URGENT ACTION ALERT - UCSD Divestment Vote

Action Alert: UCSD Vote on Anti-Israel Sanctions Wed May 5 6 PM Pacific Time

http://news.zionism-israel.com/2010/05/action-alert-ucsd-vote-on-anti-israel.html

**** UCSD VOTE IS IN A FEW HOURS - PLEASE CIRCULATE TO LISTS AND FRIENDS AND SHARE ON YOUR FACEBOOK WALL ****

Dear friends,

Once again UCSD students are voting on a motion to divest from investment in Israel. Please write to the addresses below and explain why it is unfair to single out Israel and wrong to use the campus as a political battleground.

If you are able to drive to San Diego for this, please do. The anti-Israel group is calling for their supporters to show up in huge numbers. The are saying that "This historic resolution is a huge step forward for our cause."

The meeting will begin at 6:00 p.m. at UCSD Price Center Ballroom East, 9500 Gilman Dr., La Jolla, CA 92093 If you can't get there, then write. Below is a sample letter. DO NOT send the same letter. Do not copy any organizations on the letter. If you need to do so, send copies separately.

**** SAMPLE LETTER - PLEASE DO NOT USE THESE WORDS EXACTLY****

SUBJECT - VOTE "NO" on Israel Divestment Bill

Dear student representatives, You are called upon once again to vote for an anti-Israel divestment bill. The bill is part of a campaign by anti-Israel organizations being conducted in California. It is poorly disguised as a "neutral" bill. The activists are attempting to use campuses as a political battle ground for the delegitimation of Israel. There is no denying that the UCSD divestment vote is about Israel and one-sidedly against Israel. The organizations and people that support it include Anna Balzer and PACBI.

Pacbi is a Hamas front that excoriates Palestinians who engage in dialogue as traitors who take crumbs from Europeans and Americans Supporters of divestment do not want to "end the occupation.," They want to end the right of self-determination of the Jewish people. They don't want peace with Israel. They want peace without Israel. The groups supporting this bill are nearly all anti-Israel and include, in addition to PACBI, the notorious "One Democratic State" and "Birthright unplugged" groups.

In what sense is the bill "neutral" as it claims? Anna Balzer explains eloquently that the bill is about divestment from Israel because of alleged Israeli human rights violations. Nobody can pretend that Anna Balzer is nuetral or that the bill is "neutral" in any way. There is no way that it can be claimed that the bill is about rights violations or occupation in general, or that it is neutral between Israel and the Palestinians. The description of Israeli "rights violations" is a one - sided demonization. There is no call in the bill to block investment in Gaza and the West Bank, though the regimes there certainly have committed grievous rights violations against their own people as well as against Israel. Hamas, which rules Gaza, is a genocidal organization that declares in its charter that it must murder all the Jews in order to bring about the end of days. It has killed numerous opponents and persecutes and murders Christians in Gaza. The United States government pays the salaries of Palestinian Authority officials who recently named a square in honor of Dalal Moughrabi, a terrorist who murdered a number of Israelis as well as an American tourist.

If the bill was "neutral" and not about Israel it would certainly mention the longest occupation in the world - the Chinese occupation of Tibet and the execution of numerous Chinese dissidents cited by HRW, and it would call for divestment from corporations like Google that do business with China. It would mention the egregious human rights violations of Saudi Arabia, and call for divestment from energy corporations like Aramco that do business in Saudi Arabia. It would call for divestment from Sudan which is conducting a genocidal campaign against Darfur. There is in fact a long list of real rights violators and occupiers, including Turkey, Iran and Egypt, that are still getting the business and investment of US corporations. If students are really interested in correcting rights violations, you need to focus attention on the real rights violators. On university campuses, Israel might seem like a demonic human rights violator. In Israel and Gaza the reality is different. Try to hold a gay rights parade or a Women's rights parade in Gaza or Tehran and you will find out all you need to know about "human rights" in the Middle East and who are the real violators.

**** END OF SAMPLE LETTER ****DO NOT SEND THE ABOVE TEXT PRECISELY


Addresses:
avpstudentorgs@ucsd.edu, asvpfinance@ucsd.edu, gbournou@ucsd.edu, avpconcerts@ucsd.edu, mchatrat@ucsd.edu, dachavez@ucsd.edu, bchirco@ucsd.edu, jdcondel@ucsd.edu, asadvocacy@ucsd.edu, vpofexternalrelation@gmail.com, tdhillon@ucsd.edu, asenterprises@ucsd.edu, jsgrossm@ucsd.edu, mguiboa@ucsd.edu, aspresident@ucsd.edu, thaglund@ucsd.edu, katiehall007@gmail.com, asvpstudentlife@ucsd.edu, k1hoang@ucsd.edu, c1hoang@ucsd.edu, ssjung@ucsd.edu, akenwort@ucsd.edu, o1khan@ucsd.edu, aselections@ucsd.edu, emlaw@ucsd.edu, velin@ucsd.edu, jlintern@ucsd.edu, dal022@ucsd.edu, asservices@ucsd.edu, bmceuen@ucsd.edu, nmetildi@ucsd.edu, bjng@ucsd.edu, pnuth@ucsd.edu, rorear@ucsd.edu, bpena@ucsd.edu, tppham@ucsd.edu, asdiversity@ucsd.edu, a2powers@ucsd.edu, dprevo@ucsd.edu, arvind@ucsd.edu, adsinger@ucsd.edu, jnstorey@ucsd.edu, lswerhon@ucsd.edu, asacademics@ucsd.edu, ctedone@ucsd.edu, cbthomas@ucsd.edu, jtriphon@ucsd.edu, mfvalent@ucsd.edu, a6vu@ucsd.edu, taweng@ucsd.edu, asvpexternal@ucsd.edu, awing@ucsd.edu, aslocalaffairs@ucsd.edu, asathletics@ucsd.edu

Thank you,

Ami Isseroff