On October 21, after hours of public comment, the Berkeley Human Welfare Commission voted down an Israel divestment resolution. In an op-ed published several days later in the Daily Cal, Carol Sanders of Jewish Voice for Peace wrote the inevitable "Even when we lose, we win" statement.
Dr. Mike Harris responds:
Carol Sanders’ Oct. 29 op-ed, “Commission’s divest resolution, despite failing, breaks important ground” celebrates the fact that anti-Israel activists hijacked a Berkeley Human Welfare and Community Action Commission into holding a hearing on an anti-Israel resolution that the Berkeley city attorney deemed it had no business even considering. Such “victories” are standard fare for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement.
Sanders claims it was somehow remarkable that the issue of “Palestinian rights” was discussed. American policy for many years has been to support a just peace on the basis of two states for two peoples — the Jewish state of Israel and a future Arab state of Palestine. The real problem here is that BDS insists that human rights and justice for the Palestinians require limiting the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in their homeland. The central demand of the BDS movement — the “right of return” for millions of descendants of Palestinian refugees who fled from 1947-49 during the war launched by the Arabs to destroy Israel at its birth — would turn the Jewish people into a minority in their own homeland. And as Omar Barghouti, co-founder of the BDS movement states, “I am not for a two-state solution.”
Former commissioner Cheryl Davila, who was removed from her position after refusing to remove the divestment resolution, is not a heroic victim in this entire matter. Over the course of a year, she knowingly diverted the work of the commission, trying to fit the square peg of anti-Israel activism into the round hole of addressing poverty in Berkeley. As one example, she attended the recent Atlanta conference of the U.S. Campaign to End the Occupation, where an award was given to Rasmea Odeh, a convicted terrorist involved in the death of two young Israelis.
The hearing at the Human Welfare Commission itself was far from an enlightening debate. Some anti-Israel speakers presented the usual canards and lies, such as the charge that the fate of the Palestinian population under Israel’s control is similar to the genocide of European Jewry in the Holocaust — factually wrong, as the Palestinian population has grown four times larger since 1967.
Letters sent to the commission in favor of the resolution bemoaned that Berkeley was “deeply influenced by the monied Jewish lobby” and tried to defend the diversion of the commission’s work as an issue of “free speech.” Jewish Voice for Peace claimed at the commission’s September meeting that it represented the Jewish community, but grassroots Jewish community members turned out to oppose the resolution. A letter to the commission opposing the resolution was signed by many Jewish community leaders and rabbis. By my count, in the end nearly two-thirds of the speakers, Jews and non-Jews, urged the commission to reject this deeply flawed and biased measure.
Read it all here
UPDATE:
Dr. Mike posts his "actual response to Carol Sanders of Jewish Voice for Peace" at Bluetruth.
Read the reply before it was sliced and diced by the the Daily Cal editors
Showing posts with label Berkeley Human Welfare Commission. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Berkeley Human Welfare Commission. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Monday, November 2, 2015
The Vampire's Kiss: Berkeley Style.
Via Emunah:
From the Jerusalem Post, written by our friends at Divest This.
Legend (or at least Bram Stoker) posits that a vampire can only enter someone's home if he or she is invited across the threshold.
There could be no metaphor more apt for the divest-from-Israel campaigns that have proliferated among schools, unions, cities and churches in the US and Europe over the last four years.
Either small, unrepresentative groups of activists invite BDS into their organization, or outside activists join only in order to infiltrate it. The key to the strategy, as he and others have pointed out, is the “halo effect,” which allows puny groups of extremists to “punch above their political weight.” The strident clamors of a fringe group, which would otherwise go unnoticed, acquire gravitas and urgency when issued under the auspices of a respected organization. By the time the majority of the membership wakes up and sees the carnage, it is too late. The organization is left wounded and debilitated, and the vampire moves on to its next victim.
We recently witnessed this phenomenon in Berkeley. Over the course of a year, anti-Israel activists have lobbied, virtually unchallenged, a Commission mandated with administering federal block grants to alleviate poverty to adopt a divestment resolution targeting Israel.
Originally appearing on the Human Welfare Commission’s agenda on September 17, 2014, the divestment resolution introduced by Cheryl Davila has reared its ugly head on nearly every Commission agenda since then. The divestment resolution appears on the Human Welfare Commission agenda on November 11, 2014. January 28, 2015. February 9, 2015. February 28, 2015. April 15, 2015. May 20, 2015. June 17, 2015. September 16, 2015. October 21, 2015.
Its rather a remarkable achievement for a group that still insists its voice has been "silenced'
In spite of the wording which co-opts the language of the civil rights movement, this divestment resolution and the whole tactic of BDS is not about peace with Israel. Its about peace- without Israel. Cheryl Davila is no innocent. She knows the truth. She stood with her BDS colleagues at the Oct 14 “Day of action” at UC Berkeley while SJP chanted “From the river to the sea” and “We support the Intifada”. And again, on October 15, she stood with them in front of the Israeli consulate on Montgomery Street when they chanted “We don’t want one state. We want 48" She attended the Atlanta Conference of the US Campaign when an award was given to Rasmea Odeh- a convicted terrorist responsible for the death of 2 young Israelis.
Cheryl’s willingness to neglect the Human Welfare Commission’s core responsibility in pushing this resolution ultimately led to her dismissal from the commission.
During the public comment period before the Commission's October 21 vote, 54 spoke against the resolution, and 36 spoke in favor. The resolution failed to pass.
But like Bram Stoker’s vampire, (or Monty Python’s parrot) BDS in Berkeley may not be quite dead, yet. Commission Chair Praveen Sood is pushing his own BDS-lite resolution. And local anti-Israel activists are attempting to groom Cheryl Davila to seek an elected office.
This time Berkeley is mobilized to fight back. Tired of having community institutions hijacked, a local attorney has written to the city, urging them not to continue squandering public funds and community resources.
Again from Divest this!
Divest-from-Israel campaigns are kind of like Count Dracula: no matter how many times a stake is driven through their heart, they keep trying to get up (albeit always a bit more decrepit and overwrought than the time before).
From the Jerusalem Post, written by our friends at Divest This.
Legend (or at least Bram Stoker) posits that a vampire can only enter someone's home if he or she is invited across the threshold.
There could be no metaphor more apt for the divest-from-Israel campaigns that have proliferated among schools, unions, cities and churches in the US and Europe over the last four years.
Either small, unrepresentative groups of activists invite BDS into their organization, or outside activists join only in order to infiltrate it. The key to the strategy, as he and others have pointed out, is the “halo effect,” which allows puny groups of extremists to “punch above their political weight.” The strident clamors of a fringe group, which would otherwise go unnoticed, acquire gravitas and urgency when issued under the auspices of a respected organization. By the time the majority of the membership wakes up and sees the carnage, it is too late. The organization is left wounded and debilitated, and the vampire moves on to its next victim.
We recently witnessed this phenomenon in Berkeley. Over the course of a year, anti-Israel activists have lobbied, virtually unchallenged, a Commission mandated with administering federal block grants to alleviate poverty to adopt a divestment resolution targeting Israel.
Originally appearing on the Human Welfare Commission’s agenda on September 17, 2014, the divestment resolution introduced by Cheryl Davila has reared its ugly head on nearly every Commission agenda since then. The divestment resolution appears on the Human Welfare Commission agenda on November 11, 2014. January 28, 2015. February 9, 2015. February 28, 2015. April 15, 2015. May 20, 2015. June 17, 2015. September 16, 2015. October 21, 2015.
Its rather a remarkable achievement for a group that still insists its voice has been "silenced'
In spite of the wording which co-opts the language of the civil rights movement, this divestment resolution and the whole tactic of BDS is not about peace with Israel. Its about peace- without Israel. Cheryl Davila is no innocent. She knows the truth. She stood with her BDS colleagues at the Oct 14 “Day of action” at UC Berkeley while SJP chanted “From the river to the sea” and “We support the Intifada”. And again, on October 15, she stood with them in front of the Israeli consulate on Montgomery Street when they chanted “We don’t want one state. We want 48" She attended the Atlanta Conference of the US Campaign when an award was given to Rasmea Odeh- a convicted terrorist responsible for the death of 2 young Israelis.
Cheryl’s willingness to neglect the Human Welfare Commission’s core responsibility in pushing this resolution ultimately led to her dismissal from the commission.
During the public comment period before the Commission's October 21 vote, 54 spoke against the resolution, and 36 spoke in favor. The resolution failed to pass.
But like Bram Stoker’s vampire, (or Monty Python’s parrot) BDS in Berkeley may not be quite dead, yet. Commission Chair Praveen Sood is pushing his own BDS-lite resolution. And local anti-Israel activists are attempting to groom Cheryl Davila to seek an elected office.
This time Berkeley is mobilized to fight back. Tired of having community institutions hijacked, a local attorney has written to the city, urging them not to continue squandering public funds and community resources.
Again from Divest this!
Divest-from-Israel campaigns are kind of like Count Dracula: no matter how many times a stake is driven through their heart, they keep trying to get up (albeit always a bit more decrepit and overwrought than the time before).
Thursday, October 22, 2015
Berkeley Human Welfare Commission rejects BDS bill
On Wednesday, October 21, the Berkeley Human Welfare Commission
rejected a resolution advocating
divestment from companies that did business in
Israel. Hundreds gathered in the
South Berkeley Senior Center to
participate in the public comment
period. Legendary UC Berkeley professor Ron Hassner , Rabbi Menachem Creditor, Rabbi James Brandt, community leaders and grass root community members joined together
to ask the Commission to reject this
hateful and divisive resolution.
The resolution was defeated, with 5 voting against it, 2 for it, and 1 abstaining.
Additionally, we were shocked to learn that the HWCAC has
been discussing this issue for a year without consulting anyone outside the
small circle of supporters of divestment. This represents a grave breach of
process and diligence that should have been undertaken when considering such a
sensitive and controversial issue…”
From StandWithUs:
"BDS activists attempted to hijack the commission to further their narrow, political, extremist agenda but the commissioners refused to succumb to this pressure and defeated the resolution," said Johanna Wilder, StandWithUs Northern California Associate Director, who spoke at the Commission meeting.
The HWCAC discussed this issue despite the Berkeley City Attorney's clear stance that divestment is outside the scope of the commission, which is charged with tackling local poverty issues. Fortunately, numerous commissioners recognized this and rejected divestment so that the HWCAC could go back to fulfilling its crucial mission.
Divestment supporters engaged in racist slander against Israel accusing it of committing a "Holocaust" against Palestinians. In addition to this trivialization of genocide they employed more typical propaganda, smearing Israelis as colonizers and erasing the indigenous rights of the Jewish people in their homeland.
For more information on Berkeley's defeat of the divestment resolution see
An open letter to the commission, signed by Rabbi James Brandt of the Jewish Federation,
Rabbi Yonatan Cohen of Beth Israel, Rabbi Menachem Creditor of Netivot Shalom
and Rabbi Yoel Kahn of Beth El in the Berkeley,
as well as many others expressed dissatisfaction with both the content of the resolution
and the process involved in bringing it to the Commission.
From the letter:
We were deeply troubled, however to learn about the
resolution before the Human Welfare and Community Action Commission recommending
that the Berkeley City Council list Israel under the Oppressive States Business
Policy” Not only is this resolution completely unbalanced in its representation
of the heartbreaking and complex conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, it
is also a major distraction from the vitally important work of the HWCAC. It is
disturbing that so much time and resources are being spent by the HWCAC on a divisive
international issue unrelated to its mission, at a time when we all need to
work together to improve our beloved city….
"BDS activists attempted to hijack the commission to further their narrow, political, extremist agenda but the commissioners refused to succumb to this pressure and defeated the resolution," said Johanna Wilder, StandWithUs Northern California Associate Director, who spoke at the Commission meeting.
The HWCAC discussed this issue despite the Berkeley City Attorney's clear stance that divestment is outside the scope of the commission, which is charged with tackling local poverty issues. Fortunately, numerous commissioners recognized this and rejected divestment so that the HWCAC could go back to fulfilling its crucial mission.
Divestment supporters engaged in racist slander against Israel accusing it of committing a "Holocaust" against Palestinians. In addition to this trivialization of genocide they employed more typical propaganda, smearing Israelis as colonizers and erasing the indigenous rights of the Jewish people in their homeland.
For more information on Berkeley's defeat of the divestment resolution see
Tuesday, October 20, 2015
Berkeley's Human Welfare Commission plows ahead with anti-Israel resoultion
Via Emunah:
In spite of a warning from the supervisory Health Housing and Human Services Office of the Director, Berkeley's Human Welfare Commission is continuing to plow ahead with their anti-Israel resolution
In a letter to the Commission, Acting Director of Health Housing and Human Services Kelly Wallace wrote:
The three take-home messages I hope to leave with you with are:
1) For any issue that you address as a commission there needs to be a clear nexus with the primary functions of the commission as articulated in the BMC;
2) The Commission must communicate with any other commissions, boards and/or departments that share partially or wholly the responsibilities for the issues being addressed; and
3) There will be increased expectations of the HWCAC in meeting your defined role as the Board of the Community Action Agency.
The clear nexus with the primary functions of the Commission? It appears to be articulated in the only change to the referendum since the Sept 16 meeting.
WHEREAS, many members of the Berkeley community have immigrated or have roots in the conflict region and have a vested interest in its future;
and WHEREAS, the ongoing conflict is a source of ongoing discussion among different groups of citizens in our city....
There you have it. Clear as ...mud?
People from the Middle East live here and talk about the conflict, and therefore it is within the purview of the Human Welfare Commission to pass over the needs of the Berkeley poor, and spend a year discussing a toothless foreign policy resolution.
In spite of a warning from the supervisory Health Housing and Human Services Office of the Director, Berkeley's Human Welfare Commission is continuing to plow ahead with their anti-Israel resolution
In a letter to the Commission, Acting Director of Health Housing and Human Services Kelly Wallace wrote:
The three take-home messages I hope to leave with you with are:
1) For any issue that you address as a commission there needs to be a clear nexus with the primary functions of the commission as articulated in the BMC;
2) The Commission must communicate with any other commissions, boards and/or departments that share partially or wholly the responsibilities for the issues being addressed; and
3) There will be increased expectations of the HWCAC in meeting your defined role as the Board of the Community Action Agency.
WHEREAS, many members of the Berkeley community have immigrated or have roots in the conflict region and have a vested interest in its future;
and WHEREAS, the ongoing conflict is a source of ongoing discussion among different groups of citizens in our city....
There you have it. Clear as ...mud?
People from the Middle East live here and talk about the conflict, and therefore it is within the purview of the Human Welfare Commission to pass over the needs of the Berkeley poor, and spend a year discussing a toothless foreign policy resolution.
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