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October 11, 2002/Cheshvan 5 5763, Vol. 55, No. 7
Divestment conference is a showdown
RACHEL POMERANCE
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
NEW YORK - The anti-Israel divestment movement could enter a critical phase this weekend when Palestinian students from across the country gather at the University of Michigan.
The gathering, the Second National Student Conference on the Palestine Solidarity Movement, is sponsored by a pro-Palestinian campus group, Students Allied for Freedom and Equality.
Among other focuses, the conference is calling on universities to divest their holdings in companies that do business with the Jewish state.
With divestment under scrutiny following criticism from Harvard University's president, Jewish activists hope the spotlight on the conference - and the counter-activities Jewish groups are planning - spells the beginning of the end of the divestment movement.
"When we defeat it at (the University of Michigan), it's going to be pretty clear that it's not welcome" on any university in the United States, said Benjamin Berger, Hillel's staff coordinator for pro-Israel groups at the University of Michigan.
Hillel, which has been working closely with mainstream Jewish groups on campus, is promoting its own pro-Israel agenda as a counterweight to the conference. So, too, is a new campus group called the Michigan Student Zionists.
Divestment is among the most controversial steps in the arsenal of anti-Israel activism that has gripped college campuses since the Palestinian intifada began two years ago.
The divestment campaign was launched at the first conference of the Palestine Solidarity Movement last fall at the University of California at Berkeley.
Divestment petitions since have spread to 40 universities. However, counterpetitions opposing divestment have garnered 10 times as many signatures, according to Michael Jankelowitz, the Jewish Agency for Israel's representative to Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life.
Anti-Israel activists are modeling the movement on the 1980s campaign against South Africa, when student activists convinced some universities to protest the apartheid regime by divesting university holdings.
The analogy between Israel and apartheid South Africa, anathema to supporters of Israel, has become a common feature of the anti-Israel critique.
But a speech last month by Harvard University President Lawrence Summers, accusing the anti-Israel movement of veering into anti-Semitism, has recast debate on the divestment movement.
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