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Al-awda urges UW divestment from Israel

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Al-awda urges UW divestment from Israel (November 10, 2006)

by Tom Schalmo and Pamela Buechel

Friday, November 10, 2006

As part of its monthly meeting, the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents held its annual trust funds investment forum Thursday.

The session served as an opportunity for the public to voice opinions to the regents, who will later discuss the issue of divesting funds from companies that support Israel and its conflict with Palestine.

The regents have already divested funds from companies that support acts of genocide in Sudan.

Molly Fields, a junior at UW-Whitewater and member of the Hillel Foundation, advised the regents to avoid divesting funds from Israel.

"I'm asking that we not divest funds from companies in Israel because this would just tell [Israelis] that we do not support them in trying to keep the peace and trying to keep the country together," Fields said.

The Hillel Foundation is composed of centers for Jewish life on campuses across the nation. The foundation provides opportunities for students to explore and celebrate their Jewish identity.

Another group, Al-awda Wisconsin, urged the regents to divest funds from companies that support Israel.

"Be it resolved that the University of Wisconsin System Board of Regents to divest from any company that does business with or in the state of Israel," said Haley Pollack, a graduate student at UW and member of Al-awda. "[This is] based on the evidence of the active roles these companies play in enabling Israeli forces to engage in practices that violate international law and the human rights policy,"

Al-awda, which means "the return" in Arabic, supports the return of Palestinian refugees to their homeland of Palestine and is most concerned with refugees' rights.

Joel Bennett, a UW alumnus and representative of the Hillel Foundation, argued that divestment is not the solution to settling the conflict in the Middle East because a strong economy through investment will help both Israel and Palestine.

UW Professor of Sociology Chad Goldberg said the situation in Israel is much different than that of Sudan, of which the regents have divested funds.

"I completely agree with Al-awda that the Board of Regents should continue its commitment to socially responsible investing," Goldberg said. "But I think we need a single standard and a consistent policy with regard to human rights abuses around the world, not one that picks out the only democracy in the Middle East."

Though the two groups had different perspectives on the regents' decision, they had the same goal in mind.

"What's nice is that we're talking about the same thing ultimately — and that's peace," Bennett added. "There's nobody in here advocating anything else."

Regents receive update on Medical School

Last year, the Board of Regents approved the renaming of the UW medical school, located in Madison, to the UW School of Medicine and Public Health, though the decision has since come under fire for possible encroachment on other UW campuses.

As part of the debate, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett pleaded against the name change in hopes of bringing a school of public health to Milwaukee, where he said the need is higher.

The regents, however, approved the name change in October 2005, under the condition that the school would partner with the needs of the city of Milwaukee.

Thursday, the board heard an update on the partnership from Robert Golden, dean of the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.

"We are fully committed to doing all that we can and to work with all available partners," Golden said.

A study is currently being conducted to see if a school of public health would be feasible in Milwaukee. Golden said he sees a potential opportunity to open up additional resources for the state school.

Golden added the school is working with the Medical College of Wisconsin in Wauwatosa, among others, to address the needs of the Milwaukee area.

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Anonymous (November 10, 2006 @ 9:50am):

Before anyone accuses the people who rightfully accuse the al-Awda folks of anti-Semitism of confusing anti-Semitism with anti-Zionism, let's recall that the al-Awda folks don't give a damn about the genocide in Darfur, the utter lack of women's and non-Muslims rights in Saudi Arabia and Iran, warmongering and support for terrorism in Syria, and such total corruption in the Palestinian Authority that they might as well be Republicans. And let's also not forget that al-Awda actively supports terrorists who look for such significant "military targets" in Israel as shopping malls, pizza parlors, and public buses taking children to school.

Anonymous (November 10, 2006 @ 2:44pm):

is that last comment actually serious, or just the most baseless bullshit someone could come up with to demonize al-awda. as a member of al-awda, i can verify that none of that information is in fact true.

Anonymous (November 10, 2006 @ 3:28pm):

"The regents have already divested funds from companies that support acts of genocide in Sudan."

So there are no investments in Chinese companies or in any companies doing business in China? Yeah, thought so.

Anonymous (November 10, 2006 @ 5:02pm):

So what you're saying is, al-Awda should donate money to the IDF to buy bombs that will be launched at Palestinian women and children?

Anonymous (November 11, 2006 @ 12:59pm):

So who makes those bomb belts that the Palis use to kill women and children? Any stock in that outfit should be divested too.

Anonymous (November 11, 2006 @ 8:35pm):

I am grateful that Al-Awda urges UW divestment from Israel.

It makes good moral sense- and financial sense. Divestment is a gentle and compassionate way to confront a very real crime against humanity.

And I think it is very very creepy that Hillel centers- youth camps for Israeli propagandists in training- are on so many American college campuses. Imagine if Germany had had such a network for advocating toxic Nazi ideologies. The world would have been a very different place indeed with Hitler and his heirs still in power.

A foreign country should not be interfering with America's educational systems and fourth estate- and our Congress. And yet one foreign country has been given free reign to do exactly that !

Our "friend" Israel is not a democracy at all. It is a bastion of Jewish Supremacism and a blatantly racist war on the native non-Jewish population of the Holy Land. Political Zionism is an investment in institutionalized bigotry and apartheid with immigrant bigots given rights, freedoms, land and resources stolen from the persecuted, impoverished and imprisoned Palestinians.

America has already realized that segregation- and genocide- is utterly evil and wrong... so why are we so willing to help fund, empower and excuse racist Israel's insane quest to divide and destroy Palestine!

Anonymous (November 12, 2006 @ 12:29pm):

Anon 8:35 -- if you think Hillel is a "youth camp for Israeli propagandists in training," or that political Zionism is racist, or that it's somehow appropriate to compare Hillel to Nazism, then you're both an idiot and a racist.

Anonymous (November 12, 2006 @ 3:31pm):

"Imagine if Germany had had such a network for advocating toxic Nazi ideologies."

Like the Madrassas where the teaching of toxic Islamic doctrines proceed daily all over the world?

Anonymous (November 12, 2006 @ 3:58pm):

Islamic violence will stop only once we all become Muslims.

Salafist [fundamentalist] Islam is the dominant version of the religion and is taught in almost every Islamic university in the world. It is puritanical, extreme and does, yes, mean that women can be beaten, apostates killed and Jews called pigs and monkeys.

Anonymous (November 12, 2006 @ 10:42pm):

I have no idea if this is fact or not.but I read that 67% of the Jewish population voted democratic in the last election. I have read at least 25 different authors trying to understand why most,at least of the northeast,and western parts of the country do this. It seems that they ignore the danger to themselves. The Moslems will not bomb in the flyover country, only in the large cities,and and if given the chance will certainly attack the Jewish population first. Maybe divesting will help?