Oxford, Cambridge & London Students Hosting Israeli Apartheid Week
heather on February 8th, 2007Recalling the UN International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the crime of Apartheid, students at the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and London (SOAS) will concurrently hold Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) events in their respective campuses between Monday the 12th and Friday the 16th of February. In hosting this week, Oxford, Cambridge and University of London students will be joining their peers in several major US and Canadian universities.
The aim of Israeli Apartheid Week is to push forward the analysis of Israel as an apartheid state and call for a boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign to achieve the demands in the famous July 2005 Palestinian civil society statement: full equality for Arab citizens of Israel, an end to the occupation and colonization of the West Bank and Gaza, and the implementation of the right of return and compensation for Palestinian refugees pursuant to UN resolution 194. IAW Speakers will include Palestinian Israeli Knesset member Dr. Jamal Zahalka, Israeli poet Yitzhak Laor and South African educationalist and social justice organizer Salim Vally.
Cambridge University Palestine Society member Sirine Rached recalls that now as ever, peace in the Middle East can only be achieved through putting an end to the Israeli occupation, the return of Palestinian refugees to their homes and equality for Palestinian citizens of Israel. Oxford University Arab Cultural Society member Abdel Razzaq Takriti states that an international campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions is the only way to get an apartheid regime like Israel to adjust its policies towards the Palestinian people and to pursue peace.
On both sides of the Atlantic, the organizers of IAW 2007 join a growing international chorus of opposition to Israeli apartheid that includes voices of Palestinians, Israelis, South Africans, and many others across the world that stand for justice and human dignity. We are sending a message to our governments and institutions in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada that we refuse any economic, political, or cultural ties with the state of Israel until it complies with international law and respects the rights of Palestinians to self determination and to return home.
For further information please contact:
Abdel Razzaq Takriti (Oxford) 07870-341537
Sirine Rached (Cambridge) 07970-671059
Email: peacenotapartheid@yahoo.co.uk
Website: www.endisraeliapartheid.net
