Dear friends,
I am so excited to report to you that Hampshire College has become the first US college or university to divest from Israeli occupation, just as they were the first to divest from South African apartheid in 1977! You can read all about it to your heart's content at the Hampshire Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) website: http://www.hsjp.org/
But Hampshire SJP, and the boycott and divestment movement at large, need your help! The Hampshire administration has distanced itself from the decision, claiming that the board's decision to divest was a broader one, not tied to any particular political cause. The Hampshire community knows better. Alan Dershowitz also knows better, and has threatened Hampshire with his own divestment campaign against the college. It seems the administration is trying, as Alan Dershowitz has said, to play to both sides. Let's help them be clear, by writing to them, congratulating them, and encouraging them to be proud of their groundbreaking decision!
Below is a suggested letter that SJP has drafted. You can feel free to use it or write your own to Hampshire President Ralph Hexter: rhexter@hampshire.edu, 413-559-5521.
And do check out the students' website for more, including:
SJP's press release
SJP's response to the administration's clarification
videos of student and community voices in support
Onward!
-Hannah
From Hampshire SJP:
The following is the script to guide you in e-mailing the president's office [Hampshire President Ralph Hexter: rhexter@hampshire.edu, 413-559-5521]:
Hello, my name is _____. I am calling/e-mailing to express my congratulations to Hampshire College for your historic decision to divest from the Israeli Occupation. This move should be an example to all institutions of higher learning across the world.
However, I am disappointed that the administration has been trying to distance itself from the decision and de-politicize the powerful statement that divestment sends. In your response to the Student's public campaign, you have repeatedly insisted that the divestment decision had a "variety of reasons" for going through, and that it had no regional or political significance. However, the length & intensity of the campaign that the Students for Justice in Palestine have run makes it clear that it was their efforts that brought this divestment to the table. I sincerely hope that you will reconsider your position on divestment and express your support for the students' efforts in an official statement soon.
Lastly, your failure to condemn the threats Alan Dershowitz has made towards SJP's spokespeople is deplorable. Dershowitz has called for a boycott on the College and you have still maintained your "neutral" position, hurting the students, the college, and yourself. I urge you to protect your students and their right to speak out on this monumental occasion.
Thank you.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
update on Gaza mother's story, and some inspiring activism
Dear friends,
Since my last e-mail, many of you wrote asking for more information about the story I shared of a mother whose five children were murdered. Barbara Lubin, director of the Middle East Children’s Alliance, was the person I was quoting, and she has also received many e-mails, prompting her to look more fully into the story. The most recent update follows, and is from an e-mail that Barbara received from her friend Talal, who did further research after Barbara left Gaza. You will see that many of the details are the same and many are quite different. You can also find this family’s story on various new sites online. Below is the e-mail from Talal.
Let us also remember that despite a “cease-fire,” Israel continues to bomb Gaza on a daily basis (albeit less so than during the “war”). People in the hospitals continue to die because of the ongoing siege and lack of treatment. And… the world continues to protest. Congratulations to the South African dockworkers who refused to unload a ship with Israeli goods last week: http://bdsmovement.net/?q=node/286, http://www.anarkismo.net/article/11864. And kudos to all the university students who have been occupying campus buildings to demand justice for Gaza and divestment from Israel. Most of those students are British, but a special shout out to the students of Rochester, NY, who have conducted (with success!) the first campus occupation at a US university during this time: http://prometheus.scp.rochester.edu/ursds/node/86, http://www.thesitch.com/occupation/.
Let’s keep on keeping on.
-Hannah
E-mail from Talal to Barbara:
Dear Barbara,
It's the first time i have had internet. I hope you are O.K...you and all of our friends. I heard from Dr. Mona that you are under great pressure because of the story you have published about the crime of that woman. Be sure that it was a fact and we are ready to receive any investigation committee to check out the facts. But as you know during the wars and when death is very close, the popular memory interferes and colors the action with it's special details. We all heard the story on the local radio as I narrated it to you. But when you wrote the story and you faced so much pressure I decided to investigate and caught the real story.
It's not so far from from what you reported because the victims are the same...the story happened in Bourij Camp in the middle of the Gaza Strip. The Israelis called the woman Manal Albatran and told her that they wouldn't kill her or her husband Hussein Albatran, instead they would make them die of sadness because they would kill her children. The next day they shot her house with a rocket killing her and 5 of her children.
The dead:
Manal Albatran 30 years old
Walaa Albatran 12 years old
Islam Albatran 11 years old
Belal Albatran 10 years old
Ezz Albatran 8 years old
Ehsan Albatran 7 years old
The father who is an employee at an UNRWA school and the youngest child were saved.
This is the real story and I hope the amount of victims will convince others to believe the crimes we face. Thanks a lot for your appreciated visit and I hope to see you again soon.
Regards,
Talal
Since my last e-mail, many of you wrote asking for more information about the story I shared of a mother whose five children were murdered. Barbara Lubin, director of the Middle East Children’s Alliance, was the person I was quoting, and she has also received many e-mails, prompting her to look more fully into the story. The most recent update follows, and is from an e-mail that Barbara received from her friend Talal, who did further research after Barbara left Gaza. You will see that many of the details are the same and many are quite different. You can also find this family’s story on various new sites online. Below is the e-mail from Talal.
Let us also remember that despite a “cease-fire,” Israel continues to bomb Gaza on a daily basis (albeit less so than during the “war”). People in the hospitals continue to die because of the ongoing siege and lack of treatment. And… the world continues to protest. Congratulations to the South African dockworkers who refused to unload a ship with Israeli goods last week: http://bdsmovement.net/?q=node/286, http://www.anarkismo.net/article/11864. And kudos to all the university students who have been occupying campus buildings to demand justice for Gaza and divestment from Israel. Most of those students are British, but a special shout out to the students of Rochester, NY, who have conducted (with success!) the first campus occupation at a US university during this time: http://prometheus.scp.rochester.edu/ursds/node/86, http://www.thesitch.com/occupation/.
Let’s keep on keeping on.
-Hannah
E-mail from Talal to Barbara:
Dear Barbara,
It's the first time i have had internet. I hope you are O.K...you and all of our friends. I heard from Dr. Mona that you are under great pressure because of the story you have published about the crime of that woman. Be sure that it was a fact and we are ready to receive any investigation committee to check out the facts. But as you know during the wars and when death is very close, the popular memory interferes and colors the action with it's special details. We all heard the story on the local radio as I narrated it to you. But when you wrote the story and you faced so much pressure I decided to investigate and caught the real story.
It's not so far from from what you reported because the victims are the same...the story happened in Bourij Camp in the middle of the Gaza Strip. The Israelis called the woman Manal Albatran and told her that they wouldn't kill her or her husband Hussein Albatran, instead they would make them die of sadness because they would kill her children. The next day they shot her house with a rocket killing her and 5 of her children.
The dead:
Manal Albatran 30 years old
Walaa Albatran 12 years old
Islam Albatran 11 years old
Belal Albatran 10 years old
Ezz Albatran 8 years old
Ehsan Albatran 7 years old
The father who is an employee at an UNRWA school and the youngest child were saved.
This is the real story and I hope the amount of victims will convince others to believe the crimes we face. Thanks a lot for your appreciated visit and I hope to see you again soon.
Regards,
Talal
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)