Berkeley Students Request Support for Divestment Campaign

***PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY***

Dear friends,

As some of you may know, the Students for Justice in Palestine have been waging a campaign to get the University of California to divest from its holdings in corporations that do more than 5 million dollars worth of business in Israel. We estimate that the University invests at least
6.4 billion dollars in these companies.

At the bottom of this email is the letter that was submitted to the Regents of the University of California on April 12th at their monthly meeting.

Here is what we need from you -- we need people from all over to begin to write and call the Regents of the University of California and demand that they divest from their holdings in the Israeli economy. We want to put
as much pressure as possible on the Regents to divest from Israel, and in order to do that, we need you to help us by calling and writing to the Regents.

On April 24th, the Students for Justice in Palestine will hold a rally calling for divestment on UC Berkeley\'s campus (all people who can, should come at noon).

Please email or call the following people:

Treasurer\'s Office of the UC Regents
Phone #: (510) 987-9600
treas.regents [at] ucop.edu

Leigh Trivette (Secretary of the Regents)
1111 Franklin Street, 12th Floor
Oakland, CA 94607
(510) 987-9220
(510) 987-9224 (fax)

S. Sue Johnson (UC Regent)
P.O. Box 351
Riverside, CA 92502
(909) 686-4560

Please feel free to use any or all of the letter below in your attempt to contact these administrators. Also, please email us at justiceinpalestine [at] visto.com and let us know that you called/emailed in.

In solidarity,
Snehal Shingavi -- Students for Justice in Palestine (UC Berkeley)

_______________________________________
April 12, 2001
To Whom It May Concern:

The Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) have collected more than 3,000 signatures calling for the University of California to divest from holdings connected to the state of Israel. The text of the petition reads:

\"We, the undersigned - horrified by the human rights abuses of Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli government, the continual military occupation and colonization of Palestinian territories by Israeli forces and settlers,
the forcible eviction from and demolition of Palestinian homes, the refusal to allow Palestinian people the right to return to their homes and properties, and the continual violation of international law and UN resolution 194 in the racist policies of Israel - lend our support to the
Palestinian people and call on the UC Regents to end its financial ties to Israel by divesting from companies with subsidiaries in Israel and/or substantial financial commitments (over 5 million dollars) to the Israeli
economy.\"

We present these petitions to you as evidence that there is growing support for the campaign to divest from Israel. Students, faculty members, and members of the community have become outraged at regular scenes of Israeli brutality and the repression of Palestinian people. We believe that the suffering of Palestinian people should not be financed by the University of California and its portfolio.

We respectfully remind the UC Regents that the University of California divested from holdings in the South African economy while that country was under an apartheid regime. And, while similar policies continue today in Israel and the occupied territories, we ask that the UC Regents divest
from these holdings as well.

Our preliminary research points to at least sixteen companies in which the UC invests a total of 6.4 billion dollars (according to the 12/31/00 Regents portfolio data). We believe that divestment from these companies would send a strong signal to these corporations and the Israeli government that modern-day apartheid in Israel is unacceptable.

Therefore, we ask that the Regents divest from corporations with more than 5 million dollars in contributions to the Israeli economy, including but not limited to: Alcatel, American International Group, Cisco Systems, Electronic
Data Systems, Ericsson, General Electric, Hewlett Packard, Lucent Technologies, Microsoft, Motorola, Nokia, Raytheon, SBC Communications, Texas Instruments, Time Warner/AOL, and Tyco International.

We ask that you divest from these holdings by April 22nd, 2001 and make public your decision to do so by publishing articles or advertisements in each of the campus student newspapers. The suffering of Palestinian people warrants expediency.

Sincerely,
The Students for Justice in Palestine - UC Berkeley