Letter to UC Berkeley Student Senate from Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb

April 8, 2010 Dear friends: I am writing in support of the ASUC Senate's bill calling for divestment of ASUC assets from General Electric and United Technologies "because of their military support of the occupation of Palestinian territories."  I have been involved in Palestinian and Israeli conflict transformation work for the past 40 years during which time I have witnessed various formulations of the peace process come and go including Madrid and Oslo, Camp David, the Beruit Summit, the Road Map, the Saudi Peace Plan, the Geneva Accord, the Peace Valley Plan, and various cease fires, summits and declarations. I have also been an eye witness to victims of horrific violence on both sides. The loss of even one life is a matter of profound mourning for every family. May everyone who has lost a love one be in our prayers. In light of the incontrovertible evidence of the Goldstone Report, the break down of the latest effort at 'talks', the siege of Gaza, the ongoing appropriation of West Bank land and the forced removal of Palestinians from East Jerusalem which can be considered 'ethnic cleansing', I believe we have arrived at a new place in the struggle for a possible two-state solution. I believe, for all of us who still hold out hope in a future that embraces the full humanity of two peoples sharing the land, the time has come to initiate a global movement for boycott and divestment of all institutions and corporations which profit from violence of illegal occupation of Palestinian people and lands. Profiting from the fruits of violence is not kosher. Lest we forget, the government of Israel is sustaining a policy of forced displacement, humanitarian blockade, air strikes and use of deadly weapons on civilian populations,  torture, beating and sexual humiliation, arbitrary arrest and administrative detention of minors and adults, water and land theft, Jewish only roads, hundreds of military checkpoints, security fences, nightly incursions, human shields, collaborators, deportation, permit systems, denial of access to economic opportunity, health care, culture and education, military targeting of sewage and electricity plants and water installations, uprooting of tens of thousands of trees and the destruction of thousands of homes. How can we conduct business as usual in the face of the overwhelming abuse of human rights? Only a universal standard for human rights can ensure long lasting security for people trapped in zones of conflict. Boycott and divestment support a universal human rights standard and are a concrete action that we, as citizens concerned with the future of families and children in Palestine and Israel can adopt. It takes tremendous courage to take such a stance. Thank you. You are standing in partnership with Jews, Muslims, Christians, Israelis and Palestinians and others around the world who are working for a nonviolent solution that affirms the dignity, security and well-being of everyone residing in Israel and Palestine. Only through such a global and sustained partnership will we cultivate a truly viable movement that makes support for the occupation so distasteful to those who profit  from it, that Israel will be forced to end the occupation and negotiate a just and mutually agreed upon peace. L'shalom, Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb Advisory board member of Jewish Voice for Peace Cofounder of Shomer Shalom Network for Jewish Nonviolence