[News] Hampshire College, first in US to divest from Israel
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Thu Feb 12 20:31:19 EST 2009
Hampshire College, first in US to divest from Israel
http://www.imemc.org/article/58872
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Friday February 13, 2009 03:25
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by Press release, Students for Justice in Palestine - Press release
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Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, has become the first of
any college or university in the US to divest from companies on the
grounds of their involvement in the Israeli occupation of Palestine
divest_isr.jpeg
This landmark move is a direct result of a two-year intensive
campaign by the campus group, Students for Justice in Palestine
(SJP). The group pressured Hampshire College's Board of Trustees to
divest from six specific companies due to human rights concerns in
occupied Palestine. More than 800 students, professors and alumni
have signed SJP's "institutional statement" calling for the divestment.
The proposal put forth by SJP was approved on Saturday, 7 February
2009 by the Board. By divesting from these companies, SJP believes
that Hampshire has distanced itself from complicity in the illegal
occupation and war crimes of Israel.
Meeting minutes from a committee of Hampshire's Board of Trustees
confirm that "President Hexter acknowledged that it was the good work
of SJP that brought this issue to the attention of the committee."
This groundbreaking decision follows in Hampshire's history of being
the first college in the country to divest from apartheid South
Africa 32 years ago, a decision based on similar human rights
concerns. This divestment was also a direct result of student pressure.
The divestment has so far been endorsed by Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn,
Rashid Khalidi, Vice President of the EU Parliament Luisa
Morganitini, Cynthia McKinney, former member of the African National
Congress Ronnie Kasrils, Mustafa Barghouti, Israeli historian Ilan
Pappe, John Berger, Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire and Roger
Waters of Pink Floyd, among others.
The six corporations, all of which provide the Israeli military with
equipment and services in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip are:
Caterpillar, United Technologies, General Electric, ITT Corporation,
Motorola and Terex. Furthermore, our policy prevents the reinvestment
in any company involved in the illegal occupation.
SJP is responding to a call from Palestinian civil society for
boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) as a way of bringing
nonviolent pressure to bear on the state of Israel to end its
violations of international law. SJP is following in the footsteps of
many noted groups and institutions such as the National Association
of Teachers in Further and Higher Education in the UK, the Israeli
group Gush Shalom, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, the
Canadian Union of Public Employees and the American Friends Service Committee.
As well as voicing our opposition to the illegal occupation and the
consistent human rights violations of the Palestinian people, we as
members of an institute of higher education see it as our moral
responsibility to express our solidarity with Palestinian students
whose access to education is severely inhibited by the Israeli occupation.
SJP has proven that student groups can organize, rally and pressure
their schools to divest from the illegal occupation. The group hopes
that this decision will pave the way for other institutions of higher
learning in the US to take similar stands.
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