[Peace] Fwd: DI AD - divest from Israel

[Al Kagan]

>Delivered-To: akagan at alexia.lis.uiuc.edu
>Delivered-To: SF-TALK at listproc.prairienet.org
>Delivered-To: SF-TALK at prairienet.org
>Date: Thu, 21 Feb 2002 23:25:48 -0600 (CST)
>From: aaron michael love <amlove at students.uiuc.edu>
>X-X-Sender:  <amlove at ux13.cso.uiuc.edu>
>To: <SF-TALK at prairienet.org>
>Subject: DI AD - divest from Israel
>Sender: owner-sf-talk at prairienet.org
>Status:  
>
>TODAY (Fri, 22 Feb) you will find an AD in the DAILY ILLINI (pg 3, below
>campus events) requesting that the University of Illinois divest from
>companies that have significant dealings with or within Israel.
>
>Urbana-Champaign Unity and Struggle (UCUS), is spearheading this
>campaign at the U of I.  The University should not morally associate
>itself with the Israeli apartheid/colonial economy nor the weapons
>manufacturers who supply one of the most powerful armies in the world.
>U of I should withdraw its financial support for Israel.
>
>The attacks on the very social fabric of the Palestinian people in
>Palestine/Israel demands that we, as students and community members in
>the United States, mobilize in word and deed to show that we will take
>this no longer.  We cannot rely on moral appeals to the State
>Department, the Israeli government, the Arab governments or the United
>Nations.  The status quo serves their interests and it is time for a
>people-to-people foreign policy in Israel/Palestine and the wider Middle
>East.
>
>It was the role of students in the 1980s that helped end South Afrika's
>apartheid system.  Today it is our role to do the same to end Israeli
>apartheid.  Divestment is one political tool that was used during the
>previous anti-aparthied movement.  It is grassroots organizing to
>pressure large institutions, such as the U of I, to sever any financial
>ties to the state of Israel through the companies in which it invests.
>
>By divesting we shame companies like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon,
>Caterpillar and AT&T that openly deal with oppressive regimes.  We force
>companies to question whether they will do business that profits from a
>state that practices racism and all the brutal policies that follow.  As
>Israel becomes more internationally isolated, Israel will have to come
>to the negotiating table as a peer, not a dictating power than can
>impose any solution it wants to on the Palestinian people.
>
>Currently, only the University of California and the University of
>Illinois have been asked to divest.  We also join the city residents of
>Ann Arbor, Michigan in their divestment efforts and the national boycott
>of Israeli goods in Britain.  Recently, UCUS returned from a national
>conference on divestment and Palestinian solidarity, attended by
>representatives of 25 universities around the United States and Canada.
>As the new "Palestinian Solidarity Student Movement", we expect new
>divestment campaigns to begin at many other universities in the coming
>months.
>
>We hope that you will express your support for this advertisment in the
>coming days to your friends, neighbours and colleagues and on the
>opinions pages of the Daily Illini and other local papers.
>
>If you wish, please join us or stop by and say hello on the Quad today
>from 11:50 to 1PM as we hold a silent picket in recognition of the over
>two dozen Palestinian dead and hundreds wounded this week.
>
>Thank you very much for your time and please feel free to contact us if
>you have any questions or would like to help with our efforts.
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Urbana-Champaign Unity and Struggle

-- 


Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801, USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax. 217-333-2214
e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu