Here's an item from Campus Watch on anti-divestment campaigns being conducted on several universities to urge their institutions to divest from Israeli companies or companies that do business with Israel, justifying it on the same grounds as divestment from South Africa because of apartheid. Campus Watch quotes the definition of apartheid from the United Nations and considers whether it should apply to Israel:
According to the United Nation's International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid:
"Apartheid consists of a set of state policies that meet the following criteria: (a) "Denial to a member or members of a racial group or groups the right to liberty of person." (b) "Deliberate imposition on a racial group or groups of living conditions calculated to cause its or their physical destruction in whole or part." (c) "Any legislative measures and other measures calculated to prevent a racial group or groups from participation in the political, social, economic and cultural life of the country -- in particular denying of members of a racial group basic human rights and freedoms." (d) "Any measures -- designed to divide the population along racial lines by the creation of separate reserves and ghettos -- [including] the expropriation of landed property belonging to a racial group."
Says Campus Watch managing editor, Jonathan Calt Harris, "It is clear that Israel, which offers its Arab citizens participation in the government, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and other rights only afforded by democracy, cannot be placed under this rubric."
Campus Watch monitors Middle East studies on campuses. I'm doing a similar thing with this blog with respect to religion and churches. In that spirit, I'd like to link to a speaker at this year's Unitarian Universalist General Assembly, by a group called UUs for Justice in the Middle East, The Requirements for Peace in Palestine. The link is to a pro-Palestinian propaganda speech by Dr. Hussein Ibish, Communications Director for the American - Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. His description of life in Israel claims to fit the definition of apartheid cited from the UN by Campus Watch, so apparently the Unitarian Universalist Association is in sympathy with the efforts to label Israel as an apartheid state.
Who is Dr. Hussein Ibish, in addition to his title, stated above? Here's an article from Daniel Pipes about him.
Posted by joelfuhrmann at November 20, 2002 08:17 PM