Click on that front page, to enlarge it.
Yes, that was the front-page banner headline, April 22, 2003, on the Wayne State University "South End" newspaper.
The Wayne State University Student Council voted to divest, to get rid of, all investments in Apartheid Israel.
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"Wayne State University Divestment Resolution, approved by Student Council"
You can click on this front page, too, to enlarge it.
It filled up the entire front page of the Dearborn, Michigan newspaper, "The Arab American News".
You can also see the full Divestment Resolution text below, exactly as it was approved:
Text of Wayne State University's Student Council Divestment Resolution:
Approved on April 17, 2003,
Detroit, Michigan.
This Resolution is on the Web at:
http://www.inminds.co.uk/boycott-news-0376.html
"WHEREAS, the Student Council of Wayne State University has grave misgivings about financing violent ethnic cleansing, racially directed against millions of occupied Palestinian civilians, who are both innocent and helpless,
"WHEREAS, those millions of Palestinians suffer long-term malnutrition, are surrounded by Israeli army bulldozers, tanks, soldiers, and by jet bombers, all of which have killed thousands of occupied Palestinians,
"WHEREAS, on Sunday, March 16, 2003, an American college student, Rachel Corrie, was killed in plain sight, while dressed in bright orange, while waving, and while shouting at an Israeli Army bulldozer through a megaphone, by that same Israeli Army bulldozer, in the Occupied Gaza Strip,
"WHEREAS, that Israeli Army bulldozer ran her over twice,
"WHEREAS, South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu has urged us all to divest from Israel due to its violent and humiliating apartheid policies,
"WHEREAS, Israel was a long-time, close ally of White Apartheid South Africa,
"WHEREAS, the Wayne State University Board of Governors ("the Board") has knowledge of University investments, including what governments our University is paying taxes to by means of investment, and has the authority to seek such information from its fund managers,
"THEREFORE IT IS RESOLVED, that we ask the Board to immediately divest (dis-invest) our university from Israel,
"THEREFORE IT IS FURTHER RESOLVED, that we ask the Board for a report this semester, on its progress in divesting the University from its investments in Israel, including divestment from all companies doing business in Israel, and divestment from all stocks and pension funds which include those companies."
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"So much for the Middle East's only 'democracy' "
by Students movement for Justice
Contributing Columnists
Published in "THE SOUTH END"
Wayne State University
Detroit, Michigan
October 29, 2002
Last Thursday at a literature table in the Student Center, Students' Movement for Justice handed out literature fliers, solidarity with Palestine pins, and other information pertinent to the activism it has brought to campus since its establishment at the beginning of this semester.
Its organizers displayed a large Palestinian flag, and some of the banners used at the rallies they held on Oct. 1 and 14 for the struggles in Palestine and Iraq, respectively. While many members of the university and the Detroit community expressed a great deal of interest and support for SMJ's goals, the feedback wasn't positive all day long.
Around 5:20 p.m., two women stood in front of the table, looking at the posters with disapproval on their faces. A SMJ member decided to go over and talk to them. She noticed they were speaking to each other in a language other than English, so she extended her hand to greet one of them and said "Hi. How are you? Where are you from?" The woman replied "I'm Jewish, and I'm going to kill you for doing this."
We wish some of the most passionate people who support Palestine were there at the time to reply to her. We are talking about the many Jews who show rare compassion for the Palestinians and who are ashamed of what is being done by the Israeli government in their name. The examples of these people are countless, and the SMJ is proud to have such Jews among its membership.
While we would like to think that the attitude, which was expressed by this uncivilized remark is not representative of Zionists, evidence tends to show otherwise. Only a few weeks ago did the Michigan Students Zionists sue the University of Michigan for allowing a conference on Palestine to take place on its campus. In a witty editorial, Ari Paul, a Jewish student at U of M, expressed his utter shame from what the group had done in the name of Judaism. Paul considered the lawsuit "a horrible disservice" to the Jews its initiators supposedly represent.
Imagine if any student on campus, Arab or other, had said to a Zionist "I'm Arab/Muslim/Latino/White/African/Asian-American and I'm going to kill you for doing this." They automatically would have been labeled "anti-Semitic" and may have faced criminal charges for such a threat.
If Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East, as its supporters so passionately try to remind the rest of us, it may want to at least pretend it is. If Zionists on this campus are going to claim that the SMJ's posters went beyond free speech by inciting anti-Semitic violence (as was claimed by the Zionists at U of M about the conference), it seemed to have incited only Zionist verbal violence against the group itself. Other Jewish faculty and students came and showed their support as well.
Unless Zionists are somehow more Semitic than pro-Palestine Jews, why do they have a problem with one of the most fundamental rights a democracy is supposed to offer?
While non-Jews in Israel are forbidden the right to protest, among endless other rights, it is a Constitution-protected right in this country and will be exercised for the sake of justice by every human of conscience, despite Zionists' childish, self-contradicting statements.
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