25 May 2005

Press Release

Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC)

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian farmers, women and youths support the AUT position to boycott Israeli universities


The Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees (PARC)* with its six affiliated associations and 400 community-based organizations and grassroots committees in the West Bank and Gaza Strip would like to express their full support to the proposal of the largest British Association of University Teachers (AUT) to boycott two Israeli universities (Haifa and Bar Ilan) passed on April 22, 2005. We wish to stress our respect and high appreciation of this courageous and moral position, which signaled the globally rejected racist and colonial policies of the State of Israel towards the native Palestinian people with which some Israeli academic institutions identify themselves.

It came to our knowledge that the AUT Special Council will be holding a special meeting of its national council to have a full debate on the proposal to boycott the universities on 26 May 2005. We do understand the reasons behind convening the up-mentioned meeting as we followed the vigorous intimidation attempts by the Zionist and Israeli lobby groups in Israel and the USA, which aimed to pressure the AUT to repeal their stand.

With our full understanding of the critical and sensitive position of the AUT, we call upon all members of the Special Council to hold fast to their earlier stance. Please be informed that the overwhelming majority of the Palestinian people are behind you. Many statements and petitions have been raised and signed in support of your campaign as we all believe that what Israel is committing against the Palestinian people is analogous to the practices of the old South Africa Apartheid regime. It requires an urgent motion for a vast movement of human solidarity to stop and prevent further indiscriminate killing of civilians, expropriation of land and water resources, undermining of peoples ability to obtain jobs and food as well as restriction on the peoples movement which contravene international law and are in breach of the 4th Geneva Convention.
We are sure that the well explored and articulated boycotting behavior can be productive in the Palestinian case as it proved to be in South Africa.


Ghada Zughayar,
DG Assistant for External Relations
PARC- Beit Hanina
Jerusalem
P.O. Box 25128, Shu'fat/ Jerusalem
Tel. 00972 2 5833818
Fax: 00972 2 5831 898
E-mail: ghada @pal-arc.org
Mobile: (+972) (0) 52 2 327 644

*PARC is one of the largest NGOs in Palestine concerned with sustainable rural development and social change. It targets the most vulnerable and marginalized groups living in the rural areas, which are inhabited by almost 60% of the Palestinian people. Over 21 years of work, PARC achieved solid results in resisting the Israeli occupation, protecting farmed lands from confiscation and enabling rural people to outreach social and economic resources and actively participate in decision-making and development processes.