While progress in bringing freedom and peace to Palestine has been painfully slow, the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement continues to gain supporters both in the U.S. and abroad.

Economic pressure from campuses and other organizations helped bring about the end of the former apartheid state in South Africa and many analysts agree that it is an effective way for effecting change in Palestine.

In 2009, Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, became the first U.S. educational institution to divest from companies with direct involvement in the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

The decision to divest was spurred on by students and eventually put into action by the Board of Trustees, and now the hope at many college campuses is that their boards will follow similar recommendations presented by student governments.

One such campus is the University of California-Berkeley, one of the most prominent public research universities in the United States according to many analysts.

UC-Berkeley’s student senate approved a bill last Thursday, March 18 by a vote of 16-4 encouraging divestment from General Electric and United Technologies, both of which produce military items for the Israeli military according to the divestment resolution. The bill also sought to create a task force for exploring other aspects of a more socially responsible investment policy.

Despite the landmark passage, the bill was vetoed by Associated Students of the University of California President Will Smelko.

Smelko told the Daily Californian newspaper that it was one of the most difficult decisions he had to make and said that the bill did not adequately outline a specific divestment strategy.

The Cal Students for Justice in Palestine (CSPJ) organization, however, said they plan to fight the veto in a statement while also saying that Smelko was not present at a six-hour student debate on the divestment subject.

CSPJ cited the over 1,000 e-mails sent to Smelko opposing the veto as a show of support for the resolution and encouraged more; his e-mail address is president@asuc.org. The CSPJ Web site is located at //calsjp.org/.

The group expects a Senate vote in the next few weeks to override the veto as only 14 votes are needed and 16 were cast for the original resolution.

The statement also talked about the importance of the BDS movement in general.

“Beyond this, there is much to do in the broader public. This movement is not just about a victory for divestment at UC-Berkeley. Rather it is more fundamentally about spreading divestment and the notion that all nations and corporations, including sacred cows like Israel, must be held to account for their gross violations of human rights, and that all people, Palestinians included, are deserving of basic human rights such as rights to life, property, freedom of movement, and a right to an education.

“Spread divestment to your church, your synagogue, your mosque, to other schools, to other institutions. And speak up in the press. Write a letter to the editor or an op-ed. (Let) the media know about the success at Berkeley and the successes to come.”

Similar measures recommending divestment from companies that provide military support for Israel have also been passed during the 2009-2010 school year by the University of Michigan-Dearborn, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom. Wayne State University’s student council has also voted for total divestment from Israeli military suppliers in the past.

Local Gaza activist arrested by Israeli authorities, released

Detroit-born University of Michigan graduate and co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement Huwaida Arraf was arrested in Nabi Saleh, a small village of about 400 people in the West Bank, by Israeli soldiers after attempting to get their attention to help wounded ISM activist Ellen Stark, who was shot at point blank range with a rubber bullet.

ISM Co-Founder Huwaida Arraf was held for 31 hours in Israel before being released.

The protest was part of a series of demonstrations that took place in the West Bank over the weekend.
Arraf said she was held outside for eight hours in the cold in what she called the illegal settlement of Halamish in the West Bank and was subject to verbal and physical abuse.

After being held for about 31 hours, Arraf said she was released at 6:45 pm on Saturday, March 20 from Neve Tirtze Prison in Ramle, Israel.

Arraf said an ISM lawyer told her the arrest was illegal and that she should have been taken to court the same day she was arrested, a right granted to internationals and Israeli citizens but not to Palestinians.

No charges will be filed against Arraf, who said she was initially accused of attacking a police officer, cursing at the military and police, obstructing the operations of the military, and being in a closed military zone.

Stark, the ISM volunteer who was shot in the arm, has a broken wrist but Arraf said she is expected to recover.