US professor on how Zionism and apartheid are alike
Palestine-Israel, Politics, 6/9/2006

In light of last month's decision by UK largest university and college lecturer's union in the United Kingdom to boycott Israeli academics and institutions that refuse to publicly condemn Israel's decades-old occupation of the Palestinian territories, we came across a previous effort in the US where the writing of Professor Gilles Corcos caught our attention.

The online petition www.ucdivest.org had been initiated by faculty at UC Berkeley and includes all of the University of California campuses. The campaign said it is "for divestment from Israel follows the precedent set by the anti-apartheid campaign of the 1980's, when students, professors, and employees called for an end to university investment in South Africa. By signing this petition, UC faculty, alumni, staff, students, and community members are asking the University to use its influence - political and financial - to pressure Israel to respect the human rights of the Palestinian people. This faculty petition joins other divestment campaigns nationwide, including UC Berkeley's Students For Justice in Palestine divestment petition, which has well over 6,000 signatures."

A Statement by Gilles Corcos in June 6, 2002 said:

I am a University of California, Berkeley (Emeritus) Professor. I am not a practicing Jew and there are no such things as races. But if races don't exist, racism does. And that is what defines me as a Jew: I have come much closer to the gas chambers than Ariel Sharon, Shimon Perez and most of the Jews who see in the immemorial persecutions of our clan and in the Holocaust a sufficient justification for their defense of Zionism.

I realize that a lot of good men and women (like my friend professor Werner Goldsmith of my own Department) draw from their atavistic culture in good faith a loyalty to our tribe. But this loyalty often distorts their view of Zionism and of the policies of State of Israel. They argue that the bulk of Palestinian Arabs including Arafat reject peace and the two states solution, so that Israel has no choice.I am not an admirer of Arafat's statesmanship and I recognize that some groups such as Hamas oppose any agreement with Israel. But I believe the bulk of Palestinians only want as they did fifteen and even fifty years ago: to be able to survive under humane and tolerable conditions.

Now a bona fide proposal for two viable states remains to be advanced by Israel. The Oslo peace accords, the Camp David and the Barak proposals do not resist a serious analysis, (the last one at Taba in early 2001 apparently came closer than the others but Barak was clearly a lame-duck by then). On the other hand Arafat alone supported immediately and unconditionally the recent Saudi proposal.

These good Jews who raise their arms and despair ignore reality.

Reality is that Zionism has gone through several increasingly and finally unbearably brutal oppressive stages. First came a massive immigration into Palestine. Good enough, even though the Palestinian residents were not allowed a voice in the matter. Second, Partition. That was imposed on the Palestinian Arabs in 1947, clearly against their will by the United Nations. And it had been pushed resourcefully and tirelessly since 1937 by Mr. Israel himself, Chaim Weizmann. Note that the Israeli part of the partitioned land included a very large Palestinian population and the overwhelming majority of that land belonged to Arab residents. Third, Israel neither then, nor after having fought neighboring Arab States, ever defined its borders. It gained Palestinian territory by force of arms against other States. It then subjugated the Palestinians who had not been organized or powerful enough to claim statehood for what was left of their land.

The central issue to day is precisely that Israel has not been willing to live within the pre-1967 boundaries (let alone the pre-1948 ones), evacuate all its colonies and the apparatus which defends them, and stop pumping most of its water from Palestine. This minimum might allow a viable independent existence for Palestinians in what remains of Palestine. And there is no need to negotiate it. Israel can take that step unilaterally first. This would separate the bulk of Palestinian opinion from that of the diehards. The two remaining issues, Jerusalem and the right of return have a largely symbolic content. They are no less real but their solutions are not of the either or type: they are subject to compromises which preserve the symbols on both sides.

It is past time for the international community, all of us, who bear collectively a major responsibility for a fundamentally flawed solution to the legitimate search for a home for persecuted Jews, to act. This means to put pressure on the Israel population to pay the real price for peaceful coexistence between the Palestinian people and the Israeli Jews and to step in to act as advocates for the Palestinian population which has been deprived not only of its land of its property, of its freedom, of its security but even of its voice

I would like my fellow Jews to understand that Palestinian terrorism is also self-immolation. In Palestine they are the twin (and belated) children of despair. To those who aspire to peace let me say that by now peace cannot come first. Justice or some approximation to it comes first. Peace without justice, as was said long ago does not belong in the House of Man. At most it works for a while as a kennel for underdogs. (end of his statement)

Here are more statements from other US professors:
"For half a century, Israel has had military dominance in the Middle East but has not had peace. Military occupation, colonization, seizures of lands, destruction of houses and orchards, assassinations, expulsions have not brought security, but terror from both sides that will escalate to disaster. The US, whose founding ideology should favor side by side independence and self-government, instead increases the tension by providing arms and money without restriction. It is time for us to unequivocally side with peace and Palestinian independence in every possible way. Divestment worked for South Africa, why not Israel?"
- Susan M. Ervin-Tripp, Psychology, UC Berkeley :

"I feel sympathies to both the situation of the Palestinians and the fears of ordinary Israelis. It is obvious, however, that Israel has nearly all the power, while the Palestinians suffer the greatest injustices. I think it appropriate on both moral and practical grounds for U.S. citizens who wish for a humane resolution to the conflict to demand change first of all from the government of Israel, and from our own government and arms industries who provide essential support for Israel's present unjust policies."
- Mark D. Haiman, Mathematics, UC Berkeley

"Israel has made itself into a white colonial settler state,mimicking South Africa before the end of apartheid. I am Jewish and I abhor the human rights abuses against Palestinians committed in our name."
- Lisa Rofel, Anthropology, UC Santa Cruz


"During the 1970's and 1980's a very successful divestment campaign was waged in the US and Europe which undoubtedly had an effect on the end of Apartheid. The Israeli occupation of Palestine and destruction of human rights and democracy is at least as severe as that of the South Africans. A similar moral and political response is in order at this time."
- Daniel Boyarin, Near Eastern Studies and Rhetoric, UC Berkeley

Our President continues to issue toothless and ambiguous statements, while the Congress remains largely an 'occupied territory'. This petition is a new initiative for peace in the Middle East and since it goes directly to the people it affords a by-pass around compromised and corrupted individuals and institutions."
- Joe B. Nielands, Molecular and Cell Biology, UC Berkeley

Previous Stories:
  Israeli occupation forces assault Palestinian   (6/8/2006)
  UK reminds Israel of UN call for complete withdrawal from West Bank   (6/7/2006)
  Candians seek boycott of Israeli products, support Palestinians   (4/29/2006)
  Harvard report: Israeli lobby harms United States interests   (3/17/2006)
  Presbyterians support church decision to divest of companies harming Palestinians   (8/8/2005)

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