|
- Seeks to impose boycott and
divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those
applied against South Africa during its apartheid era
- Condemns Israel’s
“persistent violations of international law” and its “system of
racial discrimination, or apartheid”
See also: Palestinian Boycott,
Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) National Committee
Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel
Boycott, Divestment, & Sanctions
Launched
in January 2009 as an ally
of the of
the Palestinian Boycott,
Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) National Committee,
the U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel
(USACBI)
states that
its objective
is to persuade “international civil society organizations and
people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and
implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those
applied to South Africa in the apartheid era.”
Specifically, USACBI
objects to
Israel’s
“persistent violations of international law”; its “system of
racial discrimination, or apartheid, to which Palestinian ... citizens of Israel are subjected”; its failure “to respect [the] fundamental
human rights ... of the people of Palestine”; and its “occupation
and colonization in the 1967-occupied Palestinian
territory.”
USACBI's founding
members were:
- Sondra Hale, a longtime professor of anthropology, Near Eastern studies, Islamic studies, and women's studies at UCLA
- Rabab Abdulhadi, professor of women's studies at New York University
- Lara Deeb, chair of the anthropology department at Scripps College
- Marcy Newman, an English professor at Boise State University and a self-described activist committed to "the Right of Return for Palestinian refugees"
- Magid Shihade, assistant professor of social sciences at Lahore University of Management Sciences in Lahore, Pakistan
USACBI pledges
to pursue its BDS campaign against Israel until such time as the latter “meets its
obligation to recognize the Palestinian people’s inalienable right
to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of
international law by ending its occupation and colonization of all
Arab lands and dismantling the Wall; recogniz[es] the fundamental
rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality;
and respect[s] ... the rights of Palestinian
refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN
resolution 194.”
Calling
on American colleges and universities to refrain from associating
with Israeli universities, USACBI makes extensive use of social
networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace to disseminate
its message.
According to
USACBI, “Israel is
distinguished from other nations” in a number of ways “that
justify a boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign” against it.
These include the fact that
(a) “Israel is the largest recipient of U.S. aid and weapons,”
which it uses not only “in the commission of war crimes and crimes against
humanity,” but also in “such daily offenses as collective
punishment, systematic torture, and, indeed, the extended occupation
of Palestinian territory”; (b) “Israel has violated more United
Nations resolutions than any other country in the world, and has been
consistently protected by the U.S.’s Security Council veto power
from any attempt to enforce those resolutions”; (c) “Israel is
institutionally racist” and “engages in ethnic cleansing or
'population transfer' and policies that conform to international
definitions of apartheid for the sake of territorial expansion”;
and (d) “criticism and open discussion of Israel in the U.S. is
suppressed, and critics are aggressively silenced and censored” by
a powerful and deceitful Jewish lobby.
Among USACBI's more significant board members
are Hamid
Dabashi, Lawrence
Davidson, Ilan
Pappé, and Michel
Shehadeh. Desmond
Tutu, former Archbishop of Cape Town, South Africa, is an
honorary advisory
board member.
As
of January 2012, USACBI had been endorsed by some 599 academics, 204
cultural workers, 94 “international colleagues,” and 44
organizations. Among the more
notable endorsers are Khaled
Abou El Fadl, Ali
Abunimah, Hamid
Algar, Bill
Ayers, Dana
Cloud, Marjorie
Cohn,
Hamid
Dabashi, Lawrence
Davidson, Angela
Davis, Nicholas
De Genova, Barbara
Ehrenreich, Jodie
Evans, Sasan
Fayazmanesh, H.
Bruce Franklin, Sondra
Hale, Robert
Jensen, Charlotte
Kates, Joel
Kovel, Jennifer
Loewenstein, Rania
Masri, Joseph
Massad, Ali
Mazrui, Ilan
Pappe, Julio
Pino, George
Salem, Gayatri
Chakravorty Spivak, Adam
Shapiro, and Michel
Shehadeh.
Organizational support for USACBI is provided by such groups as
Al-Awda,
Code
Pink, the Free
Palestine Alliance, the Green
Party of the United States, the National
Council of Arab Americans, Students
for Justice in Palestine, and the U.S.
Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation.
USACBI
has no geographical
headquarters and functions primarily as a virtual community that holds
local meetings.
One of USACBI's noteworthy Organizing Committee members is Charlotte Kates.
For additional information on USACBI, click here.
|