Harvard University, US Corporations Sponsor Anti Israeli Panel

Informative comments
[From article]
My invitation to “Harvard Arab Weekend” promised to provide a “mosaic of perspectives and insights on the most pressing issues in the Arab world.” Many of the panels appeared worthy of the conference’s corporate support from McKinsey & Co, The Boston Consulting Group, Booz Allen Hamilton, Bank Audi, Strategy&, and the energy giant Shell. And yet featured prominently on the conference agenda was a panel devoted to the destruction of Israel: “The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement: Accomplishments, Tactics and Lessons.”
[. . .]
The panel’s moderator, Ahmed Alkhateeb, began by noting that a primary goal of the BDS movement is “promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties” in what is today Israel. As President Barack Obama pointed out in 2008, this goal stands in opposition to a “two state solution” and “would extinguish Israel as a Jewish State.” And in an op-ed published in Al Akhbar newspaper, Cal State professor As’ad AbuKhalil, an outspoken advocate of the BDS movement, affirmed that “the real aim of BDS is to bring down the state of Israel.” This is the “unambiguous goal…[and] there should not be an equivocation on the subject.”
[. . .]
Student organizers of the panel told me that Chomsky would provide the “anti-BDS” perspective, and he was introduced as the only voice on the panel to be critical of BDS “tactics.” But Chomsky would have none of it: “It’s interesting that I’m introduced as someone that has criticized BDS tactics; actually I have strongly advocated for BDS.”
Chomsky also encouraged anti-Israel activists to take a phased approach toward the annihilation of Israel as a Jewish state: “The one-state option is a good idea in the long run but there’s only one way that I can imagine we can reach it, and that’s in stages.”
[. . .]
Harvard administrators allowed an event promoting an end to the national existence of the Jewish people to take place under Harvard’s auspices;

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2014/11/18/harvard-bds-panel-support/

Reckless Sponsorship of Anti-Israelism
By SARA K. GREENBERG
November 18, 2014

Cambridge Resident Knows the Future

[An edited version of this letter was published online at the Cambridge Chronicle April 9, 2013

http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/news/x1148860548/LETTER-Cambridge-letter-writer-provides-no-evidence#axzz2PuOEx6sR


James Recht, MD, Harvard Medical School

Cambridge letter writer supports the City Council effort for the City pension fund to get "rid of stocks, bonds or investment funds that are unethical or that pose a threat to the health of ones community." He adds, "Fossil fuel investments are both." (James Recht, Letter, "Cambridge should end its fossil fuel investments, " Cambridge Chronicle, Apr 04, 2013) He provides no evidence of his claims beyond one article in Nature Magazine regarding global warming. The letter exhibits certainty of a zealot, not saying that the writer is one. The notion of ethics can be argued with less certainty against divestment. Most remarkable is his claim about the future worth of stocks and bonds of energy companies, citing one article. How does he know this? I thought only psychiatrists could predict the future.This citizen lacks understanding of how the City government works. The only power the City Council has is to hire and to fire the City Manager. Everything else is his only to decide allegedly based on law and the Constitution. With seven councilors supporting the City Manager at present it is unlikely that the Manager will do more than pretend to listen to the Council each week for their weekly TV performances.  

http://www.wickedlocal.com/cambridge/news/x1433807290/LETTER-Cambridge-should-end-its-fossil-fuel-investments?zc_p=0#axzz2Paa3PSHZ

LETTER: Cambridge should end its fossil fuel investments
Cambridge Chronicle
Posted Apr 04, 2013 @ 03:02 PM
James Recht, Walden Street

UC Berkeley and Israeli Divestment

story verified--from uc Berkley site---not passed yet---who knows may not happen but a 16-4 vote in favor by student government is scarry enough!!

Page One:
Opposing Groups Get Ready for UC Berkeley Israel Divestment Bill Showdown
By Riya Bhattacharjee
Friday April 09, 2010
Pro and anti-Israeli groups are getting ready for the UC Berkeley Israel divestment bill showdown Wednesday.

Student senators are expected to vote April 14 on whether to override their president’s veto on the bill, which encourages the university to stop investing in companies doing business with Israel.

The bill also ensures that no student senate funds are invested in the two companies—General Electric and United Technologies— who provide the Israeli military with weapons.

Although a 16-4 vote of the Associated Students of the University of California cleared the bill March 18, it was struck down by ASUC President Will Smelko a week later.

Smelko said he disagreed with the narrow focus of the bill. “No matter what I do, large groups of people are going to be very mad and upset..” he said.
Emily Carlton, one of the ASUC senators who voted for the bill, said that the senate bylaws allow the president to veto any bill passed by the senate, and the senate can then override it with a two-thirds vote.

“Clearly, the bylaws are flawed,” Carlton said. “However, I am not sure that this was foreseeable, since I don’t think the ASUC has ever faced such a controversial bill—at least not that I have heard about. Essentially, [Smelko] vetoed it on the basis of it being divisive of the student body, and said that the ASUC is not meant to divide people.”

The passage of the bill sparked immediate controversy, with opponents of the bill trying their best to dissuade the ASUC to change its mind through letters and e-mail campaigns.

While the bill is titled “UC Divestment From War Crimes,” it focuses on the Middle East conflict and decries human rights violations by the Israeli Army in Gaza and the West Bank.

Its critics have denounced the singling out of Israel as unfair, anti-Jewish, and even anti-Semitic, given that war crimes and human rights violations take place in other countries as