UW Investment policy 78-1, states all investments "made in any company, corporation, subsidiary or affiliate which practices or condones through its actions discrimination on the basis of race religion, color, creed or sex ..." shall be divested in as prudent but rapid a manner as possible.

Today, the PA-controlled Wakf prevents Jews and Christians from praying on the Temple Mount, an area considered to be of religious and historical importance to the Christian religion.

Many mosques have mushroomed adjacent to and usually taller than churches. Loudly amplified Moslem sermons have been aired during Christian services, including the Pope's April 2000 address in Nazareth. The Moslem broadcasts were so loud, in fact, that the Pope was forced to halt his speech until Moslem call to prayer was concluded.

Anti-Christian rhetoric is common in official PA broadcasts. For example, in a Friday sermon on October 13, 2000, broadcast live on official Palestinian Authority television from a Gaza mosque, Dr. Ahmad Abu Halabiya proclaimed: "Allah the almighty has called upon us not to ally with the Jews or the Christians, not to like them, not to become their partners, not to support them, and not to sign agreements with them."

The treatment of Christian women, like that of Moslem women in PA-controlled areas, is also oppressive in nature. Accused of wearing "permissive" Western clothing, there have been many cases of intimidation and harassment reported by Bethlehem Christian women. Even more alarming, there have been frequent reports of rape and abduction of Christian women (especially in Beit Sahur).

Divest from discrimination: Divest from Palestinian Authority

In June 1997, agents of the Palestinian Authority's Preventive Security Service arrested a Palestinian convert to Christianity for regularly attending church and prayer meetings and distributing Bibles. This man is still being held in a Palestinian prison and has been subjected to physical torture and interrogations.
- In August 1997, Palestinian policemen in Beit Sahur opened fire on a crowd of Christians Arabs, wounding six of them. Arafat attempted to cover up the incident and has warned the Arab media against publicizing the story. The local commander of the Palestinian police instructed journalists not to report the incident.
- A Palestinian convert in Ramallah was recently visited by Palestinian police at his home and warned that if he continued to preach Christianity, he would be arrested and charged with being an Israeli spy.
- The Comtsieh family [a Christian family] has a building that serves as a business center in Bethlehem, but several years ago a Moslem family from Hebron took possession of the building. The Comtsieh family filed a claim with the Palestinian Authority judicial system. After long and arduous court hearings, the court ruled in the claimant's favor. However, the police never enforced the verdict. Representatives of the Hebron family later appeared with a new court verdict (signed by the same judge who ruled in the claimants' favor previously), canceling the previous verdict and ratifying the Hebron family's ownership of the property.

The PA leadership maintains that it seeks peace, with guarantees of religious freedom. Unfortunately, the facts show otherwise. The Christians in PA controlled areas have begun to pray in secret. Some are applying to move to Israeli-controlled areas, where they are assured the right to worship freely. If action is not taken to ease the plight of Christians in PA-controlled areas, it is likely that the presence of Christians in these areas will continue to dwindle until few will remain to guard the holy sites.

"Palestinians have suffered human rights abuses and war crimes that include the demolition of over 12,000 civilian homes since 1967, wanton destruction of civilian infrastructure, institutions, and farmland, expropriation of Palestinian land and important natural resources, the imposition of closures and curfews that prevent Palestinians from accessing healthcare, basic education, jobs and all the other services that sustain life."

Its funny how he bemoans loss of property, but never bemoans the loss of innocent Israeli life caused by rampant and genocidal palestinan suicide bombing. He also never mentions that the curfews, house demolitions, etc. are in RESPONSE to the Human Rights violations of the Palestinians, namely SUICIDE BOMBINGS which their leaders and government refuse to lay a finger to stop. Prior to the Palestinian Suicide bombing rampage of the Second Intifada, the road blocks and curfews did not exist. I guess he values Palestinian property over the loss of innocent Jewish life. Good values for a Philosophy student. Also, a sign of racism.

"lands expropriated from Palestinians who were expelled from the areas that became the state of Israel in 1948."

I guess when the Palestinians declare a genocidal war on a people and lose, there are consequense. Particularly if they declare war and then flee from battle. Also, it is worth mentioning that over 75% of Palestinians in 1948 never saw a single Israeli soldier! They left on their own cowardice, even though they had the backing of over 5 Arab Armies to fight for and with them.

Mohammad, I think its time you go back to writing articles on birth control, how the government is racist, or bashing Christopher Columbus. You obviously know nothing about the Israeli-Arab conflict or about handling the matter with class.

Great! Another of Mohammad's articles criticizing Jews. What is this, his 10th article where he attacks Jews and Israelis?

Its particularly interesting since he attacks Israelis for human rights issues, while he is silent on Palestinian human rights abuses such as suicide bombings or honor killings of women and "collaborators." He is also conspicuously silent on other horrific human rights abuses such as the Arabs comitting genocide against Black Africans in Sudan. Sounds like you are discriminating my friend.

I thought that "like cases should be treated alike." I guess that worse cases of human rights issues are NOT treated AT ALL by your "divest from Israel campaign." Hypocritical? Yeah. Racist in form and substance? YES!

Since soley attacking the Jews over and over while ignoring much much worse human rights abuses by others is racist and discriminatory, UW should divest from your education. As a lecturer in the dept. of Philosophy, you probably get tuition waived. Its time UW divests itself from your education. UW must not support racism in any of its forms. Your constant criticism of Jews and Israel to the exclusion of nearly everyone else is highly suspect. This form of racism should not be tolerated at all.

So discrimination against non-Palestinians when it comes to mass murder is acceptable?

A stated objective of killing all Jews is acceptable?

Will divestment proceed in all cases where Islamic countries practice discrimination against non-Muslims?

So when does France get a hearing?

Mr. Abed: When are you going to start calling on the Regents to divest from Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and all of the other Muslim-ruled countries that oppress Muslims?

Oh, wait, you're a hypocrite. I forgot.

While Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is extremely violent and the end of the occupation is critical for peace in the region and the realization of an independent Palestinian state, Abed's and others' campaign for divestment is rooted in an oversimplified representation of a very complex history. I suggest to Abed and all "Badger Herald" readers to consult various different sources on the history of the region in order to better contextualize the current situation in the Middle East. Like every history, Israel's past is not cut-and-dry, it's not black and white, and we must strive to complicate simplistic historical narratives. If we don't, we are only reinforcing those representations of the past that continue to privilege certain individuals' experiences and silence others'. By offering (what he calls) a different perspective, Abed claims to be complicating that simplistic narrative of history. In actuality, he is contributing to the very same problem.

Maybe countries that condone "honor" killings should be in the dock?

Abed:

Your trash is getting repetitive:
Israel bad, one sided story telling,apartheid, wah,wah,wah.

Please stop wasting our time.

Regards,
UW Campus.