

Packed house at Anna Head Alumnae Hall UCBerkeley for Senate divestment hearing

Huge news. A victory for the BDS movement, in Berkeley, at 8:30 a.m. today EST.

THE DIVESTMENT BILL PASSES! #UCBDivest — Berkeley SJP (@BerkeleySJP) April 18, 2013

Reported by the Daily Californian, Jeremy Gordon:

In a dramatic vote that was emotional for all sides, the ASUC [Associated Students at the University of California] Senate voted 11-9 to divest from companies affiliated with Israel’s military early Thursday morning. The heated debate began Wednesday evening and carried on for 10 hours, continuing into Thursday. Anna Head Alumnae Hall overflowed with hundreds of UC Berkeley students, faculty and community members engaging in a contentious debate regarding the bill, SB 160. SB 160, authored by Student Action Senator George Kadifa, calls the UC system a “complicit third party” in Israel’s “illegal occupation and ensuing human rights abuses” and seeks the divestment of more than $14 million in ASUC and UC assets from Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard and Cement Roadstone Holdings… The final vote, which occurred just before 5:30 a.m., was met with cheering, stomping and cries of joy by supporters of the bill. Independent Senator and bill co-sponsor Sadia Saifuddin said she saw the vote as the culmination of years of struggle. “Tonight is not about corporations,” she said. “It’s about asking ourselves before we go to sleep whether our money is going toward the destruction of homes, toward the erection of a wall. I am a working student. And I don’t want one cent of my money to go toward fueling the occupation of my brothers and sisters.” But across the aisle, opponents of divestment were silent, absorbing the defeat with dismay.

In 2010 the UCal Senate passed a similar motion but it was then vetoed by the school government president, and the Senate failed to override the veto.

Today, congratulations poured in from around the world:

Respect to all folks who made #ucbdivest pass! Well done & hope all universities divest from companies complicit in Israeli crimes! — Abir Kopty(@AbirKopty) April 18, 2013

Years of hard work and resilience have culminated in this proud moment. Utmost congrats go to the comrades in @berkeleysjp. #ucbdivest #BDS — Hoda Mitwally هدهد (@hodamitwally) April 18, 2013

It took so long because pro Israel senators kept trying to amend the bill by watering it down/whitewashing, or insisting on a commitment to a Jewish state; and those efforts kept failing.

Anti-human rights crowd at UC Berk really going hard after this 2 states business as a wedge issue. #ucbdivest — Palestine Today (@PalestineToday) April 18, 2013

#ucbdivest amendment to add Jewish and Palestinian states side by side…..fails! — UCB Divest (@ucbdivest) April 18, 2013

Twitter hashtag # UCBdivest reflected the mood of the crowd:

Why are we talking about statehood? This bill literally does nothing for/against Israeli/Palestinian statehood. #ucbdivest — Sarah Rahimi (@ImSarahTho) April 18, 2013

Senator Nolan Pack cuts to the quick:

“Y’all can stay here but were moving forward and you can choose to stay or join us” — Nolan Pack, sweet angel of the night #UCBDivest — Berkeley SJP (@BerkeleySJP) April 18, 2013

Here is the divestment bill as drafted by the Berkeley student government, and the key provisions:

LET IT BE RESOLVED, that the ASUC [Associated Students at the University of California] will examine its assets and UC assets for funds being invested in companies that a) provide weaponry or other military support for the occupation of the Palestinian territories or b) facilitate the building or maintenance of the wall or the demolition of Palestinian homes, or c) facilitate the building, maintenance, or economic development of illegal Israeli settlements on the Occupied Palestinian Territory; LET IT FURTHER BE RESOLVED, that if at any time it is found that campus or UC funds are being invested in any companies meeting any of these criteria, including Caterpillar, Cement Roadstone Holdings, and Hewlett Packard Company, the ASUC will itself divest, and will advocate that the UC system divest all stocks and investments in such companies with the goal of maintaining the divestment, in the case of said companies, until they cease the specific offending practices; moreover, the ASUC will not make further investments, and will advocate that the UC system not make further investments, in any companies materially supporting or profiting from Israel’s occupation in the above-mentioned ways, until a point in time at which they cease such practices;

Oh and there’s this sadness in the Daily Californian coverage; we doubt it’s representative:

Many members of the Jewish community decried SB 160’s targeted divestment from Israel as choosing one side of the conflict at the expense of the other when suffering has occurred on both.

The student paper ran a pro-divestment piece ahead of time by the Organization of African Students. And this anti-divestment piece by an editor of the Berkeley Jewish Journal.

This has been a long time coming. Who could forget AIPAC openly threatening to take over the UC Berkeley’s student senate to block this bill back in 2010? It’s always only been a matter of time at UCBerkeley until divestment prevailed again.