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Welcome
to the campaign for University of Pennsylvania divestment
from arms corporations that conduct business with Israel
or any other human rights violator.
[*Disclaimer:
the University administration opposes our divestment
campaign, just as they shamefully opposed the campaign
for divestment from companies that profited from apartheid
South Africa.]
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(12.4.2002):
the petition, with an opening
statement calling on the University to re-establish
the Committee on University Responsibility, and
backed by hundreds of pages of documentation of
human rights abuses in the West Bank and Gaza,
has now been presented to President Rodin at the
University Council Open Forum. Our request was
supported by several members of the Open Forum.
President Rodin declined to comment throughout
the half-hour discussion.
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This
campaign was launched by a coalition of American and
Israeli Jewish, Palestinian, and other concerned students,
student groups, faculty, alumni, staff, and community
members on October 3rd, 2002.
This
campaign is inspired by the struggle of students and
faculty to force the University to divest from apartheid
South Africa. During that campaign, the University administration
delayed for nearly a decade before finally divesting
from companies that supported the racist apartheid system.
We deeply hope that the University administration will
not pursue the same shameful path this time around,
inevitably to give way in any case under the moral weight
of injustice that a place of learning should profit
from the violation of human rights.
We
unconditionally condemn the University's investment
in any and all companies that profit by providing arms
to regimes that are documented human rights violators.
We focus our petition on Israel because:
-
Israel has been shown to be in wide violation of human
rights by:
as well as by every other major international human
rights group in the world;
-Israel
is the largest recipient of U.S. military aid (more
than $46 billion
since 1950), which means US tax dollars are used to
purchase weapons systems that are used illegally in
the Occupied Palestinian Territories;
-The
University of Pennsylvania has significant holdings
in many of these same arms manufacturers.
We
unconditionally condemn the University's investment
in arms companies that support violations of human rights,
be such violations conducted by Israel, Egypt, Colombia,
Turkey, or any other party. This campaign will continue
until:
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The University proves that it no longer has holdings
or receives any form of profit from companies that are
proven providers of arms to human rights violators;
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The University adopts an investment policy that prohibits
its investment in any such companies;
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The University establishes a permanent committee or
other body responsible for ensuring that this policy
is effectively implemented.
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