Boycott, Divest and Sanctions of Israel

To: Texas Christian University Board of Trustees

The founding ideology of Israel is based on exclusive ethno-nationalism that defines the state as serving the interests of worldwide Jewish communities and not the concerns of its inhabitants regardless of their ethnic origins or religion. This has led the State of Israel to pursue policies of encapsulation, expropriation, and ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Palestinian population. Official discrimination in favor of Jews and against non-Jews occurs in many areas of life, including residency rights, the right to work, and the right to equality before the law. Israels law of return allows anyone of Jewish origin to become a citizen with all the benefits this entails, while Palestinians expelled from their homeland are actively prevented from returning to it. Furthermore, Israel constructs Jewish only roads, builds highways with exits to Jewish towns and no exits to Arab towns, restricts the movement of the Palestinian population, and restricts the use of 92\% of the countrys land to Jews. The result of all these policies is that the Palestinians are separate but unequal just as blacks were in Apartheid South Africa. Their communities are hemmed in by the infrastructure of an apartheid state dedicated to their exclusion and eventual expulsion.

The North Texas Boycott, Divest, and Sanction of Israel Campaign, representing a coalition of concerned groups and individuals and North Texas communities, calls on the Texas Christian University Board of Trustees to divest from companies doing business with or in the State of Israel until such time as the State of Israel accepts and facilitates the full implementation of the individual and collective human rights of the Palestinian people. Those rights are enshrined in the instruments of international humanitarian law, relevant United Nations conventions, and multiple United Nations resolutions condemning the inhumane oppression of the Palestinian population. Any investments associated with Israel subvert the implementation of norms of international humanitarian law, as well as the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, 22 USC sec. 2304, which prohibits the providing of security assistance to any country whose government engages in violations of internationally recognized human rights.

As concerned and conscientious members of the North Texas community, we are part of a growing global movement for a principled and just peace in historical Palestine, one that includes equality for Jews and Arabs under the law, constitutional guarantees of minority rights, institutionalized toleration for cultural autonomy in well-defined spheres of life, the basic right of the citizen to live where he or she chooses and the right to take full part in democratic processes. We urge the Texas Christian University Board of Trustees to recognize that divesting its holdings in companies that do business with the state of Israel is a moral imperative and an act that signifies a commitment to socially responsible investment, basic human rights, international law, and the principle that nothing should impede human freedom and flourishing. This basic right is congruent with the TCU stated mission, To educate individuals to think and act as ethical leaders and responsible citizens in the global community.

Although we do not discredit the value of Judaism, we, however, do object to the political oppression of the Palestinian people along with the occupation of Palestinian lands by the government of Israel.

We petition the TCU Board of Trustees to publically disclose the names of companies and corporations in which TCU has financial investments, business contracts and retirement plans/pension funds.

We urge that Texas Christian University adhere to the following principals:

That academic and cultural association with Israel will cease at TCU until it ends the illegal occupation of the Palestinian lands and reverses the discriminatory treatment of its Jewish citizens.
That TCU investments not be made or maintained in any company that provides products or services that contribute to the maintenance and construction of the Separation Wall.
That TCU investments not be made or maintained in any company that provides products or services that contribute to violent acts that target either Israeli or Palestinian civilians.