Students Rally in Support of Palestinian Rights

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 23, 2001
Students for Justice in Palestine contacts :
Noura Erakat (510) 839-5526
Will Youmans (510) 384-0410
Abdul Rahman ZahZah (510) 551-7643

Students Rally in Support of Palestinian Rights
Group Demands the University End all Financial Ties to Israel

BERKELEY, CA – The Students for Justice in Palestine chapter at Berkeley (SJP) will rally and take action at Sather Gate, on the University of California’s campus, at noon on Tuesday, April 24, 2001. SJP expects to be joined by various campus organizations, members oof the Bay Area Activist community and well-known Berkeley professors including Daniel Boyarin. SJP calls for an end to the University’s investment in companies with significant holdings in Israel. Preliminary findings indicate this amount to be $6.4 billion out of the total portfolio worth $59 billion.

At the Universtity of California’s Regents meeting in Davis on April 12, 2001, SJP presented their demands for divestment. The group requested a deadline of April 22nd for the Regents to respond. The rally will reiterate these demands and send a clear message to the Regents that all students and people of conscious oppose such irresponsible investment. SJP intends to wage their campaign to divest from Israel until the Israeli government dismantles its Apartheid policies that racially discriminate against the indigenous Palestinian population. First and foremost, the Israeli government must recognize its responsibility for the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem and allow them their right to return. SJP member Yalda Afshar claims Israeli Apartheid ‘is eptimozed fundamentally by Israel’s Law of Return, which grants a Jew anywhere in the world fill immigration and citizenship rights, whereas Palestinians exiled by force in 1948, have no such right.’ Afshar indicates that such racial distinction violates numerous United Nations resolutions, its founding chapter, and various international conventions.

SJP bases its campaign on the precedent set by the 1980s Anti-Apartheid movement, in which the Universtity of California commited to anti-racist policies and withdrew its investments from the South African economy. The recent Israeli invasion and destruction of homes in Khan Younis resembles previous Israeli aggression on the 1982 Sharon-headed massacre at Sabra and Shatila.

Israel’s military occupation systematically undermines Palestinian life. Israeli occupation subjects Palestinians to closure of civilian neighborhoods, blanket assaults, massive home demolitions, razing agricultural land, the destruction of public facilities, imprisonment without charge of dur process, control of borders and natural resources as well as brutal forms of collective punishment. In the wake of the recent Intifadah, the Israeli government has treated Palestinian protesters against military occupation as armed combatants. The Israeli Army confronts mostly unarmed civilians with live ammunition, fatal rebber-coated bullets, tanks, helicopters missle strikes and a policy of assassination. SJP at Berkeley denounce the UC for divesting into Israel and strengthening the Apartheid regime.

SJP is a diverse coaltion of students, faculty, and community members formed in October 2000 at the Universtiy of California, Berkeley with an interest in the human rights of the Palestinian people and their struggle for liberation under Israeli occupation. SJP also seeks to raise public awareness in the United States about the plight of the Palestinian refugees. SJP conducts education, programming, information distribution, and other coordinated efforts in order to counterbalance anti-Palestinian biases in the American media.