Shuck and Jive


Friday, April 16, 2010

Divesting From Injustice


I saw this on the Presbyterian Voices for Justice site. This is from Bishop Desmond Tutu regarding UC Berkeley's recent action to divest the university's money from companies that profit from the Israeli occupation.
It was with great joy that I learned of the recent 16-4 vote at UC Berkeley in support of divesting the university's money from companies that enable and profit from the injustice of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and violation of Palestinian human rights. Principled stands like this, supported by a fast growing number of U.S. civil society organizations and people of conscience, including prominent Jewish groups, are essential for a better world in the making, and it is always an inspiration when young people lead the way and speak truth to power.

Despite what detractors may allege, these students are doing the right thing. They are doing the moral thing. They are doing that which is incumbent on them as humans who believe that all people have dignity and rights, and that all those being denied their dignity and rights deserve the solidarity of their fellow human beings.


I have been to the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and I have witnessed the racially segregated roads and housing that reminded me so much of the conditions we experienced in South Africa under the racist system of Apartheid. I have witnessed the humiliation of Palestinian men, women, and children made to wait hours at Israeli military checkpoints routinely when trying to make the most basic of trips to visit relatives or attend school or college, and this humiliation is familiar to me and the many black South Africans who were corralled and regularly insulted by the security forces of the Apartheid government.

In South Africa, we could not have achieved our freedom and just peace without the help of people around the world, who through the use of non-violent means, such as boycotts and divestment, encouraged their governments and other corporate actors to reverse decades-long support for the Apartheid regime. Students played a leading role in that struggle, and I write these words of encouragement for student divestment efforts cognizant that it was students who played a pioneering role in advocating equality in South Africa and promoting corporate ethical and social responsibility to end complicity in Apartheid. I visited the Berkeley campus in the 1980's and was touched to find students sitting out in the baking sunshine to demonstrate for the University's divestment in companies supporting the South African regime.


The same issue of equality is what motivates the divestment movement of today, which tries to end Israel's 43 year long occupation and the unequal treatment of the Palestinian people by the Israeli government ruling over them. The abuses they face are real, and no person should be offended by principled, morally consistent, non-violent acts to oppose them. It is no more wrong to call out Israel in particular for its abuses than it was to call out the Apartheid regime in particular for its abuses.


To those who wrongly allege unfairness or harm done to them by this call for divestment, I suggest, with humility, that the harm suffered from being confronted with opinions that challenge one's own pales in comparison to the harm done by living a life under occupation and daily denial of basic rights and dignity. It is not with rancor that we criticize the Israeli government, but with hope, a hope that a better future can be made for both Israelis and Palestinians, a future in which both the violence of the occupier and the resulting violent resistance of the occupied come to an end, and where one people need not rule over another, engendering suffering, humiliation, and retaliation. True peace must be anchored in justice and an unwavering commitment to universal rights for all humans, regardless of ethnicity, religion, gender, national origin or any other identity attribute. These students are helping to pave that path to a just peace and I heartily endorse their divestment vote, encourage them to stand firm on the side of what is right, and urge others to follow the lead of the youth.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) will have an opportunity to be a voice for justice and action at this summer's General Assembly when it considers the work of the Middle East Study Committee. The committee's report is published in pdf, Breaking Down the Walls. From the committee's website:
The PC(USA) has historically committed itself to the two-state solution, joining the international consensus behind this as the best option to a long-term peace between Israelis and Palestinians. The MESC recommendations support that option. However, the window is rapidly closing to make this a reality....

....Since the MESC was approved by the 2008 General Assembly, more than 20 Israelis and more than 1500 Palestinians have died needlessly due to violence. The situation may change, but by the time the 2010 General Assembly meets, it is almost certain that this death toll will rise. With every military and militant attack, with every settlement, with every escalation of rhetoric and with every death, the stakes simply increase. Not solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not an option. Waiting is not an option. The time for action is now.

6 comments:

  1. Unfortunately, despite the initial 16-4 vote (which was vetoed), the attempt to override the veto failed by 12-7. So the measure failed.

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  2. But it still sends a message that more and more of us are taking action to challenge the illegal occupation of The West Bank and East Jerusalem. I wish the UN had the political ability to actually impose its 1947 resolution to make Jerusalem an international city and give the Arab Palestians far more territory than they ended up with after 1948.

    love, john + www.abundancetrek.com + "Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice." -- Martin Luther King, Jr. (a speech containing this famous quote is found at http://www.indiana.edu/~ivieweb/mlkwhere.html)

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  3. The USA needs to do what is in our interest and the planet's rather than what is in Israel's perceived interest. I am hopeful that the Obama administration gets this and will take bold action to get the peace process moving again.

    love, john + www.abundancetrek.com + "Why 99, you know we have to murder and kill and destroy in order to preserve everything that's good in the world." --Maxwell Smart to Agent 99

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  4. So, GA marks 2 years of me being presby... I had just gotten back from the West Bank when I heard this 2 state stuff. When I asked how the PCUSA intends to get rod of the 250,000 settlers (approx number) in the WB there was no answer. That is the reality.. The settlers and a parsed up Palestine. The only true solution from what I've seen is a one state solution. If the PCUSA intends to persue this 2 state work I hope that concrete solutions will be provided. Like: how to REALLY get militant settlers off the stolen land.

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