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<h1><font size=4><b>Hampshire College, first in US to divest from
Israel</b></font></h1><font size=3>
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Friday February 13, 2009
03:25<img src="http://www.imemc.org/graphics/person.gif" width=14 height=12 alt="author">
by Press release, Students for Justice in Palestine - Press release
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<dd>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<br><br>
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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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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