In May 2014, USF silenced 10,000 students and it was HUGE! In January 2015, we, the students, decided to respond with the only thing bigger than that… a billboard. This is a demonstration by the students, for the students to show the university that we will be silent no more. 10,000 students petitioned the USF Foundation to end investing in companies that actively engage in human rights violations. 10,000 students petitioned the USF Foundation to end investing in companies that actively destroy our environment. 10,000 students petitioned the USF Foundation to end investing in companies that manufacture products that kill our bodies. 10,000 students demanded three clear and simple actions: more transparency in the USF Foundation and it’s investments; a socially responsible investment policy; and divestment from companies who engage in human rights violations, environmental destruction, or profit from either. This billboard stands for one thing; the voice of the 10,000. It stands as our unanimous voice that cannot be silenced by the USF Foundation in less than 15 minutes. It stands as our unanimous voice that stands for divestment from companies that engage in human rights violations. This billboard stands as our unanimous voice that 10,000 students stand against apartheid!

Check out our website! SJPUSF.com

5 Things Rabbi Rosenthal Got Wrong

Written in response to Rabbi Ed Rosenthal’s blog post criticizing Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of South Florida.

Rabbi Ed Rosenthal, Executive Director of Hillels of the Suncoast, published a piece (hyperlink: http://jfedsrq.wordpress.com/2014/09/03/a-synopsis-of-the-bdssjp-situation-at-usf/) in September 2014 questioning the validity of a petition that 10,000 USF students signed. The petition campaign, led by Students for Justice in Palestine at USF (SJP-USF), aimed to pressure the USF Foundation from divesting from corporations involved in Israel’s human rights violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. 

In the piece, Rabbi Rosenthal brags about how USF Hillel “students did an incredible job, behind the scenes, thwarting the efforts of SJP.” We are deeply worried and disturbed by Rabbi Rosenthal’s public boasting of intentionally thwarting a campaign that aimed to create more transparency about University of South Florida investments and raise the academic institution’s consciousness about questionable investments (such as the investment in corporations involved in Israel’s military occupation of the Palestinian Territories).

1. Rabbi Rosenthal claims, “Students were not informed about the specific content of the petition, only that it was in support of human rights.”

USF students knew exactly what they were signing. Every student who was requested to sign the petition received the following flyer. Each student read the demands of the petition before they were presented the signature sheet. Students loved the petition because it was clear and simple. Students want to see a committee for more transparency that includes students. Students want to see an ethical investment policy. Students want divestment from human rights violations in Palestine.

2. Rosenthal says, “Students were given free pizza if they signed the petition.”

That’s an outright …. (Pardon lack of euphemism)… Lie. Students were invited to visit the SJP-USF table at the weekly Bullmarket, which provided free pizza to all and any visitors. Pizza was never contingent upon signing the petition. USF students have more dignity than giving away their signature for a slice of pizza. Suggesting that a slice of pizza can bribe USF students is quite simply insulting.

3. Rabbi Rosenthal says, “There was an online option which said if you are not a student at USF, you can sign the petition and use “U1234567” as an id number.”

The 10,000 student signatures counted were the ones collected on paper submissions. The online signatures were never counted in. The entire point of “U1234567” was to separate student signatures from non-student signatures.

4. Rabbi Rosenthal states, “SJP had sponsored a fundraising event for Gaza in the Marshall Student Center. However, TruthRevolt.org posted an article which exposed Taleb as a fundraiser for Hamas. With this, SJP withdrew their sponsorship and the program was moved from the Marshall Student Center to the Embassy Suites Hotel on Campus.”

Let’s get a couple of things straight. The fundraiser was for Helping Hands, not Hamas. All of Helping Hands fundraising for Palestine is given to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Framing donations to UN refugee camps as if they were donations to Hamas sounds like a frantic attempt at defamation. Because the event location was changed from on-campus to an off-campus site, SJP-USF decided it was better that SJP dedicate its resources for events more accessible to USF students.

5. Rabbi Rosenthal says Hillel will be “taking a much more open and visible approach to providing pro-Israel programs and educational events on campus.”

If giving out Islamophobic flyers and hosting Islamophobic speakers, such as Kasim Hafeez, constitutes as educational… then Hillel is getting really desperate. Plus, how do these events fulfill Hillel’s mission to enrich Jewish life on campus?

Contact: Eyad Abuimaish                           Phone: (813) 408-0136 Email: sjpusf2010@gmail.com

  Black Skin, Zionist Masks: Exposing Anti-African Racism in Israel

Thursday, October 16, 2014 USF Marshall Student Center (Room 2708) 4103 USF Cedar Cir, Tampa, FL 33620 6:00 – 7:30 PM

Speaker: David Sheen

Students for Justice in Palestine is an organization at the University of South Florida that works to raise campus awareness about the illegal occupation of Palestine and the ongoing genocide of the indigenous Palestinians by the Israeli government. This event will be cohosted with the Students for a Democratic Society. This event aims to explain the racist actions of the Israeli government in order to emphasize its unjust mentality and attitude towards not only the native Palestinians, but even other races of people that reside in Israel.

University of South Florida, October 6 2014- David Sheen is an award winning blogger, independent journalist and filmmaker originally from Toronto, CA who now lives in Dimona, ISR. Sheen went on to work as a reporter and content editor for the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz. Sheen is currently working on a novel about the plight of African citizens in Israel, who face systematic and daily discrimination. This includes part of Israel’s admitted eugenics, such as the forced sterilizations of Ethiopian women that led to a 50% decline of their community’s birthrates in Israel over the past ten years.

Sheen’s latest work has involved chronicling the various acts of racism against non-Jewish African immigrants who seek asylum in Israel. In January 2012, he was asked to author a report on behalf of the African Refugee Development Center, which was sent to the United Nations Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). Since then, the UN committee has monitored the Israeli government in effort to prevent violent discriminatory practices against Africans asylum seekers in Israel.

The Israeli government, however, ignored repeated calls from the UN, as continued violence went unchecked, including the horrific firebombing of a kindergarten school for African children in Tel Aviv. Strategic waves of violence against non-Jewish African people in Israel remain ongoing.

In light of this, David Sheen has strived to direct documentaries and report on ongoing racism against Africans in Israel to raise public awareness. One of his feature documentaries, “Israel’s War on Africans,” can be found at this link on YouTube: http://goo.gl/c1O0me

SJP@USF hosted a protest and vigil yesterday in Tampa, Florida for Mohammed Abukhdair who was brutally murdered by Israeli settlers in Shufat, East Jerusalem.

Many cousins and family members of Mohammed live in the Tampa area.

ABC ACTION NEWS COVERAGE:

http://www.abcactionnews.com/news/local-news/protests-and-a-memorial-service-in-the-tampa-bay-area-for-teens-murdered-in-the-middle-east

Tomorrow Wednesday the 28th, USF's investment committee will be meeting to discuss the 10,000 signatures that we collected over the past semester! We will be livestreaming the meeting! As well as live tweeting! make sure to follow us on twitter! @SJP_USF Keep us in your prayers and please join us and tune in! 

Press Release

Press contact:

Name: Malak Fakhoury                             Omar Erchid

Number: 352-239-2394                             813-263-0631

Email: sjpusf2010@gmail.com

  Students present 10,000 signatures to USF Foundation Board

Students at University of South Florida are leading the largest student petition ever at any Florida university.  The petition was directed to the USF Foundation, which oversees the university’s $391 million endowment. 

The petition, led by Students for Justice in Palestine, calls on the USF Foundation to divest from companies complicit in human rights violations in Palestine. Currently, USF Foundation is investing in companies such as Caterpillar, which profits from selling armored bulldozers to the Israeli army used for home demolitions. Caterpillar's activities have been condemned by United Nations. The petition targets the university's investments in Caterpillar, among other companies. 

On Monday, May 5th, members of Students for Justice in Palestine met with the Chairman, CEO, and legal counsel of the Foundation. They urged the Foundation to create a responsible investment committee to create socially responsible investments. The Foundation Board will contact the chair of the Foundation’s Investment Committee to discuss how the petition will be presented.

“It’s appalling that our university does not have a policy requiring investment only in ethically-sound companies,” said Ahmad Saadaldin, president of Students for Justice in Palestine at USF. “This gives us students the impression that our school values profits over our duties as global citizens.”

In addition to garnering almost a quarter of the student body’s endorsement, several faculty members and student organizations have announced their support of the petition.

“Boycotts have historically been used in movements against oppression, such as the UFW strikes of the 70′s and the anti-South African apartheid movements of the 80′s. The occupation of Palestine by Israel is a criminal act that must be stopped.” said Gage Lacharite, president of Students for a Democratic Society.

Over 10,000 STUDENT signatures call on the USF Foundation to meet three direct demands: transparency, ethical investment, and divestment. In contrast to over 40 universities that have responsible investment committees, USF does not currently have a transparency committee, which the petition demands. In contrast to nearly 150 universities that have an ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) policy, the USF Foundation does not have any policy that ensures that the endowment is invested in a socially responsible manner. The combination of these factors has led students to galvanize one of the largest campus efforts for accountability in the endowment. Students are demanding immediate action by the USF Foundation.

Media coverage:

Check out what these students at USF did:

They found out their university was invested in companies involved in human rights violations. What they did next will make history. Seriously..

They collected 10,000 student signatures demanding that their university end investments and involvement with those companies. They chose human rights over profit. By collecting 10,000 student signatures, which is 25% of the entire student body at USF, they made history as the largest student petition ever in the state of Florida.

Highlights of their activities can be seen by clicking the link to the video below:

A Wall, Some Paint, and a Plane

A Wall, Some Paint, and a Plane by USF@SJP

Largest student petition in state history calls for USF divestment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 15, 2014

Press contact:

sjpusf2010@gmail.com

Students at University of South Florida are leading the largest petition ever at any Florida university. The petition demands ethical investment from the university’s $391 million endowment. Over 10,000 STUDENT signatures call on the USF Foundation to divest from companies complicit in human rights violations in Palestine.

“It’s appalling that our university does not have a policy requiring investment only in ethically-sound companies,” said Ahmad Saadaldin, president of Students for Justice in Palestine at USF. “This gives us students the impression that our school values profits over our duties as global citizens.”

The petition has listed three direct demands: transparency, ethical investment, and divestment. Because the majority of the investments are in co-mingling funds, the investments have little or no transparency. Currently, the USF Foundation does not have any policy that ensures that the endowment is invested in a socially just manner. The combination of these factors has led students to galvanize one of the largest campus efforts for accountability in the endowment.

Students have made a clear call for the USF Foundation to act today and to act immediately. The university’s endowment is “very liquid”. This means, that if USF Foundation decides, it can divest from more than 85% of its portfolio within a month.

In addition to garnering almost a quarter of the student body’s endorsement, several faculty members and student organizations have announced their support of the petition.

“We support SJP’s petition to make USF a [Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions] school,” said Gage Lacharite, president of Students for a Democratic Society. “Boycotts have historically been used in movements against oppression, such as the UFW strikes of the 70′s and the anti-South African apartheid movements of the 80′s. The occupation of Palestine by Israel is a criminal act that must be stopped.”

The petition builds on the legacy of the civil rights movement and the movement to end South African apartheid. As USF students stand up in the pursuit of equality and justice, this movement vitalizes the words of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. engraved on the center of the campus, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

Organizational Endorsements

Organizations around the university endorse our petition.

Join the groundbreaking movement for human rights.

The Official 2014 USF Petition for Human Rights

USF invests in companies affiliated with human rights violations in Palestine. This is the petition to CHANGE that.

Divestment- SJP@USF

OUR PETITION

As members of a university that reveres the Civil Rights Leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we strive to uphold the same values of justice, equality, and humanity that Dr. King fought for during his lifetime. To honor these values, we should strive to stop profiting from corporations with human rights violations.

Our university was on the wrong side of history when it failed to divest from corporations affiliated with South African apartheid. This time we hope to be on the right side of history. We ask that USF, out of respect for international law, and in consistency with US and local law, stop investing in corporations that are continuously and knowingly complicit in severe human rights violations. Despite our inactivity in past injustices, there is a current opportunity in which we expect our university to act accordingly with an honorable conscious.

For decades, the Palestinian people have been suffering from a system of occupation and oppression that strips them of their basic human rights. The Israeli occupation of Palestine is affecting every aspect of the Palestinian people’s lives: demolishing their homes, depriving them of land and water, and restricting their livelihoods to small areas of land behind a massive and illegal separation wall. These are only a few of the afflictions faced by Palestinians on a day-to-day basis. There are multinational corporations who support and profit from this illegal and brutal occupation.

  Our university endowment is invested in the following corporations which are directly complicit in human rights violations against the Palestinian people:

· Caterpillar –Caterpillar supplies the Israeli army with bulldozers for militarization. These bulldozers demolish Palestinian homes, construct the separation wall and create settlements on Palestinian lands, and cause civilian casualties.

· Hewlett-Packard (HP) – HP supplies the Israeli military occupation with systems for military checkpoints that restrict Palestinian civilian movement inside the occupied territory. It further develops the new Israeli biometric ID card system, which is ethnically labeled to divide the population, supporting a system of state segregation and discrimination.

  · G4S PLC- G4S operates private prisons around the world and manages immigrant deportations in the US. It provides security systems for Israeli prisons in which Palestinian political prisoners and child prisoners are held. It provides technologies to Israeli military checkpoints and security services in illegal Israeli settlements. 

· Boeing Company – Boeing supplies Israel with Apache Helicopters and F-16 fighter jets as well as missile systems used repeatedly in war crimes against Palestinian civilians.

· Lockheed Martin – Lockheed Martin supplies the Israeli military with Hellfire Missiles, Apache parts, and F-16 fighter jets along with training and maintenance. These weapons are used in war crimes against Palestinian civilians.

· Northrop Grumman Corporation – Northrop Grumman supplies Israel with weapons used against Palestinian civilians, including Hellfire missiles, F-16 targeting and surveillance systems, and Longbow missile system. In 2008 and 2012, its technologies were used against Palestinian civilians in the bombing of Gaza.

  We ask the Board of Trustees of the USF Foundation:

· To create a committee consisting of representatives from staff, faculty and students that will publish quarterly reports of its investments and investment policy to create transparency with the goal of educating the university community on how its endowment is invested.

· To create a policy that ensures our endowment is invested in a socially just manner, with regard to human rights and environmental welfare.

· To declare divestment from corporations directly complicit in human rights violations against the Palestinian people.

Divestment- SJP@USF

WHAT HAPPENED LAST YEAR?

On March 1, Student Government President Brian Goff sent a letter stating that the “referendum will not be recorded as an official SGA Referendum”. We want to clarify exactly what happened. How the referendum started? In January 2013, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) approached Student Government (SG). SJP asked the Senate to consider a resolution that divested from companies affiliated with human rights violations. SG President Brian Goff and SG Senate President Jeff Gao voiced concern about introducing “international politics” to Senate and prevented the resolution from entering Senate. SJP decided to take different route. SJP gathered signatures to place a referendum on the ballot. With 3 days left before the deadline for petition signatures, SJP defied the odds and gathered 2,500+ signatures in support of the referendum. Although many students worked hard on gathering the signatures, it is clear that this would not have been possible if so many students were not in support of the idea. Students found it EASY to UNDERSTAND and voiced their support for human rights and divestment. What are the rules for a referendum? The rules for referendum are clear:

We did everything by the book.

Why did Student Government break its own rules? SG was too busy trying to prevent the referendum from being on the ballot. SG was advised by a USF legal counsel lawyer – Ms. Joanne Adamchak. Ms. Adamchak created many excuses for not putting the referendum on the ballot. Her excuses were:

Why was Joanne Adamchak wrong?

After it was clear that the referendum was legal, student government placed it on the ballot. But the goal was to undermine the student voice from the very beginning and this is clear with the “advise” by Ms. Adamchak. It does not take 9 business days to verify signatures. SG should have verified them in the first week and placed it on the ballot by the second week. This did not happen. Because Ms. Adamchak caused so much confusion, SG did not make the referendum public and accessible in time. Therefore, because SG did not follow its own rules, it had to revoke the referendum from the official record.

Students call on Genshaft to Support ASA Boycott

On January 6, 2014, President Genshaft unilaterally condemned the American Studies Association (ASA) academic boycott of Israel. As students at USF, we are disappointed that she has ignored the student voice and the plight of the Palestinian people.  In light of the fact that students at USF overwhelmingly voted in favor of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, it is surprising that Genshaft would take a radical decision in favor of sponsors of racial segregation. Genshaft should have consulted USF students, staff, and faculty before she made a statement on behalf of USF.

Israel’s academic institutions have been complicit in Israel’s subjugation of Palestinians. All of Israel’s major universities have relationships with security-military industry of occupation. The ASA notes,

“For example, Haifa University and Hebrew University have special programs for military intelligence and training for the Shin Bet (the security service known for its torture techniques). The Hebrew University’s Mount Scopus campus is partially built on Palestinian land in occupied East Jerusalem (illegally confiscated by Israel in 1968), in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Other Israeli institutions are also built on illegally confiscated Palestine.””

The assertion that the academic boycott restricts academic freedom is a sham used by proponents of Israel’s occupation.

As the ASA noted,

 “It is Israel — not those who participate in the academic boycott of Israel — that denies academic freedom and more fundamental freedoms to Palestinians.  This is done through a variety of regulations and policies, such as giving priority of admission to soldiers and limiting transportation and residential opportunities of Palestinians. The most extreme denial of academic freedom to the Palestinian people results from the bombing of schools and universities as occurred in the 2009 Israeli assault of Gaza.

Under the status quo, the academic freedom of Palestinian academics and students is severely hampered, if not altogether denied, by the Israeli state and its complicit institutions, including universities and research centers. Palestinian universities have been bombed, schools have been closed, scholars and students have been deported, and in some cases killed. Palestinian scholars and students have their mobility and academic careers restricted by an apartheid system that limits freedoms by selectively awarded permits, according to residential location, last names, or license plates. Many Palestinian scholars cannot travel easily, if at all, for conferences or research because they are forbidden from flying from the Tel Aviv.”

We call upon Genshaft to retract her statement and stand in solidarity with academic freedom and equality.

Divestment- SJP@USF

ABOUT USF’S ENDOWMENT

As of June 30, 2013, the USF endowment was worth nearly $400 million. At least 30% of the endowment is investments in managers that finance corporations that are actively involved in human rights violations in Palestine. Our university’s endowment portfolio is “very liquid”. This means, that if USF Foundation decides, it can disinvest from over 85% of its portfolio within a month. So, we urge our university to act today.

The USF endowment is managed by the USF Foundation. The Foundation invests in mutual funds and co-mingling funds. Co-mingling funds are “privately separately managed accounts” that are managed by brokers who buy and sell stocks at discretion. Co-mingling funds are not resale mutual funds and are exclusive. For example, co-mingling funds are not available for 401k accounts but they are available for ‘high-roller’ accounts. 68.5% of the endowment is invested in co-mingling funds and provide no transparency. There is a serious possibility that these secret investments are in corporations with poor adherence to human rights values.

Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions. From Jerusalem.

USF REPRESENTING!!! 

Nakba Remembrance Day at USF May 15th, 2013

Marking the 65th anniversary of the Nakba, when hundreds of thousands of Arabs were forced out of their homes and into exile.