Activism

San Jose State University becomes first California State University to pass student government BDS resolution

The following press release was issued by Students for Justice in Palestine at San Jose State University:

San Jose State University Students Pass Resolution to Divest from Corporations that profit from the Israeli Occupation.

On Wednesday November 18, 2015, San Jose State University became the first California State University to pass a student government resolution to divest from companies complicit in the Israeli occupation of Palestine. This was achieved in a 10-5-0 vote (10 yes, 5 no, 0 abstained)

During the hearing, Students for Justice in Palestine, the Black Student Union, Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (Chicano Student Movement of Aztlan), and other student organizations stood in solidarity with the black students of the University of Missouri by raising their fists during the pledge of allegiance.

The Associated Students resolution calls on the Board of Directors of the Tower Foundation to remove San Jose State University’s holdings from four companies that play an active role in the human rights violations committed by the Israeli Government in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. This resolution is endorsed by 28 organizations the vast majority of which are student organizations of diverse backgrounds. The first corporation mentioned in the resolution, Caterpillar, is responsible for supplying Israel with D9 bulldozers which are used by the governing regime to demolish Palestinian homes and violate human in rights in the occupied Palestinian Territories.

The second corporation mentioned in the resolution, Motorola Solutions, services “MotoEagle Surveillance System” which is used by Israel to control Palestinian movement in vast “special security zones” which surround Illegal Israeli settlements. Israel bans Palestinians from entering these areas, even if they are owned by Palestinians, which in effect, confiscates land from Palestinians. Israel has implemented this system in over 20 illegal Israeli settlements, and has implemented this system at the illegal separation wall.

The third corporation mentioned in the resolution, Hewlett Packard, owns EDS Israel; which is a company that provides the Israeli ministry of defense with the Basel system. The Basel System is an automated biometric access control system which includes a permit system for Palestinian workers, with hand and facial recognition, installed in checkpoints in the Occupied West Bank.

The fourth corporation mentioned, G4S, provides security services to businesses in the illegal Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. G4S has also provided full body scanners and luggage scanning equipment to various checkpoints throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The checkpoints in Qalandia and Bethlehem help sustain the illegal Israeli Annexation of Jerusalem.

The Associated Students of San Jose State University demands that the Board of directors of the Tower Foundation end its complicity in human rights violations by divesting from the above companies that are complicit in the Israeli occupation of the occupied Palestinian territories.

Students for Justice in Palestine, San Jose State University

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Excellent work by these students. Hopefully one day soon America’s airports will be free from Israel’s “War on Terror” checkpoints that hassle every traveler flying within the U.S.!

Bravo, particularly in light if the awful California Universities position (and oppression of pro-Palestinian opinion on campus) on BDS.

Wonderful news, a glimpse of hope for a better, just future for America.

Bye Zionism.

U.S. Women’s Studies Group Votes to Join BDS Movement

The association condemned injustice and violence against Palestinians and Israeli Arabs; decision sponsored by Feminist for Justice In/For Palestine.
JTA Dec 01, 2015 3:56 PM

The National Women’s Studies Association voted to join the international boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel.

The vote on the BDS referendum passed 653 to 86 at the organization’s annual conference earlier this month, the association announced last week. Slightly more than a third of the members voted.

The recommendation to join the BDS movement was sponsored by Feminists for Justice In/For Palestine, an ad hoc group founded at the studies association’s annual conference in Puerto Rico in 2014.

In January, the association released a solidarity statement against a litany of injustices, including “settler colonialism.”

“As feminist scholars, activists, teachers, and public intellectuals we recognize the interconnectedness of systemic forms of oppression,” the recommendation to join the BDS movement reads. “In the spirit of this intersectional perspective, we cannot overlook the injustice and violence, including sexual and gender-based violence, perpetrated against Palestinians and other Arabs in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, within Israel and in the Golan Heights, as well as the colonial displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians during the 1948 Nakba [a term that means “catastrophe” in Arabic and refers to the Palestinians’ perception of Israel’s founding].

“These violations, which severely impact the daily lives and working conditions of Palestinian scholars, students, and the society at large, are also enabled by U.S. tax dollars and the tacit support of western powers, thus making any taxpayer in the West complicit in perpetuating these injustices.”

Established in 1977, the association, according to its website, “has as one of its primary objectives promoting and supporting the production and dissemination of knowledge about women and gender through teaching, learning, research and service in academic and other settings.”

A number of academic associations and unions support the BDS movement.

http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/1.689451