Join SJP for anti-apartheid protest at UCB

Join the Students for Justice in Palestine at UC Berkeley in an end-of-the-year rally on the UCB campus. This will be a massive rally demanding the UC Regents withdraw all of its investment from Israel. The rally will be on:

Tuesday April 24th

NOON!

Meet at Sather Gate

Please find more details below:

The Students for Justice in Palestine chapter at Berkeley (SJP) will rally take action at Sather Gate, on the University of California's campus, at noon on Tuesday, April 24, 2001. SJP calls for an end to the University's investments in companies with significant holdings in Israel. Preliminary findings indicate this amount to be $6.4 billion out of the total portfolio worth $59 billion.


At the University of California's Regents meeting in Davis on April 12, 2001, SJP presented their demands for divestment. The group requested a deadline of April 22nd for the Regents to respond. The rally will re-iterate these demands and send a clear message to the Regents that all students and people of conscious oppose such irresponsible investment.

SJP intend to wage their campaign to divest from Israel until the Israeli government dismantles its Apartheid policies that racially discriminate against the indigenous Palestinian population. First and foremost, the Israeli government must recognize its responsibility for the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem and allow them their right to return. SJP member Yalda Afshar claims Israeli Apartheid "is epitomized fundamentally by Israel's Law of Return, which grants a Jew anywhere in the world full immigration and citizenship rights, whereas Palestinians exiled by force in 1948, have no such right." Afshar indicates that such racial distinction violates numerous United Nations resolutions, its founding charter, and various international conventions.

SJP bases its campaign on the precedent set by the 1980s Anti-Apartheid movement, in which the University of California committed to anti-racist policies and withdrew its investments from the South African economy.

Israel's military occupation systematically undermines Palestinian life. Israeli occupation subjects Palestinians to the closure of civilian neighborhoods, blanket assaults, massive home demolitions, razing agricultural land, the destruction of public facilities, imprisonment without charge or due process, control of borders and natural resources as well as brutal forms of collective punishment. In the wake of the recent Intifadah, the Israeli government has treated Palestinian protesters against military occupation as armed combatants. The Israeli Army confronts mostly unarmed civilians with live ammunition, fatal rubber-coated bullets, tanks, helicopter missile strikes and a policy of assasination.