Almost two years after the Irvine 11 unprecedentedly faced criminal charges for verbally disrupting a speech by Israel ambassador Michael Oren, the student government at the University of California, Irvine passed a divestment resolution with a 16-0-0 vote.
The resolution, penned and proposed by UC Irvine students, requires the university to divest from corporations and businesses profiting from Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and its systematic abuse of human rights. These companies include Caterpillar, General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, among others.
The elected undergraduate student representatives also see the resolution as an opportunity for the university to engage and mobilize students to “protect human rights on a global scale,” according to Traci Ishigo, President of the Associated Student of UC Irvine.
UC Irvine is now the first university in California poised to divest from Israeli apartheid and occupation. [Read more...]
All of the different Irvine 11 verdicts
A verdict has been reached. All ten of the Irvine 11 students have been found guilty on two misdemeanor counts of conspiring to disrupt and then disrupting a speech given by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren at the University of California – Irvine in February 2010. The ten students have each been sentenced three years of probation, roughly $200 in fines, and 56 hours of community service, according to reports.
But that wasn’t the only verdict reached today.
The court’s decision complements traditional American policy towards Israel and its supporters. The excuse that Israel is forever under existential threat has embedded itself within the framework of the Constitution of the United States. First Amendment rights are no longer guaranteed if an individual is tried for being on the wrong side: for not supporting Israel’s policies in the Middle East, its occupation, its abandonment of the most fundamental form of justice, or its perception of public nonviolent dissent as institutionalized death-wishing festivities. So in a very obvious sense, the real verdict is that Israel’s interests stand above the right to express, to speak, to engage, and to openly challenge the injustices legitimized by Oren’s words.
In another relevant and disturbing perspective of the verdict, the court’s decision reflects that “Muslims are permanent foreigners, at least in Orange County,” according to Shakeel Syed, executive director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California. In yet another blow to Muslim freedoms and civil liberties here in the United States, the ten students have been publicly denied their right to free speech. The Muslim Students Association chapter at UC Irvine will continue to face both legal scrutiny and a heavily watchful eye — unnecessarily and undeservedly, of course — from campus authorities and anti-Muslim groups in the area. This entire case has become a breeding ground for the most virulent and bigoted anti-Islam sentiment enthusiastically shielded by the courthouse’s roof (and, ironically, the principle of “free speech”). [Read more...]