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After all-night debate, Berkeley student senate calls on university to divest from 3 companies profiting from occupation

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Packed house at Anna Head Alumnae Hall UCBerkeley for Senate divestment hearing

Huge news. A victory for the BDS movement, in Berkeley, at 8:30 a.m. today EST.

Reported by the Daily Californian, Jeremy Gordon:

In a dramatic vote that was emotional for all sides, the ASUC [Associated Students at the University of California] Senate voted 11-9 to divest from companies affiliated with Israel’s military early Thursday morning.

The heated debate began Wednesday evening and carried on for 10 hours, continuing into Thursday. Anna Head Alumnae Hall overflowed with hundreds of UC Berkeley students, faculty and community members engaging in a contentious debate regarding the bill, SB 160.

SB 160, authored by Student Action Senator George Kadifa, calls the UC system a “complicit third party” in Israel’s “illegal occupation and ensuing human rights abuses” and seeks the divestment of more than $14 million in ASUC and UC assets from Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard and Cement Roadstone Holdings…

The final vote, which occurred just before 5:30 a.m., was met with cheering, stomping and cries of joy by supporters of the bill.

Independent Senator and bill co-sponsor Sadia Saifuddin said she saw the vote as the culmination of years of struggle.

“Tonight is not about corporations,” she said. “It’s about asking ourselves before we go to sleep whether our money is going toward the destruction of homes, toward the erection of a wall. I am a working student. And I don’t want one cent of my money to go toward fueling the occupation of my brothers and sisters.”

But across the aisle, opponents of divestment were silent, absorbing the defeat with dismay.

In 2010 the UCal Senate passed a similar motion but it was then vetoed by the school government president, and the Senate failed to override the veto.

Today, congratulations poured in from around the world:

It took so long because pro Israel senators kept trying to amend the bill by watering it down/whitewashing, or insisting on a commitment to a Jewish state; and those efforts kept failing. 

Twitter hashtag reflected the mood of the crowd:

Senator Nolan Pack cuts to the quick:

Here is the divestment bill as drafted by the Berkeley student government, and the key provisions:

LET IT BE RESOLVED, that the ASUC [Associated Students at the University of California] will examine its assets and UC assets for funds being invested in companies that a) provide weaponry or other military support for the occupation of the Palestinian territories or b) facilitate the building or maintenance of the wall or the demolition of Palestinian homes, or c) facilitate the building, maintenance, or economic development of illegal Israeli settlements on the Occupied Palestinian Territory;

LET IT FURTHER BE RESOLVED, that if at any time it is found that campus or UC funds are being invested in any companies meeting any of these criteria, including Caterpillar, Cement Roadstone Holdings, and Hewlett Packard Company, the ASUC will itself divest, and will advocate that the UC system divest all stocks and investments in such companies with the goal of maintaining the divestment, in the case of said companies, until they cease the specific offending practices; moreover, the ASUC will not make further investments, and will advocate that the UC system not make further investments, in any companies materially supporting or profiting from Israel’s occupation in the above-mentioned ways, until a point in time at which they cease such practices;

Oh and there’s this sadness in the Daily Californian coverage; we doubt it’s representative:

Many members of the Jewish community decried SB 160’s targeted divestment from Israel as choosing one side of the conflict at the expense of the other when suffering has occurred on both.

The student paper ran a pro-divestment piece ahead of time by the Organization of African Students. And this anti-divestment piece by an editor of the Berkeley Jewish Journal.

This has been a long time coming. Who could forget AIPAC openly threatening to take over the UC Berkeley’s student senate to block this bill back in 2010? It’s  always only been a matter of time at UCBerkeley until divestment prevailed again.

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Huge victory! And the Zionist students who opposed, and who said, “suffering has occurred on both” sides, completely missed the point that the resolution relates to ILLEGAL OCCUPATION, not to suffering (not to suffering today, yesterday 1940-45, or ancient — surely there must have been suffering anciently, by BOTH sides, as when the walls of Jerico came tumbling down). And not to taking sides, either. unless it be the side of international law and legitimacy against lawlessness.

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2 steps forward for every one step back is still one step forward in the long run.

Congratulations Berkeley!

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hi highly recommend clicking on “#UCBDivest” in the first tweet (Berkeley SJP’s) in the article and then click the “all” option, to watch all the congratulatory tweets coming in from all over, it’s really wonderful.

and if anyone tweets this story please add the hashtag (#UCBDivest) !

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RE: “In 2010 the UCal Senate passed a similar [pro-BDS] motion but it was then vetoed by the school government president, and the Senate failed to override the veto.“ ~ Weiss & Robbins

SEE: “The Trial of Israel’s Campus Critics”, by David Theo Goldberg & Saree Makdisi, Tikkun Magazine, September/October 2009

[EXCERPT] . . . It is an extraordinary fact that no fewer than thirty-three distinct organizations – including AIPAC, the Zionist Organization of America, the American Jewish Congress, and the Jewish National Fund – are gathered together today as members or affiliates of the Israel on Campus Coalition. The coalition is an overwhelmingly powerful presence on American college campuses for which there is simply no equivalent on the Palestinian or Arab side. Its self-proclaimed mission is not merely to monitor our colleges and universities. That, after all, is the commitment of Campus Watch, which was started by pro-Israel activists in 2002. It is, rather (and in its own words), to generate “a pro-active, pro-Israel agenda on campus.”
There is, accordingly, disproportionate and unbalanced intervention on campuses across the country by a coalition of well-funded organizations, who have no time for — and even less interest in — the niceties of intellectual exchange and academic process. Insinuation, accusation, and defamation have become the weapons of first resort to respond to argument and criticism directed at Israeli policies. As far as these outside pressure groups (and their campus representatives) are concerned, the intellectual and academic price that the scholarly community pays as a result of this kind of intervention amounts to little more than collateral damage. . .

ENTIRE ARTICLE – http://www.tikkun.org/article.php/sept_oct_09_goldberg_makdisi

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RE: “Many members of the Jewish community decried SB 160’s targeted divestment from Israel as choosing one side of the conflict at the expense of the other when suffering has occurred on both.” ~ the ‘Daily Californian’

MY COMMENT: Dare I say “two state fakers”?

SEE: “Flotilla 3.0: Redeeming Obama’s Palestine Speech with Gaza’s Ark”, By Robert Naiman, truth-out.org, 3/25/13

[EXCERPT] . . . Bibi doesn’t want an independent Palestinian state; Bibi’s government doesn’t want an independent Palestinian state; AIPAC doesn’t want an independent Palestinian state; and Congress – which defers to AIPAC – doesn’t want an independent Palestinian state. Of course, many of them mouth the words – not Bibi’s government, they don’t even do that – but those who mouth the words oppose any practical measure that would help bring an independent Palestinian state into existence. They’re “two state fakers.” Settlement freeze? Impossible. UN membership for Palestine? Can’t be done. No, according to the two state fakers, the only option on the menu in the restaurant for the Palestinians is to return to negotiations without a settlement freeze, negotiations that for 20 years have brought more land confiscation, more settlements, more restrictions on Palestinian movement and commerce, more oppression. And so, Obama was saying, my hands are tied. Don’t look at me. . .
. . . So, …the question boils down to this: Can we engage the multitude in civil society initiatives to end the Israeli occupation of Palestine . . . ?
A compelling effort to do this is a project called Gaza’s Ark. Gaza’s Ark is a logical next step to follow the Gaza freedom flotillas, and some of the folks who helped organize previous flotillas are helping to put it in place. Unlike the flotillas, Gaza’s Ark isn’t going to sail into Gaza. It’s going to sail out from Gaza, carrying Palestinian exports. . .
. . . Gaza’s Ark is starting a campaign to support Gaza’s economy by encouraging people to buy Gaza’s exports: “trade not aid,” as they say. It’s a “procott.” Don’t support the blockade? Put your money where your mouth is.
I claim that by supporting Gaza’s Ark, you can support a civil society initiative to oppose the occupation without giving up any evenings. Put your money where your mouth is. Buy Palestinian goods from Gaza. If the Israeli government tries to stop you, then they’re interfering with your commerce.
I claim that by supporting Gaza’s Ark, you can support a civil society initiative to oppose the occupation without giving up any evenings. You can sign up [I.E. SIGN THE PETITION] here. – http://www.gazaark.org/2012/09/26/petition-end-the-blockade-of-gaza-now/

ENTIRE COMMENTARY – http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/15307-flotilla-30-redeeming-obamas-palestine-speech-with-gazas-ark

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