens, Palestinians have been
denied their rights and dignity by Israel
for several decades.
In 2005 more than 170 Palestinian civil
society groups issued a call for boycotts,
divestment, and sanctions (BDS) target-
ing Israel and institutions complicit in
its oppressive policies towards Palestini-
ans until it complies with international
law. With the failure of the international
community to hold Israel accountable
for its actions, BDS promotes time-
honored and respected tactics used to
achieve justice, including in the U.S.
Civil Rights and South Africa Anti-
Apartheid movements.
One example of the complicity of cor-
porations in Israels oppression is Cater-
pillar. The companys bulldozers are
one of the most destructive weapons
Israel utilizes to maintain its military
occupation. These machines are used
daily to demolish Palestinian homes,
uproot Palestinian olive trees, build
illegal Jewish-only settlements on stolen
Palestinian lands, and construct the
apartheid wall. Since 1967 more than
25,000 Palestinian homes have been
destroyed and estimated 800,000 olive
trees have been uprooted, which is equal
to 33 Central Parks. On March 16, 2003,
23-year-old American peace activist and
Washington resident Rachel Corrie was
run over and killed by a Caterpillar D9
bulldozer as she was trying to protect a
Palestinian home from being demol-
ished while the family was inside.
In the past nine years, people of con-
science worldwide, especially students,
have responded to the Palestinian call
for action by pursuing local BDS cam-
paigns. Campuses have been at the fore-
front of social justice struggles through-
out history, even when doing so was
unpopular. As with all social justice
movements, there will be those who
oppose your efforts by accusing you of
being divisive and pushing for the need
to be neutral. The fact is that refusing to
divest is in itself a political stance in
support of human rights abuses. There is
no not taking a side in this situation:
there is the side of justice and the status
quo of injustice. Those working for
Palestinian rights are not the ones sin-
gling out Israel. It is the U.S. govern-
ment that singles Israel out by funding
April 20, 2014
37

its occupation and apartheid with bil-
lions of dollars in military aid annually.
It is university student governments that
single Israel out when they pass resolu-
tions about fossil fuels, the prison indus-
trial complex, and human rights abuses
in other countries but decline to take up
Israels very clearly documented viola-
tions of international law.
After the end of apartheid in South Afri-
ca, Nelson Mandela made clear: The
UN took a strong stand against apart-
heid; and over the years, an internation-
al consensus was built, which helped to
bring an end to this iniquitous system.
But we know too well that our freedom
is incomplete without the freedom of the
Palestinians.
We cheer you on in your stand with
Palestinians in their struggle against
Israeli occupation, apartheid, and colo-
nization. We applaud your efforts to
continue UWs proud record of divest-
ment from companies that profit from
oppression and human rights abuses,
including Apartheid in South Africa
genocide in Sudan.
Sincerely,
US Campaign to End the
Israeli Occupation
A national coalition working to end
all U.S. support for Israeli occupa-
tion and apartheid policies towards
Palestinians.
38
To whom it may concern:

W
e, the undersigned faculty
from universities around the
count r y, sal ut e and
commend the efforts of Students United
for Palestinian Equal Rights at the
University of Washington, Seattle, to
get the UW Student Senate to pass a
measured and thoughtful motion to
divest from corporations that profit from
the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
We agree with the motion in its
recognition that the Israeli occupation is
both illegal under international law and
involves extensive and ongoing
violations of human rights and
international law that are systemic in
nature and thoroughly documented by a
range of internationally respected
organizations. Corporations that
collaborate with and profit from the
occupation are themselves therefore
complicit in the perpetration of human
rights violations. Furthermore, we
endorse the statement that a decision to
divest from corporations that profit from
these fundamental violations is and
should be in keeping with the
commitment to respect for human
rights, non-discrimination and ethical
values that is a cornerstone of any
universitys moral and intellectual
mission. It is clearly in keeping with the
University of Washingtons own stated
commitment to the active pursuit of
global engagement and connectedness
and to fostering engaged and
responsible citizenship.
We therefore urge the Student Senate at
the University of Washington, Seattle,
to live up to these ethical principles and
to pass the divestment resolution.
Sincerely,

Joel Beinin
Stanford University

Eduardo Cadava
Princeton University

Mary Yu Danico
California State
University, Pomona

Colin Dayan,
Vanderbilt University

Erica Edwards,
Riverside

Alessandro
Fornazzari,
University of California,
Riverside

Cynthia Franklin,
University of Hawaii

Jess Ghannam,
San Francisco

Terri Ginsberg,
International Council for
Middle East Studies

Corporations that
collaborate with
and profit from
the occupation
are themselves
therefore
complicit in the
perpetration of
human rights
violations.
A letter of support from faculty
around the country:
April 14, 2014
39

Macarena
Gomez-Barrs
University of Southern
California

Barbara Harlow
University of Texas,
Austin

Linda Hess
Stanford University
College of Humanities,
Arts & Social Sciences
Riverside, CA 92521

Cheryl
Higashida
University of Colorado,
Boulder

Nasser Hussain
Amherst College

Robin D. Kelley
Los Angeles

J. Kehaulani
Kauanui
Wesleyan University

Jodi Kim
Riverside

David Klein
California State
University, Northridge

Dennis
Kortheuer
California State
University, Long
Beach
Mariam Lam
Riverside

David Lloyd
Riverside

Alex Lubin
University of New Mexico

Sunanina Maira
Davis

Frederick C.
Moten
Riverside

Bill Mullen
Purdue University

Nadine Suleiman
Naber
University of Illinois,
Chicago

David Palumbo-
Liu
Stanford University

Laura Pulido
University of Southern
California

Dylan Rodriguez
Riverside

Jeff Sacks
Riverside
Steven Salaita
Virginia Tech

Sarita See
Riverside

Freya Schiwy
Riverside

Malini Johar
Schueller
University of Florida,
Gainesville

Snehal Shingavi
University of Texas,
Austin

Rajini Srikanth
University of
Massachusetts Boston

Neferti Tadiar
Barnard College

Nikhil Singh
New York University
40
41

W
e are Israeli citizens, active against our governments policies of racism, occupation, and
apartheid. Following the Palestinian civil society call for BDS, we have come to the con-
clusion that an international campaign of divestment from companies, which are complicit
in these policies and profit from them, is a crucial tool in bringing about peace and justice to the peo-
ple living in Israel/Palestine.
We thank SUPER (students united for Palestinian equal rights) at the University of Washington whole-
heartedly for promoting human rights through this divestment initiative. We call on THE ASSOCIAT-
ED STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON to endorse SUPER's proposal.
The Israeli Committee
Against House Demolitions
(ICAHD + ICAHD USA)
http://www.icahd.org/
To whom it may concern,

U
S-led negotiations of a Palestinian state have finally
failed, leaving concerned citizens around the world
wondering if and when the occupation and regime of
institutionalized discrimination governing the lives of Pales-
tinians will ever end. Fortunately, there is a recourse, a non-
violent one, that enables all of us to campaign for the equal
rights of a people that has been dispossessed, exploited and
besieged. Palestinian civil society has urged American citi-
zens - the chief patron of their occupation - to divest from
corporations that violate their human rights. It is in the spirit
of this call to our conscience that the University of Washing-
ton chapter of SUPER has introduced its divestment resolu-
tion.

As students and members of the UW community, this resolu-
tion offers you the opportunity to end your complicity in the
denial of the most basic rights to Palestinians. More im-
portantly, it helps forge one of the few remaining paths for-
ward towards equality for everyone living in Israel-Palestine.
Act on your conscience and support this inherently democrat-
ic, deeply humane campaign of non-compliance with injus-
tice.
Max Blumenthal is an award-
winning journalist whose arti-
cles and video documentaries
have appeared in the New York
Times, Los Angeles Times, the
Daily Beast, The Nation, and
many other publications. His
book, Republican Gomorrah:
Inside The Movement That
Shattered The Party (Nation
Books, 2010) was a New York
Times and Los Angeles Times
bestseller. His newest book is
called Goliath: Life and Loath-
ing in Greater Israel.
From Israeli Activists (Boycott from Within, ICAHD)
Boycott! Supporting the
Palestinian BDS Call
from Within (aka Boycott
from Within)
http://boycottisrael.info/
Letter to UW from journalist Max Blumenthal
Photo by Ad-
itya Ga-
napathiraju
42
My dear Palestinian
brothers and sisters,
I
have come to your land and I have
recognized shades of my own. My
land was once one where some peo-
ple imagined that they could build their
security on the insecurity of others.
They claimed that their lighter skin and
European origins gave them the right to
dispossess those of a darker skin who
lived in the land for thousands of years.
I come from a land where a group of
people, the Afrikaners, were genuinely
hurt by the British. The British despised
them and placed many of them into con-
centration camps. Nearly a sixth of their
population perished.
Then the Afrikaners said, "Never
again!" And they meant that never again
will harm come unto them with no re-
gard to how their own humanity was
tied to that of others. In their hurt they
developed an understanding of being
God's chosen people destined to inhabit
a Promised Land. And thus they occu-
pied the land, other people's land, and
they built their security on the insecurity
of black people. Later they united with
the children of their former enemies --
now called "the English." The new al-
lies, known simply as "whites," pitted
themselves against the blacks who were
forced to pay the terrible price of dis-
possession, exploitation and marginali-
zation as a result of a combination of
white racism, Afrikaner fears and ideas
of chosen-ness. And, of course, there
was the ancient crime of simple greed.
I come from apartheid South Africa.
Arriving in your land, the land of Pales-
tine, the sense of deja vu is inescapable.
I am struck by the similarities. In some
ways, all of us are the children of our
histories. Yet, we may also choose to be
struck by the stories of others. Perhaps
this ability is what is called morality.
We cannot always act upon what we see
but we always have the freedom to see
and to be moved.
I come from a land where people braved
onslaughts of bulldozers, bullets, ma-
chine guns and tear gas for the sake of
freedom. We resisted at a time when it
was not fashionable. And now that we
have been liberated everyone declares
that they were always on our side. It's a
bit like Europe after the Second World
War. During the war only a few people
resisted. After the war not a single sup-
porter of the Nazis could be found and
the vast majority claimed that they al-
ways supported the resistance to the
Nazis.
I am astonished at how ordinarily decent
people whose hearts are otherwise "in
the right place" beat about the bush
when it comes to Israel and the dispos-
session and suffering of the Palestinians.
And now I wonder about the nature of
" de c e nc y. " Do " obj e c t i vi t y, "
"moderation," and seeing "both sides"
not have limits? Is moderation in mat-
ters of clear injustice really a virtue? Do
both parties deserve an "equal hearing"
in a situation of domestic violence --
wherein a woman is beaten up by a male
who was abused by his father some time
ago -- because he, too, is a "victim?"
We call upon the world to act now
against the dispossession of the Pales-
tinians. We must end the daily humilia-
tion at checkpoints, the disgrace of an
Apartheid Wall that cuts people off
from their land, livelihood and history,
and act against the torture, detention
without trial and targeted killings of
those who dare to resist. Our humanity
demands that we who recognize evil in
its own time act against it even when it
is "unsexy" to do so. Such recognition
and action truly benefits our higher
selves. We act in the face of oppression,

Do objectivity,
moderation,
and seeing both
sides not have
limits?
Farid Esack
University of
Johannesburg

A letter to the
Palestinian
people
43

dispossession, or occupation so that our
own humanity may not be diminished
by our silence when some part of the
human family is being demeaned. If
something lessens your worth as a hu-
man being, then it lessens mine as well.
To act in your defense is really to act in
defense of my "self" -- whether my
higher present self or my vulnerable
future self.
Morality is about the capacity to be
moved by interests beyond one's own
ethnic group, religious community, or
nation. When one's view of the world
and dealings with others are entirely
shaped by self-centeredness -- whether
in the name of religion, survival, securi-
ty, or ethnicity -- then it is really only a
matter of time before one also becomes
a victim. While invoking "real life" or
realpolitik as values themselves, human
beings mostly act in their own self-
interest even as they seek to deploy a
more ethically-based logic in doing so.
Thus, while it is oil or strategic ad-
vantage that you are after, you may in-
voke the principle of spreading democ-
racy, or you may justify your exploita-
tion of slavery with the comforting ra-
tionalization that the black victims of
the system might have died of starvation
if they had been left in Africa. Being
truly human -- a mensch -- is something
different. It is about the capacity to
transcend narrow interests and to under-
stand how a deepening of humanness is
linked to the good of others. When
apartness is elevated to dogma and ide-
ology, when apartness is enforced
through the law and its agencies, this is
called apartheid. When certain people
are privileged simply because they are
born to a certain ethnic group and use
these privileges to dispossess and dis-
criminate against others then this is
called apartheid. Regardless of how
genuine the trauma that gave birth to it
and regardless of the religious depth of
the exclusivist beliefs underpinning it
all, it is called apartheid. How we re-
spond to our own trauma and to the in-
difference or culpability of the world
never justifies traumatizing others or an
indifference to theirs. Apartness then
not only becomes a foundation for igno-
rance of the other with whom one shares
a common space. It also becomes a ba-
sis for denying the suffering and humili-
ation that the other undergoes.
We do not deny the trauma that the op-
pressors experienced at any stage in
their individual or collective lives; we
simply reject the notion that others
should become victims as a result of it.
We reject the manipulation of that suf-
fering for expansionist political and ter-
ritorial purposes. We resent having to
pay the price of dispossession because
an imperialist power requires a reliable
ally in this part of the world.
As South Africans, speaking up about
the life or death for the Palestinian peo-
ple is also about salvaging our own
dream of a moral society that will not be
complicit in the suffering of other peo-
ple. There are, of course, other instances
of oppression, dispossession and mar-
ginalization in the world. Yet, none of
these are as immediately recognizable to
us who lived under, survived and over-
came apartheid. Indeed, for those of us
who lived under South African apart-
heid and fought for liberation from it
and everything that it represented, Pal-
estine reflects in many ways the unfin-
ished business of our own struggle.
Thus, I and numerous others who were
involved in the struggle against apart-
heid have come here and we have wit-
nessed a place that in some ways re-
minds us of what we have suffered
through. Archbishop Desmond Tutu is
of course correct when he speaks about
how witnessing the conditions of the
We do not deny
the trauma that
the oppressors
experienced at
any stage in their
individual or
collective lives.
44
Palestinians "reminded me so much of
what happened to us black people in
South Africa ... I say why are our mem-
ories so short? Have our Jewish sisters
and brothers forgotten their humilia-
tion?" But yet in more ways than one,
here in your land, we are seeing some-
thing far more brutal, relentless and in-
human than what we have ever seen
under apartheid. In some ways, my
brothers and sisters, I am embarrassed
that you have to resort to using a word
that was earlier on used specifically for
our situation, in order to draw attention
to yours.
White South Africa did of course seek
to control blacks. However it never tried
to deny black people their very existenc-
es or to wish them away completely as
we see here. We have not experienced
military occupation without any rights
for the occupied. We were spared the
barbaric and diverse forms of collective
punishment in the forms of house demo-
litions, the destruction of orchards be-
longing to relatives of suspected free-
dom fighters, or the physical transfer of
these relatives themselves. South Afri-
ca's apartheid courts never legitimized
torture. White South Africans were nev-
er given a carte blanche to humiliate
black South Africans as the settlers here
seem to have. The craziest apartheid
zealots would never have dreamed of
something as macabre as this wall. The
apartheid police never used kids as
shields in any of their operations. Nor
did the apartheid army ever use gun-
ships and bombs against largely civilian
targets. In South Africa the whites were
a stable community and after centuries
simply had to come to terms with black
people. (Even if it were only because of
their economic dependence on black
people.) The Zionist idea of Israel as the
place for the ingathering for all the Jews
-- old and new, converts, reverts and
reborn -- is a deeply problematic one. In
such a case there is no sense of compul-
sion to reach out to your neighbor. The
idea seems to be to get rid of the old
neighbors -- ethnic cleansing -- and to
bring in new ones all the time.
We as South Africans resisting apart-
heid understood the invaluable role of
international solidarity in ending centu-
ries of oppression. Today we have no
choice but to make our contribution to
the struggle of the Palestinians for free-
dom. We do so with the full awareness
that your freedom will also contribute to
the freedom of many Jews to be fully
human in the same way that the end of
apartheid also signaled the liberation of
white people in South Africa. At the
height of our own liberation struggle,
we never ceased to remind our people
that our struggle for liberation is also for
the liberation of white people. Apartheid
diminished the humanity of white peo-
ple in the same way that gender injus-
tice diminishes the humanity of males.
The humanity of the oppressor is re-
claimed through liberation and Israel is
no exception in this regard. At public
rallies during the South African libera-
tion struggle the public speaker of the
occasion would often call out: "An inju-
ry to one!" and the crowd would re-
spond: "Is an injury to all!" We under-
stood that in a rather limited way at that
time. Perhaps we are destined to always
understand this in a limited way. What
we do know is that an injury to the Pal-
estinian people is an injury to all. An
injury inflicted on others invariably
comes back to haunt the aggressors; it is
not possible to tear at another's skin and
not to have one's own humanity simulta-
neously diminished in the process. In
the face of this monstrosity, the Apart-
heid Wall, we offer an alternative: soli-
darity with the people of Palestine. We
pledge our determination to walk with
you in your struggle to overcome sepa-
45

ration, to conquer injustice and to put
end to greed, division and exploitation.
We have seen that our yesterday's op-
pressed -- both in apartheid South Afri-
ca and in Israel today -- can become
today's oppressors. Thus we stand by
you in your vision to create a society
wherein everyone, regardless of their
ethnicity, or religion, shall be equal and
live in freedom.
We continue to draw strength from the
words of Nelson Mandela, the father of
our nation and hero of the Palestinian
people. In 1964 he was found guilty on
charges of treason and faced the death
penalty. He turned to the judges and
said: "I have fought against white domi-
nation, and I have fought against black
domination. I have cherished the ideal
of a democratic and free society in
which all persons live together in har-
mony and with equal opportunities. It is
an ideal which I hope to live for
and to achieve. But if need be, it is
an ideal for which I am prepared
to die."
Farid Esack is a writer, scholar and human rights
actvist, well-known for his oppositon to apartheid
and his appointment by Nelson Mandela as a gen-
der equity commissioner. He has taught at many
universites, including Harvard University and Xavier
University in the US, the University of the Western
Cape in South Africa and Vrije Universiteit in Am-
sterdam. This open leter has been sprayed entrely
on the wall in Palestne.
Farid Esack

We know too well that our
freedom is not complete
without the freedom of the
Palestinians.

Nelson Mandela
Anti-apartheid campaigner, elder
statesman, Nobel Peace Laureate,
global activist
46
Dear University of Arizona Community,
I
am writing today to express my
wholehearted support of the stu-
dents in No Ms Muertes/No More
Deaths humanitarian/migrant-rights
group and their institutional statement
advocating divestment or business sev-
erance from the Caterpillar and
Motorola corporations. I appreciate
their insistence for your school to termi-
nate this relationship on the grounds of
these companies providing military-
style technology and assistance to U.S.
forces committing systematic abuses in
Arizona and nationwide. I also think it
is important that the students are high-
lighting these same companies that pro-
vide similar technology and assistance
for Israel to use in its illegal military
occupation and settlement of Palestinian
lands.
When an immigrant is criminalized in
Arizona or elsewhere in the U.S. for not
having the right papers as he tries to
make a living, I stand with him. When
a Palestinian man stands for hours at an
Israeli military checkpoint in order to
get to his job and make a living, I stand
with him. And I ask you to stand with
me, with them, as the students are at the
threshold of a new movement that seeks
justice by withdrawing support for in-
justice.
I am not speaking from an ivory tow-
er. Degradation and humiliation of in-
nocent people harassed over their
legal status and documentation was
prevalent throughout the reign of Apart-
heid. We lived itpolice waking an
individual up in the middle of the night
and hauling him/her off to jail for not
having his/her documents on hand while
s/he slept. The fact that they were in
his/her nightstand near the bed was not
good enough.
In South Africa, we could not have
achieved our freedom and just peace
without the help of people around the
world, who, through the use of non-
violent means, such as boycotts and
divestment, encouraged their govern-
ments and other corporate actors to re-
verse decades-long support for the
Apartheid regime. Students played a
leading role in that struggle, and I write
this letter with a special indebtedness to
and earnest gratitude for your school,
the University of Arizona, for its role in
advocating equality in South Africa and
promoting corporate ethical and social
responsibility to end complicity in
Apartheid.
The same issue of equality is what moti-
vates the students divestment move-
ment today, linking the issues of immi-
grant/indigenous rights in the U.S. and
the Israeli occupation of Palestine. The
movement students are leading in Ari-
zona to better the conditions there and
in Palestine is politically refreshing and
should be an inspiration to us all.
It was with immense joy that I learned
of the massive mock apartheid wall the
students erected through your campus to
bring these issues to the forefront. The
students cleverly label their mock bor-
der wall Concrete Connections to
symbolize the intersection of interests
that guide U.S. policy in militarized
Arizona and in Israeli-occupied Pales-
tine.
I was reminded of how similarly
touched I was when I visited American
campuses like yours in the 1980s and
saw students creating mock shanty
Letter From Archbishop
Desmond Tutu
Support For University of Arizona
Divestment Campaign
47

Archbishop Emeritus
Desmond Tutu
towns and demonstrating in the baking
sun to protest the brutal conditions of
Apartheid. Is my hope that the creative
action by the students will inspire a new
movement of mock walls dividing cam-
puses across the U.S. to show how the
militarized border not only runs along
Arizona and the Southwestern region
but everywhere in the United States
where communities of immigrants, in-
digenous peoples and ethnic minorities
are raided, abused or exploited. Such
demonstrations can also show that in
every corner of the United States sits the
potential to help end the Israeli occupa-
tion by withdrawing U.S. funding and
support which makes it possible.
The abuses faced by people in Arizona
and in Palestine are real, and no person
should be offended by principled, mor-
ally consistent, non-violent acts to op-
pose them. It is no more wrong to call
out the U.S. governmentsat the feder-
al and Arizona state levelsfor their
abuses in Arizona and throughout the
country than it was to call out the Apart-
heid regime for its abuses. Nor is it
wrong to single out Israel for its abuses
in the occupied Palestinian territory as it
was to single out the Apartheid regime
for its abuses.
I am writing to tell you that, despite
what detractors may allege, the students
are on the right track and are doing the
right thing. They are doing the moral
thing. They are doing that which is
incumbent on them as humans who be-
lieve that all people have dignity and
rights, and that all those being denied
their dignity and rights deserve the soli-
darity of their fellow human beings.
With these truths and principles in
mind, I join with the students in No Ms
Muertes and implore your school to
divest any form of business investment,
whether stocks, bonds, or other business
agreements, from companies such as
Caterpillar and Motorola, as a symbolic
gesture of non-participation in condi-
tions and practices that are abomina-
ble. To those who wrongly accuse us of
unfairness or harm done to them by this
call for divestment, I suggest, with hu-
mility, that the harm suffered from be-
ing confronted with opinions that chal-
lenge ones own pales in comparison to
the harm done by living a life under
occupation and daily denial of basic
rights and dignity.
It is not with rancor that we criticize the
Israeli and U.S./AZ governments, but
with hope, a hope that a better future
can be made for both Israelis and Pales-
tiniansfor migrant, indigenous, and all
peoples regardless of immigration sta-
tus; a future in which both the violence
of the occupier and the resulting violent
resistance of the occupied come to an
end, and where one people need not rule
over another, engendering suffering,
humiliation, and retaliation. True peace
must be anchored in justice and an un-
wavering commitment to universal
rights for all humans, regardless of eth-
nicity, religion, gender, national origin
or any other identity attribute, including
national citizenship. Students are help-
ing to pave that path to a just peace and
they deserve your support. I encourage
you to stand firm on the side of what is
right.

God bless you.
48
"You will have no protection."
- Medgar Evers to Civil Rights Activ-
ists in Mississippi, shortly before he
was assassinated on June 12, 1963.
M
y heart is breaking; but I do
not mind.
For one thing, as soon as I
wrote those words I was able to weep,
which I had not been able to do since
learning of the attack by armed Israeli
commandos on defenseless peace ac-
tivists carrying aid to Gaza who tried
to fend them off using chairs and
sticks. I am thankful to know what it
means to be good; I know that the
people of the Freedom Flotilla are/
were, in some cases, some of the best
people on earth. They have not stood
silently by and watched the destruc-
tion of others, brutally, sustained,
without offering themselves, weapon-
less except for their bodies, to the situ-
ation. I am thankful to have a long
history of knowing people like this
from my earliest years, beginning in
my student days of marches and
demonstrations: for peace, for non-
separation among peoples, for justice
for Women, for People of Color, for
Cubans, for Animals, for Indians, and
for Her, the planet.
I am weeping for the truth of Medgar's
statement; so brave and so true. I weep
for him gunned down in his carport,
not far from where I would eventually
live in Mississippi, with a box of t-
shirts in his arms that said: 'Jim Crow
Must Go.' Though trained in the Unit-
ed States Military under racist treat-
ment one cringes to imagine, he re-
mained a peaceful soldier in the army
of liberation to the end. I weep and
will always weep, even through the
widest smiles, for the beautiful young
wife, Myrlie Evers, he left behind,
herself still strong and focused on the
truth of struggle; and for their chil-
dren, who lost their father to a fate
they could not possibly, at the time,
understand. I don't think any of us
could imagine during that particular
phase of the struggle for justice, that
we risked losing not just our lives,
which we were prepared to give, but
also our children, who we were not.
Nothing protected Medgar, nor will
anything protect any of us; nothing but
our love for ourselves and for others
whom we recognize unfailingly as
also ourselves. Nothing can protect us
but our lives. How we have lived
them; what battles, with love and
compassion our only shield, we have
engaged. And yet, the moment of real-
izing we are truly alone, that in the
ultimate crisis of our existence our
government is not there for us, is one
of shock. Especially if we have had
the illusion of a system behind us to
which we truly belong. Thankfully I
have never had opportunity to have
this illusion. And so, every peaceful
witnessing, every non-violent confron-
tation has been a pure offering. I do
not regret this at all.
When I was in Cairo last December to
support CODEPINK'S efforts to carry
aid into Gaza I was unfortunately ill
with the flu and could not offer very
much. I lay in bed in the hotel room
and listened to other activists report on
what was happening around the city as
Egypt refused entry to Gaza to the
1400 people who had come for the
accompanying Freedom march. I
heard many distressing things, but
only one made me feel, not exactly
envy, but something close; it was that
Article by Alice Walker
Supporting Boycotts, Divestment and
Sanctions Against Israel
49

the French activists had shown up, en
masse, in front of their embassy and
that their ambassador had come out to
talk to them and to try to make them
comfortable as they set up camp out-
side the building. This small gesture
of compassion for his country's activ-
ists in a strange land touched me pro-
foundly, as I was touched decades ago
when someone in John Kennedy's
white house (maybe the cook) sent out
cups of hot coffee to our line of freez-
ing student and teacher demonstrators
as we tried, with our signs and slogans
and songs, to protect a vulnerable
neighbor, Cuba.
Where have the Israelis put our
friends? I thought about this all night.
Those whom they assassinated on the
ship and those they injured? Is "my"
government capable of insisting on
respect for their dead bodies? Can it
demand that those who are injured but
alive be treated with care? Not only
with care, but the tenderness and hon-
or they deserve? If it cannot do this,
such a simple, decent thing, of what
use is it to the protection and healing
of the planet? I heard a spokesman for
the United States opine at the United
Nations (not an exact quote) that the
Freedom Flotilla activists should have
gone through other, more proper,
channels, not been confrontational
with their attempt to bring aid to the
distressed. This is almost exactly what
college administrators advised half a
century ago when students were trying
to bring down Apartheid in the South
and getting bullets, nooses, bombings
and burnings for our efforts. I felt em-
barrassed (to the degree one can per-
mit embarrassment by another) to be
even vaguely represented by this man:
a useless voice from the far past. One
had hoped.
The Israeli spin on the massacre: that
the commandos were under attack by
the peace activists and that the whole
thing was like "a lynching" of the
armed attackers, reminds me of a
Redd Foxx joke. I loved Redd Foxx,
for all his vulgarity. A wife caught her
husband in bed with another woman,
flagrant, in the act, skin to skin. The
husband said, probably through pants
of aroused sexual exertion: All right,
go ahead and believe your lying eyes!
It would be fun, were it not tragic, to
compare the various ways the Israeli
government and our media will at-
tempt to blame the victims of this un-
conscionable attack for their own im-
prisonment, wounds and deaths.
So what to do? Rosa Parks sat down
in the front of the bus. Martin Luther
King followed her act of courage with
many of his own, and using his ring-
ing, compassionate voice he aroused
the people of Montgomery, Alabama
to commit to a sustained boycott of
the bus company; a company that re-
fused to allow people of color to sit in
the front of the bus, even if it was
empty. It is time for us, en masse, to
show up in front of our conscience,
and sit down in the front of the only
bus we have: our very lives.
What would that look like, be like,
today, in this situation between Pales-
tine and Israel? This "impasse" that
has dragged on for decades. This
"conflict" that would have ended in a
week if humanity as a whole had acted
in defense of justice everywhere on
the globe. Which maybe we are learn-
ing! It would look like the grand-
daughter of Rosa Parks, the grandson
of Martin Luther King. It would look
like spending our money only where
we can spend our lives in peace and
happiness; freely sharing whatever we
have with our friends.
50
It would be to support Boycott, Divest-
ment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel
to End the Occupation of Gaza and the
West Bank and by this effort begin to
soothe the pain and attend the sorrows
of a people wrongly treated for genera-
tions. This action would also remind
Israel that we have seen it lose its way
and have called to it, often with love,
and we have not been heard. In fact, we
have reached out to it only to encounter
slander, insult and, too frequently, bodi-
ly harm.
Disengage, avoid, and withhold support
from whatever abuses, degrades and
humiliates humanity.
This we can do. We the people; who
ultimately hold all the power. We the
people, who must never forget to be-
lieve we can win.
We the people.
It has always been about us; as we
watch governments come and go. It
always will be.
Alice Walker
Author
1983 Winner of Pulitzer Prize
At the 2011 Evergreen State College
graduation ceremony, commencement
speaker Dr. Angela Davis endorsed
efforts by students and alumni at Ever-
green to work in resistance to "a 21st
century resistance to Israeli apartheid"
by pushing for campus divestment. She
also made a prominent commendation
of Rachel Corrie's legacy on the Ever-
green campus.
W
hen I accepted the invitation
to speak at your commence-
ment, I responded in the
affirmative because I wanted to associ-
ate myself with a college that has a
deeply progressive tradition. I wanted to
associate myself with students, faculty
and workers who defend the integrity of
the environment, its resources, its
plants, its human and its non-human
animals, and who encourage others to
engage in sustainable living practices.
I wanted to associate myself with an
institution that continues to defend the
spirit and legacy of one of the most
prominent members of its community,
Rachel Corrie. And I think that each
graduating class should take a moment
and reflect on her courage her generosi-
ty.
And I'm happy to hear that students and
faculty on this campus, in the context of
a 21st century resistance to Israeli apart-
heid, are following those who stood up
against South African apartheid and are
raising the demand for divestment.
This is a burgeoning movement, and
you here at the Evergreen State College
have the opportunity to provide progres-
sive leadership to the rest of the country.
As the anti-South African apartheid
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alice-walker/
supporting-bds-boycott-di_b_603840.html
TESC Commencement
Speaker Angela Davis
Endorses Divestment
51

campaign was spurred on by those uni-
versities that divested early on, Michi-
gan State University, in 1978 I believe,
Columbia University, the University of
Wisconsin. And of course, eventually
virtually every school in the country
followed their leadership.
Your education has provided you with
tools to recognize that solidarity with
progressive Palestinian people is also
solidarity with progressive Jewish peo-
ple in Israel.
And I should point out that I attended a
university as an undergraduate which
was founded in the same year as the
state of Israel, Brandeis University, the
majority of whose students were Jewish.
And it was there as an undergraduate
with my Jewish classmates that I
learned how to express solidarity for
Palestinian people. I will never forget
that.
Remember also that, while everyone
now praises Nelson Mandela and ex-
presses joy that the people of South Af-
rica were finally able to defeat apart-
heid, Mandela was not always recog-
nized as this legendary defender of de-
mocracy. In fact, he was represented
initially as a pariah, as a terrorist. Am-
nesty International did not initially sup-
port him because of his association with
Umkhonto we Sizwe. So I want us to
recall that history, to think about it in a
complicated way, and to be aware of the
important role South Africa is playing in
calling for the support of the Boycott
Divestment and Sanctions movement.
And I just want to share with you a very
moving statement by Archbishop Tutu,
who recently sent a message to the
mayor of a town in Australia. The city
council of that town decided to divest,
and received a great deal of criticism as
a result.
"Dear Mayor Fiona Byrne of Marrick-
ville, New South Wales, Australia:
"We in South Africa, who both suffered
under apartheid and defeated it, have
the moral right and responsibility to
name and shame institutionalized sepa-
ration, exclusion, and domination by
one ethnic group over others. In my own
eyes, I have seen how the Palestinians
are oppressed, disposed, and exiled. We
call on all our Jewish and Israeli sisters
and brothers to oppose the Occupation
and work for equality, justice, and
peace between the river and the sea in
the same way that so many South Afri-
can whites took risk to oppose the crime
of Apartheid."
And he concl udes by sayi ng,
"Sometimes taking a public stand for
what is ethical and right brings cost, but
social justice on a local or global scale
requires faith and courage."
If there is a skill we all need to acquire
as we attempt to move forward in the
21st century, it is the ability to identity
and act on an awareness of the links and
connections across the range of issues
we identify as crucial for democratic
agendas today.
And so, those of us who call for free-
dom for Palestine acknowledge the con-
nections between the attacks on the Pal-
estinians in their own country and the
racist discourse that relies on unques-
tioned acceptance of Islamophobia,
which in turn is interpreted as necessary
for the success of what has been repre-
sented as a global war on terror.
http://tescdivest.blogspot.com/2012/02/
tesc-commencement-speaker-angela-
davis.html
Dr. Angela Davis
52
T
he Boycott Divestment
and Sanctions movement
is, in fact, a non-violent
movement; it seeks to use established
legal means to achieve its goals; and
it is, interestingly enough, the largest
Palestinian civic movement at this
time. That means that the largest
Palestinian civic movement is a non-
violent one that justifies its actions
through recourse to international law.
Further, I want to underscore that this
is also a movement whose stated core
principles include the opposition to
every form of racism, including both
state-sponsored racism and anti-
Semitism. Of course, we can debate
what anti-Semitism is, in what social
and political forms it is found. I my-
self am sure that the election of self-
identified national socialists to the
Greek parliament is a clear sign of
anti-Semitism; I am sure that the
recirculation of Nazi insignia and
rhetoric by the National Party of Ger-
many is a clear sign of anti-Semitism.
I am also sure that the rhetoric and
actions of Irans Mahmoud Ahmad-
inejad are often explicitly anti-
Semitic, and that some forms of Pal-
estinian opposition to Israel do rely
on anti-Semitic slogans, falsehoods
and threats. All of these forms of anti
-Semitism are to be unconditionally
opposed. And I would add, they have
to be opposed in the same way and
with the same tenacity that any form
of racism has to be opposed, includ-
ing state racism
One could be for the BDS movement
as the only credible non-violent mode
of resisting the injustices committed
by the state of Israel without falling
into the football lingo of being pro
Palestine and anti Israel. This lan-
guage is reductive, if not embarrass-
ing. One might reasonably and pas-
sionately be concerned for all the
inhabitants of that land, and simply
maintain that the future for any
peaceful, democratic solution for that
region will become thinkable through
the dismantling of the occupation,
through enacting the equal rights of
Palestinian minorities and finding
just and plausible ways for the rights
of refugees to be honored. If one
holds out for these three aims in po-
litical life, then one is not simply
living within the logic of the pro
and the anti, but trying to fathom
the conditions for a we, a plural
existence grounded in equality. What
does one do with ones words but
reach for a place beyond war, ask for
a new constellation of political life in
which the relations of colonial subju-
gation are brought to a halt. My wa-
ger, my hope, is that everyones
chance to live with greater freedom
from fear and aggression will be in-
creased as those conditions of justice,
freedom, and equality are realized.
We can or, rather, must start with how
we speak, and how we listen, with the
right to education, and to dwell criti-
cally, fractiously, and freely in politi-
cal discourse together. Perhaps the
word justice will assume new
meanings as we speak it, such that we
can venture that what will be just for
the Jews will also be just for the Pal-
estinians, and for all the other people
living there, since justice, when just,
fails to discriminate, and we savor
that failure.
Judith Butler
Judith Butlers Remarks
to Brooklyn College on BDS
http://www.thenation.com/
article/172752/judith-butlers-
remarks-brooklyn-college-bds
Judith Butler
Philosopher and
Gender Theorist
53

The South African struggle for justice
depended upon strategies including
non-violent Boycott, Divestment and
Sanctions to rid our country of apart-
heid. That campaign was endorsed by
Martin Luther King, Jr. during the
1960s, and by the 1980s it had moti-
vated hundreds of thousands of peo-
ple - including University of Wash-
ington students - to learn about the
problems here, and play their role in
ending minority rule.
We strongly support today's BDS
campaign by Students United for Pal-
estinian Equal Rights at the Universi-
ty of Washington. The nature of Is-
raeli apartheid and its parallels to pre-
1994 South Africa have been made
evident in many ways: violation of
international law, Bantustan-type dis-
placement and control, racially segre-
gated facilities including even West
Bank roads, torture and detention
without trial, job reservation and oth-
er forms of discrimination within Is-
rael, and a growing reputation as a
rogue regime.
During this week in which we cele-
brate the 20th anniversary of democ-
racy in South Africa, all of us are
committed to using BDS to ensure
Palestinians are also free. Please
work with us, and millions across the
world, who believe that weakening
Israeli apartheid through BDS is one
of the most critical projects of our
time.
TO: University of Washington.
Sincerely,
Patrick Bond, Senior Professor of Development Studies, University
of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban
Salim Vally, Associate Professor, Faculty of Education, and Director
of the Centre for Education Rights and Transformation (CERT),
University of Johannesburg
Salim Vally
University of
Johannesburg
Patrick Bond
University of
KwaZulu-Natal
54
T
he struggle of blacks in South
Africa was destined to succeed,
but their suffering could have
been shortened, relief for millions of
Africans under the brutal apartheid
system could have come earlier if it
wasn't for politicians like Ronald Regan
and Dick Cheney who opposed boycott-
ing the racist regime in South Africa.
The regime of segregation in the South-
ern states of the U.S. was destined to
end. But white racist politicians like
George Wallace stood in the way and
prolonged that suffering.
The Palestinian struggle is destined to
end in victory with freedom and equal
rights for all. Zionism, like apartheid
and segregation is sure to fall. You can
speed up that process or delay it.
When we do not act we prolong the
suffering of children in Gaza, children
who have no access to water fit for
drinking, though there is plenty of water
around them; children without proper
nutrition or the most basic medicine,
though there is no shortage of either just
minutes away. When we do not act we
prolong the sentence of thousands of
political prisoners jailed in Israeli pris-
ons in violation of international law; we
prolong the exile of Palestinians living
in refugee camps around the Middle
East.
Will you be the student senate who
hesitated when tough and principled
choices had to be made? On the issue of
justice and freedom there is no room for
compromise, no room for tolerance.
There must be consequences for re-
gimes and states that choose policies of
violence and discrimination. Vote for
divestment and proudly align yourself
with the great men like Desmond Tutu,
and women like Mairead Maguire who
support it.
Most sincerely yours,
Miko Peled

My name is Miko Peled
I am an Israeli Jew and I support ASUW
resolution 20-39.
March 4, 2013
Israeli peace activist, au-
thor, and karate instructor.
Miko was born in Jerusalem
in 1961 into a well known
Zionist family. His grandfa-
ther, Dr. Avraham Katsnel-
son was a Zionist leader
and signer on the Israeli
Declaration of Independ-
ence. His father, Matti
Peled was a young officer in
the war of 1948 and a gen-
eral in the war of 1967
when Israel conquered the
West Bank, Gaza, Golan
Heights and the Sinai. He
has written one book, The
Generals Son: Journey of
an Israeli in Palestine.
55

56
Justice for Palestine:
A Call to Action from
Indigenous and Women of
Color Feminists
Why We, as Women of Color, Join the
Call for Divestment from Israel
B
etween June 14 and June
23, 2011, a delegation of 11
scholars, activists, and art-
ists visited occupied Palestine. As
indigenous and women of color
feminists involved in multiple so-
cial justice struggles, we sought to
affirm our association with the
growing international movement
for a free Palestine. We wanted to
see for ourselves the conditions
under which Palestinian people
live and struggle against what we
can now confidently name as the
Israeli project of apartheid and
ethnic cleansing. Each and every
one of usincluding those mem-
bers of our delegation who grew up
in the Jim Crow South, in apartheid
South Africa, and on Indian reser-
vations in the U.S.was shocked
by what we saw. In this statement
we describe some of our experienc-
es and issue an urgent call to others
who share our commitment to ra-
cial justice, equality, and freedom.
During our short stay in Palestine,
we met with academics, students,
youth, leaders of civic organiza-
tions, elected officials, trade union-
ists, political leaders, artists, and
civil society activists, as well as
residents of refugee camps and
villages that have been recently
attacked by Israeli soldiers and
settlers. Everyone we encoun-
teredin Nablus, Awarta, Balata,
Jerusalem, Hebron, Dheisheh,
Bethlehem, Birzeit, Ramallah, Um
el-Fahem, and Haifaasked us to
tell the truth about life under occu-
pation and about their unwavering
commitment to a free Palestine. We
were deeply impressed by peoples
insistence on the linkages between
the movement for a free Palestine
and struggles for justice throughout
the world; as Martin Luther King,
Jr. insisted throughout his life,
Justice is indivisible. Injustice
anywhere is a threat to justice eve-
rywhere.
Traveling by bus throughout the
country, we saw vast numbers of
Israeli settlements ominously
perched in the hills, bearing wit-
ness to the systematic confiscation
of Palestinian land in flagrant vio-
lation of international law and
United Nations resolutions. We
met with refugees across the coun-
try whose families had been evict-
ed from their homes by Zionist
forces, their land confiscated, their
villages and olive groves razed. As
a consequence of this ongoing dis-
placement, Palestinians comprise
the largest refugee population in
the world (over five million), the
majority living within 100 kilome-
ters of their natal homes, villages,
and farmlands. In defiance of Unit-
ed Nations Resolution 194, Israel
has an active policy of opposing
the right of Palestinian refugees to
return to their ancestral homes and
lands on the grounds that they are
not entitled to exercise the Israeli
Law of Return, which is reserved
for Jews.
In Sheikh Jarrah, a neighborhood
in eastern occupied Jerusalem, we
met an 88-year-old woman who
was forcibly evicted in the middle
of the night; she watched as the
Barbara Ransby, Ph.D.
Professor,
Gender and Women's Studies,
African American Studies &
History

University of Illinois at Chicago
57

Israeli military moved settlers into
her house a mere two hours later.
Now living in the small back
rooms of what was once her large
family residence, she defiantly
asserted that neither Israels courts
nor its military could ever force her
from her home. In the city of Heb-
ron, we were stunned by the con-
spicuous presence of Israeli sol-
diers, who maintain veritable con-
ditions of apartheid for the citys
Palestinian population of almost
200,000, as against its 700 Jewish
settlers. We crossed several Israeli
checkpoints designed to control
Palestinian movement on West
Bank roads and along the Green
Line. Throughout our stay, we met
Palestinians who, because of Is-
raels annexation of Jerusalem and
plans to remove its native popula-
tion, have been denied entry to the
Holy City. We spoke to a man who
lives ten minutes away from Jeru-
salem but who has not been able to
enter the city for twenty-seven
years. The Israeli government thus
continues to wage a demographic
war for Jewish dominance over the
Palestinian population.
We were never able to escape the
jarring sight of the ubiquitous
apartheid wall, which stands in
contempt of international law and
human rights principles. Construct-
ed of twenty-five-foot-high con-
crete slabs, electrified cyclone
fencing, and winding razor wire, it
almost completely encloses the
West Bank and extends well east of
the Green Line marking Israels pre
-1967 borders. It snakes its way
through ancient olive groves, de-
stroying the beauty of the land-
scape, dividing communities and
families, severing farmers from
their fields and depriving them of
their livelihood. In Abu Dis, the
wall cuts across the campus of Al
Quds University through the soccer
field. In Qalqiliya, we saw massive
gates built to control the entry and
access of Palestinians to their lands
and homes, including a gated corri-
dor through which Palestinians
with increasingly rare Israeli-
issued permits are processed as
they enter Israel for work, sustain-
ing the very state that has displaced
them. Palestinian children are
forced through similar corridors,
lining-up for hours twice each day
to attend school. As one Palestinian
colleague put it, Occupied Pales-
tine is the largest prison in the
world.
An extensive prison system bol-
sters the occupation and suppresses
resistance. Everywhere we went
we met people who had either been
imprisoned themselves or had rela-
tives who had been incarcerated.
Twenty thousand Palestinians are
locked inside Israeli prisons, at
least 8,000 of them are political
prisoners and more than 300 are
children. In Jerusalem, we met
with members of the Palestinian
Legislative Council who are being
protected from arrest by the Inter-
national Committee of the Red
Cross. In Um el-Fahem, we met
with an Islamist leader just after
his release from prison and heard a
riveting account of his experience
on the Mavi Marmara and the 2010
Gaza Flotilla. The criminalization
of their political activity, and that
of the many Palestinians we met,
was a constant and harrowing
theme.
We also came to understand how
overt repression is buttressed by
deceptive representations of the
58
state of Israel as the most devel-
oped social democracy in the re-
gion. As feminists, we deplore the
Israeli practice of pink-washing,
the states use of ostensible support
for gender and sexual equality to
dress-up its occupation. In Pales-
tine, we consistently found evi-
dence and analyses of a more sub-
stantive approach to an indivisible
justice. We met the President and
the leadership of the Arab Feminist
Union and several other womens
groups in Nablus who spoke about
the role and struggles of Palestini-
an women on several fronts. We
visited one of the oldest womens
empowerment centers in Palestine,
Inash al-Usra, and learned about
various income-generating cultural
projects. We also spoke with Pales-
tinian Queers for BDS [Boycott,
Divestment, and Sanctions], young
organizers who frame the struggle
for gender and sexual justice as
part and parcel of a comprehensive
framework for self-determination
and liberation. Feminist colleagues
at Birzeit University, An-Najah
University, and Mada al-Carmel
spoke to us about the organic link-
age of anti-colonial resistance with
gender and sexual equality, as well
as about the transformative role
Palestinian institutions of higher
education play in these struggles.
We were continually inspired by
the deep and abiding spirit of re-
sistance in the stories people told
us, in the murals inside buildings
such as Ibdaa Center in Dheisheh
Refugee Camp, in slogans painted
on the apartheid wall in Qalqiliya,
Bethlehem, and Abu Dis, in the
education of young children, and in
the commitment to emancipatory
knowledge production. At our
meeting with the Boycott National
Committeean umbrella alliance
of over 200 Palestinian civil socie-
ty organizations, including the
General Union of Palestinian
Women, the General Union of Pal-
estinian Workers, the Palestinian
Academic and Cultural Boycott of
Israel [PACBI], and the Palestinian
Network of NGOswe were hum-
bled by their appeal: We are not
asking you for heroic action or to
form freedom brigades. We are
simply asking you not to be com-
plicit in perpetuating the crimes of
the Israeli state.
Therefore, we unequivocally en-
dorse the Boycott, Divestment, and
Sanctions Campaign. The purpose
of this campaign is to pressure
Israeli state-sponsored institutions
to adhere to international law, basic
human rights, and democratic prin-
ciples as a condition for just and
equitable social relations. We reject
the argument that to criticize the
State of Israel is anti-Semitic. We
stand with Palestinians, an increas-
ing number of Jews, and other hu-
man rights activists all over the
world in condemning the flagrant
injustices of the Israeli occupation.
We call upon all of our academic
and activist colleagues in the U.S.
and elsewhere to join us by endors-
ing the BDS campaign and by
working to end U.S. financial sup-
port, at $8.2 million daily, for the
Israeli state and its occupation. We
call upon all people of conscience
to engage in serious dialogue about
Palestine and to acknowledge con-
nections between the Palestinian
cause and other struggles for jus-
tice. Injustice anywhere is a threat
to justice everywhere.
http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/07/women_of_color_delegation_to_occupied_palestine.html
59

Associate Professor of Ethnic Studies/Race and Resistance Studies and the
Senior Scholar of the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Initiative
Rabab Abdulhadi, San Francisco State University+

Ayoka Chenzira, Atlanta, GA

Angela Y. Davis, University of California, Santa Cruz+

Gina Dent, University of California, Santa Cruz+

G. Melissa Garcia, Ph.D. Candidate, Yale University+

Anna Romina Guevarra, Chicago, IL

Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Atlanta, GA

Premilla Nadasen, New York, NY

Barbara Ransby, Chicago, IL

Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Syracuse University+

Waziyatawin, University of Victoria+
+For identification purposes only
Dakota writer, teacher, and activist from the Pezihutazizi Otunwe
(Yellow Medicine Village) in southwestern Minnesota.
Postcolonial and transnational feminist theorist; professor of Womens and
Gender Studies, Sociology, and the Cultural Foundations of Education
Professor of History, African American Studies, and Gender and Womens
Studies
Associate Professor of History at Queens College, CUNY
Beverly Guy-Sheftall is a Black feminist scholar, Anna Julia Cooper
Professor of Womens Studies and English at Spelman College, in
Atlanta, Georgia.
Assistant Professor, Sociology and Asian American Studies
Graduate Student in American Studies
Associate Professor of Feminist Studies, History of Consciousness,
and Legal Studies
American political activist, scholar, and author.
artist/educator; an award-winning, internationally acclaimed film and
video artist; a pioneer in Black independent cinema

Signed:
60
28 April 2011
Dear University of Arizona
Community,
M
y visit to your university in Tuc-
son earlier this month filled me
with utmost joy and reverence,
especially for the youth who are engaged in
one of the most important struggles of our
timethe right to education.
I was glad to hear of the Right to Education
tour that my brothers and sisters in Jewish
Voice for Peace (JVP) are organizing around
the nation at this moment. I was similarly
delighted to hear that one of the tour engage-
ments would follow my own talk and focus on
globalizing a preservation and defense of
Ethnic Studies. Arizona is the epicenter of the
struggle for human rightsespecially educa-
tional rights. I anticipated that the JVP event
at your university last Thursday would be just
as inspiring as the one in which I had the honor
to participate and was thrilled to find out the
outcome.
At this event brave Ethnic Studies youth activ-
ists in Arizona exchanged their experiences,
triumphs and tribulations with strong Palestini-
an youth who live a world apart yet whose
struggles are intertwined. The international
fight for education comes from the same deep
place of drawing on cultural and historical
knowledge to build a better world for our
precious children. After all, Ethnic studies is
integral to education, particularly through its
quality of instilling self-confidence in students
who can find out whats possible in life by
learning about what their own people and
ancestors achieved through decades of strug-
gling through adversity.
A letter from Cornel West
To the University of Arizona, in support of Divestment
Dr. Cornel West
American philosopher, academic,
activist, author, public intellectual, and
prominent member of the Democratic
Socialists of America.
61

Today, these youth are taking education into
their own hands, pulling from the immeasura-
ble wisdom of their ancestors. Ethnic Stud-
iesfrom Arizona to Palestineis about the
quest for truth, from the standpoint of the weak
and the vulnerable who are rising up to speak,
to educate, to struggle and to build justice from
the ground up.
The intercontinental meeting that took place on
your campus between these courageous youth
held true to its promise and was a profound
demonstration of love. Bold Arizona youth
who are fending off attacks on their cherished
Ethnic Studies in an environment of racism
and hostility; courageous Palestinian youth
who aim to preserve and defend their own
fragile Ethnic Studies from the violent, cultural
destruction of a vicious, 44-year Israeli occu-
pationan occupation whose length continual-
ly represses the memory of a peaceful time.
But in recognizing the obstacles and praising
those struggling to overcome them, we would
be remiss not to attempt to trace the origins of
this treachery targeting our youths fu-
ture. Attacks on education are big busi-
ness. Greed is amuck in Arizona and in occu-
pied Palestine. U.S. corporations like Caterpil-
lar and Motorolaand others especially in the
prison-Industrial complexcontinue to profit
from the suffering of peoples who seek dignity
and self-determination in Arizona. Similar
corporations profit from the misery of occu-
pied and distressed peoples in Palestine.
These corporations should not be profiting
from Palestinian suffering under occupation;
they should not be profiting from immigrant
and indigenous suffering and youth cultural
censorship in Arizona and nationwide. Like
my brother Desmond Tutu wrote in his recent
letter to your community, I also support your
institutions divestment from corporations
which shamefully engage in criminal activities,
from racist-ridden Arizona to the Israeli-
occupied West Bank and Gaza. It is worth
pointing out that both Caterpillar and Motorola
are involved with a leading pension fund for
educators, TIAA-CREF, which is the focus of
Jewish Voice for Peace in the Right to Educa-
tion tour and part of a noble campaign urging
the fund to divest from these corporations.
Powerful social movements such as the one
that helped end South African apartheid have
shown that when world governments fail to
enforce the rule of law, international civil
community must arise to meet the challenge of
upholding fundamental human rights and
securing justice. Ethnic studies youth activists
and groups like Jewish Voice for Peace are
doing just that. As Tutu and many others point
out in the case of the Palestiniansas well as
that of Latina/o immigrants and indigenous
peoples in the U.S.the tactic of Boycott,
Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) is an effec-
tively nonviolent means of exerting moral and
economic pressures to end unjust policies,
from racial profiling to repressive laws, to
foreign occupation and land settle-
ment. Perhaps the most vulnerable right in
these situations is the right of education, be-
cause of the endangered cultural future it
represents. Those in the United States and
Israel who hold the levers of power and influ-
ence over such policies must be beckoned to
the negotiating table so that vulnerable peoples
can anticipate a peaceful future through living
a just and honorable peace.
A decent education cannot be limited to toler-
ating youth accessing their ethnic and cultural
history but must be about facilitating their right
to do so, without the hindrance of state or
corporate exploiters. The late Edward Said
liked to quote the marvelous Martiniquan poet,
Aim Csaire, who urged us to remember that
there is room for everyone at the rendezvous
of victorywhere all of us and our children
can harmonize our lives together in universal
humanity and mutual love.
Sincerely,
Cornel West
62
Petition in Support
of Ethical Divestment
W
e, UW students, faculty, staff and
community members support recent
efforts of students and faculty at other colleges
and universities to urge their institutions not to
invest in companies that profit from the Israeli
occupation of Palestine. We sign our support
towards efforts at the University of Washington
and elsewhere that seek to lessen our financial
complicity in the abuse of international law and
human rights.
651 signatures
as of May 14, 2014
To add your signature to the petition, visit
superuw.org/support-uw-divestment/

A Resolution to Divest from Companies Profiting from Violations of International Law and
Human Rights
ASUW 2014

IN the spirit of transparency, ethical investment, a belief in human rights and the power and
responsibility of students and educational institutions to effect real change, students of
conscience present this resolution:

WHEREAS, the state of Israel, in its ongoing occupation of Palestinian lands
i
, violates
International Law and Human Rights through practices including, but not limited to:

(a) the construction of a Separation Wall
ii
that annexes Palestinian lands, isolates
Palestinian communities and restricts Palestinian access to basic necessities including
water
iii
, healthcare, education, and employment opportunities
iv
;

(b) the building and maintenance of Israeli settlements as permanent cities and towns on
land seized from Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, in
contradiction of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the Hague Regulations
v
,

(c) the destruction of Palestinian homes
vi
and the forced relocation of Palestinian
families
vii
;

(d) the disparate and unequal treatment of Palestinian citizens of Israel
viii
,

(e) the blockade of the Gaza Strip in a manner that completely controls the movement of
all people and property into and out of the Gaza Strip, by air, sea, and land and denies the
people of Gaza basic shelter, essential medicines, adequate food, clean water, and the
normal infrastructure of a civilized society
ix
;

(f) multiple military offensives including Operation Cast Lead in 2008, which violated a
negotiated ceasefire
x
and killed 1,400 people including 320 Palestinian children
xi
, and
Operation Pillar of Defense in 2012 which killed 167 Palestinians, including 32
children and adolescents
xii

WHEREAS, international corporations have been complicit in these ongoing human rights
violations systematically committed by the Israeli government, as has been documented by
human rights organizations including Who Profits, Coalition of Women for Peace, Amnesty
International, Al-Haq, Defense for Children International, B'tselem, and the Israeli Coalition
Against House Demolitions.
WHEREAS, in 2005, in response to such violations, 171 Palestinian civil society organizations
called upon the international community to stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine by
supporting Boycotts, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS)
xiii
of the state of Israel until the Israeli
government complies with International Law by:

1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall.
2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full
equality; and
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their
homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194
xiv
.

WHEREAS, divestment is a nonviolent strategy employed by universities
xv
, religious
organizations
xvi
, and civil society
xvii
organizations around the world to pressure corporations to
withdraw from business profiting from violations of International Law and Human Rights
xviii
by
withdrawing our implicit consent granted to such violations by investment in their company.
WHEREAS, in Spring 2010 The Evergreen State College student body passedby a majority of
79%
xix
a resolution calling for divestment from companies complicit in the illegal Israeli
occupation of the Palestinian Territories, in part as a response to the killing of Evergreen student,
Rachel Corrie, who was crushed to death by a Caterpillar bulldozer operated by the Israeli army
in 2003, as she was undertaking non-violent action to protect the home of a Palestinian family
from destruction.

WHEREAS, a percentage of The Evergreen State College endowment holdings are housed
within the UW Consolidated Endowment Fund, meaning Evergreen is unable to fully act on this
call for divestment until the University of Washington also acts.

WHEREAS, Caterpillar knowingly
xx
sells bulldozers specifically designed for the Israeli Army
that are armored and weaponized by the companys sole representative in Israel and are
systematically used in the demolition of Palestinian homes and civilian infrastructure and in
military attacks on civilians.
xxi

WHEREAS, in addition to Caterpillar Inc, the following illustrative and non-exhaustive list of
companies are knowingly and directly complicit in ongoing human rights violations: Northrop
Grumman
xxii
, Hewlett-Packard
xxiii
, Motorola Solutions,
xxiv
G4S,
xxv
Elbit Systems,
xxvi
and Veolia
Environnement;
xxvii

WHEREAS, the University of Washingtons vision states We are compassionate and committed
to the active pursuit of global engagement and connectednessWe embrace our role to foster
engaged and responsible citizenship as part of the learning experience of our students, faculty
and staff.

WHEREAS, the University of Washington takes pride in a history of student activism against
injustice, including divesting from South African Apartheid and genocide in Sudan.

WHEREAS, the Associated Students of the University of Washington passed resolution R-18-
19
xxviii
stating THAT, the ASUW solely supports the investment of university money in firms
that are socially responsible; and THAT, the ASUW take steps to create a position or committee
that will work with the UW Treasury office to make recommendations on socially responsible
investment activity;

** BE IT RESOLVED BY THE ASSOCIATED STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF
WASHINGTON: **

THAT, the ASUW requests the University of Washington to examine its financial assets to
identify its investments in companies that provide equipment or services used to directly
maintain, support, or profit from the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land, including a) the
demolition of Palestinian homes and the development of illegal Israeli settlements; b) the
building or maintenance of the Separation wall, outposts, and segregated roads and transportation
systems on occupied Palestinian territory, and c) illegal use of weaponry and surveillance
technology by the Israeli military against Palestinian civilian populations, and that those findings
be shared with the ASUW.

THAT, the ASUW requests the University of Washington to instruct its investment managers to
divest from those companies meeting such criteria within the bounds of their fiduciary duties
until such companies cease the practices identified in this Resolution.

THAT, the ASUW calls on the University of Washington to demonstrate its alignment with the
principles of international law, human rights, and student interests by announcing its intent to
divest its endowment from CATERPILLAR Inc. as a first measure.

Further, THAT, the ASUW calls on the University of Washington to work with the Evergreen
State College to implement the divestment resolution passed in 2010 as it pertains to the
Evergreen State College Foundation holdings housed within the UW Consolidated Endowment
Fund.

Finally, THAT, a copy of the resolution be forwarded to UW President Michael Young; UW
Provost Ana Mari Cauce; Faculty Senate Chair John M Lee; the UW Board of Regents; GPSS
President Chris Lizotte; ASUW President Michael Kutz; ASUW Director of University Affairs
Jeffrey McNerney; Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Joshua Bessex; and the 2014-2015 ASUW
leadership.

i
Occupation and International Humanitarian Law: Questions and Answers International Committee of the Red
Cross. http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/misc/634kfc.htm
ii
Humanitarian Impact of the Barrier United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
occupied Palistinian territory (OCHAoPT). 2012.
http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_barrier_factsheet_july_2012_english.pdf The construction of the
wall being built by Israel, the occupying Power, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East
erusalem, and its associated rgime, are contrary to international law. Legal Conseuences of the Construction of a
Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (Reuest for advisory opinion).; Legal Conseuences of the
Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory International Court of ustice 2004. http://www.icj-
cij.org/docket/files/131/1671.pdf
iii
Israeli Human Rights Organization BTselem compiled information on distribution of water resources reports the
uneual distribution of water: Israelis receive an unlimited water supply, Palestinians receive only about 75% of the
stipulated uota; Palestinians currently have access to less than the WHO and USAID recommendation of 100
liters of water per person per day. http://www.btselem.org/water/discrimination_in_water_supply
See also page 17 of Report of the independent international fact-finding mission to investigate the implications of
the Israeli settlements on the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the Palestinian people throughout
the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East erusalem prepare for presentation to the 22
nd
Session of the
Human Rights Council, March 2013.
http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session19/FFM/FFMSettlements.pdf
iv
Movement and Access in the West Bank OCHAoPT September 2011.
http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_MovementandAccess_FactSheet_September_2011.pdf
Question of the Violation of Human Rights in the Occupied Arab Territories, Including Palestine. United Nations
General Assembly, 59
th
Session. 12 Aug 2004. Page 16. http://www.refworld.org/docid/4267b5d14.html
Freedom of MovementGaza blockade and West Bank restrictions Amnesty International Annual Report 2013
https://www.amnesty.org/en/region/israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories/report-2013#section-14-3
As Btselem explains, Freedom of movement is also important because it is a prereuisite for the exercise of other
rights, which are set forth in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Among these are
the right to work (Article 6), the right to an adequate standard of living (Article 11), the right to health (Article 12),
the right to education (Article 13), and the right to protection of family life (Article 10).
http://www.btselem.org/freedom_of_movement; link to the International Coveneant cited:
http://www.refworld.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/rwmain?docid=3ae6b36c0.
v
Below are links to relevant international law and humanitarian organizations on why settlements are illegal.
International humanitarian law makes clear that occupation must only be temporary. Israeli settlements are in direct
violation of this principle in International law: Article 49 of the 4
th
Geneva Convention forbids an occupier from
transferring its own civilians into the territory it occupies; Article 55 of the Hague Regulations states the occupying
power must safeguard occupied properties and maintain the status quo; Article 43 of the Hague Regulations states
that the occupying power must uphold order and safety while respecting the laws of the occupied country.
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention:
http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/c525816bde96b7fd41256739003e636a/77068f12b8857c4dc12563cd0051bdb0?OpenDoc
ument
Article 55 of the Hague Regulations: http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/WebART/195-200065?OpenDocument
Article 43 of the Hague Regulations:
http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/b0d5f4c1f4b8102041256739003e6366/3741eab8e36e9274c12563cd00516894?OpenDoc
ument
The Humanitarian Impact of Israeli Settlement Policies. OCHAoPtanuary 2012.
http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_settlements_FactSheet_January_2012_english.pdf
On the Brink. Oxfam Briefing Paper. 2002. Web <oxfram.org>
http://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/bp160-jordan-valley-settlements-050712-en_1.pdf

vi
As Safe as Houses: Israels Demolition of Palestinian Homes Amnesty International 2010.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/MDE15/006/2010;
Amnesty Internationals 2013 Annual Report on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories records the
demolition of 604 structures, including approximately 200 homes, and resulting in the forced eviction of some 870
Palestinians. https://www.amnesty.org/en/region/israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories/report-2013#section-
14-4
https://www.amnesty.org/en/region/israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories/report-2013#section-14-4
Halper, eff. Appendix 1 House Demolitions in the Occupied Territories since 1967. An Israeli in Palestine:
Resisting Dispossession, Redeeming Israel. 2010. 301-3.
vii
Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. Geneva, 12 August 1949.
http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/385ec082b509e76c41256739003e636d/6756482d86146898c125641e004aa3c5
Data on displacement of Palestinians: Displacement Trends. Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.
Accessed April 12, 2014. http://www.icahd.org/displacement-trends.
As of 2013, UNRWA reports 4,976,920 registered refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank, and the Gaza
Strip. http://www.unrwa.org/sites/default/files/unrwa_in_figures_new2014_10nov2014.pdf.
viii
The Ineuality Report: the Palestinian Arab Minority in Israel. Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority
Rights. March 2011. http://adalah.org/upfiles/2011/Adalah_The_Inequality_Report_March_2011.pdf
2011-12 Israeli legislation codifying discrimination against Arab, Palestinian, and Bedouin citizens of Israel:
http://adalah.org/Public/files/English/Legal_Advocacy/Discriminatory_Laws/Discriminatory-Laws-in-Israel-
October-2012-Update.pdf
Identity cards in Israel do not include the category of Israeli, but instead list
http://www.timesofisrael.com/supreme-court-rules-israeli-ethnicity-doesnt-exist/
ix
Locked In: The Humanitarian Impact of Two Years of Blockade on the Gaza Strip. Ofce for the Coordination
of Humanitarian Affairs. 2009.
http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/Ocha_opt_Gaza_impact_of_two_years_of_blockade_August_2009_english.pdf
The Gaza Strip: The Impact of Movement Restrictions on People and Goods OCHAoPt, uly 2013.
http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_gaza_blockade_factsheet_july_2013_english.pdf
Israel/OPT:Gaza power crisis has compounded blockades assault on human dignity Amnesty International, 1
December 2013. http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/israelopt-gaza-power-crisis-has-compounded-blockade-s-assault-
human-dignity-2013-11-29
The Siege on Gaza BTselem, 1 anuary 2011. http://www.btselem.org/printpdf/107944
Israel/Occupied Palestinian Territories: The Conflict in Gaza: A Briefing on Applicable Law, Investigations and
Accountability. Amnesty International. anuary 19, 2009.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE15/007/2009/en/4dd8f595-e64c-11dd-9917-
ed717fa5078d/mde150072009en.pdf
x
The Institute for Middle East Understanding on the end of the cease-fire and the beginning of Operation Cast Lead
http://imeu.net/news/article0021968.shtml; IMEU cites the Guardian:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/nov/05/israelandthepalestinians
xi
Israel/Gaza: Operation Cast Lead: 22 Days of Death and Destruction Amnesty International, 2009.
https://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE15/015/2009/en/8f299083-9a74-4853-860f-
0563725e633a/mde150152009en.pdf
Operation Cast Lead, 27 Dec. 08to 18 an. 09 BTselem, 1 anuary 2011.
http://www.btselem.org/gaza_strip/castlead_operation
xii
Human Rights Council Report to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. 6 March 2013.
http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session22/A.HRC.22.35.Add.1_AV.pdf
Human Rights Violations during Operation Pillar of Defense. Btselem report. 9 May 2013.
http://www.btselem.org/download/201305_pillar_of_defense_operation_eng.pdf
xiii
The Palestinian Call for BDS: http://www.bdsmovement.net/call
xiv
Resolution 194. United Nations General Assembly. December 11, 1948.
http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/C758572B78D1CD0085256BCF0077E51A
xv
Universities which divestment from Apartheid South Africa:
http://africanactivist.msu.edu/document_metadata.php?objectid=32-130-E6E (see PDF linked on website).

xvi
American Friends Service Committee: https://afsc.org/resource/afscs-israel-palestine-investment-screen-and-tiaa-
cref-divestment-campaign#AFSCScreen
Friends Fiduciary Committee: http://quakerpi.org/news/divest.html
Mennonite Central Committee, US: http://www.mcc.org/stories/news/mcc-us-board-acts-peace-through-its-
investments
Presbyterian Church, USA: http://www.pcusa.org/news/2010/7/6/committee-recommends-denouncing-caterpillar-
action/
United Methodist Church: https://www.kairosresponse.org/UMKR_PR_AC_Action2013.html and
http://www.rabbisletter.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/CATEPILLAR1.pdf

xvii
Civil and other organizations who have divested from the business supporting and profiting from the occupation:
http://imeu.net/news/article0019584.shtml#KeySuccessesCivil
xviii
Report of the independent international fact-finding mission to investigate the implications of the Israeli
settlements on the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the Palestinian people throughout the
Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East erusalem prepare for presentation to the 22
nd
Session of the Human
Rights Council, March 2013. Page 19.
http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session19/FFM/FFMSettlements.pdf
xix
The Evergreen State College Divestment Resolution and results http://tescdivest.blogspot.com/p/resolutions.html;
xx
In May, 2004, Jean Ziegler, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food addressed a letter to James Own, CEO of
Caterpillar Inc. regarding the actions of the Israeli occupying forces in Rafah and in other locations in Gaza and the
West Bank, using armored bulldozers supplied by your company [CAT] to destroy agricultural farms, greenhouses,
ancient olive groves and agricultural fields planted with crops, as well as numerous Palestinian homes and
sometimes human lives, including that of the American peace activist, Rachel Corrie.
http://www.catdestroyshomes.org/downloads/Caterpillar_HighCommissioner.pdf.
In a 2004 report on Israel and the Occupied Territories House Demolition and Destruction of Land and Property
Amnesty International recommends Caterpillar Inc to take measures that its bulldozers are not used to commit
human rights violations (Recommendation 30) and to take stringent measures to prevent any products or service
which they produce or supply from being used to commit violations of international human rights or humanitarian
law in compliance with the UN Human Rights Norms for Business, including the stipulation that business
(Amnesty International Recommendation 31). The full Amnesty International report:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE15/033/2004/en/24cc1bb1-d5f6-11dd-bb24-
1fb85fe8fa05/mde150332004en.html
UN Guidelines on Cooperation between the United Nations and the Business Community, Issued by the Secretary-
General of the United Nations 17 July 2000: http://www.un.org/partners/business/otherpages/guide.htm

xxii
Eden, Paul, ed. "Northrop Grumman E-2 Hawkeye, Eyes of the fleet". Encyclopedia of Modern Military Aircraft.
Amber Books, 2004
xxiii
Technologies of Control: The Case of Hewlett Packard (HP). Who Profits: The Israeli Occupation Industry.
Coalition of Women for Peace, Feb 2010. http://www.whoprofits.org/HP
xxiv
Motorola Israel. Coalition of Women for Peace http://whoprofits.org/company/motorola-solutions-israel
xxv
The case of G4S: Private Security Companies and the Israeli Occupation. Coalition of Women for Peace: The
Israeli Occupation Industry. March 2011. http://www.whoprofits.org/g4s_report
xxvi
Elbit Systems. Who Profits? http://www.whoprofits.org/company/elbit-systems
xxvii
Veolia Environnement. Who Profits? http://www.whoprofits.org/company/veolia-environnement
xxviii
ASUW Resolution R-18-19, 2012 http://depts.washington.edu/asuwsen/aero/legislations/view/656

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