22.02.24
Editorial Note
The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) announced that Israeli Apartheid Week 2024, which is titled “March for Palestine: Stop the Genocide, End Apartheid,” is scheduled for March 1-31, 2024. An entire month would be devoted to “action and BDS mobilizations to end complicity in genocide, build grassroots power towards liberation and the dismantling of Israel’s settler-colonial apartheid regime.”
The organizers promise that “This year’s Israeli Apartheid Week will be the most important since IAW was launched 20 years ago! With the ongoing Nakba at its height, Israel is carrying out the world’s first ever live-streamed genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza while it continues to entrench its 75-year-old settler-colonial apartheid regime against all Indigenous Palestinians. Over the past few months, people around the world have carried out inspiring actions building people power to end state, corporate and institutional complicity in Israel’s #GazaGenocide and contribute to the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice, and equality. With the failure of the international system, under US and Western hegemony.”
According to the BNC announcement, IAW this year comes weeks after the “International Court of Justice (ICJ) dealt apartheid Israel a historic defeat by finding that Israel is plausibly perpetrating genocide against the 2.3 million Palestinians in the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip. This decision triggers legal responsibilities for all states to end all complicity and to prevent genocide. Though the World Court has ordered Israel to stop all genocidal acts, including the killing and harming of Palestinians, apartheid Israel continues to massacre Palestinian civilians, destroy infrastructure, including the last functioning hospitals, and aggravate the encroaching famine and the spread of infectious diseases among Palestinians in Gaza, openly defying the Court’s orders.”
The BNC announcement claims, “Israel’s allies in the colonial West are collectively punishing the entire Palestinian refugee community by cutting funding for UNRWA, the UN agency responsible for aid and assistance to Palestinian refugees. This will effectively prevent life-saving aid from reaching Gaza at a time of mass starvation as a result of Israel’s genocidal siege, thus constituting another form of Western complicity in Israel’s ongoing genocide.”
As for the Israeli “apartheid” and “genocide” of Palestinians, according to the announcement, “Neither can continue without the complicity of states, corporations and institutions, particularly in the colonial West. While Palestinians remain steadfast in the face of this genocide and persist with our liberation struggle, we take hope and strength from global solidarity expressed in mass demonstrations from Jakarta to Washington, Cape Town to London, and Rabat to Baghdad; trade union actions to stop arms shipments to Israel in Belgium, Italy, Greece, Turkey and elsewhere; hundreds of creative civil disobedience actions (sit-ins, peaceful occupations, walk-outs, strikes, etc.) worldwide; fast-growing grassroots BDS campaigns and calls for military embargo; strong declarations of solidarity by racial, Indigenous, climate, gender and social justice movements; high-profile statements by prominent artists, writers, academics, international experts in genocide, as well as by progressive Jewish groups, human rights and civil rights organizations; and a million local, grassroots solidarity actions and creative initiatives worldwide. Not only Israeli apartheid is on trial at the World Court. All states, corporations and institutions that have aided and abetted its system of oppression that has culminated in the current genocide are also on trial.”
The BNC announcement cites South Africa’s opening statement at the International Court of Justice on January 2024, “South Africa has recognized the ongoing Nakba of the Palestinian people through Israel’s colonization since 1948, which has systematically and forcibly dispossessed, displaced, and fragmented the Palestinian people, deliberately denying them their internationally recognized, inalienable right to self-determination, and their internationally recognized right of return as refugees to their towns and villages, in what is now the State of Israel.”
The announcement promises, “we can build people power to end this genocide and dismantle its root causes – Israel’s regime of settler colonialism and apartheid.”
However, those who are familiar would know that the BDS activities run throughout the year. In the last few days, the Associated Students of Pomona College (ASPC) hosted a vote on a student-led referendum. The referendum questions Pomona College’s investments in Israel and whether Pomona should disclose their holdings and sell their holdings from “the apartheid system in the state of Israel.”
An informational sheet on the referendum reads, “Divest Claremont Colleges has requested this referendum to provide an outlet for students to formally express their opinions regarding the institution’s relationship with the apartheid system within the state of Israel.” The student organizers held a teach-in to explain why they believe it is necessary to bolster the BDS movement on campus. They began their presentation by requesting that “All civilians who are killed by the Israeli Defense Forces are considered martyred because ‘murdered’ does not capture the full political context of their deaths.”
Pomona President Gabrielle Starr responded in an email to the Pomona community. She condemned the referendum’s focus on Israel and suggested it had antisemitic implications. “For many years now, the only nation on which ASPC has focused its activity is the world’s only Jewish state… This singling out of Israel raises grave concerns about the referendum’s impact on members of our community. For this reason, and even though I know our students do not intend this, the referendum raises the specter of antisemitism… To exclude anyone from the pursuit of knowledge on the basis of the country in which they live is contrary to our mission… American and global institutions, should, far from participating in academic boycotts of other institutions, be seeking to engage deeply with Israeli and Palestinian universities in the coming days and years.”
Interestingly, the students wish to stay anonymous, as seen from a safety sheet handed out to the protestors. “Once the demonstration starts, keep your mask on and do not give your name or personal information to anyone.” It also urged protestors not to engage with campus security, administration, Zionists, or media. It suggested safety measures such as traveling in groups, not providing identification to campus security, and not telling anyone that they took part in the rally.”
In another instance, pro-Palestinian protestors demanded that Pitzer College suspend its study abroad program with the University of Haifa. In response, Pitzer College issued a statement, “It should be noted that the Student Senate does not speak for the College, nor does it represent the views of all Pitzer students.”
In their zeal to tarnish Israel, these and other student groups do not mention Hamas’s brutal attack on the Jewish settlements bordering the Gaza Strip, the largest since the Holocaust. Surely, the students must have heard reports of the brutal violence and abuse of the unfortunate victims: men, women, children, and older people. Israel’s right to defend itself in the face of Hamas’s atrocity, a core element of the International Laws of War, was turned into a blood libel of “genocide” against the Palestinians.
There is a reason for this radically unbalanced view of the Gaza War. For decades now, liberal arts on campuses have been hijacked by academic activists who indoctrinate rather than teach their students. According to the dominant paradigm, a mixture of neo-Marxism and critical, postmodern scholarship, Israel is inherently evil, and the Palestinians are inherently good.
To mention Hamas’s unimaginable barbarism, easily comparable to the worst Nazi atrocities during the Holocaust, would punch holes in this paradigm. The same paradigm is also inherently anti US and Western “hegemony,” where the West is seen as the root of all problems and the non-West, however broadly defined, as the depository of good and virtue. To wit, the Russian unprovoked assault on Ukraine had not elicited any campus protest.
Higher education needs to be more balanced by the principles of reasoned discussion and moral clarity. The ideological indoctrination masquerading as academic education has caused significant damage to these tenets, endangering the legitimacy of the universities.
REFERENCES:
https://bdsmovement.net/news/save-date-israel-apartheid-week-2024
January 16, 2024 / By Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) /March for Palestine: Stop the Genocide, End Apartheid. SAVE THE DATE – March 1 – 31 – Israel Apartheid Week 2024 – the most important since IAW began 20 years ago!
This year’s Israeli Apartheid Week will be the most important since IAW was launched 20 years ago! With the ongoing Nakba at its height, Israel is carrying out the world’s first ever live-streamed genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza while it continues to entrench its 75-year-old settler-colonial apartheid regime against all Indigenous Palestinians.
Over the past few months, people around the world have carried out inspiring actions building people power to end state, corporate and institutional complicity in Israel’s #GazaGenocide and contribute to the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice, and equality. With the failure of the international system, under US and Western hegemony, on full display, we will organize IAW throughout the month of March to bring justice from below.
Save the date – March 1st – March 30th; an entire month of action and BDS mobilizations to end complicity in genocide, build grassroots power towards liberation and the dismantling of Israel’s settler-colonial apartheid regime. Let’s make this year’s IAW our most impactful ever!
More information will follow in the coming weeks. Stay tuned.
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https://bdsmovement.net/IAW2024-March-For-Palestine
UPDATE IAW 2024: March for Palestine
January 31, 2024 / By Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) Stop Genocide; Dismantle Apartheid, join us between March 1st – 31st.
This year, Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) comes weeks after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) dealt apartheid Israel a historic defeat by finding that Israel is plausibly perpetrating genocide against the 2.3 million Palestinians in the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip. This decision triggers legal responsibilities for all states to end all complicity and to prevent genocide. Though the World Court has ordered Israel to stop all genocidal acts, including the killing and harming of Palestinians, apartheid Israel continues to massacre Palestinian civilians, destroy infrastructure, including the last functioning hospitals, and aggravate the encroaching famine and the spread of infectious diseases among Palestinians in Gaza, openly defying the Court’s orders.
Meanwhile, Israel’s allies in the colonial West are collectively punishing the entire Palestinian refugee community by cutting funding for UNRWA, the UN agency responsible for aid and assistance to Palestinian refugees. This will effectively prevent life-saving aid from reaching Gaza at a time of mass starvation as a result of Israel’s genocidal siege, thus constituting another form of Western complicity in Israel’s ongoing genocide.
As the South African delegation has presented to the ICJ, Israel’s genocide must be seen in the context of its root causes: Israel’s 75-year-old regime of settler-colonialism and apartheid. IAW has, since its inception in 2005, mobilized international education about and action against Israeli apartheid, and is therefore needed this year more than ever to grow global pressure to end the genocide and dismantle apartheid. Neither can continue without the complicity of states, corporations and institutions, particularly in the colonial West.
While Palestinians remain steadfast in the face of this genocide and persist with our liberation struggle, we take hope and strength from global solidarity expressed in mass demonstrations from Jakarta to Washington, Cape Town to London, and Rabat to Baghdad; trade union actions to stop arms shipments to Israel in Belgium, Italy, Greece, Turkey and elsewhere; hundreds of creative civil disobedience actions (sit-ins, peaceful occupations, walk-outs, strikes, etc.) worldwide; fast-growing grassroots BDS campaigns and calls for military embargo; strong declarations of solidarity by racial, Indigenous, climate, gender and social justice movements; high-profile statements by prominent artists, writers, academics, international experts in genocide, as well as by progressive Jewish groups, human rights and civil rights organizations; and a million local, grassroots solidarity actions and creative initiatives worldwide.
Not only Israeli apartheid is on trial at the World Court. All states, corporations and institutions that have aided and abetted its system of oppression that has culminated in the current genocide are also on trial. But international law mechanisms are only effective if we exercise our collective agency to make international law serve our struggle for justice.
South Africa has recognized the ongoing Nakba of the Palestinian people through Israel’s colonization since 1948, which has systematically and forcibly dispossessed, displaced, and fragmented the Palestinian people, deliberately denying them their internationally recognized, inalienable right to self-determination, and their internationally recognized right of return as refugees to their towns and villages, in what is now the State of Israel.
– South Africa’s opening statement at the International Court of Justice, January 2024
With effective grassroots campaigning, we can build people power to end this genocide and dismantle its root causes – Israel’s regime of settler colonialism and apartheid.
Join us by building campaign milestones or mobilizing for new campaigns! This IAW let’s not just educate about Israeli apartheid! Let’s escalate BDS campaigning in all fields and take meaningful steps towards supporting the ongoing Palestinian struggle to dismantle it.
This March, march for justice, freedom and equality, march for ending genocide and apartheid.
Register your actions here.
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The Student Life
Pomona students to vote on divestment from the ‘apartheid system within the state of Israel’ via ASPC referendum
By Kahani Malhotra and Sage Harper
Between Monday, Feb. 19 and Wednesday, Feb. 21, the ASPC will host a vote on a student-led referendum regarding Pomona College’s investments in Israel and whether Pomona should disclose their holdings and divest — sell their holdings — from “the apartheid system in the state of Israel.” The referendum, which was proposed by Divest Claremont Colleges and endorsed by 34 other on-campus student organizations, will be held via a confidential ballot system sent to students’ email addresses.
The referendum was created for the purpose of gathering the opinions of the student body. It contains five distinct questions and seeks to offer insight into student views on divestment, disclosure and academic boycott.
“Divest Claremont Colleges has requested this referendum to provide an outlet for students to formally express their opinions regarding the institution’s relationship with the apartheid system within the state of Israel,” an informational sheet on the referendum reads.
This is not the first time Pomona has seen student action backing calls for divestment. The college has had two major student divestment initiatives in the past: one called for divestment from South African apartheid in the 1980s and 1990s, while the other called for divestment from fossil fuels in spring 2022. Neither resulted in Pomona’s withdrawal of investments, but they did result in protests, student activism and, in the case of fossil fuels, a referendum which revealed that 88 percent of students voted in favor of a resolution to divest.
On Thursday, Feb. 15, student organizers held a teach-in at Walker Beach to educate community members about the referendum’s purpose and to explain why they believe it is necessary to bolster the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement on campus. Approximately 45 students gathered at the event while organizers distributed blankets, masks and “Vote yes for divest” pins.
At the teach-in, organizers gave a presentation that explained what the BDS movement is, discussed the history of referendums at Pomona and outlined the topics that the new referendum will cover.
They began this presentation with a request that people use certain language when discussing those who have died as a result of Israel’s attacks in Gaza.
“All civilians who are killed by the Israeli Defense Forces are considered martyred because ‘murdered’ does not capture the full political context of their deaths,” the presenting organizer said.
The organizers then went over several recent news stories to provide attendees with context and, with what they explained as, a “political grounding for what is at stake [with this referendum].”
At one point during the teach-in, organizers called attention to the Pomona College Investments Office’s mission statement, which states that “Pomona’s endowment exists to support the College’s mission to enable students to identify and address their intellectual passions.”
One organizer argued that, by investing in Israeli companies, the college has failed to do this.
“Our intellectual passions aren’t located in investing with the escalating apartheid system, so we understand that Pomona needs to stop prioritizing profit,” the organizer said.
Pomona Chief Communications Officer Mark Kendall, however, suggested that Pomona’s endowment serves to benefit the student body by supporting a wider range of students.
“Pomona’s endowment exists to fund the college’s mission and makes it possible for Pomona to recruit and enroll students from all backgrounds and provide excellent financial aid,” he wrote in an email to TSL.
On Feb. 16, the day after the teach-in, President Gabrielle Starr emailed the Pomona community criticizing the referendum, noting that her concerns about it were “deep.” She specifically condemned the referendum’s focus on Israel, suggesting it had antisemitic implications.
“For many years now, the only nation on which ASPC has focused its activity is the world’s only Jewish state,” Starr wrote. “This singling out of Israel raises grave concerns about the referendum’s impact on members of our community. For this reason, and even though I know our students do not intend this, the referendum raises the specter of antisemitism.”
Starr instead suggested that, rather than cutting ties with the state of Israel, the College should work to connect more deeply with Israeli and Palestinian universities.
“To exclude anyone from the pursuit of knowledge on the basis of the country in which they live is contrary to our mission,” she wrote. “American and global institutions, should, far from participating in academic boycotts of other institutions, be seeking to engage deeply with Israeli and Palestinian universities in the coming days and years.”
According to Starr’s email, she had recently been in contact with the elected members of ASPC and had both listened to them and expressed her concerns. However, several of these members, who requested anonymity for safety reasons, later suggested in an interview with TSL that their conversations with Starr had been relatively one-sided.
“[The referendum] is purely symbolic and useless in [Starr’s] eyes because she just doesn’t think we’ll ever divest,” one ASPC member said. “She wasn’t listening to us; we were listening to her.”
One leader of Divest Claremont Colleges, who asked to remain anonymous due to safety concerns, expressed a similar frustration. They explained that their numerous attempts to meet with Starr in the past had been met with either no response or with unproductive staff interactions. They also described feeling ostracized by Starr’s emails, especially with her claim that the referendum incites ideas of antisemitism.
“President Starr [wrote] about how she cares so deeply about fostering dialogue,” they said. “When you are villainizing organizers, you are absolutely not fostering a space to have open dialogue where we feel safe to engage.”
The leader of Divest Claremont Colleges said that Starr’s criticisms of the referendum’s definitions — which were provided on the informational sheet for terms such as “divestment” and “apartheid” — similarly prevented community members from having open dialogue.
In Starr’s email, she had argued that the referendum’s definitions were not truly neutral and that they consequently prevented people from having productive discussions.
“The referendum provides no path for informed debate or discussion while offering as settled ‘definitions’ a set of highly debatable and hotly contested propositions, and thus ignores the principles of good governance and the educational mission of our community,” Starr wrote.
In contradiction to Starr’s suggestion, the Divest Claremont Colleges leader explained that the definitions used in the referendum came from neutral sources. The definition of “apartheid,” for instance, was taken directly from the United Nations.
“[Starr] is attempting to characterize the referendum as this extremely one-sided game that is pushing students into a certain direction,” they said. “Really, we were extremely careful to use … very specific language just based on what major human rights organizations have said about what’s happening in Palestine.”
Some community members also criticized Starr’s call for students to engage with Israeli and Palestinian universities.
“We cannot ‘engage’ with our Palestinian colleagues in Gaza if literally nothing remains of Gaza’s basic infrastructure and educational landscape,” the Claremont Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP) wrote in a response to Starr’s email, which they shared with TSL.
FJP also commented on Starr’s concerns about unintentional prejudice and the “specter of antisemitism” in ASPC’s hosting of the referendum.
“The BDS movement is explicit in its rejection of all forms of racism and antisemitism,” FJP wrote. “President Starr’s insinuation that this referendum singles out Israel and is therefore antisemitic is a tired tactic used to silence critics of Israel, smear boycott supporters and deflect attention from Israel’s current violent assault against Palestinians in Gaza.”
Similarly, a Feb. 18 email from the Jewish Voice for Peace – Los Angeles (JVP-LA) addressing Starr criticized her portrayal of ASPC and the Pomona student body as antisemitic by engaging with Divest Claremont Colleges’ referendum.
“ASPC’s focus on the Israeli state is a response to that state’s Jewish supremacism, which is to say, its existence as an ethno-supremacist state,” they wrote. “This social justice focus is fundamentally no different than that of activists who opposed the earlier apartheid state in South Africa. The most heinous thing here is that your false charges of antisemitism attack and undermine criticism of the Israeli state at a moment when that state is engaged in genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. We all should be united in working to stop, rather than shield, that genocide.”
They criticized not only Starr’s charges of antisemitism, but also her failure to recognize the experiences of anti-Zionist Jewish, Palestinian and Arab students.
“Put simply, you present yourself as caring about Jewish students and their safety, but you render invisible and thus harm your many anti-Zionist Jewish students, as well as your [Palestinian] and Arab students,” they wrote.
Despite the backlash that Starr is currently facing for her email, Kendall suggested that the college would not change its stance.
“Whatever the results of this symbolic move, our values won’t change,” Kendall wrote in an email to TSL. “We will continue to pursue thoughtful dialogue and mutual respect. We will continue to welcome scholars and students from around the world, including Israel. We will continue to open doors and seek common ground.”
Still, student leaders emphasized the importance of voting on this referendum.
“I know that with actions like President Starr sending emails like these, it can be kind of demoralizing and it feels like we can’t accomplish anything with this administration,” the Divest Claremont Colleges leader said. “But at the end of the day, the power is with the students.”
The ASPC members agreed, explaining that the referendum was widely supported by students and that their votes mattered.
“The fact that [Starr] is even emailing means that she is scared, which means that we do have power,” the first ASPC member said. “Don’t let anyone make you feel like your vote is insignificant.”
They also emphasized that voting would be a safeguarded process.
“Votes are truly 100 percent confidential,” the first ASPC member said. “Your name is not involved. The only reason you have to log-in on the ASPC website is to prove that you are a Pomona student. It is truly confidential and on top of that, protected.”
Voting opens on Monday, Feb. 19 via a digital ballot that will be sent to all Pomona students via their school emails. There will be five yes-no questions related to Pomona’s current investments and whether the college should divest from stocks backing Israel. Voting closes on Wednesday, Feb. 21.
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Claremont Colleges students hold ‘5C walk out for Palestine’
February 19th, 2024
By Andrew Alonzo | aalonzo@claremont-courier.com
About 100 mask-wearing Claremont Colleges students weathered steady rainfall Monday to take part in “5C walk out for Palestine” at Pomona College’s Marston Quad.
The 1:30 p.m. protest, organized by Pomona Divest Apartheid, focused on the college’s endowment investments and included students banging on pots with plastic cutlery and chants such as, “Israel bombs, Pomona pays, how many kids did you kill today?”
According to posts on Pomona Divest Apartheid’s Instagram page, the group’s list of demands are that Pomona College, “divest completely from all weapons manufacturers and all institutions that aid in the ongoing occupation of Palestine”; “adhere to the USACBI academic boycott”; “publicly call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza”; “publicly condemn Israel’s apartheid, occupation, ethnic cleansing, genocide, and dehumanization of Palestinians”; and “institute anti-discrimination policies explicitly for Palestinian, Muslim, Arab, SWANA, Black, Brown, and Indigenous students.”
On Monday, demonstrators formed a circle around organizers, who took turns reading statements from Pomona College students who say they faced punishment for participating in demonstrations over the past several weeks.
Organizers then urged protestors to complete the boycott, divest and sanctions movement referendum emailed by Associated Students of Pomona College, at which point nearly all of the students took out their phones and complied. The survey, “regarding Pomona’s investments in Israel and whether Pomona should disclose their holdings and divest — sell their holdings — from ‘the apartheid system in the state of Israel,’” is active through Wednesday, according to reporting from The Student Life.
The referendum was proposed by Divest Claremont Colleges, an organization made up of Claremont Colleges students pushing the schools to “divest their endowments from fossil fuels and push for a more socially just world.” Organizers denied the Courier’s request to access the survey, but according to The Student Life it was “created for the purpose of gathering the opinions of the student body,” and includes five questions that seek to “offer insight into student views on divestment, disclosure and academic boycott.”
The demonstration closed with organizers handing out pamphlets with information about Pomona College’s endowment — $2.8 billion as of December, 2023. The pamphlet did not list “companies that cause harm to students and their communities” by name, but asserted that the college has refused to divest from such institutions.
None of the demonstrators or organizers of the protest would speak to the Courier.
According to a safety sheet handed out to student protestors on Monday, “Once the demonstration starts, keep your mask on and do not give your name or personal information to anyone.” It also urged protestors not to engage with campus security, administration, Zionists, or media. It also suggested safety measures including traveling in groups, not providing identification to campus security, and not telling anyone that they took part in the rally.
Monday’s demonstration follows a February 9 action outside Alexander Hall that saw protestors demand Pitzer College suspend its study abroad program with the University of Haifa in Israel. On February 12, Pitzer President Strom Thacker noted he had attended a meeting where Pitzer’s Student Senate passed such resolution, and the college subsequently issued this statement:
“Pitzer College is aware of the resolution passed by the Student Senate and respects the right of that elected body to act within our shared governance structure. It should be noted that the Student Senate does not speak for the College, nor does it represent the views of all Pitzer students.”
Another gathering, a BDS referendum teach-in, took place February 15.
israel-academia-monitor.com 