PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY:

Faculty at UC Berkeley have initiated a petition for

divestment from Israel that includes all of the

University of California campuses. By signing this

petition, UC faculty, alumni, staff, students, and

community members are asking the University to use its influence - political and financial - to pressure

Israel to respect the human rights of the Palestinian

people. The campaign for divestment from Israel

follows the precedent set by the anti-apartheid

campaign of the 1980's, when students, professors, and employees called for an end to university investment in South Africa. Please go to WWW.UCDIVEST.ORG to sign the petition and forward this email to your colleagues.

In a matter of months, 192 UC Faculty have signed the petition, which continues to gain recognition. South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his work against apartheid, has endorsed the campaign, while In a Daily Bruin editorial, UCLA's newspaper has come out in support of the petition.

Text of the Petition:

We, the undersigned are appalled by the human rights abuses against Palestinians at the hands of the

Israeli government, the continual military occupation

and colonization of Palestinian territory by Israeli

armed forces and settlers, and the forcible eviction

from and demolition of Palestinian homes, towns and

cities. We find the recent attacks on Israeli

civilians unacceptable and abhorrent. But these should not and do not negate the human rights of the

Palestinian people.

As members of the University of California community, we believe that our university ought to use its influence - political and financial - to encourage the

United States government and the government of Israel to respect the human rights of the Palestinian people. We therefore call on the US government to make military aid and arms sales to Israel conditional on immediate initiation and rapid progress in

implementing the conditions listed below. We also call on the University of California to divest from Israel,

and from US companies that sell arms to Israel, until

these conditions are met:

1. Israel is in compliance with United Nations

Resolution 242 which notes the inadmissibility of the

acquisition of territory by war, and which calls for

withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from occupied

territories.

2. Israel is in compliance with the United Nations

Committee Against Torture 2001 Report which recommends that Israel's use of legal torture be ended.

3. In compliance with the Fourth Geneva Convention

("The occupying power shall not deport or transfer

parts of its own civilian population into territories

it occupies"; Article 49, paragraph 6), Israel ceases

building new settlements, and vacates existing

settlements, in the Occupied Territories.

4. Israel acknowledges in principle the applicability

of United Nations Resolution 194 with respect to the

rights of refugees, and accepts that refugees should

either be allowed to return to their former lands or

else be compensated for their losses, as agreed by the Palestinians and Israelis in bilateral negotiations.

SIGN THE PETITON AT WWW.UCDIVEST.ORG