BOYCOTT U.C. BERKELEY - PART II

Here’s an update to the Boycott U.C. Berkeley Article that I wrote last week after the disappointing vote by the ASUC (11-9) to adopt Senate Bill 160 which actively asks for divestment by the University of California from a few companies that are doing business with Israel.

Like many people I was and remain very disappointed in this issue. Since that first article, I actually received a call from the Chancellor’s office and had an opportunity to present my point of view in full. I have to say in all fairness to the University, that their response to this situation has been relatively positive and I do believe thoughtful.

However, in my opinion, the response from the University also falls short of where I believe it needs to be.

First let’s look at exactly what the relevant parts of  SB 160 says:

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;

Now in response to this passage the Chancellor of UCB had this to say: (Excerpt):

To the members of the UC Berkeley community:

In the wake of the ASUC Senate’s passage of SB 160, “A Bill In Support of Human Rights in the West Bank and Gaza Strip,” I want to offer some thoughts about how we can move forward as a campus community. I also want to acknowledge that this may be the first step in a process that could, among other things, include consideration of other proposed bills that support Israeli-Palestinian cooperation.

As you all know, the ASUC is an independent student organization, and its vote in this matter will not change investment policy established by the Regents of the University of California. In addition, it 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.....

ASUC President Connor Landgraf could have vetoed this as did his predecessor William Smelko did when this bigoted measure last arose in 2010. Landgraf, who had been known as a “friend” to Israel decided NOT to veto this important issue, and while he spoke strongly against it in a letter to the Daily Californian, condemning it as part of a One-Sided narrative that in his words “Divided campus”, foster(ed) anger, and encouraged divisiveness” he did nothing to push this aside. Here is Langdorf’s letter in full

But there is one other telling thing in this letter… Langdorf says:

“I want to make clear that Senate Bill 160 is not linked to the International Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. The International BDS Movement, which has been known to attach itself to this legislation cannot and should not take this as its victory.”

Well newsflash to Langdorf, whether you think it cannot or should not take this is as a victory, IT DOES. Regardless of what you may think, there is a reality out there which tells a completely different story. The International BDS Movement is portraying this – (and I don’t hear anything different from “Pro-Divestment” Activists) as a “victory” for their side and just one more piece of campus activism that supports their ultimate goal. Remember, that night, the ASUC also rejected bills calling for a Two State Solution AND recognizing the legitimate rights of self determination of the Jewish people.

Remember also, that the bill expressly makes a call to not only boycott what it calls the “Occupation” (without defining what they mean by “Occupation”, as remember… Hamas and much of the Palestinian Polity call Israel’s existence an “Occupation”) but it calls for a boycott of things that the Israeli Defense Forces use to defend Israel. Caterpillar bulldozers are used for many more things than demolishing housing. HP systems are used in all manner of ways. Cement is used to build many other things other than walls.
And that is the deeper intent of the bill. Aside, from of course, beginning to establish dialogue that demonizes one side and reduces all their actions to cartoon like villainy, it also seeks to make sure that Israel doesn’t have the means to physically defend itself.

So back to the boycott…. I was asked by the University “IF you could have anything done about this what would it be” (and Kudos to them for asking that question). My response was that I think the University HAS to make a much more forceful statement on the issue than Chancellor Birgenaeu’s initial letter which in my mind tries to give the University an “easy out”.

The University’s strategy (if I understand it correctly) is to quietly address issues and work directly with students to reassure them of their value to the University and Campus Community. They feel that by assuring Jewish students of their support they can work towards “smoothing over” the situation.
Could this be effective? I suppose it could be. BUT, I don’t think it will be.

Why? Well for two reasons. The first is that this bill sets the groundwork for bigger and more expansive condemnations of Israel and its supporters. It gives the divestment activists a “foot in the door” and allows for future much more heinous type of legislation all of which would do nothing but create tension and a hostile atmosphere for Jewish students. I don’t think that the words of the Chancellor or President Langdorf do anything to address this possibility. If anything their actions only encourage it.

Secondly, it creates an overall atmosphere (as President Langdorf) mentions of divisiveness and hatred. Quiet diplomacy is nice, but, now the campus is primarily known as a place where BDS and this kind of bigotry is acceptable. Nothing that is done in private can change the overriding statement made when the ASUC passed SB160 and President Langdorf allowed it to stand.

So I ask that you all join me in insisting that the University make a much more forceful statement rejecting this vote and the bigotry behind it. They can’t undo the bill and they can’t outlaw it (First Amendment issues) but they can make a statement to counter it and effectively and publicly reject it.

IF they cannot do this, then I say, BOYCOTT! It is time to stand against bigotry and hate in all of its forms. Anyone who was at that meeting or saw the twitter feeds from that meeting can tell  you what really happened as well as the prejudice and bigotry that was expressed there.

If the University feels that it does not need to reject this kind of hateful legislation then we need to let the University know just how we feel and use tools at our disposal (such as boycotts) to make sure that this behavior is rejected.

THE BDS CIRCUS IS BACK IN TOWN

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT BLUE TRUTH BY DR. MIKE

 

The BDS circus pulled its caravan into UC Berkeley this week, and the show featured everything we've learned to expect from the Bullying, Defamation and Slander crew:  false assertions about Israel and the history of the conflict; simultaneous denial of their true goal of full divestment from Israel while cheering speakers who referenced that goal; polarization of the campus environment with poisonous denigration of their fellow students; and a "victory" that will accomplish nothing on the ground on Israel or the West Bank, but will encourage extremism and hatred. They should be quite proud of themselves, given their goal is rejection of peace with a Jewish state of Israel within any borders--they made sure that nothing happened that would help promote peace.

After a long, drawn-out session of the ASUC (Associated Students of the University of California) student senate earlier this week, the BDS-sponsored bill passed by a 1 vote margin.  The bill asked the University to divest its investments in 3 specific companies that were charged with abetting Israeli human rights violations in the occupied territories. The bill had the usual one-sided characterizations of Israel, though the sponsors made sure that they could claim it was "even handed" by denouncing attacks on civilians on both sides. (The BDSers even indicated their willingness to have the UC system divest from companies that supported Palestinian terror, but they were apparently saddened that they just couldn't find any.) I won't go through an extensive analysis of all the flaws in the document, as there's an excellent review posted here. Rather, I'd like to focus on what occurred in the room, as well as around it in cyberspace.  I was at one of the meetings held as part of the 2010 edition of the Berkeley BDS Circus, so was perhaps less shocked than others who had not experienced this performance previously.

I'm going to refer to the group in support of the resolution as the "BDS side".  The resolution and the arguments mirrored those used at other campuses and the entire rationale for the effort came straight from one of the BDS playbooks:  
“Divestment campaigns and requests for institutional divestment provide debate material that places Palestine solidarity groups in the most favorable position to present their case." The original text of the resolution even referenced the BDS movement's own website as a source. The UC Regents already had a standing statement that they were not going to change their investment policy based on ASUC resolutions, so there was not even a thought that this could have any practical effect.  So the only reason to bring up such a resolution is, exactly as stated, to provide a forum for Students for Justice in Palestine to lead a discussion to condemn Israel.   I will note that the final amended version of the bill apparently has clauses explicitly rejecting the BDS goal of the elimination of Israel. However, these amendments were inserted after the public comment period.

The tone was set right at the beginning, when one of the Jewish students introducing their alternative resolution (calling for positive investment for peace) mentioned that the leadership of the organized Jewish community was present. A hiss went up from the BDS side that was quickly silenced, but the sentiment was clear.  The BDS side then introduced their featured speaker, the author Alice Walker; Walker has a lengthy history of flirtation with the line between legitimate political criticism of Israel and overt anti-Semitic ideology.  As the open comment period began, the BDS side couldn't quite decide whether their ASUC student fees were subsidizing Israel's occupation or whether they were profiting from it. Or both at the same time. Actually, it's more likely neither-- the student fees pay for student programs, and tuition and university investments pay for the operations of the university.  But like much of the rest of the debate, facts weren't really important here; emotion was. The argument was that they simply couldn't continue to have their student fees pay for (or profit from? or both at once?) Israel's actions. And there was no charge that was too vile for them to use to this end-- one speaker went as far as to suggest that Israel was inserting rats into Palestinian girls' genital tracts. Another claimed that the IDF specifically shot Palestinians in the eye so as to blind them but not kill them (must be a newly invented Zionist magic bullet that could be fired that precisely and then stop before entering the brain, which happens to be located right behind the eyes).  Other students invoked details of genocidal episodes that have occurred to other peoples, as if the treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank was comparable to mass slaughters of populations.  It was reminiscent of the recent use (by a professor of Islamic studies at the University of North Carolina) of photos of Buchenwald to illustrate a story about Deir Yassin.

Just as in 2010, any BDS speaker was met with choreographed high volume cheers. At least this time the room was too small to allow them to gather en masse at the front to intimidate anyone who dared to oppose them, as they had done in 2010.  And just as in 2010, the loudest cheers were for the speakers who promoted the most radical anti-Israel line.  It was ironic that while the BDS side tried to claim that their resolution wasn't part of BDS, they were ecstatic when one of their speakers invoked the trinity of BDS demands: that Israel end its occupation of "all Arab lands", that Israel give equality to its Palestinian citizens, and that it recognize the fictional "right of return" that would eliminate Jewish national rights in the Jewish homeland.  They loudly cheered a student who had brought the unrepentant racist Louis Farrakhan to campus to speak. They insisted that the goal of the resolution wasn't divestment from Israel at all, yet they whooped even more loudly when a speaker stated that South Africa's ANC had endorsed divestment from Israel.   They claimed they were not anti-Israel, yet that very morning many of them had rallied in Sproul Plaza chanting the anti-Zionist anthem "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free."

One tactic that the BDS side used (which they also used at UC Riverside in their ultimately failed attempt there to pass a BDS resolution) was to claim that this resolution was the "neutral" position because it would also divest from companies involved in human rights abuses of Israelis--though they searched far and wide and couldn't find any. They clearly weren't neutral enough to look into any companies doing business with Iran-- the patron of Hamas and Hezbollah, and the source of the Fajr-5 missiles that rained down on Israel last year.  Given that all of those missiles were deliberately aimeed at Israeli cities, each constituted human rights abuses of Israelis on a massive scale.  They clearly weren't neutral enough to look into companies involved in other human rights abuses such as those doing business with Mauritania-- a country in which Arabs continue to hold black Africans as slaves. They certainly weren't neutral enough to find any other country in the world upon which to focus their attention, except for the one Jewish state, which the BDS movement targets for elimination.

What was quite telling was that many of the pro-Israel speakers indicated empathy with Palestinian suffering and stating that they too would like to see the occupation come to an end. Yet none of the student speakers on the BDS side (at least during the first 4 hours of the process when I was in the room) indicated any recognition that people on both sides of the conflict had experienced pain and loss and suffering. None of them indicated any recognition of the two offers by Israel within the past 13 years of a Palestinian state-- which would have ended the occupation against which they railed.  None of them indicated that they were doing this to promote peace between a Jewish state of Israel and a future Arab state of Palestine; when one Jewish student turned and directly asked the crowd "How many of you who are in favor of this resolution support peace between a Jewish state of Israel and an Arab state of Palestine?" only a few hands went up.  I'm not sure that those few fully understood the question.

But what went on inside the room was polite and restrained compared to what was happening in cyberspace. The two Twitter accounts being used by the BDS side (@Berkeley SJP --Students for Justice in Palestine; and @ucbdivest) are worth noting. Now many of the comments under their hashtag #UCBDivest came from elsewhere, and so these tweeters can legitimately claim that they're not responsible for them.  But they certainly give a sense of the sentiment of BDS supporters. And @UCBdivest at least, while making clear his/her biases, at least did report some of what the pro-Israel side had to say. Though by the end, while not too tired to continue reporting all of the speaking points of the BDS side, did let his/her guard slip a bit:

But that's really nothing compared to Cal's Students for Justice in Palestine, the sponsors of the shameful "Israel Apartheid Week" every year.

There's plenty more-- but you get the point. For those who aren't familiar with the term (and I wasn't until this) "zizi" might have several meanings.  Wiktionary lists it as "penis". But there's possibly a far more ominous meaning; according to the staff of the Anti-Defamation League, "zizi" is also used in extremist circles as shorthand for "Zio-Nazi". 

If you're responsible for maintaining a campus climate of respect for others, perhaps you'd want to consider the role that SJP and their resolution has played on campus this week.  Does their behavior uphold UC Berkeley's Principles of Community, which state that the university should "strive to uphold a just community in which discrimination and hate are not tolerated" , a phrase specifically included in this resolution? 

And this contribution from an SJP member at UC Riverside might be a sign for what's in store at other campuses that dance with BDS: 

Here's the tumblr post referenced in her tweet, just chock-full of trivialization of the deliberate, targeted murder of Jews: 

Ways to Get Rich During Divestment Livestreams

For this, you’ll need a jar (or piggy bank, whatever you’ll be keeping your cash in), a few friends, and your wallets.

• Put a quarter in the jar for every time someone refers to the barrier as a “security fence”.
• Put another quarter in for every time someone refers to suicide bombers in restaurants, cafes, or nightclubs in Tel Aviv.
• Put two quarters in every time someone makes a Holocaust reference.
• Put a dollar in every time someone says the bill makes them feel “marginalized”. Double this if they say this and “our campus has been divided” in the same two-minute time slot.

At the end of the night, after the vote has been handed down, use the earnings to treat yourselves for sitting through the hasbara.

Are Jewish students who have positive identification with Israel (the great majority) going to be automatically declared as "racist" by SJP and its supporters, especially if this biased and flawed resolution is upheld? For that matter, will committed Jewish and Zionist students even choose to attend Cal if the campus climate is marked by this type of organized hatred?  Whether this resolution is signed or vetoed by the ASUC president, the damage has been done.  The university administration immediately noted, in a statement by Chancellor Birgenau, "I sincerely hope we can avoid a recurrence of the rancor and divisiveness that arose in th wake of a previous ASUC vote in 2010." The DailyCal student newspaper recognized this when it wisely editorialized "Ultimately, the passage of the divestment bill leaves lingering tensions that the ASUC must work to resolve in some way. The impact of SB 160’s passage will be felt most immediately on campus, where many students already feel isolated and unwanted. Moving forward, the ASUC needs to make a proactive attempt to alleviate the ongoing friction among students that this divestment solicits. Until campus communities can find a way to come together, divestment will continue to drive us further and further apart."

In the end, Jewish students have choices.  There will be very few students for whom Cal is the only option. And while the BDS circus will move on to another town, not caring about the campus community it leaves in its wake, the university will be the one to suffer the consequences. 

Divestment isn't happening at UC Berkeley (as the Regents already made clear), but division is-- and so are delegimitization, demonization and double standards regarding Israel. And Natan Sharansky knows what those add up to.

Boycott U.C. Berkeley

Yep... you heard me (so to speak). I want to start a Boycott U.C. Berkeley movement. No more sending our kids to Berkeley, no more community support for the University. No more academic exchanges. Nothing, Nada, ZERO to do with U.C. Berkeley.

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 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 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 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.