Cal Divest From Apartheid

Published in muftah.org, May 27th, 2010 “Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity or it becomes the  practice of freedom, the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality  and discover how [...]

Published in The Daily Californian, May 17, 2010 Editor’s Note: The following is a response to a letter sent out by UC President Mark Yudof, and the Chair and Vice Chair of the UC Regents stating University policy on divestment. Thank you for your letter regarding the debate about divestment from two corporations which supplied [...]

Dear Consul General Tor:

Your response to Moshe Yaroni’s essay about the Berkeley divestment discussion is manipulative and threatening. It repeats many distortions that have been thoroughly refuted by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at UC Berkeley. Worst of all, however, it relies on a paradigm of separation and division in which Jews and Arabs are eternally afraid and suspicious of one another. You say that anti-Semitic statement were made at two of the three senate meetings, which called into question weather or not UC Berkeley should divest from United Technologies and General Electric. Such companies manufacture F-16 jets and Apache helicopters, weapons sold to the Israeli military and used against civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Published by Jewish Voice for Peace, May 11, 2010 Jewish Voice for Peace is puzzled by University of California President Mark Yudof’s statement on the recent divestment efforts at UC Berkeley and UC San Diego. President Yudof has either not read the text of the bills or is choosing to misinterpret them, as neither bill [...]

Published in Amateur Ramblings, May 11, 2010 “The U.S. has not made any declaration regarding the State of Israel and, therefore, we will not bring a recommendation before the Board to divest from companies doing business with the State of Israel.” – UC President Mark Yudof, UC Regents Chairman Russell Gould, and UC Regents Vice [...]

Received May 11, 2010 Published in The Berkeley Daily Planet, May 18, 2010 Dear UC President Yudof, I received your enclosed message and statement, “UC Statement on Divestment,” and was saddened and disappointed. Not because I disagree with your position and the UC Board of Regents’ – that’s human – rather because of the thin [...]

“Pessimism comes from reality, because reality is tragic. Optimism comes from action, because action changes reality.” ~Jose Mariategui We Students for Justice in Palestine stand in solidarity and support the actions of the UC Berkeley Hunger Strikers. We find their stand against the racist and violent Arizona law SB 1070 to be courageous, demonstrating a [...]

Published in Amateur Ramblings, May 6, 2010  Perhaps the most important success of the divestment movement at Berkeley has been overlooked. Yes, it is true that a super majority of the student senate supported divestment from Israeli war crimes and the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. It is true that the vote was reversed only [...]