Opinion
Divestment: for the sake of Palestine and Israel
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Also by Fayyad Sbaihat:
- Two-state option not viable for Palestine (April 7, 2005)
- American media is in need of reform (April 21, 2005)
- Alliance of misinformed, morally bankrupt supporting Israel (May 5, 2005)
- John Bolton-wrong man for UN ambassador job (March 17, 2005)
- Board of Regents must support divestment (March 3, 2005)
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A national movement behind a campaign calling for institutional divestment of stock in companies with ties to the Israeli military is under relentless attack on a multitude of issues that leaves out divestment itself. Critics shy away from debating divestment for the lack of a case for those who oppose it. In reality, divestment is the way out for Palestinians and Israelis, and has been proven successful in South Africa, India and other locales facing struggles.
The Palestine Solidarity Movement is an umbrella coalition of diverse organizations from across North America dedicated to putting an end to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. The PSM is preparing for its fourth annual conference slated to take place in mid-October on the campus of Duke University in Durham, N.C.
The conference and its organizers have been under a verbal attack starting several weeks before the conference was announced earlier this summer. Amusingly, none of the attacks or critiques has been focused on the conferences message: divestment. Rather, critics resorted to personal attacks on conference affiliates and mysterious allegations linking the group to violence.
Decades of state-led diplomacy to solve the conflict have proven to be futile. The successive resolution proposals led by the United Nations, United States and the European Union failed to recognize the root cause of the bloodshed and attempted to treat some symptoms without dealing with disease, the Israeli occupation. The monopoly maintained over the hypothetical peace process preempted the grassroots participation in it, neither by the Palestinians and Israelis, nor concerned individuals around the world. It also allowed special interest groups and powerful Washington lobbies to dictate the course of such initiatives and proposals.
Divestment is potentially the most effective non-violent tactic that would prepare the atmosphere for peaceful resolution, where the outcome is not dictated by military might. It calls for institutions, starting with universities, to sell off their stocks in companies that provide the Israeli army with weaponry that are used to kill innocent civilians and violate the basic livelihood of the others.
Caterpillar is among the foremost companies targeted in the divestment campaign for its Israeli military contracts. Caterpillar, primarily an agricultural and mining equipment supplier, provides the Israeli army with a bulldozer known as D-9. This massive, two-story high machine is designed exclusively for the Israeli Army to operate in densely civilian-populated areas. It has been used to demolish thousands of Palestinian homes, including much of the Jenin refugee camp in 2002, making thousands homeless, and burying many under the ruins of their homes. Other Caterpillar equipment is used to build Israel’s apartheid wall on Palestinian land, seizing much of the land, and uprooting thousands of olive trees.
In the late ’70s and early ’80s, students were the backbone of anti-apartheid, divestment movement across America that helped bring an end to the apartheid regime of South Africa. Similarly, students across the U.S., heeding the calls of the likes of anti-apartheid icon, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, are rising to lift the injustices off of yet another oppressed nation.
An increasing number of diverse, civil society organizations and institutions are recognizing the need for divestment as the only promising strategy to end the misery of both peoples. The general assembly of the Presbyterian Church, held this summer, resolved to divest the church’s holdings in companies doing business with Israel upward of $1 million. Weeks later, the 115-nation Non-Alignment Movement, the largest political body outside the United Nations, decided to call on its member nations to impose sanctions on companies contributing to Israel’s construction of the apartheid wall. In addition, last week the United Nations Conference of Civil Society in Support of the Palestinian People, which primarily bought national and international NGO’s together, issued a statement calling for placing embargo on Israel and threatened of divestment from companies doing business in the Jewish state.
Divestment is not only to protect Palestinians, but the Israelis and the world alike. Just like it saved white colonialists in South Africa from the reprisal of the oppression they inflicted on the natives of the land, it will end the bloodshed of many Israelis and save them from the madness of their army generals, be them in the ranks of the military or the Prime Minister’s office. Beyond ending of the apartheid-like regime against the Palestinians, divestment is about restoring the long-lost respect to the United States in the international arena.
Now is the time that you take charge and stand for what’s right. Divestment is your peaceful way to put an end to the suffering of both peoples.
Fayyad Sbaihat (frsbaihat@students.wisc.edu) is a senior majoring in chemical engineering.
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Fayyad, why don't we just divest in your fucking education! You stupid article is nothing more than anti-Jewish banter in disguise. As much as the West if fed up with you Muslim shitheads claiming to be peace-lovers while at the same time blowing up innocent women and children and decapitating innocent men, it's a wonder they haven't kicked your anti-American ass out of the country yet.
If you hate Americans so goddamn much then just pack up and get out! Go live someplace where they agree with you. We no longer believe any of the bullshit you and your kind spew out anymore. Fuck off!
Sbaihat is committing intellectual fraud when claims that PSM is a nonviolent movement. In fact, PSM is part of the larger International Solidarity Movement, which actively assists Palestinian terrorists.
ISM members often act as human shields for Palestinian gunmen during their battles with Isreali soldiers. They disrupt construction of the security wall that Israel is building to keep out terrorists. They harass Israeli soldier at security checkpoints, to help people get through unchecked. They have even hidden wanted terrorists in their offices. The most famous ISM member was Rachel Corrie, who was accidentally killed by a D-9 bulldozer while acting as a human shield; the bulldozer crew was searching for one of the tunnels that the terrorists use for smuggling weapons.
PSM's support for terrorism is deliberate rather than naive. Over and over again PSM members reaffirm the Palestinian right to resist "by any means necessary" - a not-so-subtle endorsement of blowing up Israeli restaurants.
When Fayyad Sbaihat says that his movement is nonviolent, he really means that he nonviolently helps terrorists, so that the terrorists can slaughter Jews.
--Lizzy Lanche
Why don't we just step aside and let the Israelis clear Palestine, and then we can invest to our hearts' delight in the rebuilding project?
Of course, the Israelis wouldn't need to have such a military presence if the Palestinians weren't too scared to settle this conflict on the battlefield, not on city buses.
wow my anonymous friends,
your idiocy is shown only in your arrogant display of ignorance.
Casey Abraham
Lizzy, did you read the article. It says that some idiots are claiming the groups is violent, and refusing to debate the idea of divestment. You are a great example of those.
What do you study anyway, they should overhaul your department.
Lizzy, did you read the article. It says that some idiots are claiming the groups is violent, and refusing to debate the idea of divestment. You are a great example of those.
What do you study anyway, they should overhaul your department.
It is an undisputed fact that ISM has used its resources on more than one occasion to help suicide bombers cross Israeli checkpoints with the expressed purpose of blowing themselves up and killing civilians. That is called "providing material support to terrorists." As such, PSM, a subsidiary of ISM, is not merely disingenous in claiming it is a non-violent organization, it is wholly fraudulent.
The critics are absolutely correct NOT to debate the virtues of divestment with the terrorists or their shills. That debate would be as ridiculous as debating medical treatment with a doctor who wants the germs to win.
Let's take it a step farther, Fayyad. Let's not just divest from Israel and companies that do business with Israel. Let's divest ourselves from all products that use Israeli produced or developed materials or technology.
But wait...that means you have to give up your computer. And your cell phone. And your iPod or Discman. And DVD player. And you or somebody you know would probably be dead or at least in severe discomfort, since many medical treatments developed over the past 56 years for common ailments (including several forms of cancer) were developed by Israelis.
While we're at it, since this single-minded focus on Israel and ignorance of other far more oppressive governments -- for example, China, Iran, North Korea, Myanmar, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Lebanon, Belarus, and more -- is clearly anti-Semitic "in effect, if not in intent," as the President of Harvard University said last year, let's divest from all products and technologies developed by Jews. All of a sudden, you're left back in the Stone Age, Fayyad.
And we're all much better off with you there.
I don't know that much about this stuff but I couldn't find anywhere where the "PSM members reaffirm the Palestinian right to resist "by any means necessary"". Is this an official PSM policy or are you saying that some PSM members believe this?
I agree that if the group's committment to non-violence is taken seriously they must denounce violence in all forms, and if they are not doing so, they cannot consider themselves a primarily non-violence supporting organization.
Also, what exactly is the explicit connection between the PSM and the ISM? I definitely don't think anyone should divest in companies that do business with Israel but I really don't think Israel, a very rich country, needs any foreign aid, especially when there are starving people all over the world that we could be feeding.
the PSM conference has a website: www.palestineconference.com
they list thier Guiding Principles, and there is an intersting FAQ sheet there.
PSM's implicit endorsement of terrorism looks pretty official, although you can probably find some PSM member who disagrees with it.
Here is one of the "guiding principles" adopted by PSM's Student Conference:
"5. As a solidarity movement, it is not our place to dictate the strategies or tactics adopted by the Palestinian people in their struggle for liberation."
http://netwmd.com/anti-ism/DUKE%20GUIDING%20PRINCIPLES.htm
Some PSMers are more direct:
"We unconditionally support Palestinians' human right to resist occupation and oppression by any mean necessary."
http://netwmd.com/anti-ism/nj-psm-snapshot.html
there is no such thing as palestine, so i don't understand your purpose..but let's take this group of former fertility worshippers who neither have much, nor give much, and use the name that was invented in the 1920s so we at least know who we are talking about... to comment on the land of israel as a disease is underhanded and did not go unnoticed. the language used in this piece is the type of talk that ponders "what did the USA do to deserve 9/11?" and is disgusting...your islamic brothers in jordan are guilty of even more gruesome acts against the "palestinian people" but you refrain from bringing that up. nearly 80% of jordan's pop. is "palestinian." and cerainly, the "root cause" of terrorism in israel is the corrupt and deviant minds of it's leaders who have destroyed generations of children, "palestinian" and israeli.
i suppose you are the type of person who can find a reason why the USA derved to be attacked. whether it be to bring islam to the front of our minds or anything...you are in possession of a slanted, evil mind, and you ought to get your facts straight if you are to continue to hold a position in the media!
An impressive barrage of polysyllabic words if i have ever seen one.
Israel is not a very rich country. The per capita income there is around $5000. That's a lot compared to the other countries in the region, but in all those countries, the corrupt rulers steal all the money from the citizens. Also, all the other countries in the region aren't surrounded by a quarter billion people who want to kill them.
You want to cut foreign aid to somebody? Start with Saudi Arabia and Western Europe.
I must say that most of these comments are entertaining. Like the person who referred to Mr. Sbaihat as "anti-semetic" yet says "you muslim shit-heads." There's so much to say about these comments, but I always remember the saying of a famous Muslim scholar: "I never argued with a scholar and lost. And I never argued with an ignorant and won." I'll just leave it at that.
The fact that the majority of the comments are off-topic and uncivil, this proves that Fayyad has a point when he says most critics (like you out there) avoid debating this subject. Yeah, let's just call him anti-semetic.
Lizzy, The American Heritage dictionary defines terrorism as "The unlawful use or threatened use of force or violence by a person or an organized group against people or property with the intention of intimidating or coercing societies or governments, often for ideological or political reasons." When Palestinians are under curfew, if one needs to get out of the house for an emergency, they'll get shot, regardless whether they have to take a kid to the hospital or run out and borrow some food because they ran out of it. If you're a Palestinian and you build a house on your own land (after the Israeli's deny you a permit to do so), they'll wait till your done building the house, then they come and bulldoze it. When the Israeli Police gives a taxi driver a ticket for having dust on his car, what do you call that? When a pregnant woman bleeds to death at a checkpoint because they wouldn't allow the ambulance to go through, what do you call that? Of course, all this is BS to you, because you probably already judged me as anti-semetic and a terrorist. If you ever get the chance, go to "Israel" and while at it, swing by some refugee camp and see what the Israelis do when they enter it "to protect themselves." Then you'll know who to call terrorist. And by the way, before you even go there, I do not condone sucide bombings in civilian areas.
Unlike probably 99% of the people reading this, I actually have been to the Palestinian refugee camps. I've worked closely with the people there, and there are a few facts Fayyad's defenders are ignoring. First, although the vast majority of Palestinians are not terrorists, over 2/3 support terrorism against Israeli civilians. Second, the Palestinians who are terrorists have no qualms about using innocent Palestinians as human shields or launching rockets and firing rifles at Israelis from their land and houses without their permission. Third, there have been several confirmed cases of Palestinians using ambulances to transport suicide bombers across the Green Line. Fourth, despite billions of dollars of international aid every year, the average Palestinian lives on about $100 a year, while Yasser Arafat's wife lives in a luxury Paris condo with a monthly stipend of about $1 million. While the Palestinian people languish in poverty, the Palestinian leadership siphons billions of dollars of international aid into personal bank accounts and blames Israel for the poverty of the people.
By contrast, Israeli soldiers consistently endanger themselves in order to reduce civilian casualties during military operations. Any other country faced with the kinds of military situations Israel faces on a daily basis would simply bomb the hell out of their antagonists.
The simple truth is that in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Israelis almost always have acted honorably, while the Palestinians have consistently violated every international law regarding war and human rights. So while those defenders of Israel who fling anti-Muslim insults here are clearly doing something wrong, those of you who dismiss their concerns as playing the "anti-Semite card" are either ignorant of what is really going on or are actually anti-Semites.
How does the fact that Palestinian leadership is corrupt justify that Isarael attacks towns with gunships? Your views are simply terroristic. I wonder if your job in a camp was other than Israeli intelligence.
You also justify the death of people by claiming that fighters hide among civilians. That's were they live, and Israel brings the wartot hem, obviously they are not targetting any Israeli targets. By the same token, when 10 Israeli civilians die on a bus, it's because some 3 soldiers where hiding among them. Let alon the fact that the rest are army reserves any way.
By the logic of the last poster, there would be nothing wrong with a terrorist walking into his or her classroom here at UW and killing everyone. After all, from the point of view of the terrorist organizations we're talking about here, Americans are all soldiers (or reservists) fighting for the other side in their great jihad.
It's amazing how some people will justify any kind of bad behavior as long as it's not directed at them.
Questioning the relevance of the corruption of Palestinian leadership is much more "terroristic" a view than that expressed by the earlier commenter. The leaders are supposed to be serving the Palestinian people, making their lives better. Part of that is stopping the terrorism, which is the cause of Israel's attacks. Instead, they line their own pockets with billions of dollars of foreign aid and fund the terrorists. If we want to improve the lives of the Palestinian people, maybe we should think about divesting from Palestine, not Israel. After all, since none of the money gets to the ordinary people anyway, the only people hurt from divesting from Palestine would be the corrupt leaders and the terrorists they support.
Er, I'm confused. Can someone please help me understand this mess of a conflict...I'm new to this, please help? If Palestine "doens't exist" then please tell me who these people are? Are they Israeli's? If these "Palestinians" are former (currently?) fertility worshipers and don't "have much or give much" is this the basis for them not existing? What's so bad about fertility? People have worshiped much stranger things. And is the fact that 80% of the Jordanian populaton considers itself "Palestinian" representative of the the mass expulsion of 1948? Please help.
Er, I'm confused. Can someone please help me understand this mess of a conflict...I'm new to this, please help? If Palestine "doens't exist" then please tell me who these people are? Are they Israeli's? If these "Palestinians" are former (currently?) fertility worshipers and don't "have much or give much" is this the basis for them not existing? What's so bad about fertility? People have worshiped much stranger things. And is the fact that 80% of the Jordanian populaton considers itself "Palestinian" representative of the the mass expulsion of 1948? Please help.
I see your true colors shining through. I see your true colors and that's why I love you. Your true colors are beautiful like a rainbow.
In the National Review article quoted here Pipes was capturing a mindset with which he disagrees, not one he's advocating. Sbaihat has here cut and pasted - and perpetuated - a misrepresentation appearing on many web sites.