In today's inbox:
>>>>>
Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) has been
suspended as an
organization by Berkeley University. The
university is also considering
banning the SJP and suspending individual members
for one year. Below is an
urgent appeal being circulated, on behalf of the
SJP in Berkeley.
--Lance
-----------------------------------
URGENT APPEAL from Students for Justice in
Palestine
-- UC Berkeley
Date: 4/23/02 5:11:07 PM Pacific Daylight Time
From: snehal100@hotmail.com (Snehal Shingavi)
*** PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY ***
Dear friends:
As you may have heard, Students for Justice in
Palestine at UC Berkeley
helped to plan and organize a demonstration on
April 9th, 2002 in solidarity
with the Palestinian people and to demand that
the University of California
divest from all of its assets connected to Israel
and the Israeli military.
More than 1200 students participated in this
rally and demonstration one
of the most exciting events on Berkeley this
semester.
During the course of the demonstration, students
and community members also
took part in a non-violent sit-in in Wheeler
Hall. Seventy-nine people were
arrested for sitting-in. All face criminal
charges; students will face
student conduct charges. A few of the students
may also face suspension for
up to one year, according to the Office of
Student Life at Berkeley.
Furthermore, as a consequence of organizing the
demonstration and sit-in,
the University of California at Berkeley has
decided to suspend Students for
Justice in Palestine (SJP) as an organization on
campus pending an
investigation. This means, that as long as the
investigation continues, SJP
is functionally barred from holding events on
campus, tabling, distributing
literature, and organizing. It could also
potentially mean that SJP may be
banned as a student organization at Berkeley.
Please note, that while the
University of California is ³investigating² and
³only considering²
suspension, these measures are a prelude to worse
sanctions, not to mention
only applied to SJP (even though many student
groups have participated in
and conducted civil disobedience on campus).
These actions against SJP are unique and
unjustified. No other student
group that has participated in non-violent civil
disobedience has been
suspended and no students have faced charges of
this severity in the past
several years at UC Berkeley. We believe that
this is a systematic attempt
to silence pro-Palestinian voices on campus and
to intimidate students from
being activists.
In fact, the policy that makes SJP subject to
these charges (the
Chancellor¹s so-called ²zero tolerance² policy)
was implemented only a few
days before the protest, specifically to make SJP
subject to higher
standards and harsher consequences.
It is also an attempt to attack one of the
strongest pro-Palestinian student
organizations in the country in order to make it
easier to attack other
pro-Palestinian students organizations across the
country.
We need your help.
Please take a few moments and write to the
Chancellor and the Student
Judicial Affairs Office (addresses and phone
information below) and tell
them that you believe that these penalties are
unwarranted and unjust.
Especially at Berkeley, where there are memorials
to Free Speech movement of
the 1960s all over campus (the Mario Savio steps
and the Free Speech
Movement Café), these kinds of attacks on free
speech and civil disobedience
are not only an attempt to roll-back the activist
gains won on this campus,
but also in defiance of the university¹s mission
to promote free speech and
debate.
We have included some talking points below that
you may want to include in
your conversation or correspondence with the
administration at UC Berkeley.
Please do email us at
justiceinpalestine@hotmail.com with any
correspondence
that you send so that we can keep a record of the
letters that the
administration receives.
We urgently need your help. Please lend your
support to pro-Palestinian
student activists and activists who are fighting
for social justice by
letting the administration know that their
actions are not supported by
members of the community, students, alumni,
faculty, and staff.
Sincerely, Students for Justice in Palestine at
UC Berkeley
justiceinpalestine@hotmail.com
Please contact:
Chancellor Robert Berdahl
MAIL: 200 California Hall #1500
Berkeley, CA 94720-1500
TEL: (510) 642-7464
FAX: (510) 643-5499
Assistant Chancellor John Cummins
EMAIL: jcummins@uclink4.berkeley.edu
MAIL: Office of the Chancellor
200 California Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720-1500
TEL: (510) 642-7516 FAX: (510) 643-5499
Vice Chancellor Genaro Padilla
EMAIL: gpadilla@uclink4.berkeley.edu
MAIL: Undergraduate Affairs
130 California Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720-1504
TEL: (510) 642-6727
Student Judicial Affairs Officer Rajmaira
EMAIL: osc@uclink4.berkeley.edu
326 Sproul Hall
Berkeley, CA 94720
TEL 510) 643-9069
FAX510) 643-3133
TALKING POINTS
1) Students should not face charges or
suspension for participating in
non-violent civil disobedience.
2) Activists should be allowed, freely, to speak
and protest on campus
without harassment from the University or its
officers.
3) Pro-Palestinian groups are unfairly targeted
for higher sanctions, a
reflection of the bias in the way that the
administration hands out
sanctions.
4) Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) is a
non-violent organization
that promotes education and activism and should
be allowed to organize on
campus.
5) Student activists fought for the right to
organize on this campus in the
1960s and should be allowed to continue to
organize.
6) The University of California should divest
from all its holdings in
Israel and the Israeli military.
7) Sit-ins and protests are not opposed to
the academic mission of the
University of California, in fact, they enhance
the education received at Berkeley.
<<<<< |
