As members and officers of UAW 2865—current and former; Jewish and non-Jewish—we write to oppose the Joint Council’s decision to endorse the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. Furthermore, we strongly oppose the proposal calling for divestment and an academic boycott.
The BDS movement is not progressive; it is unjust. It rejects the international consensus position on peace and pushes the most strident demands of the rejectionist camp. [1] [2] It collectively punishes Israelis and Palestinians, and stymies efforts to reach across divides, engage in dialogue, and build mutual trust. [3] Moreover, it rejects basic academic values by opposing cooperation and the free exchange of ideas within the academy. [4] Finally, it manipulates and selectively presents facts to delegitimize Israel, and, in essence, calls for the end of the Jewish State. [5] Support for BDS is unworthy of our union.
Our union leadership has also violated the union’s fundamental principles of democracy, transparency, and solidarity in its efforts to promote BDS. It has announced a membership vote, but stacked the deck in favor of BDS. Our leadership has publicized numerous pro-BDS documents and events, spending thousands of dollars in the process. It has refused to send even a single paragraph representing an anti-BDS viewpoint to its mailing list. [6] Moreover, by promoting an academic boycott against Israel, our leadership stigmatizes and isolates those of us who are Israeli, who do research on Israel, or who have Israeli collaborators. We are saddened that our union leadership would injure its own members to pursue a political goal unrelated to the union’s core mission.
We are proud of the UAW International and the University of California (UC) for taking principled stands against BDS, and urge them to continue rejecting calls for divestment from Israel. The president of the UAW International expressed our sentiments by signing a letter declaring that, “[r]ather than divestment from Israel, we believe that investment of time, energy and material aid is the best means to alleviate the ongoing suffering of Palestinians and Israelis.” [7] The UC also expressed our sentiments by issuing a statement that “isolation of Israel among all of the countries of the world greatly disturbs us and is of grave concern to members of the Jewish community.” [8]
We urge all members of UAW 2865 to join us—as well as the leadership of the nine UC campuses, the president of the UC system, over 250 university presidents, the Association of American Universities, the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities, the American Council on Education and the American Association of University Professors—in categorically rejecting proposals to support BDS and academic and cultural boycotts of Israel. [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]
We ask everyone to make their voices heard by voting NO in the statewide vote December 4.
SIGNATORIES (LAST UPDATED NOVEMBER 28, 2014)
Adar Eisenbruch, UC Santa Barbara, Current union member
Alex Anderson, UC Berkeley, Current union member
Allison Rotstein, UC Irvine, Current union member
Andres Schneider, UCLA, Current union member
Anton Sobolev, UCLA, Current union member
Arielle Leitner, UC Santa Barbara, Current union member
Armando Guerrero, UCLA, Current union member
Avner Shlain, UC Berkeley, Current union member
Bren Ghan, UC Davis, Current union member
Brian Satzinger, UC Santa Barbara, Current union member
Cassandra Callmann, UC San Diego, Current union member
Chaim Gingold, UC Santa Cruz, Former union member
Charlie Marshak, UCLA, Current union member
Dahlia Schweitzer, UCLA, Former union member
Dalia Bolotnikov, UC Santa Barbara, Current union member
Elizabeth Miller, Other school / Unaffiliated, Current union member
Emma Parker, UC Santa Barbara, Current union member
Eric Migicovsky, UCLA, Current union member
Erik Johnson, UC Berkeley, Current union member
Eyal Berdugo, UCLA, Current union member
Gabrielle Abrahamson, UC Berkeley, Former union member
Gat Savaldi-Harussi, UC Berkeley, Current union member
Gregory Antill, UCLA, Current union member
Hagit Perry, UC Berkeley, Current union member
Hila Peretz, UC Berkeley, Former union member
Igor Izyumin, UC Berkeley, Former union member
Ionut-Dragos Potirniche, UC Berkeley, Current union member
Itai Sharon, UC Berkeley, Current union member
Itai Trilnick, UC Berkeley, Current union member
Jeff Stern, UCLA, Current union member
Jeffrey Epstein, UC Berkeley, Current union member
Jethro Beekman, UC Berkeley, Current union member
John Schulman, UC Berkeley, Current union member
Jonathan Kummerfeld, UC Berkeley, Current union member
Jordan Ou, UC Berkeley, Current union member
Josephine Menkin, UCLA, Current union member
Joshua Saidoff, UCLA, Current union member
Juliana Londono-Velez, UC Berkeley, Current union member
Justin Bauer, UC San Diego, Current union member
Kathryn Wainfan, UCLA, Current union member
Kevin Todd, UC Berkeley, Current union member
Maggie apRoberts-Warren, UC Santa Cruz, Current union member
Maxim Ananyev, UCLA, Current union member
Michael Barlev, UC Santa Barbara, Current union member
Michael Rossol, UC Santa Barbara, Current union member
Naomi Martisius, UC Davis, Former union member
Natalia Lamberova, UCLA, Current union member
Nicholas Li, UC Berkeley, Current union member
Patrick Adler, UCLA, Current union member
Piper Milton, UC Davis, Current union member
Ran Nof, UC Berkeley, Current union member
Rinat Rosenberg-Kima, UC Berkeley, Former union member
Roey Reichert, UCLA, Current union member
Samantha Skinazi, UC Santa Cruz, Current union member
Sean Lawrence, UC Santa Cruz, Current union member
Stephen Brumbaugh, UCLA, Current union member
Tahl Sendowski, UC Berkeley, Current union member
Trevor Sarratt, UC Santa Cruz, Current union member
Yael Hadar, UC Berkeley, Current union member
Ying Qiao, UC Berkeley, Current union member
Yotam Shem-Tov, UC Berkeley, Current union member
Zachary Margulies, UCLA, Former union member