Anti-Divestment Petitions Fading Away

A former Berkeley web petition dedicated to fighting Israeli divestment efforts on campus, www.ucjustice.org, has been fazed out. No explanation is available on the website; however, after some investigation, similar fates have been met of other anti-divestment petitions at major universities across the country. It seems that these petition websites have been allowed to lapse… but for what reason?

It appears that this is a new trend among campus politics both at Berkeley and across the country: that IAC branches are feeling much less threatened by divestment movements, and by pro-Palestinian groups in general. This is not an unjustified shift in policy, since there have been NO major successful movements for a public institution to divest from Israel. Even anti-Apartheid movements in the 80s had success with movements pushing for divestment from South Africa. Groups like SJP have had no such successes in convincing either campus administration or the general public in the merits of their cause. In this light, it must not have seemed relevant or practical to maintain these web petitions.Email This Post!