A very strong statement posted on the Progressive Magazine site, by international writers and scholars calling for divestment and boycott ala South Africa, and urging American writers to join up. I see only a few Americans, Amiri Baraka, Ali Abunimah, George Bisharat. An amazing group, if only for the names, few of which have an Anglo ring. We live in a new diverse world. Excerpts:
jurisprudence against its indigenous Palestinian population, during
which the Israeli state has systematically dispossessed, starved,
tortured, and economically exploited the Palestinian people.
…Without endorsing its platforms or
philosophy, we recognize Hamas as a democratically elected ruling
party….
We call upon our fellow writers and academics in the United States
to question discourses that justify and rationalize injustice, and to
address Israeli assaults on civilians in Gaza as one of the most
important moral issues of our time.
We call upon institutions of higher education in the U.S. to cut
ties with Israeli academic institutions, dissolve study abroad programs
in Israel, and divest institutional funds from Israeli companies, using
the 1980s boycott against apartheid South Africa as a model.
[Phil Weiss, with thanks to Idrees Ahmad]
