[mgj-discuss] Berkeley Rejects Mideast Boycott Measure

[Dan Beeton]

I hope this is not too serious of a set-back for the SUSTAIN campaign... I
was remnided again of yet more reasons to boycott/denounce/despise the state
of Israel as a Burmese colleague told me about the extensive training of
Burmese intelligence agents in Israel.

I'm sure if the apartheid regime had such a powerful connection to the US
government and had the media in their back-pocket like Israel does that the
anti-apartheid movement would have met responses like "it's not clear what
the goal is" and that it's "pseudo-fairness".

-Dan


Published on Wednesday, April 24, 2002 in the San Francisco Chronicle
Berkeley Rejects Mideast Boycott Measure
by Charles Burress

Besieged by protests, the Berkeley City Council ducked out of the Middle
East conflict last night when it rejected a proposed boycott of firms doing
business with Israel and Palestinians.

The proceedings were sometimes drowned out by the cheers, shouts and
singing of dozens of pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrators gathered
on the steps of City Hall. The council chambers and interior hallway were
closed by police after they became filled.

The intensely watched measure carried symbolic importance in the activist
city, which played a pioneering role in the divestment movement that helped
topple South African apartheid.

Last night's Middle East proposal would have outlawed city contracts and
investments with firms "who do business in or with Israel and Palestine
until the United Nations declares that peace has been restored." It also
called for a boycott of products produced in Israel and the Palestinian
areas.

Berkeley Mayor Shirley Dean said she had received hundreds of e-mails on
the issue, running "99 to 1" against the proposal.

"While it purports to be even-handed, it clearly is aimed at Israel," said
Dean, a member of the council's centrist-liberal minority.

The proposal came with a long list of firms with investments in Israel and
none that are tied to the Palestinians, she said.

Six of the eight speakers who addressed the issue during the public comment
period condemned the measure as anti-Israeli.

"If you genuinely care for peace, this is not the way to go," said
University of California student Micki Weinberg. "This is a boycott against
Israel."

One of the two speakers who did not share those views was Dena Al-Adeeb of
the Women of Color Resource Center. She said that Israel had "reoccupied
Palestine" and that the Israeli army has massacred residents of the Jenin
refugee camp. "We need to divest from Israel until U.N. resolutions are
respected and followed," she said.

More than 100 e-mails were sent to the council at the last-minute, and the
overwhelming majority seemed opposed to the measure.

Councilman Kriss Worthington, who belongs to the left-leaning faction on
the politically divided council, told The Chronicle that the proposal
"gives the appearance of trying to be fair" but in fact amounts to
"pseudo-fairness."

The effort is not like the anti-apartheid movement, he said, because it
doesn't have a clear demand, like the end of apartheid, and lacks analysis
of what the problem is.

The resolution was proposed by the city's Peace and Justice Commission in a
resolution that said, in part: "Money talks. Many will abandon their
support of Israel if their economic interests are threatened."

The resolution said boycotts and divestment campaigns were used also as
"educational tools."

©2002 San Francisco Chronicle


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