Tuesday, June 06, 2006
A Call for Boycott and Divestment
1. A Call for Boycott and Divestment
We thought you would be interested in the following document,
uncovered by archeologists in Britain. It is a statement that was issued
by the Union of British University Lecturers in the year 1938, and was
endorsed by the civil servants union of Canada, by the Presbyterian
Church, and by a host of progressive Jewish professors.
In the interests of history scholarship and accuracy, we reprint the
document here in full:
A Call for Divestment in Czechoslovakia
From the Union of British University Lecturers
February 12, 1938
Dear Learned Comrades:
The Union of British University Lecturers is calling upon lovers of
justice and peace throughout the world to boycott all official
institutions of Czechoslovakia and especially the Czechoslovak
universities. While we have tried other forms of persuasion, the racist
regime in Czechoslovakia continues to abuse the human rights of the
country's ethnic Germans, denying the Sudeten Germans their right to
self-determination.
As was declared by our representatives to the recent goodwill
conference held in Berlin, sent there to express out friendship and
understanding for the Reich's peace proposals, we must unambiguously
denounce the racist apartheid regime that has long been operating in
Czechoslovakia. The Czechoslovak colonialists are illegally occupying the
lands of the Sudeten Germans. This occupation must end.
In recent months the Sudeten victims of Bohemian occupation have
launched a protest movement, which we fully endorse. Regretfully, some
the victims of occupation have also engaged in terrorist activities
directed against the Czechoslovak apartheid regime. We believe that blame
for this should not be assigned to the victims of racism, the Sudetens,
and understand the desperation that underlies these Sudeten German
operations. Indeed, we urge peace-loving states and churches around the
world to join the authorities in Berlin in providing funding to the
political groups now operating among the Sudetens and representing them.
Recently, the main political group speaking on behalf of the Sudetens
has been the Sudeten-German Party (SdP), headed by Konrad Henlein. While
some in the world are justifying the Czechoslovak decision not to conduct
negotiations with the SdP because of its openly nazi orientation, we
demand that Czechoslovakia open immediate talks with it. After all, the
SdP enjoys the popular support of the bulk of the Sudeten population and
refusal to conduct negotiations with it is anti-democratic. And besides,
who are the Czechs to dictate which party and leaders should represent the
Sudeten people?
Oppressed people unfortunately often are forced into use of
violence. And in this case, the Sudetens were victimized by Czechoslovak
state terrorism and racism for well over a generation.
So what if Czechoslovakia has free and open elections, freedom of
speech, and other manifestations of liberal democracy? We consider
Czechoslovakia to be a phony democracy, with false freedoms existing only
on paper, so long as the Sudeten Germans are second-class citizens. That
is why we cooperate with the anti-apartheid groups and movements operating
within the Third Reich, which are heralding the struggle against
Czechoslovak oppression of Germans.
Sure, the Czechoslovak political leaders have offered to consider
some forms of local autonomy for the Sudetens. But these offers are
humiliating and amount to little more than the creation of German
Bantustans for the Sudetens, who would continue to suffer from
Czechoslovakian domination. Why should the Sudetens be denied complete
self-determination and the control of their own state and army? Why are
Sudetens any less entitled to statehood than Czechs and Slovakians? So
what if the German Reich already controls most of Central Europe? That
should not preclude the rights of the Sudetens to have their own state?
Czechoslovakian universities must be boycotted because of their
collaboration with the racist regime in Prague! The universities
continue to discriminate against Germans by conducting their classes in
Czech, and by refusing to allow swastika banners to be hoisted on campus.
We have also received reports that there were attempts in one university
to expel a pro-German professor, although those attempts failed. Another
university conducts courses in a satellite campus located inside occupied
Sudetenland!
Accordingly, we believe that researchers and scholars at
Czechoslovakian universities need to be taught a firm lesson. This can
only be accomplished using the same divestment tactics that were so
successfully utilized in other struggles, such as against the Italian
conquest of Ethiopia.
Part of the statement for divestment includes this:
"Czechoslovakia continues to grab the lands of the Sudeten people for
ever-expanding Bohemian settlements, building Czechoslovakian-only
roadways, and the construction of a giant wall and fence that is
confiscating a significant portion of the Sudeten land. 83% of the
Sudetenland water has been taken for Czechoslovakian use, leaving Sudetens
with desperate water shortages. Czechoslovakia has destroyed the homes of
more than 28,000 Sudetens in four and a half years. Hundreds of thousands
of ancient fir trees and vast tracts of agricultural land have also been
destroyed."
The Union of British University Lecturers has also voted for and
hereby demands the divesting of funds from all companies that support the
Czechoslovak occupation of the Sudeten Territories. Our resolution
contains statements of action:
. That a committee be convened in the conference to create and
maintain a list of companies that support in a significant way the
Czechoslovak occupation of Sudeten territories. The list will be delivered
to all university associations, conference churches and conference
investment managers.
. We call upon Czechoslovakia, as well as the U.S. government,
Britain, the government of Poland, and the newly-elected Sudeten
leadership to respect all people and find solutions based on international
law and human rights.
. We affirm the right of Sudeten Germans to freedom of movement in
all lands, and believe that Prague should be declared an open city for
people of all faiths and creeds.
Peace can yet be achieved. Boycott Czechoslovakia Now!
2. [Note by Tom Gross]
HAMAS LEADER'S THREE SISTERS LIVE QUIETLY IN ISRAEL AS FULL CITIZENS
Those Europeans and others who ignorantly and maliciously accuse Israel
of conducting "Apartheid" against Arabs, will have trouble explaining
the fact that it turns out that Ismail Haniya, the Palestinian Hamas
prime minister, has three sisters who have all been granted full Israeli
citizenship.
The Haniya sisters, Kholidia, Laila and Sabah, married Israeli Bedouin
from the Negev town of Tel Sheva and moved to the town 30 years ago.
They were granted Israeli citizenship and live in relative comfort. Tel
Sheva is a town inhabited mainly by Israeli Bedouin. (See the Daily
Telegraph story for more details.)
It is reported that some of their children and grandchildren have
served in the Israeli army, though for security reasons they have refused
to divulge details.
Ismail Haniya, who took office in March as the Palestinian prime
minister after Hamas won a January parliamentary election, has not visited
these three of his sisters for many years. Of course, had he not chosen
to become a senior member of an organization dedicated to murdering
Israelis on buses and at cafes, he could have visited them.
The Palestinian prime minister has 13 children of his own, a not
uncommon number among devout Palestinian Muslims.
3. Another Hebrew University leftist promoting boycotts of Israel:
http://www.kibush.co.il/downloads/emmanuel1.pdf
Farjoun has long been active in organizing refusal to serve among
Israeli soldiers.
4. And that ain't peanuts:
http://www.canadafreepress.com/2006/cover053106.htm
