13th February 2008

DIVEST FROM INJUSTICE - INVEST IN HUMAN RIGHTS

UGM: THURSDAY, 1PM, OLD THEATRE

Come to the UGM this Thursday, 1pm, Old Theatre to support our motion for peace and human rights in Israel/Palestine.

This week we submitted a revised motion to be debated at Thursday’s UGM. It preserves the original aim of ethical investment of university funds, but makes changes (described below) to accommodate the concerns some fair-minded students had with the last motion, with the aim of achieving a broad consensus in support of a motion backing international law and Palestinians' human rights. C & S has ruled the last vote invalid due to election irregularities. With a 7 vote margin last time, we can't be confident in the results without a more secure vote.

Achieving consensus on campus based on human rights and international law
During the UGM debate there was expressed agreement on all sides that Palestinians are victimized by the Israeli military, with the primary speaker against the motion stating “most people would acknowledge that we need to express solidarity with the Palestinian cause.” Objections to our motion did not revolve around the facts of Israeli human rights abuses but instead, around contested terminology and worries about the implications of the motion on campus life. It would be foolish and unreasonable for us to allow disputes about terms to stand in the way of consensus when most people agree that the crimes of the Israeli occupation regardless of what historical analogues they do or do not have are to be deplored.

We have therefore made the following changes in order to achieve a broad consensus on campus:

1. Apartheid analogy:
One objection made during the debate was to the application of the word “Apartheid” to the Israeli context. While we can not accept the disingenuous allegations of some who say to use an Apartheid analogy is an insult to black South Africans who lived under Apartheid (how could it be when it is the leaders of the South African anti-apartheid movement themselves who push the analogy? Do they insult themselves?), we do recognize that analogies, because they are imprecise comparisons, are bound to provoke debate from well-meaning people over how closely the analogy fits. We have chosen to refrain from having the Union use explicit Apartheid language in our new motion, focusing instead on the specific and undeniable crimes of Israel's occupation: the home demolitions, the land theft, the annexation wall, the Jewish-only settlements and roads, the collective punishment in Gaza – all illegal under international law.

2. Reaffirm our commitment to Peace and Justice in Israel-Palestine:
The language of our previous motion focused on principles of justice and human rights law should not have been interpreted as a rejection of the language of peace since the very foundation of the international human rights law to which we appealed is the aspiration for a just and peaceful world. However, to ensure that there is no confusion this time around, we make such sentiments explicit in our new motion, noting the worthiness of the a peace based on justice and that “attacks on innocent, unarmed civilians, whether carried out by Palestinians or Israelis, are to be condemned.”

3. No campus discrimination and support for debate and dialogue:
Our original resolution put no prohibition on student views and we assumed that no one would make the irrational leap from criticism of a nation's policies to criticism of students who come from that nation. Nonetheless, to prevent misunderstanding from well-meaning people, this time around we have explicitly made clear our desire for sustained debate and reaffirmed the school's opposition to discrimination towards students on the basis of their views, nationality, or religion.

Support for human rights and international law is not a view held at the margins of society. It is the consensus view of LSE students. As we did last year with Sudan, by voting to divest school funds from Israel, we can send a clear message to those in charge of our school that we want LSE investments to be taken in line with that consensus.

Please help us mobilize for this week’s UGM by informing your friends and colleagues about our motion. In the last vote, the Old Theatre was in full capacity with over 600 students wanting to hear the debate. To accommodate everyone we will have a video-link to the New Theatre. Please bring your LSE card for voting. You will be informed of the voting procedure in the UGM.

Every vote counts! Come to the UGM this Thursday!
"Divest from Injustice - Defend Palestinian Rights"