Why? Well last night the Berkeley ASUC (Associated Students of the University of California at Berkeley) took the symbolic move of asking the school to Divest from companies involved with Israel, in conjunction with the bigoted BDS (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) Movement. In effect, the Students voted to accept a Boycott of only Israeli Jews.
SO... if this is the case, well then heck... we should boycott U.C. Berkeley. What does that mean? It means cut off our economic involvement with the school. Period. It means Jews shouldn't take jobs there, Jewish parents should not send their children there, Jewish students should look for alternative schools to go to.
Now, is this realistic... Not at the present time, but nonetheless this is what we SHOULD be doing. I mean the University has made it clear that they have no support for Jewish Students or the Jewish members of the community that have patronized and supported the University for years. This is telling us that as Jews, we are only welcome to give them our money or our expertise, but in turn simply don't won't support us as a community and instead suggest that we as Jews have no legitimate right to self-determination or a national homeland. To put it more bluntly, they suggest that Israel should simply not exist.
I realize that this would mean a lot of pain on our part - but, so what. It would have meant pain to disengage from Germany in 1933, yet, I think we can see in retrospect that we as a community probably should have done that. Am I comparing a symbolic vote by the ASUC of Berkeley to Nazi Germany? No... .They are obviously not at that point, but, they have taken big step in voting to legitimize bigotry, and the time for action is now rather than waiting for something worse later.
For me from this day forward, I can guarantee that unless this was reversed my sons will NOT attend U.C. Berkeley, (and one of them wants too though he is only 10 years old). I can guarantee that no Cal branded consumables will be in our house. I can guarantee that I will not be buying anything identified with Cal from here on in. I will not be conciously supporting businesses that advertise with Cal anymore. I will not be attending ANY Cal athletic events for the forseeable future.
As a local business owner, I will actively promote a boycott of Cal summer camps
Here is a note I am sending to my club:
Dear ******* Parents,I hope everyone here will take this to heart. U.C. Berkeley is (or was) a world class institution. Now it is a school that actively supports Bigotry.
I do not want to bring politics to our club as this is not the place, but as a business owner I think this is important and my conscience calls for this. Last Night the ASUC at Cal Berkeley passed a measure supporting the boycott of Jewish businesses or any Jewish academics from Israel. I find this to be a bigoted measure by the ASUC.
Therefore, I am stating that until this policy is reversed, ******** Volleyball Club will not support ANYTHING that has to do with Cal including attending Cal sporting events or attending volleyball camps. If the ASUC feels that they can boycott a group of people based on ethnicity, then I hope that you will all join me in standing up to this hatred and letting the University know that your money will go to places that do not support this kind of bigotry.
I want to urge you all to find other camps to go to. I urge that you do not attend any more Cal sporting events. There are plenty of high quality volleyball camps and events in our area that we do not need to give a single dime to U.C. Berkeley.
FURTHER, please let businesses that work with U.C.B that you cannot support them IF they continue to do business with this bigoted institution
Only by taking a stand against hatred can we support a better world for all of our kids regardless of ethnicity. The Administration of ******* Volleyball Club will be taking this stand and we hope that you as members of the club will join us.
Thank You
I imagine that this will hurt most with Cal Alumni, and I can understand that. But because of this vote, every time you support the Golden Bears with money, you are supporting an institution that has endorsed bigotry, plain and simple. This is sad and this painful, however, isn't it more painful to see this once great school reduced to an institution that supports the destruction of Israel and the denial of Israel as the National Homeland and State of the Jewish people.
Sometimes it is necessary to take a stand against hate. Now is that time.
What are the chances this vote will be reversed like the one at UC Riverside? Was it one of those middle of the night things? I would like to know more about the vote, and also what ASUC is. I seem to recall previously about 3 years ago that some student assembly at Berkeley did the same thing, but then it didn't pass somewhere else.
ReplyDeleteThere is a decent chance that the ASUC President will veto this (as did the U.C. Berkeley ASUC President William Smelko did two years ago) and that will force another 2/3's vote to override (where BDS failed last time).
DeleteThe meeting went all night but it was not done in any "backroom" way. It was done to a packed house but there were a lot of speakers there. Simply put, the BDS folks won 11-9. So simply put... I suggest we Boycott Berkeley until they fix this.
The ASUC stands for Associated Students of the University of California. It is the student government. The vote was symbolic and the Regents of the University of California have no intention of listening to it. That said, this is right now a propaganda victory for the BDS crowd. And in my opinion, unless the University speaks up against it, I believe they are complicit in this. SO.. if they want to boycott us (Jewish people), I see no reason why we should not boycott them.
Ok, thanks for the additional info.
DeleteIf that is the case, then I think that we should not be boycotting Berkeley just yet. We need to wait to see what the university administration does about it. I assume that, as you said, the Regents and others in charge are not going to do any BDS-ing. I don't see what boycotting would accomplish at this point. The only goal of such a thing would be to get the Regents to make a statement against this symbolic action. But they might do that anyway. Let's hold fire to see what happens.
I have to disagree here Fiz... See livosh's comment. The University needs to be right on this. No hesitation, otherwise, as livosh says... they will simply try to have it both ways and in this case that should no happen.
Delete(livosh1)
ReplyDeleteIt will be interesting to see what, if anything, the university administration does in response to this. Some colleges have given tacit support to their students' BDS efforts, trying to have it both ways on the issue and not piss off certain donors. Such action is totally unacceptable. BDS is a bigoted boycott, both in theory and in practice, and has as its goal the destruction of Israel. It is completely unacceptable for the administration of any college or university to stand silent in the face of bigotry that is promoted on their respective campuses.
(livosh1)
ReplyDeleteThe Chancellor stated the following in response to the Berkeley ASUC vote:
"[I]t is my personal opinion that targeting a single nation or state in this highly complex world is not appropriate and does little to advance the cause of peace and coexistence."
It would have been better, of course, if he acknowledged that BDS is a bigoted boycott whose members desire the elimination of Israel.
Wow, that is exactly as we called it. The administration is being as muddle-mouthed as possible and trying to have it both ways. His "personal opinion"? How about saying it is against the UC mission?
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