From: jesus475073@webtv.net   
      
   news:alt.discuss.clubs.public.alternative.misc.orwell99 Date: Fri, Sep   
   10, 2010, 10:44pm (EDT-3) From: orwell99@webtv.net (orwell99 veritas)   
      
   Los Angeles Launches Nation's First Israel Divestment Campaign   
   '   
   By Linda Milazzo   
   IDC Press Conference by Linda Milazzo   
   '   
   September 10, 2010   
   '   
   On April 1, 2010, in a no-holds-barred interview with the Christian   
   Science Monitor, Israeli peacemaker Jonathan Ben Artzi, a PhD candidate   
   at Brown University and nephew to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin   
   Netanyahu, made clear his belief that equality and social justice will   
   prevail in Israel when the government and people of the United States   
   adopt a no-tolerance stance toward Israel's abuse of Palestinians. Ben   
   Artzi, whose family has lived in the region for nine generations, and   
   who's seen a lifetime of Israel's abuse of Palestinians, declared:   
       "Sometimes it takes a good friend to tell you when enough is   
   enough. As they did with South Africa two decades ago, concerned   
   citizens across the US can make a difference by encouraging Washington   
   to get the message to Israel that this cannot continue." Jonathan's   
   reference to South Africa is a testament to the powerful roll played by   
   valiant Americans who participated in protests, boycotts and divestment   
   actions nationwide, most between 1984 and 1989, which ultimately forced   
   the white minority South African government to relinquish control over   
   its oppressed Black majority. Ben Artzi, a man of conscience and   
   compassion, served 18 months in prison for refusing his mandatory   
   service in Israel's military. Ben Artzi goes on to say:   
       "If Americans truly are our friends, they should shake us up   
   and take away the keys, because right now we are driving drunk, and   
   without this wake-up call, we will soon find ourselves in the ditch of   
   an undemocratic, doomed state."   
   This week, Jonathan Ben Artzi should be pleased to know that a concerned   
   and energized coalition of Americans has heeded the call to rescue out   
   of control Israel from driving deeper into its ditch. On Wednesday,   
   September 8th, at a noon press conference in Los Angeles in front of the   
   Israeli Consulate, the California Israel Divestment Campaign, a   
   culturally diverse group of compassionate Americans, announced the   
   launch of California ballot initiative 10-0020 to require public   
   employee systems to divest from certain business activities in Israel.   
   In its first official announcement, the California Israel Divestment   
   Campaign (IDC) delivered the following explanation:     "Although   
   California has adopted policies requiring divestment from Sudan, Iran   
   and other nations, this is the first ballot measure in the nation aimed   
   at changing Israeli policies through divestment by State agencies. It   
   directs California's large public employee and teacher pension funds to   
   be consistent with their responsible investing policies and to divest   
   from companies that violate the human rights of Palestinians.   
       The description provided by the office of the Attorney General   
   when it approved the measure for circulation says that the initiative   
   "prohibits state retirement funds from investing in companies engaged in   
   certain business activities in Israel."   
       According to Chris Yatooma, the official proponent of the   
   initiative, "Our government has done nothing to end Israel's brutal   
   occupation and violation of internationally recognized human rights, UN   
   Resolutions and the Geneva Conventions." In fact, as campaign organizer   
   Yael Korin, notes, "our tax dollars now help fund these violations of   
   human rights to the tune of more than $3 billion a year in grants,   
   adding up to a staggering $106 billion over the past five decades."   
       "California retirement funds have their own disturbing   
   record," said local campaign organizer Sherna Gluck, a member of the   
   Public Employee Retirement System (PERS). "Our public retirement systems   
   have more than $1.5 billion invested in at least eight companies that   
   provide war materials and services used in violation of internationally   
   recognized human rights, including support for the illegal Israeli   
   settlements and the "Separation Wall."   
   For over four decades, since the 1967 Six Day War, propagandized as a   
   victorious miracle on par with David v. Goliath, Americans have ingested   
   a distorted media diet of Israelis portrayed as victims and Palestinians   
   portrayed as villains. But with the launch of domestic and international   
   outlets for independent journalism and new media, the truth is now   
   accessible. More and more Americans have come to realize that Israelis   
   are the oppressors and Palestinians are the oppressed. In addition, more   
   and more Americans are learning that the relationship between the United   
   States and Israel is not really in America's best interests - a   
   previously untenable concept.   
   What is occurring as a result of Americans' new knowledge is their   
   widespread anger over being misled for so long. Many Americans, myself   
   included, feel a sense of guilt at being unwitting pawns in Israel's   
   forty year occupation and systematic torture, deprivation, and dare I   
   say, ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. Many Americans are further   
   incensed that our legislators have voted annually to award Israel, a   
   wealthy and thriving nation, 3 billion of our tax dollars to go directly   
   into its military.   
   Fortunately, there are ways to fight back against this tyranny in which   
   Americans have been unwitting pawns. The launch of the California Israel   
   Divestment Campaign is a powerful weapon to that end. Divestment worked   
   well in defeating apartheid in South Africa. Indeed, South Africa's own   
   Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a principal endorser of this new Israel   
   Divestment Campaign, said this of the campaign on August 22nd:       
   "We defeated apartheid nonviolently because the international community   
   agreed to support the disinvestment in apartheid campaign. A similar   
   campaign can help to bring peace in the Middle East and do so   
   nonviolently."   
   This much beloved Nobel Laureate is correct. As is Nobel Laureate and   
   Belfast peacemaker, Mairead Maguire, who is also an endorser. Each day   
   the momentum is building for this divestment campaign. The list of   
   individuals and organizations that support this effort which requires   
   the state public retirement funds (PERS and STRS) to divest from   
   companies that provide products or services contributing to the   
   construction or maintenance of Israeli settlements and/or the Separation   
   Wall in the Palestinian Territories; and/or military supplies, equipment   
   and services to the State of Israel that are used by the military and/or   
   police in violation of internationally recognized human rights, as   
   determined by the UN and NGOS is growing ever larger. And this is just   
   the beginning. This is the just the first launch in California. Similar   
   launches in other California cities are soon to come. Even though the   
      
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