AMCHA, AJC, SWU decry UAW 2865 vote for BDS

amcha initiative logoSANTA CRUZ, California (Press Release)– Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, AMCHA Initiative co-founder and director, issued the following statement in response to Wednesday’s announcement that UAW 2865, the union representing 13,000 graduate instructors on nine University of California (UC) campuses, has voted to join the international campaign for “Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions” (BDS) against Israel.

“An academic boycott is blatantly antithetical to the mission of a university.  And the global movement for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel is antisemitic.  On campus, it creates a hostile environment for many Jewish students who report feeling harassed and intimidated by their professors and isolated from their peers.

“We are particularly grateful that UC Provost Aimee Dorr has disseminated to all UC Chancellors the UC policies that prohibit graduate student instructors from using the university classroom to promote anti-Israel propaganda or an antisemitic boycott of Israel.

“We call on all UC administrators to ensure that these policies are strictly enforced, that UC classrooms are used for education and not political indoctrination, and that all students — including Jewish and pro-Israel students — have equal access to a safe and non-discriminatory learning environment.”

In August, after UAW 2865 announced its intent to call for a BDS vote, AMCHA coordinated a letter from twelve groups to Janet Napolitano and the UC Board of Regents urging them to prohibit the graduate students from promoting BDS in the classroom and on the campus square.

UC Provost Aimee Dorr, on behalf of Napolitano, affirmed for the groups that the University’s Policy on Course Content and other UC policies prohibit academic student employees (ASEs) from engaging in such actions.  She also wrote to all Chancellors notifying them of the UC policies which prohibit ASEs from using their instructional positions to promote political propaganda or advocacy, including the promotion of a boycott of Israel.

Earlier this week, 22 education, civil rights and Jewish advocacy organizations wrote to the UC Regents asking if the UC policies that prohibit UAW 2865 graduate student instructors from promoting BDS and anti-Israel, and often anti-Semitic, propaganda in the classroom also apply to UC faculty.

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AJC denounces BDS vote

LOS ANGELES — AJC (American Jewish Committee) Los Angeles denounces the passage of the pro-Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) resolution by the University of California Student-Workers Union (UAW Local 2865), which calls for the University of California and the UAW International to divest from companies doing business in Israel and for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions.

Acting in opposition to its own UAW Regional Leadership, which just last month reaffirmed its 2007 Statement in Opposition to Divestments from or Boycotts of Israel, the UAW Local 2865 resolution passed today hurts the chances for a sustainable Israeli-Palestinian peace by promoting a one-state solution.

“We deplore the vote of the UC Student-Workers Union in support of this resolution,” said Dean Schramm, President of AJC’s Los Angeles Region.  “Singling out Israel bespeaks an insidious double standard.  Where are the calls for divestment from autocratic states such as Syria, Sudan, or Iran, which routinely violate human rights?” Schramm asked.

Lee Bollinger, President of Columbia University, stated in a letter endorsed by over 400 college and university presidents and chancellors that such an academic boycott is “utterly antithetical to the fundamental values of the academy…. In seeking to quarantine Israeli Universities and scholars, [a vote in favor of a boycott] threatens every university committed to fostering scholarly and cultural exchanges that lead to enlightenment, empathy and a much needed international market of ideas.”

“This misguided resolution is counterproductive to advancing peace between Israel and the Palestinians,” said Rabbi Mark Diamond, Director of AJC’s Los Angeles Region.  “Boycott and divestment actions against Israel set back efforts toward a two-state solution.”

AJC urges the UC Board of Regents and UC President Janet Napolitano, student leaders, and administration officials to speak out against this resolution and take meaningful action against it.
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StandWithUS: BDS masquerades as human rights movement

LOS ANGELES (Press Release)–StandWithUs condemns UAW 2865 for joining the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement by voting in favor of divestment from companies doing business with Israel, boycotting Israeli academic institutions and calling for an end to US aid to Israel.

It is unfortunate that the UAW 2865 fell for the manipulative tactics of BDS. While it masquerades as a human rights movement that seeks a better life for Palestinians, BDS’s true goal is the elimination of Israel and the end of Jewish self-determination. Indeed, at an event organized by the UAW 2865 BDS Caucus, one of the speakers explicitly stated that “bringing down Israel really will benefit everyone in the world”. BDS deceives people into thinking that punishing only Israel is a step towards peace, when in fact they are being used to advance a fundamentally anti-peace, anti-human rights and anti-justice agenda. BDS gives Palestinian leaders a free pass for their racist violence and incitement against Jews and Israelis. It enables Palestinian leaders and surrounding Arab states to remain unaccountable for the oppression and injustices they inflict on the Palestinian people. Worst of all, BDS undermines efforts to promote Israeli-Palestinian dialogue, cooperation, coexistence, and negotiations, which are the best hope for peace and justice in the region. It actively perpetuates the kind of zero sum thinking that has made the Palestinian-Israeli conflict impossible to resolve.

In its obsession with slandering Israel, the Joint Council of UAW 2865 violated the most basic standards of transparency and democracy by calling for a vote, advocating in favor of BDS, but refusing to grant opponents of BDS equal opportunities to present their case. It attacked academic freedom and damaged the interests of its own members, in order to push a narrow and destructive political agenda. It promoted discrimination on the basis of national origin by stigmatizing Israeli academics, while attempting to undermine US-Israeli academic collaborations which enrich our universities and make the world a better place. Most egregiously, the Joint Council openly held Israel to a double standard and took an official position against equal rights for the Jewish people. They rejected a proposal to boycott major human rights violators including the governments of Qatar, Russia, and China, and explicitly refused to affirm the rights of the Jewish people to self-determination in their ancestral homeland.

We stand with Informed Grads, who educated many students about the true agenda of BDS and the deleterious consequences of the vote. We commend the many people who took principled positions against BDS and hope that students across the country will continue to expose and oppose its anti-peace, anti-justice, anti-human rights agenda.

Preceding provided by AMCHA, AJC, SWU