UC Riverside Reverse Divestment Resolution Against Israel

Summary of Article: On March 6, 2013, UC Riverside Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) led a successful campaign, convincing student senators to vote to divest from companies that do business in Israel. Just this week, the same senate reversed their vote and decided not to divest. What changed? The first time around, SJP students were given a week to prepare their divestment presentations. Pro-Israel students were only notified of the bill 20 hours beforehand. This time, pro-Israel students were prepared and informed to show the holes in SJP's resolution. For instance:

Here's Philippe Assouline's assessment of what occurred (reprinted with permission): 

"...When alluding to Palestinian statelessness, the senators were not told that Arab leadership rejected UN proposals to partition the British Mandate into a Jewish state the first-ever state of Palestine in 1947. References to "occupation" did not mention that Arab states illegally occupied the West Bank and Gaza from 1948 to 1967 (and then rejected Israeli offers of withdrawal for peace). There was in the SJP's words no acknowledgment that Palestinian governments were first put into place by Israel, and that if Israel still exercises security control over much of the West Bank today it is in large part because those governments rejected Israeli offers of withdrawal in 2000, 2001 and 2008. And there was, predictably, complete silence from the SJP regarding the fact that if Palestinians in the West Bank today live under different laws than Israeli citizens it is because they live under Palestinian laws and elected leaders, i.e., what they fought for."

Discussion with Kids:

• Relay the above information. 
• Discuss how it is important to be informed and to correct misinformation
• Discuss how it is important as a student to stand up for Israel because it can make a big difference. (Also an opportunity to discuss student activism in general). 
• If you were a student at UC Riverside and heard that Israel needed your help, what would you do?