Divestment?

This weekend the Palestinian Solidarity Movement will be hosting their annual conference at Georgetown University in Washington DC. The PSM organizers wish to use “divestment” as a way of putting political and economic pressure on Israel. This strategy has failed miserably at every university where it has been put forward. No school that has hosted previous PSM conferences has adopted the divestment tactic. Here is what some university officials around the country have said on the issue.

When divestment was proposed at Columbia University, President Bollinger discarded the attempt to defame Israel as “grotesque and offensive.” Barnard President Shapiro voiced her clear “opposition to a divestment demand that singles out one country in an unsupportable way.” President Summers of Harvard, categorically rejecting the proposal at his university, said that Harvard is “not an institutional organ for advocacy on such a complex and controversial international conflict.” Georgetown has already followed suit: President DeGioia stated unambiguously, “I do not support divestment from Israel.”

Thomas Friedman of the New York Times has written: “criticizing Israel is not anti-Semitic, and saying so is vile. But singling out Israel for opprobrium and international sanction — out of all proportion to any other party in the Middle East — is anti-Semitic, and not saying so is dishonest.” PSM may be allowed to voice their criticism of Israel on our campuses, but we in the pro-Israel community should be aware of this type of bigotry.

For those of you who might have missed President Bush's State of the Union address last Tuesday evening, he made a very important point relating to Israel and Hamas: The President called on Hamas to disarm and recognize Israel. In an interview with Reuters on Wednesday, President Bush expressed concern over Iranian President Ahmadinejad's "menacing talk" about Israel. "Israel is a solid ally of the United States," Bush said. "We will rise to Israel's defense, if need be...This kind of menacing talk is disturbing. It's not only disturbing to the United States, it's disturbing for other countries in the world, as well." Asked whether he meant the U.S. would rise to Israel's defense militarily, Bush said: "You bet, we'll defend Israel."
 

"Hi Everyone!
I wanted to update everyone on the goings on at Emory University. We recently had our Israel study abroad programs reinstated, for which I was influential in helping to change the policy. Subsequently, I am helping the study abroad office promote the new programs which will begin in the Fall of 2006. I encourage those that have not had luck at their universities to contact me on the methods used here at Emory in urging the administration to reinstate the programs.
Emory Students for Israel is working hard on our upcoming iFest week. Emory University's Hillel sponsored "iFest," Israel Extravaganza, will run from March 20- 23rd. The weeks' events include an Indian/ Jewish American dinner and dialogue reception, screening of the film �Channels of Rage� and follow-up discussion night, panel discussion on the upcoming elections, with the culminating event being a campus wide cultural festival and resource fair. We are in the process of creating exciting marketing materials for iFest and are building coalitions with many groups on campus including the College Democrats and Republicans, Hindu and Indian cultural groups, and Christian and Baptist groups.
Emory Students for Israel has increased its exposure on campus and in campus media outlets this year. I am continuing to strive to increase awareness on campus including recruitment for birthright and other Israel programs. I hope everyone is having a good year with Israel programming on each of your campuses!
- Lesley Patterson, Emory University 2006"