A.S. Government Resources

Resolution in Support of Divestment for the Human Rights of the Palestinian People

WHEREAS, the California State University (CSU) understands that campuses do not exist in isolation from the world and should "provide public services that enrich the university and its communities¹;" and

WHEREAS, San Diego State University (SDSU) strives "to provide the basis for informed citizenship in a democracy²;" and

WHEREAS, SDSU promises students a campus that "promotes human dignity³;"and

WHEREAS, SDSU holds a "fundamental commitment to better enable the university to prepare all members of its community to promote social responsibility, equity, freedom, and productive citizenship in a global society⁴;" and

WHEREAS, the AS University Council serves "as the primary student representative body responsible for researching and developing the student perspective for University policy and advocacy of any and all relevant matters affecting University students on and/or off the campus⁵;" and

WHEREAS, students have a legacy of being at the forefront of the struggle against racism, oppression, and injustice in the United States and throughout the world; and

WHEREAS, Israeli state institutions' violations of human rights and international law have been recognized and condemned by the international community including the UN General Assembly in dozens of resolutions⁷; the UN Security Council; the International Court of Justice's 2004 Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory⁸; and the United Nations Human Rights Council's Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict⁹, among others; and

WHEREAS, Israeli state institutions' violations have been documented by human rights organizations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Al-Haq, Defense for Children International, Addameer, B'tselem, Adalah, Badil, and the Israeli Coalition Against Home Demolitions; and

WHEREAS,these ongoing human rights violations are recognized as including the establishment and expansion of settlements in the West Bank and Eastern Jerusalem and the exploitation of natural resources in the Occupied Palestinian Territories; both found to be illegal according to the UN General Assembly’s application of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and the creation and use of the Wall to divide Palestinian land; found to be illegal by the International Court of Justice (ICJ)¹¹; and

WHEREAS, certain companies have been complicit in many of the ongoing human rights violations systematically committed by Israeli state institutions as documented by the United Nation's "Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Since 1967" report¹⁴, WhoProfits¹⁵ and Human Rights Watch;¹⁶ and

WHEREAS, Human Rights Watch calls on companies that "contribute to and/or benefit from violations of Palestinian residents' human rights" to either end their involvement in such violations or end operations altogether, "where business activity directly contributes to serious violations of international law, including prohibitions against discrimination;"¹⁷ and

WHEREAS, our university invests in¹⁸, and thereby profits from some of these companies which have an active role in the human rights abuse and institutionalized structural violence against the Palestinian people, thereby making it a complicit third party; and

WHEREAS, the following illustrative and non-exhaustive list of companies, which the university invests in, knowingly and consistently plays a role in these human rights violations; and

WHEREAS, Boeing has been a major supplier of the F15 Eagle, A64 Apache attack helicopters, Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) and guided air-to-surface weapons to Israel; and

WHEREAS, Caterpillar has helped sustain the occupation by providing engineering, tools, and bulldozers to illegally destroy Palestinian homes, help expand illegal settlements, and assault refugee camps, namely Rafah and Jenin;¹⁹ and

WHEREAS, General Electric Company (GE) has been a complicit third party in the murder of Palestinian civilians by producing the engines of A64 Apache Helicopters and providing the Israeli military forces with these engines;²⁰ and

WHEREAS, Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) produced products have been directly used in restricting the freedom of movement of the Palestinian peoples within the West Bank by providing biometric systems for the checkpoints;²¹ and

WHEREAS, HP has also helped sustain the occupation by providing information technology (IT) based infrastructure for the Israeli military, which is tailored for the means of occupation, namely separation of Palestinian land and restriction of movement; and

WHEREAS, L-3 Communications is providing defense-related products, namely magnetometric scanners used in Israeli checkpoints; and

WHEREAS, according to Human Rights Watch, these checkpoints violate the right to freedom of movement, preventing Palestinians in the West Bank from reaching schools, hospitals and work;²² and

WHEREAS, Lockheed Martin is the single biggest overseas supplier for the Israeli armaments industry, receiving billions of dollars for supplying arms, including F16 fighter bombers, Hellfire missile systems and Merkava MK4 tanks used against Palestinians; and

WHEREAS, these armaments were used in Israel's assault on Gaza in 2008, during which more than 1400 Palestinians were killed; and

WHEREAS, Motorola Solutions has provided the Israeli military with surveillance, communication and fencing technology, used to enforce segregation and to serve the illegal settlements; and

WHEREAS, Raytheon has provided the Israeli government with guided missiles, which were used to bomb densely-populated civilian areas of Gaza during Operation Cast Lead in 2008 and again during Operation Pillar of Cloud in 2012; and

WHEREAS, the UN General Assembly has proclaimed 2014 the International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People; and

WHEREAS, continued investments in companies complicit in human rights violations may become a financially unsound practice because they are increasingly vulnerable to international criticism, boycott and divestment campaigns; and

WHEREAS, we the students, use this divestment strategy in order to fulfill our academic and human duty, to call upon our university to dissociate from any entity that is financially complicit with the systematic oppression and the violation of human rights within their methods for profit, whether this system targets people based on their, "sex, religion, national origin, ethnicity, color, age, gender, marital status, citizenship, sexual orientation, or disability²⁵;" therefore be it

RESOLVED, SDSU will further examine its assets and the CSU assets for funds being invested in any entity that supports any of Israel's violations of international law and human rights, including but not limited to: occupation, apartheid and ethnic cleansing; and further be it

RESOLVED, AS calls upon our university, the Campanile Foundation and the CSU Financing and Treasury to divest their holdings from all such complicit entities as mentioned above: Boeing, Caterpillar, General Electric Company, Hewlett-Packard Company, L-3 Communications, Lockheed Martin, Motorola Solutions, and Raytheon, at such time and in such manner as the trustees may determine; and further be it

RESOLVED, AS calls upon SDSU to advocate for the CSU to divest all stocks and securities of such entities with the goal of maintaining the divestment, in the case of said entities, until they cease these specific practices; and further be it

RESOLVED, AS calls upon SDSU to not make further investments, and to advocate that the CSU not make further investments, in any entities knowingly and consistently complicit in the aforementioned violations of international law and human rights by Israel; and finally be it

RESOLVED, this resolution is to be distributed widely including, but not limited to: SDSU President Elliot Hirshman, SDSU University Senate, the Campanile Foundation, the CSU Board of Trustees and CSU Chancellor Timothy White.

  

References

1. The Mission of the California State University: https://www.calstate.edu/PA/info/mission.shtml
2. San Diego State University Mission and Goal: https://newscenter.sdsu.edu/home/mission_and_goals.aspx
3. SDSU Mission & Goals 4.4
4. SDSU Mission & Goals 4.1
5. ASUC Purpose: https://as.sdsu.edu/govt2/resources/bylaws.php?bio=8
6. Students Bill of Rights and Bylaws, Section 29
7. United Nations Resolutions 237S, 250S&A 251A&S 252S, 256S&A, 259, 262, 265, 267, 270, 271, 279, 280, 285, 298, 313, 316, 317, 332, 347, 425, 427, 444, 446, 450, 452, 467-469, 471, 476, 478, 484, 487, 497, 498, 592, 641, 672, 673, 681, 694, 726, 799, etc.
8. International Court of Justice. Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. (http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/?p1=3&p2=4&k=5a&case=131&code=mwp&p3=4)
9. United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict. (http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/ SpecialSessions/Session9/Pages/FactFindingMission.aspx)
11. United Nations General Assembly. Illegal Israeli Actions in Occupied East Jerusalem and the Rest of the Occupied Palestinian Territory. (http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/index.php? pr=71&code=mwp&p1=3&p2=4&p3=6&ca)
12. Office of the Spokesperson. U.S. Policy on Israel Settlements. (http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/ 2011/06/166371.htm)
13. Congressional Research Service. U.S. Foreign Aid to Israel. 2009 (http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/ 134987.pdf)
14. United Nations Human Rights Council. Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Since 1967. http://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/5ba47a5c6cef541b802563e000493b8c/ e4965c3a265268f885257b800065dd55?OpenDocument
15. WhoProfits. (www.whoprofits.org)
16. Human Rights Watch. Human Rights in Israel/Palestine. http://www.hrw.org/middle-eastn-africa/israel-palestine
17. Human Rights Watch. Israel/West Bank: Separate and Unequal, 2010. (http://www.hrw.org/node/95059/section/3)
18. The Campanile Foundation. Fiscal Reports. (http://go.sdsu.edu/tcf/financials.aspx)
19. Human Rights Watch. Razing Rafah: Mass Home Demolitions in the Gaza Strip. (http://www.hrw.org/print/ reports/2004/10/17/razing-rafah)
20. World Policy Institute. Report: US Arms Transfers and Security Assistance to Israel. (http://www.worldpolicy.org/ projects/arms/reports/israel050602.html)
21. Who Profits. Technologies of Control: The Case of Hewlett Packard. (http://www.whoprofits.org/sites/default/ files/hp_report-_final_for_web.pdf)
22. Human Rights Watch. World Report 2012: Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. (http://www.hrw.org/ world-report-2012/world-report-2012-israeloccupied-palestinian-territories)
25. SDSU Non-Discrimination and Equal Opportunity