MIT/Harvard divestment petition

[Mark Pavlick]

>
>  > >>From: Ken Nakayama <ken at wjh.harvard.edu>
>>  >>Subject: Israel, Palestine and the United States
>>  >>
>>  >>Dear Colleagues,
>>  >>
>>  >>A few of us who are professors at MIT and Harvard feel we can no longer
>>  >>remain silent while Israel supported by the US continues its occupation
>>  >>in the West Bank and Gaza.  Our goal is to pressure Israel to comply with
>>  >>international conventions of human rights.  As such:
>>  >>
>>  >>1) We have written a divestment petition, based on one adopted at
>>  >>Princeton, asking for Harvard and MIT to withdraw investments from
>>  >>companies that do business with Israel. So far, over forty faculty from
>>  >>MIT and Harvard have signed this petition (see below).  If you are
>>  >>interested in signing the petition, go to the website listed below.
>>  >>
>>  >>2) We are organizing a teach-in to be held on May 6, 2002.   Speakers
>>  >>committed so far are Noam Chomsky,  MIT;  Sara Roy, the Center for Middle
>>  >>Eastern Studies at Harvard,  and Yosef Grodzinsky, Tel Aviv University ;
>>  >>and Ra'ef Zreif, Harvard Law School. (for details, see website below)
>>  >>
>>  >>
>>  >>3)  We have created a
>>  >>website
>>  >><<http://www.harvardmitdivest.org>http://www.harvardmitdivest.org><http://www.harvardmitdivest.org>http://www.harvardmitdivest.org
>>  >>with the
>>  >>purpose of encouraging an open and critical discussion of the Israeli
>>  >>occupation and US support thereof, highlighting local events and other
>>  >>sources of information about the current crisis, how it arose, and how it
>>  >>might be resolved.
>>  >>
>>  >>Sincerely,
>>  >>
>>  >>Patrick Cavanagh, Department of Psychology, Harvard University
>>  >>Nancy Kanwisher,  Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT
>>  >>Ken Nakayama, Department of Psychology, Harvard University
>>  >>Mary Potter, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT
>>  >>
>>  >>Here is the Petition:
>>  >>
>>  >>We, the undersigned are appalled by the human rights abuses against
>>  >>Palestinians at the hands of the Israeli government, the continual
>>  >>military occupation and colonization of Palestinian territory by Israeli
>>  >>armed forces and  settlers, and the forcible eviction from and demolition
>>  >>of Palestinian homes, towns and cities. We find the recent attacks on
>>  >>Israeli citizens unacceptable and abhorrent. But these should not and do
>>  >>not negate the human rights of the Palestinians.
>>  >>
>>  >>As members of the MIT and Harvard University communities, we believe that
>>  >>our universities ought to use their  influence - political and financial
>>  >>- to encourage the United States government and the government of Israel
>>  >>to  respect the human rights of the Palestinians. We therefore call on
>>  >>the US government to make military aid and arms sales to Israel
>>  >>conditional on immediate initiation and rapid progress in implementing
>>  >>the conditions listed below. We also call on MIT and Harvard to divest
>>  >>from Israel, and from US companies that sell arms to Israel, until
>>  >>these   conditions are met:
>>  >>
>>  >>Israel is in compliance with United Nations Resolution 242 which notes
>>  >>the inadmissibility of the  acquisition of territory by war, and which
>>  >>calls for withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from occupied territories.
>>  >>
>>  >>Israel is in compliance with the United Nations Committee Against Torture
>>  >>2001 Report which recommends that Israel's use of legal torture be ended.
>>  >>
>>  >>In compliance with the Fourth Geneva Convention ("The occupying power
>>  >>shall not deport or   transfer parts of its own civilian population into
>>  >>territories it occupies"; Article 49, paragraph 6), Israel ceases
>>  >>building new settlements, and vacates existing settlements, in the
>>  >>Occupied   Territories.
>>  >>
>>  >>Israel acknowledges in principle the applicability of United Nations
>>  >>Resolution 194 with respect to  the rights of refugees, and accepts that
>>  >>refugees should either be allowed to return to their former lands or else
>>  >>be compensated for their losses, as agreed by the Palestinians and
>  > >>Israelis in bilateral  negotiations.
>>  >>
>>  >>Signatures so far:
>>  >>
>>  >>MIT Faculty (32)
>>  >>Sylvain Bromberger, Linguistics and Philosophy
>>  >>Noam Chomsky, Linguistics and Philosophy
>>  >>Joshua Cohen, Political Science
>>  >>Suzanne Corkin, Brain and Cognitive Sciences
>>  >>Michel DeGraff, Linguistics and Philosophy
>>  >>Danny Fox, Linguistics and Philosophy
>>  >>Ted Gibson, Brain and Cognitive Sciences
>>  >>Hugh Gusterson, Science, Technology, and Society.
>>  >>Morris Halle, Linguistics and Philosophy
>>  >>Sally Haslanger, Linguistics and Philosophy
>>  >>Irene Heim, Linguistics and Philosophy
>>  >>Diana Henderson, Literature
>>  >>Jean Jackson, Anthropology
>>  >>Louis Kampf, Professor of Literature Emeritus
>>  >>Nancy Kanwisher, Brain and Cognitive Sciences
>>  >>Mujid Kazimi, Nuclear Engineering
>>  >>Evelyn Fox Keller, Science, Technology, and Society
>>  >>Jonathon King, Biology
>>  >>Utpal Lahiri, visiting faculty member, Linguistics and Philosophy
>>  >>Alec Marantz, Linguistics and Philosophy
>>  >>Wayne O'Neil, Linguistics and Philosophy
>>  >>Jon Nissenbaum, lecturer, Linguistics
>>  >>Ruth Perry, Literature
>>  >>David Pesetsky, Linguistics and Philosophy
>>  >>Mary Potter, Brain and Cognitive Sciences
>>  >>Susan Slyomovics, Anthropology
>>  >>Abha Sur, Lecturer, Urban Studies and Planning
>>  >>Mriganka Sur, Brain and Cognitive Sciences
>>  >>Ken Wexler, Brain and Cognitive Sciences
>>  >>Elizabeth A. Wood, History
>>  >>Stephen Yablo, Linguistics and Philosophy
>>  >>Kamal Youcef-Toumi, Mechanical Engineering
>>  >>
>>  >>Harvard Faculty (12)
>>  >>John Assad, Harvard Medical School
>>  >>Rick Born, Dept. of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School
>>  >>Xandra Breakefield, Professor of Neurology, Molecular 
>>Neurogenetics Unit,MGH
>>  >>Alfonso Caramazza, Psychology
>>  >>Patrick Cavanagh, Psychology
>>  >>Richard Levins, Harvard School of Public Health
>>  >>Timothy Patrick McCarthy, History and Literature
>>  >>Ken Nakayama, Psychology
>>  >>Bernardo Sabatini, Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School
>>  >>Elizabeth Spelke, Psychology
>>  >>Bert Vaux, Linguistics
>>  >>Kath Weston, Director of Studies and Senior Lecturer, Women's Studies
>>  >>
>>  >>Our Colleagues in Israel who Support the Petition
>>  >>
>>  >>Yosef Grodzinsky, MIT Postdoc in Linguistics, now profssor at Tel Aviv
>>  >>University
>>  >>Idan Landau, MIT PhD in Linguistics, now lecturer at Ben Gurion University
>>  >>Nomi Shir, MIT PhD in Linguistics, now professor at Ben Gurion University
>>  >>Emmanuel Farjoun, MIT PhD in Math, now professor at Hebrew University
>
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