While I decided long ago that the Middle East is not to be bothered with, unless I can lampoon it, because some big boys are playing for all the chips over there, and they're not listening to anybody, not the US, not the EU, nobody. However, hope springs eternal. I'm always happy to see organisations full of people who learn the lessons of direct democracy, who speak their minds, and who don't get disappointed. So, here are three examples:
British universities and their students and lecturers are all gathering together to support their colleagues in the Middle East, particularly "Palestine".
1. Student protests against the bombing of Gaza which have brought real results.
2. Lecturers voted to send a message to all Izzie universities.
3. Students vote to twin Goldsmiths College with Al-Quds University in Nablus, which is driving some to distraction/destruction.
_Costick67 ( 8^P
1.
do a search like "British university gaza occupation". The students "occupied" parts of their campuses (and funded aid packages) until the board agreed to measures like divesting from Izzie companies.
Here's a start:
http://kcloccupation.blogspot.com/
http://occupied-bradford.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=48701307671&ref=nf
2.
The BRICUP association is formed of lecturers within the UCU (union) who want to see the violence end once and for all. This is what they decided recently, while under great pressure to stop complaining (with web pages at the end):
[Message sent by UCU]
British Committee for Universities of Palestine
PRESS RELEASE 27th May 2009
for immediate release
UCU Congress endorses boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel despite legal warning
Boycott campaign "now reaching critical mass" say activists
The University and College Union, representing approximately 120,000 teaching and related staff in colleges and universities in the UK, today passed a number of strongly-worded resolutions in support of the human rights of the Palestinian people and condemning Israeli atrocities in Gaza.
The motions had been submitted by a range of bodies within the union.
Motion 24, from the National Executive along with two branches in Further Education colleges, condemned the Israeli military attacks on Gaza and called on UCU to affiliate to the national twinning campaign; to organise events
to mark the UN International Day of solidarity with the Palestinian People on 29th November; and to collect information on academics and students prevented from travelling to or from Palestine.
Motion 25, from the Disabled Members' Standing Committee, pledged solidarity to Palestinians left injured by the Israeli assault in Gaza.
Motion 26, from UCU Scotland, agreed to disseminate the report of the President of UCU Scotland, who had recently taken part in the STUC visit to Palestine. That visit had resulted in an endorsement of Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) by STUC Congress. The motion also welcomed the student campaign for disinvestment from arms companies such as BAe.
Motion 27, from the Black Members' Standing Committee, called for "recognition of the democratically elected Gaza government" and for Israel to be tried for human rights violations.
All the above motions were carried overwhelmingly, as was Motion 28 from two regional committees of UCU. This motion demanded that the British government ban "arms sales and economic support to Israel", called for a ban on imports of all goods from illegal Israeli settlements in the OPT and demanded the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador. Controversially, Congress also voted overwhelmingly for an amendment to this motion which affirmed support "for the Palestinian call for a boycott, disinvestment and sanctions campaign" despite a statement from the General Secretary that on legal advice this amendment would be treated as being "void and of no effect" if carried.
Motion 29 was brought by two branches at universities and one at an FE college. Tom Hickey, proposing the motion on behalf of a University of Brighton branch, stated that his branch wished to amend its own motion, changing the words "Congress affirms support for the Palestinian call for a boycott, disinvestment and sanctions campaign" to "Congress urges branches to discuss prior to Congress 2010 the Palestinian call for a boycott, disinvestment and sanctions campaign". Hickey explained that this change was only being made in order to accommodate the current legal advice and prevent the motion from being ruled "void" like motion 28. This was accepted by Congress, who voted to support both the amendment and the motion. The outcome is that UCU has voted to host a Trade Union conference in the Autumn to "investigate the lawful implementation of the strategy, including an option of institutional boycotts".
Sue Blackwell, a BRICUP member who is on the National Executive Committee of UCU, commented, "This was a smart piece of tactical voting by supporters of academic boycott
of Israel and other forms of BDS. We made it quite clear that we support BDS in principle, whatever the law says about implementing it. There is nothing illegal in discussing boycott campaigns, and we will now be doing just that along with activists in other unions, including people from Scottish TUC who have just passed a BDS resolution at their Congress."
Hickey suggested in his summing-up speech that the time had come for UCU to obtain a court ruling to settle the question once and for all and to put a stop to the legal threats to which the union has been subjected over the past few years. He expressed his "extreme disappointment" with members of his own union who resorted to such threats instead of pursuing their
arguments through the union's internal democratic processes.
BRICUP members will now be encouraging trade unionists to attend the forthcoming BDS conference in order to broaden the campaign.
BRICUP's fringe meeting before the start of Congress heard speeches from Ewa Jasiewicz (co-ordinator of the Free Gaza Movement), Samia al-Botmeh (BirZeit University, Palestine) and Prof. Haim Bresheeth of the University of East London. At the meeting, a statement was read out from a group of Israeli academics who were calling on international colleagues to boycott their institutions. "We are now reaching critical mass", said Blackwell. "Boycotts, disinvestments and sanctions against Israel are breaking out everywhere, from South Africa to Norway and even within Israel itself.
BRICUP is very proud to be playing a part in the growing campaign alongside our Palestinian brothers and sisters and their supporters worldwide."
Dr. Amjad Barham, President of the Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees, is attending UCU Congress as an official guest of the union. He will address Congress tomorrow (Thursday).
[ends]
Notes for Editors
1. Please note: while we believe that the motions have been accurately summarised above, this press release represents the views of BRICUP and not of UCU.
2. The full text of all the motions, except for late motions and late amendments, can be read here on the UCU website:
http://www.ucu.org.uk/circ/html/UCU180.html
3. The PACBI (Palestinian BDS campaign) press release is here:
http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=1017
4. The national Twinning campaign website is at:
http://www.twinningwithpalestine.net/
The Free Gaza Movement website is at:
http://www.freegaza.org/
3.
In the interest of fair and open dialogue, here's a different perspective on the twinning of Goldsmiths College, London with Al Quds in Nablus, (O.T. of) Israel.
[my comments- Costick67]
Nov 7, 2008 1:33 Updated Nov 8, 2008 2:28
London U. event likens Gaza to Ghetto
By JONNY PAUL, Source: Jerusalem Post
[Actually, I found this on a site about an '-ism' that begins with a zed, and which I'd rather not repeat.]
[There’s a conflation of the ongoing Mid-East conflict and the twinning, leading to 'heated''angry' comments from the writer and his sources, but which distract from the issue at hand; THE QUEST FOR PEACE.] [Also, you'll find a comparison of holocausts!]
LONDON - The situation in Gaza will be compared to that in the Warsaw Ghetto under the Nazis, at a prestigious London university next week. The Student Union at Goldsmiths college, University of London, is hosting an event on Wednesday titled "From the Warsaw Ghetto to the Gaza Ghetto." The event is being organized by the Palestine Twinning Campaign, a student union group that won a vote last February to twin Goldsmiths with Al-Quds University's campus near Nablus and to offer scholarships to two Al-Quds students.
Speaking at Wednesday event will be Suzanne Weiss, a Holocaust survivor and member of the Toronto-based "Not in our Name: Jews against Zionism," and academic Ghada Ageel, who grew up in Gaza and now teaches Middle Eastern politics at Exeter University. Jennifer Jones, the campaigns and communications officer for Goldsmiths' Student Union, is also an officer for the twinning campaign and supports the boycott of Israeli academia. "The Students Union supports the event and we are formally hosting Suzanne Weiss. The Goldsmiths Staff Union (UCU) also support the Palestine Twinning and are therefore supporting the event," Jones said.
The warden of Goldsmiths, Prof. Geoffrey Crossick, said in a statement: "The warden wishes to make it clear that he has at no time given his support to the Public Twinning Campaign nor to the lecture planned for next week." However, the twinning campaign says on its Facebook page: "The warden of Goldsmiths has also responded positively to our campaign and shown an interest in collaborating with the union on furthering the links we have made."
In an article titled "Holocaust survivor responds to Zionism," Weiss explained the ethos of her group: "In Canada, we have built a broad alliance for Palestinian liberation called the Coalition against Israeli Apartheid. 'Not In Our Name' is one of its Jewish sister organizations and stands for the right of Palestinians to return to their homeland. "The coalition has launched a nationwide joint campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions against the Zionist State of Israel. Let's join in these and other efforts to liberate the Palestinians and to put an end to Israeli apartheid. Against imperialist wars and Zionist oppression in the Middle East!" With imperialism a running theme in her politics, Weiss says it was also the root cause of the Holocaust. [In both cases, people got in the way of the master plan]"This Jewish Holocaust was a by-product of the catastrophic world wars in the last century which are linked to the social system that we call imperialism." [The Germans, it's been said, were pissed of at England because they think it won WW1 only because of the funding tricks of the Rothchilds.’ But 'funding tricks' is what the UK economy is based on.][peoples with two different sets of circumstances, based on race and place]
She goes on to compare Israeli policies to those of the Third Reich. "In fact, the Zionist state uses many of the methods of Nazism to oppress the Palestinians, including confining them in walled ghettos," she wrote. [and then bombing them indescriminently. how is that any different? This cannot be a police action.] According to Weiss, the Jewish people are threatened by Israel. "We are told that because Hitler killed the Jews, the Zionist state is needed today, supposedly to protect the Jewish people. But there is no Nazi threat against the Jews in Israel. Rather, the Jewish people are threatened by the aggressive policies of their own government," she wrote.
The university said in a statement that it had worked hard with the Student Union to ensure that all activities "focus on benefiting the wider student experience" at the college. "Goldsmiths welcomes people from all cultures, religions and nationalities and encourages respect for all social and ethnic groups. The college and the Students‚ Union work hard to maintain an open dialogue with the student body and with presidents of all the student societies to continue to maintain positive relationships and to ensure that all activities focus on benefiting the wider student experience at Goldsmiths," the statement read.
Yossi Unterman, president of the Jewish Society at Goldsmiths, said the twinning campaign was led by a small number of "fanatic and obsessed" students alongside even fewer well-meaning but misinformed students. [how did they win the vote, then?]"It is probably supported by only a small minority of students at Goldsmiths. The majority of students are against such one-sided politics of hate and just want to study and have fun, and don't get involved in drawn-out, boring Student Union meetings. [I thought it was in favour of the Pals and not against anyone. Just a bit of light-shedding and academic brotherhood. Where’s the hate in twinning?]"This event is typical in that it adopts a totally one-sided and biased position, usually within a Marxist framework, but presented as unequivocal moral truth [nice big words they're hiding behind. It's a twinning, not a 'position'.]. The fact that people will get upset by the event does not bother the organizers one bit, in fact it probably encourages them," Unterman said.
The Union of Jewish Students has condemned the event, saying it cheapened the Holocaust for political gain. [what political gain is this? The Palestinians are enslaved. The party they elected has been declared terrorists by Israel, so that Izzie can bomb Gaza. What politics is that? All I see is animalistic behaviour and the right of the victim for self-defense.][What is going on from my experience is that some people are 'Hiding behind the Holocaust'. It provides cover for all kinds of immoral acts. Those people are likely thinking "Who believes Arabs anyway, and if we can make whitey feel common shame with their German (Nazi) co-religionists, or better, blackmail their governments, then we can do what we want." Still doesn’t make it right.]"The Union of Jewish Students finds the premise and the title of this talk highly offensive and insensitive. While we welcome debate about the Middle East on campus, cheapening the experiences of the Holocaust for political point scoring is shameful. Over a hundred thousand Jews lost their lives in the Warsaw Ghetto as a result of the systematic abuse and genocidal intentions of the Nazi regime. Whatever your politics, these two situations are incomparable. We urge the union and university to think again about hosting this event," the union said in a statement. ...[Oh, so it’s a question of numbers? Thanks. Otherwise, "indescriminant killing of civilians is okay, just don’t overdo it."] [And, how many died or were made refugees before these latest atrocities?]…
[and the story continues]
-Costick67 ( 8^P
