Posted on 02/01/2005 1:20:58 PM PST by dianaA
The Faculty Senate of the University of Wisconsin at Platteville has just become the first faculty of an American University to vote to divest from Israel.
(Excerpt) Read more at petitiononline.com ...
ACTIONS:
Please remember that one thoughtless letter can undo all the impact of a thousand thoughtful letters. Last fall, the Office of the President at Duke diverted attention from the fact that they were permitting a group that openly endorses terrorism to meet on campus by complaining about the hate-mail that he was receiving from supporters of Israel. The Presbyterian Church received a single, anonymous letter threatening violence, and has been able to spin that letter into a string of “balanced” articles in newspapers that excuse the church’s anti-Israel actions by pointing out that the Presbyterian Church has been threatened with arson.
Yoou are entitled to be hopping mad to learn that the faculty of a State University in Wisconsin has taken an action that is intended to destroy the Jewish State. But please don’t let your justifiable anger undermine the effectiveness of your protest.
1. Write to the Chancellor of UW – Platteville, Dr. David Markee, asking that he condemn the vote taken by his faculty senate. markee@uwplatt.edu 2. Write to the Chairman of the Faculty Senate , Professor Mark Evenson, demanding that the Faculty Senate reconsider the divestment decision. evensonm@uwplatt.edu
3. Send a letter to the editor to the UW student newspaper, the Exponent exponent@uwplatt.edu
4. Sign the petition asking UW Madison to refuse to host the PSM National Conference http://www.petitiononline.com/stopPSM/petition.html
5. Write to University of Wisconsin Chancellor John D. Wiley of chancellor@news.wisc.edu asking that he take action to end the racism being perpetrated by anti-Israel activists on his campuses.
BACKGROUND: The State of Wisconsin and the University of Wisconsin share a long tradition of progressive politics. Sadly, that tradition is being hijacked by anti-Semitic, pro-terrorism activists who support the violent destruction of the State of Israel. The Wisconsin Divestment Project (http://alawda.rso.wisc.edu/) is affiliated with Al Awda, a radical group that uses the racist language of “Jewish control” of the universities and media, refers to Jewish national aspirations as a “disease,” and works toward the destruction of the State of Israel “by any means necessary.” Al Awda is explicit in its demand for a Palestinian state “From the River to the Sea.”
Fayyad Sbaihat is a leader of The Wisconsin Divestment Project, Al Awda, and the Palestine Solidarity Movement. He was a co-chair of the recent PSM National Conference at Duke. This is the third year during which Sbaihat has self-described as a “senior majoring in chemical engineering” at UW Madison. Given his lack of visible means of support, freedom to spend much of the semester in Durham and Platteville, and ability to devote most of his time to anti-Israel politics, observers presume that Sbaihat is among the cadre of anti-Israel “students” paid by anti-Israel organizations to devote their time to anti-Israel activism.
In January, UW Madison allowed Sbaihat to book a room on campus in which to hold a “Winter Planning Session” of the Palestine Solidarity Movement. In the event, Sbaihat held the meeting at a secret location to prevent observers from attending.
Last fall Sbaihat selected UW Platteville as a target, presumably because the faculty senate there includes a number of anti-Israel professors. Professor Osama Jadaan moved to approve the divestment resolution seconded by Professor Abulkhair Masoom. (http://www.uwplatt.edu/fsenate/f041214m.html) It was passed at a meeting the last week of January by a vote of 6-6 with one abstention and with the Chair, Professor Mark Evenson, casting the deciding vote for divestment. We believe this to be the first time that an American university faculty has resolved to divest from Israel.
The faculty senate has, of course, no actual control over the UW investment portfolio. That power is held by the UW Board of Regents which is extremely unlikely to vote to divest. The danger of the resolution taken by the faculty at UW Platteville is that it will encourage other institutions to divest, and help the divestment movement to gain momentum.
Dear Chancellor Markee,
In September 2002, when divestment was being proposed by a group of radical students and faculty members at Harvard, President Larry Summers spoke out with great moral clarity, declaring that campaigns of divestment from Israel are "anti-Semitic in their effect if not their intent" and condemning the effort "to single out Israel among all nations as the lone country where it is inappropriate for any part of the university's endowment to be invested."
I trust that you will issue a similar statement condemning the recent vote of your faculty senate.
Sincerely yours,
Dear Professor Evenson,
At a time when the governments of Israel and of the Palestinian Authority are making heroic efforts to bring peace to their peoples, I am surprised that the faculty of UW Platteville would pass a blatantly anti-Israel resolution at the behest of an organization that is on record in support of terrorism and the violent destruction of the State of Israel.
The Wisconsin Divestment Project (http://alawda.rso.wisc.edu/) is sponsored by Al Awda, an organization that is frank in its support of suicide bombing and the violent destruction of the State of Israel. Fayyad Sbaihat, the UW Madison student who brought the resolution to the faculty senate at Platteville, is a leader of the Palestine Solidarity Movement, a movement that is also on record supporting terrorism and opposing a two state solution in favor of the destruction of the State of Israel and its replacement by a Muslim-majority state. Sbaihat himself is widely believed to be associated with the PFLP, not an organization with which you would want to be associated in any manner.
The danger of this divestment decision is that it will encourage Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the PFLP – the groups with which Fayyad Sbaihat, Al Awda, and the PSM are closely allied, to continue their campaign of terrorism aimed at destroying Israel. This is dangerous at a time when reasonable people from every part of the political spectrum are working in support of President Abbas as he attempts to forge a path toward peace.
I hope that you will work with the members of the faculty senate to reverse this decision before it causes actual harm to the peace process.
Sincerely yours,
Dear Chancellor Wiley,
I am writing to express my concern that a small group of radical students is using the UW campus as a platform for racism and the support of violent means of settling political questions.
Fayyad Sbaihat is a leader of two organizations, Al Awda and the Palestine Solidarity Movement, that endorse terrorism and support the destruction of the State of Israel “by any means necessary.” He is widely rumored to be associated with the PFLP.
This fall, Sbaihat was in Durham helping run a PSM National Conference at which Jewish aspirations were discussed as a “disease,” Israel was reviled as a “racist, “ and “apartheid” state, and Jews were accused of “controlling” American universities and the American government, while Hamas and the PFLP were praised as admirable organizations by Nasser Abufarha, doctoral candidate in anthropology at University of Wisconsin, Madison.
One PSM delegate did introduce a resoltion to renounce terrorism as a “tactic” in the destruction of Israel. There was loud applause when the resolution was overwhelmingly defeated.
In December Sbaihat was in Platteville, persuading the Faculty Senate to divest from Israel.
In January, he held a Winter Planning Meeting at Madison to lay plans for the next Palestine Solidarity Movement National Conference.
I urge you to move forcefully to remove the taint of anti-Semitism from UW. First, by working with the faculty at Platteville to reverse the divestment resolution. Then, by making a clear policy statement that if an organization wishes to enjoy the privilege of meeting at the Universtiy of Wisconsin, it must denounce terrorism, defined as the deliberate targeting of civilians for violent assault in furtherance of a political goal.
Sincerely yours,
SO9
Anti-semetism abounds in academe.
Announcement regarding Kristalnacht activities to follow.
As long as they don't dis-invest from the tabacco companies that fund their pensions.....
This is a direct consequence of the actions of the Presbyterian Church (USA) which made it politically correct to attempt to financially cripple Israel in its time of terror.
"though the professed intelligence, they became fools" alert.
wonder if there will be earthquakes in wisconsin now...
Well, it is their university's money, after all, and one should wish them to find superior investments elsewhere.
Fine, they can invest in a really hot property, like Palestinian stocks such as... ummm.... or....
Oh, let's just keep throwing money at a bunch of unemployed terrorists.
When academia divested from South Africa, was that anti-Afrikanerism?
Ah yep!
This is part of a misguided campaign by leftists to treat Israel like it was South Africa. This is one I would like to see fail big time.
What do you mean Kristallnacht? They'll be setting up gas chambers!
Any way you can get the names of the other people who voted in favor of this thing?
But OMG, my very conservative sister and brother-in-law, grads of UW-Platteville, are going to flip out: their alma mater is taking a very sharp turn to the left.
(BTW Hamilton College just canceled him)
Nobody in academia learned anything from Hitler, the Holocaust and World War II, did they?
What a bunch of modern day Baldur von Schirachs.
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