Angry White Kid

The carnage demands divestment

Gaza is still under a horrific siege (that even the Washington Post has noticed) and the situation in Lebanon is far from resolved.  In Israel, anti-Arab racism taints even the rehabilitation efforts in the north of the country.  The Environment Minister has said Palestinian Israelis should not receive assistance.  Though the Education Minister disagreed, a look at the situation shows that Palestinian Israeli towns and businesses actually are receiving less compensation than their Jewish Israeli counterparts.  In the face of all this, it's good to see the divestment from Israel movement still making its mark. 

Recently, the acclaimed British director Ken Loach backed the Palestinian call for a cultural and academic boycott of Israel. 

Loach, who won the Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival three months ago for his film about the Irish war of independence, The Wind the Shakes the Barley, has announced his support for the appeal to boycott Israeli institutions and even said that he urges others to do the same.

"Palestinians are driven to call for this boycott after forty years of the occupation of their land, destruction of their homes and the kidnapping and murder of their civilians," said Loach in a statement.

"They have no immediate hope that this oppression will end. As British citizens we have to acknowledge our own responsibility. We must condemn the British and U.S. governments for supporting and arming Israel."

And in Canada, the three million strong United Church of Canada adopted a "pro-peace investment strategy for the Middle East."  The pro-Israel forces are calling it a victory because a stronger resolution was not passed.  Yet the policy that will go into effect still calls for the church to not invest in companies that:

• providing products, services, or technology that sustain, support, or maintain the occupation
• having established facilities or operations on occupied land
• providing products, services, or financial support for the establishment, expansion, and/or maintenance of settlements on occupied land or settlement-related infrastructure
• providing finances or assisting  in the construction and/or maintenance of the separation barrier within occupied  territories

So it still is essentially a divestment resolution, just not worded as such.  Whatever gets the job done.

Divestment update

With all the bloodshed and sanctions the Palestinians have been facing recently, some interesting developments in the divestment arena have not received much attention. (At least not from me.)

At the end of May, the Ontario branch of the Canada's largest union, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, voted to support the international campaign of boycotts and divestment against Israel as well as organize against Israel's apartheid wall.

The 1.2 million strong Congress of South African Trade Unions, a pivotal organization in the fight against apartheid, sent a powerful open letter of support to CUPE Ontario after they passed the divestment resolution. 

As someone who lived in apartheid South Africa and who has visited Palestine I say with confidence that Israel is an apartheid state. In fact, I believe that some of the atrocities committed against the South Africans by the erstwhile apartheid regime in South Africa pale in comparison to those committed against the Palestinians.

In Britain, the largest university teachers union, the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education, voted to support an academic boycott of Israel, despite a huge campaign of intimidation.  However, the boycott was short lived since NATFHE recently merged with the Association of University Teachers, thereby invalidating the resolution.  But the AUT last year voted to boycott two Israeli universities, so the issue is far from over. 

Finally, early this week, the Presbyterian Church, who is meeting in Birmingham, AL, will vote on whether or not to continue its selective divestment measures approved two years ago.  Let's hope they keep the pressure on Israel.

UPDATE 6/20/06: Today another reminder of the need for divestment.  Israel killed three children, including a five-year-old boy and his six-year-old sister, in a failed extrajudicial assassination attempt in Gaza. 

As well, The Guardian has a very interesting article about how the verbally violent anti-boycott campaing backfired in England. 

But, he [Paul Mackney, then general secretary of the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (Natfhe)] said, a reasoned debate was made extraordinarily difficult by an aggressive campaign involving tens of thousands of activists. "The ironic thing," Mackney said despondently after the motion was passed, "is if we had put this to delegates a couple of weeks ago, before the international pro-Israeli lobby started this massive campaign emailing delegates and trying to deny us our democratic right to discuss whatever we like, it probably wouldn't have passed. People feel bullied, and what we have seen is a hardening of attitudes. All they achieved was making the delegates determined to debate and pass the motion."

UPDATE 6/23:  Contrary to the spin being put on it by the anti-divestment groups, the Presbyterians have not voted to rescind the divestment resolution, but to word it in a different way as "corporate engagement."  However, this does not at all rule out the possibility of divestment, which can be brough up at the 2008 congress in San Jose. 

Push for Divestment/Boycott Continues

As Israel's all-out assault on the Palestinians continues - from declaring its intention to unilaterally draw the border and building a "museum of tolerance" on Muslim graves; to poisoning West Bank towns with Israeli waste and extra-judicially assassinating 11 Palestinians, wounding 24, and arresting 78 from Feb. 2 to 8 alone - the need for the divestment from, and the boycott of, Israel grows.

There have been numerous developments in recent weeks that are worth mentioning:

• From Feb. 17 to 19, the Palestine Solidarity Movement will be holding it's fifth annual divestment conference at Georgetown University.  They have come under vigorous attack from the right and are seeking donations and endorsements along with attendees. 


• Pro-Israel groups in the U.S. were able to make the American Association of University Professors postpone their conference in Italy, scheduled for next week.  The groups were upset because a large number of supporters of an academic boycott of Israel were supposed to take part. 


• In an exciting breakthrough, Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh's article Boycott Israel was published by the official magazine of the World Economic Forum's 2006 annual meeting.  The uproar was so immense that the founder of the WEF apologized and the article has been, well, boycotted.


• On Monday, February 6, the Church of England voted to divest from companies "that profit from the illegal occupation."  A major target of the vote was the Caterpillar corporation, which the church has about 2.5 million pounds of investments in. 


• A group of prominent British architects are considering calling for an boycott of Israel's construction industry to protest the continued building of Jewish-only colonies and the Apartheid Wall in the West Bank. 

Blogging Hate

On Monday, the St. Petersburg Times ran an article on bloggers who incite hate against Muslims.  Seems these people either were picked on in high school and are now taking it out on others, or just have overblown notions of the value of their contributions to society.

The main blogger featured, Joe Kaufman, of the ironically titled Americans Against Hate, called

a Tampa Muslim religious retreat a "jihad camp for children" and wrote that the speakers were "linked to al-Qaida."  [D]eath threats poured in to the Presbyterian camp hosting the event.

Even so, Joe just can't stop vilifying Muslims blogging,

"I can't let it stop me from what I'm doing. ... I'm assisting in the safety and security of the American people."

His fanatical friends feel the same way.

Robert Spencer of JihadWatch.com said his blog sometimes attracts racists. He bans them, he said.

But he won't stop blogging.

"If I give it up and go away and take up the saxophone, then what the heck is going to happen to society and to the rest of the world?" he asked.

Too bad Spencer's site appears to foster the hatred of Muslims, as witnessed by the comments celebrating the death of Muslims on Hajj.

A blogger I've had more personal experience with is Bill Levinson.  Not only does he run the incredibly bizarre and horribly racist site Omdurman.org, but he also posts for Israpundit where, among other things, he plays with Photoshop and calls for the nuking of Iran, using supporting arguments such as:

Long before he became dictator of Iran, Ahmadinejad has been conducting a well-orchestrated campaign to prepare for the coming of the Mahdi or Islamic Messiah. This fits exactly the role of the Antichrist of Revelations, a messianic demagogue who will claim a divine origin or connection to rally hordes of mindless fanatics behind him.

Levinson, like Lee Kaplan, appears to have a Palestine Solidarity Movement fetish.  Not content railing against them on Israpundit, he also sends student groups and university administration officials emails filled with outright lies about PSM from the address rachel_golem@hotmail.com, in an attempt to get them to cancel their events.  I bet some of you have received them, too.

Nadeem Muaddi, a spokesperson for PSM, is filing a lawsuit against Levinson for some of his outrageous statements.

Finally, to bring this to a close, these few clearly aren't the only bloggers without rational thinking capabilities.  Next time they're out condemning Muslims and, as it usually goes, vocally supporting Israel, ask them about the hate in this Hebrew-only news article came out on Jan. 10.  A few Rabbis had choice words regarding the Palestinians.  Luckily for us, peacepalestine caught it and translated it.

The (ha-mekubal) Rabbi David Bazri said:..."They are a disease, a disaster, a devil. The Arabs are asses, and the question must be asked, why did God did not create them walking on their fours? The answer is that they need to build and wash. They have no place in our school."

Hmm.  I wonder why Haaretz didn't translate that one into English?  Now that it's out, I wonder if any of these bloggers who are against "hate" will denounce such a statement.  Or instead, will they post it with glee while their commenters celebrate?

1/20 UPDATE: A couple more haters are being (self-)nominated to the list - LGF, of course, and Islam is the Problem.  (He's a professional, don't ya know?) 

And on the topic of Lee Kaplan, a group he sits on the advisory board of, the Bruin Alumni Association, made news today by launching a Campus Watch-esque campaign against "radical" professors at UCLA. 

Numerous Actions Towards Divestment

There has been a lot of recent activity in the area of boycotting and divesting from Israel.  Below is a summary of the latest news.

• The Basque city of Arbizu voted to boycott Israeli products, businesses that deal with Israel, and Israeli sport or cultural initiatives.  The November 28 decision was made to express solidarity with the Palestinian people.


• On December 15, the regional council of Sør-Trøndelag in Norway approved a boycott of Israeli goods and an educational effort to inform their public about the situation in Palestine.  Sør-Trøndelag was the first region in Norway to boycott South Africa and contains the country's third largest city.


• Speaking of Norway, last week their Finance Minister, Kristin Halvorsen, expressed her support for her party's upcoming campaign to boycott Israeli consumer products.


• For the first time, a major human rights group has called on the US to withhold direct aid to Israel.  On January 3, Human Rights Watch urged Bush to cut aid corresponding to the amount  of money that Israel spends on building settlements and the Wall. 


• The Canadian Anglican Church approved a resolution at its General Synod in November to explore divestment options.


• On December 10, over 40 Jewish and Palestinians organizations circumvented the European Union by publishing the EU's own report that determined Israel was violating the road map and international law in East Jerusalem.  The EU foreign secretaries had decided against releasing the report.


• The Coalition for Justice and Peace in Palestine, with twenty member groups, has launched a campaign in Quebec for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel.


• And finally, on January 9, Israeli poet Aharon Shabtai removed his name from a international poetry festival in Jerusalem to protest the treatment of Palestinians at checkpoints and in East Jerusalem.

Greens Back Divestment, Democrats Slam It

At the end of last month, the Green Party of the United States endorsed a call for the comprehensive boycott and divestment from Israel. 

"The Green Party is on the side of the many Israeli and Palestinian organizations working together to achieve a just resolution through nonviolent means," said Ruth Weill, co-chair of the Wisconsin Green Party. "As proven in South Africa in the 1980s, divestment and boycott are an effective means to achieve justice for the oppressed."

Meanwhile, at their winter convention, the Democratic National Committee unanimously voted to condemn the divestment or boycott of companies doing business with Israel. 

"This resolution demonstrates the continuing commitment of the Democratic Party to Israel's physical and economic security," said National Jewish Democratic Council Executive Director Ira N. Forman. "This action by the Democratic Party makes clear exactly where the Party stands: against those who would hurt Israel through boycotts or divestment.

Wow, supplicating itself to Israel and protecting corporations in one fell swoop.  Impressive. 

Finally, not that it will make a bit of difference, but there is a petition you can sign against a Hillary Clinton presidential run because of her disdain for international law when it comes to Palestine.  Not that we should be supporting any presidential candidate, but nonetheless...

Divestment from Israel updates

It's been a while since my last post on efforts to divest from Israel and over the past month a few new developments have occurred. 

British students and faculty are working to revive the academic boycott of Israel:

The British Committee for Universities of Palestine (BRICUP) recently began organizing an open forum of British university campuses in an effort to place the academic boycott against Israel and the status of universities in the Palestinian Authority back on the public agenda.

A European delegation of former ministers has called for the EU to "hold Israel to account":

The Delegation [led by Prof. Andreas van Agt, former Prime Minister of The Netherlands] calls on the European Union and EU Member State officials and institutions dealing with Israel and Palestine, in particular their own governments, to act decisively and hold Israel to account for its ongoing violations of International Law.

The Church of England has decided to retain its stock in Caterpillar:

A Church of England advisory group said Monday there were no grounds for selling the church's shares in Caterpillar Inc., which has been criticized because its bulldozers have demolished homes in Palestinian lands.

Fayyad Sbaihat from Al-Awda Wisconsin, with the help of Wendy Ake and Noura Dabdoub from the OSU Committee for Justice in Palestine, has released a guide to campus divestment from Israel, called Fighting the New Apartheid.  Check it out and pass it along.

VfP and Lutherans Divest and Criticize Israel

At their recent annual conference, Veterans for Peace passed a resolution that

calls for boycott, divestment, and other actions against economic activities that support Israel’s continued occupation and colonization of Palestinian lands and the denial of fundamental human rights to Palestinians both in Israel and in the occupied territories

Clearly, Veterans for Peace won't end the conflict, but it is yet another example of a liberal peace group calling for principled action on Israel/Palestine. 

The US Lutheran Church, while not approving divestment measures, is starting up a catchy campaign called "Peace Not Walls" that was approved in a resolution at their biennial assembly.  Notably, the resolution also called for

congregations and church agencies to consider, among prayer, advocacy and other steps, "stewarding financial resources -- both U.S. tax dollars and private funds -- in ways that support the quest for a just peace in the Holy Land."

Seems like they're just letting things cool down a bit over the Presbyterians divestment. 

Divestment, Disengagement and more

I do these essay roundups every now and then.  What do people think?  There are my best way of communicating items I would like to share without posting each one individually.  Do people find it useful or is it too much at once?  Let me know, thanks!

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) names companies for 'progressive engagement' over role in Middle East violence

Today, the Mission Responsibility through Investment (MRTI) Committee of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) announced that it will begin its process of ‘progressive engagement' with five companies it says contribute to the ongoing violence that plagues Israel and Palestine.

FAQ About Israel's Unilateral Disengagement, by Diana Buttu,

For 38 years Israel has carried out two projects in the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip: (1) colonization of the areas through the construction of Israeli-only housing and roads and (2) military occupation of the areas through the imposition of Israeli military law on the areas and its inhabitants. While the colonization process may cease in the Occupied Gaza Strip and northern West Bank, the military occupation will continue.

Deciphering Disengagement, by Kate Raphael,

If you try to understand politicians by their rhetoric, you are asking to be lied to.  You look at their actions, and the actions of Sharon have always been those of someone whose one and only goal  is to take all the land of the Palestinians for a "greater Israel."  Most of the time, his rhetoric has also articulated this goal.  But if suddenly, his  rhetoric is one of peace, we cannot assume suddenly that he has become a man of  peace.  Someone like Sharon -- or anyone, actually -- does not wake up one day and decide that today, peace with the Palestinians seems like a good idea.

Disengagement and Diaspora, by Ramzi Kysia,

To look at the giant terminals being built outside the Walls encircling Ramallah, Nablus and Bethlehem is to stare nakedly into the heart of our inhumanity. These structures are reminiscent of nothing other then cattle pens: to be used to herd Palestinians who dare ask permission to visit other towns. The price for Israel's absolute security is absolute insecurity for 5 million Palestinians.

The Jerusalem Powder Keg, by the International Crisis Group,

With recent steps, Israel is attempting to solidify its hold over a wide area in and around the city, creating a far broader Jerusalem. If the international community and specifically the U.S. are serious about preserving and promoting a viable two-state solution, they need to speak far more clearly and insistently to halt actions that directly and immediately jeopardise that goal.

AIPAC Spy Nest Exposed, by Justin Raimondo,

The other shoe has finally dropped in the case of the spy scandal involving the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee

"What Have We Done?", by Dahr Jamail,

"We were firing into small towns….you see people just running, cars going, guys falling off bikes…it was just sad. You just sit there and look through your binos and see things blowing up, and you think, man they have no water, living in the third world, and we're just bombing them to hell. Blowing up buildings, shrapnel tearing people to shreds."

Fisking the "War on Terror", by Juan Cole,

Once upon a time, a dangerous radical gained control of the US Republican Party.

171 Palestinian Civil Society Organizations Call for Boycott of Israel

View the full Call by Palestinian Civil Society For Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions in PDF form.

We, representatives of Palestinian civil society, call upon international civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era. We appeal to you to pressure your respective states to impose embargoes and sanctions against Israel. We also invite conscientious Israelis to support this Call, for the sake of justice and genuine peace.

Also, on Tuesday the Kenyan Anglican Church announced its support of divestment from Israel. 

And here are some of the most recent evidence supporting the case for divestment: today an Israeli security guard shot and killed a Palestinian teenager who was throwing rocks; Israel is stealing the farm land of 50 Palestinian families (500 people) near Hebron to build the wall and expand a settlement; and the Israeli government has admitted that the route of the Apartheid Wall was determined not just by security, but also political, considerations (such a surprise...).