Divestiture controversy

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Campus Collision on Israel
Campaign for Divestiture of Investments Stirs Debate on Bias, Academic
Freedom

By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, October 12, 2002; Page A01

Students and faculty at a growing number of universities are joining a
fledgling movement to pressure schools into selling their holdings in
companies that do business in Israel, prompting a counter-campaign among
Jewish groups that consider the effort part of a creeping tide of
anti-Semitism on campus.

The divestiture drive is designed as a way to protest Israeli treatment
of Palestinians, but Jews and others say that by adopting tactics used
to oppose apartheid in the 1970s and 1980s, the movement not so subtly
paints the Israeli government as racist and oppressive.

"What this movement does is compare Israel to South Africa. That is
hideous," said Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the
Anti-Defamation League. "There is a greater tolerance on the college
campus than elsewhere for expressions of anti-Semitism."

Harvard University President Lawrence H. Summers, speaking at a
university prayer address last month, warned of an "upturn in
anti-Semitism" on campus and across the globe. "Serious and thoughtful
people are advocating and taking actions that are anti-Semitic in their
effect if not their intent," Summers said, offering the growing Israel
divestiture movement as a prime example.

This week the American Jewish Committee published a statement in the New
York Times decrying what it called the increasing number of incidents in
which Jewish students faced intimidation on campus for vocally
supporting Israel.

"In the past few months, students who are Jewish or supporters of Israel
-- Zionists -- have received death threats and threats of violence,"
read the letter, which was signed by 309 college presidents. "Property
connected to Jewish organizations has been defaced or destroyed. Posters
and websites displaying libelous information or images have been widely
circulated, creating an atmosphere of intimidation."

Supporters of the divestiture movement bristle at the suggestion that
their campaign contributes to an atmosphere of anti-Semitism on campus,
saying the charge not only slanders them but also stifles a crucial
debate about Israeli policy toward Palestinians.

"This charge of anti-Semitism is utter nonsense. It is really a form of
paranoia to deflect attention away from Israeli human rights abuses and
war crimes," said Edward Said, a Columbia University English professor
who helped launch a divestiture campaign at the school. "Israel has been
in occupation of Palestinian territory for 35 years. . . . In light of
that, a divestment campaign modeled on the campaign in South Africa
seems to be the mildest and most decorous of responses."

full: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14740-2002Oct11.html

--

Louis Proyect
www.marxmail.org



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