The Progressive Student Action Front in Gaza Palestine, issued the following statement to the students of the University of California – Berkeley in the United States, where their university’s student government was considering a bill on April 28, 2010 to call upon the university to divest its holdings in two arms manufacturers that sell weapons to Israel for its use in war crimes against the Palestinian people. Though the bill passed by a strong majority (16-4), under major Zionist pressure, the Student government president vetoed the bill, and a massive counter-effort was unable to overturn the veto (the final vote was 13-5-1, and 14 votes were required for overturn.) However, hundreds of Palestinian students and their supporters marched from the student government hall at Berkeley, pledging to continue the struggle to isolate the Israeli regime and its war crimes:
To: Student Government Senators at the University of California – Berkeley, USA
and progressive activists…
We greet you with a tribute of respect and appreciation from Palestinian students living under siege and daily experiencing the brutality of the Zionist war machine – a war machine manufactured by companies that are supported and invested in by American and European universities and institutions.
We in the Progressive Student Action Front have closely followed the development of the boycott campaigns in the academic world against the racist Zionist state, which violates the most basic human rights, enshrined in all international laws, the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law, dozens of times on a daily basis.
This boycott campaign, which has extended today to reach one of the most prominent American universities, is an important step for free and democratic peoples and the international student community to exercise their role to help stop human rights violations, killing and siege, carried out by the Zionist Government.
The Progressive Student Action Front calls to you to confront the arrogant demands of Zionism and refuse to succumb to the pressures of the Zionist lobby. Since the beginnings of the academic boycott campaigns in Europe and the United States of America, the lobby has launched great pressures against those who take bold and courageous decisions, attempted to minimize their impact, revealing that the Israeli government is becoming disturbed by this international conscientious stan.
We hope that you will continue to raise your voices as students in the interests of a just cause, and in support of your brothers and sisters in humanity, your fellow students at Palestinian universities. Your stance is an act of courage against the policies of ethnic cleansing and brutality pursued by Israel against the Palestinian people.
When you return to the Senate next Wednesday and vote for the divestment of your university from corporations manufacturing weapons, such as the F-16, used by Israel against unarmed civilians in scenes broadcast around the world through satellite channels and the daily news, you are taking a very important step toward isolation and renunciation of a state of occupation and injustice, and support for our rights as Palestinians. We only have our will and our hope, alongside your voices, to struggle to gain our freedom and achieve our legitimate rights.
Long live international student solidarity, and the just cause of freedom of the Palestinian people! Victory will come!
Progressive Student Action Front
Gaza – Palestine
