192 UC Faculty Say Respect Human Rights, Divest from Israel

PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY:

Faculty at UC Berkeley have initiated a petition for
divestment from Israel that includes all of the
University of California campuses. By signing this
petition, UC faculty, alumni, staff, students, and
community members are asking the University to use its influence - political and financial - to pressure
Israel to respect the human rights of the Palestinian
people. The campaign for divestment from Israel
follows the precedent set by the anti-apartheid
campaign of the 1980's, when students, professors, and employees called for an end to university investment in South Africa. Please go to http://WWW.UCDIVEST.ORG to sign the petition and forward this email to your colleagues.

In a matter of months, 192 UC Faculty have signed the petition, which continues to gain recognition. South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his work against apartheid, has endorsed the campaign, while In a Daily Bruin editorial, UCLA's newspaper has come out in support of the petition.

Text of the Petition:

We, the undersigned are appalled by the human rights abuses against Palestinians at the hands of the
Israeli government, the continual military occupation
and colonization of Palestinian territory by Israeli
armed forces and settlers, and the forcible eviction
from and demolition of Palestinian homes, towns and
cities. We find the recent attacks on Israeli
civilians unacceptable and abhorrent. But these should not and do not negate the human rights of the
Palestinian people.

As members of the University of California community, we believe that our university ought to use its influence - political and financial - to encourage the
United States government and the government of Israel to respect the human rights of the Palestinian people. We therefore call on the US government to make military aid and arms sales to Israel conditional on immediate initiation and rapid progress in
implementing the conditions listed below. We also call on the University of California to divest from Israel,
and from US companies that sell arms to Israel, until
these conditions are met:

1. Israel is in compliance with United Nations
Resolution 242 which notes the inadmissibility of the
acquisition of territory by war, and which calls for
withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from occupied
territories.

2. Israel is in compliance with the United Nations
Committee Against Torture 2001 Report which recommends that Israel's use of legal torture be ended.

3. In compliance with the Fourth Geneva Convention
("The occupying power shall not deport or transfer
parts of its own civilian population into territories
it occupies"; Article 49, paragraph 6), Israel ceases
building new settlements, and vacates existing
settlements, in the Occupied Territories.

4. Israel acknowledges in principle the applicability
of United Nations Resolution 194 with respect to the
rights of refugees, and accepts that refugees should
either be allowed to return to their former lands or
else be compensated for their losses, as agreed by the Palestinians and Israelis in bilateral negotiations.

SIGN THE PETITON AT http://WWW.UCDIVEST.ORG