Palestine Think Tank

Free Minds for a Free Palestine

More speech silencing: Michigan Student Assembly votes gag rule

By Guest Post • Oct 29th, 2009 at 8:07 • Category: Education, Grassroots Activism, Ideas and Projects, Israel, Newswire, Palestine, Zionism

From Blaine in Michigan: Last night, the Michigan Student Assembly, a University of Michigan body, violated the Open Meetings Act, the First Amendment, and the university's Standard Practice Guide.
 
Look at today's "Michigan Daily" article, and judge for yourself:
 
http://michigandaily.com/content/reversal-msa-passes-controversial-resolution-limiting-public-comment-meetings 
 
Shocked by recent comments seeking to boycott Israel, the MSA voted for a Gag Rule. 
 
That Gag Rule outlaws all public comments, uttered by any community member, unless they are pre-certified by an executive board to be "relevant to students". 
 
The MSA also moved its meeting, for this vote, to a building up on North Campus, to ensure no one would even show up to complain. 
_________________________________ 
 
The Michigan Daily editors had campaigned loudly for this Gag Rule, so great was their outrage that Gaza had been discussed at past MSA meetings, as Israel massacred the Gaza Strip.

Now Israel is free to massacre Gaza again without worrying about back-talk from anyone in the MSA meetings. 
 
Here is the Boycott-Israel resolution that pained MSA so much that they shut down the First Amendment–
 
http://dearbornboycottsisrael.blogspot.com/2008/09/msa-resolution-to-boycott-apartheid.html
 
_________________________________

MSA Resolution to Boycott Apartheid Israel, and to Stop Apartheid on Campus

malcolm x ploPhoto: Malcolm X, meeting with the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1964. 

This was sixteen years after European Zionists invaded Palestine, destroying over 400 Palestinian villages. 

It was an extremely violent ethnic cleansing operation.

It exiled the majority of Palestinians out of Palestine.

This Resolution was proposed for an immediatevote by the Michigan Student Assembly, at the University of Michigan.

This Resolution then was torn up by the Assembly's General Counsel, as the "Michigan Daily" reporter watched:

http://dearbornboycottsisrael.blogspot.com/2008/09/attempted-resolution-proposal.html 

But the Resolution was again presented to the Assembly for a vote. This Resolution has also been proposed for a vote by the University's LSA Student Government: 

Resolution to Boycott Apartheid Israel, and to Stop Apartheid on Campus 

Resolution Summary: 

  1. Boycott all Israeli products.
  2. Take that $1 trillion you’re spending to kill Muslims, and spend it instead on re-building Detroit.
  3. Stop 400 years of White Privilege—the University should admit every Black high school graduate.

Boycott all Israeli products 

WHEREAS, White Supremacism, including Zionism, is the most genocidal force on Earth, 

WHEREAS, Congress has paid $300 billion to Israel, according to Congressman John Dingell, 

WHEREAS, Israel spent that money on a genocidal ethnic cleansing campaign against the Palestinian people, which has culminated in the Israeli siege against Gaza, 

WHEREAS, Israel has forced 1.5 million Palestinians into a concentration-camp existence in Gaza, where childhood malnutrition and anemia are rampant, 

WHEREAS, Israel is threatening to unleash a “Holocaust” on Gaza, 

WHEREAS, Malcolm X was right— the Zionists had no “legal or moral right to invade Arab Palestine, uproot its Arab citizens from their homes and seize all Arab property for themselves”

WHEREAS, Israel’s alliance with Apartheid South Africa was "more intimate and more extensive than anything similar in Israel’s history", according to Professor Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi, 

WHEREAS, Israel has hundreds of nuclear weapons, which it tried to share with Apartheid South Africa,

WHEREAS, Israel is training its pilots to nuke Iran, a land of 76 million people who have never invaded anyone,

WHEREAS, Israel trained and oversaw SAVAK, the brutal force of torturers who kept the Shah of Iran in power, 

WHEREAS, the United States has been bleeding Iran with economic sanctions, then with U.S.-imposed dictatorship, then with U.S.-fueled invasions, almost continuously since 1952, 

WHEREAS, those economic sanctions still make it impossible for Iranians to get spare parts for any airplane, from anywhere in the world, 

WHEREAS, Israel is demanding even crueler economic sanctions against Iran,  

THEREFORE, the Michigan Student Assembly demands that Congress impose a total boycott against all Israeli products,

THEREFORE, we demand that Congress cut off all aid to the racist state of Israel, the last Apartheid State on Earth. 

THEREFORE, we demand that the University of Michigan Board of Regents declare a boycott against all products imported from the racist state of Israel. 

Take that $1 trillion you’re spending to kill Muslims, and spend it instead on re-building Detroit. 

WHEREAS, Congress has spent $1 trillion to kill millions of Iraqis since 1991,

WHEREAS, Congress has killed over a million Afghans since the 1980’s, using a series of unbelievable excuses,

WHEREAS, the U.S. repeatedly bombs Somalia, using more unbelievable excuses, 

WHEREAS, Senator Clinton threatens to “obliterate Iran”, and Senator McCain sings “bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran”, 

WHEREAS, Senator Obama threatens to invade Pakistan, then President Bush launches military strikes directly on Pakistan,

WHEREAS, Congress’s trillion-dollar genocide against Muslim lands is conducted at the direct expense of Black America,

WHEREAS, Congress’s trillion-dollar occupation of Muslim lands is conducted at the direct expense of Black America, the Michigan Student Assembly demands that Congress immediately remove its trillion-dollar army of occupation from every nation on Earth, because that army only brings coups, torture, racism, and death to the planet; 

THEREFORE, we demand that Congress immediately spend that trillion dollars, which was stolen from Black America, on the immediate rebuilding of Detroit, including mass transit that every Detroiter can walk to, including the best elementary, secondary, and university education in the nation, including the best neighborhood clinics, the best neighborhood libraries, and the best housing infrastructure in the nation, and including the necessary industrial facilities to build all of those things, and to employ every Detroiter of working age, with full union wages and benefits, 

THEREFORE, we demand that Congress similarly rebuild every U.S. inner city, and that this rebuilding be directed by Black engineers, architects, professors, physicians, educators, and managers, and that this rebuilding be staffed by Black union labor, nationwide, until Black unemployment ceases to exist, 

Stop 400 Years of White Privilege—

–the University should Admit every Black high school graduate. 

WHEREAS, centuries of government policy, backed up by organized white violence at every level, has attempted to beat down African political power, financial power, industrial power, and landholding power, from the Congo to Chicago, 

WHEREAS, Martin Luther King Jr. was right— the U.S. government is “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today”,

WHEREAS, the U.S. has murdered and imprisoned African and African-American leadership on a mind-boggling scale, from Lumumba in the Congo, to Mandela in South Africa, to Fred Hampton in Chicago, to Marcus Garvey, to the Orangeburg Massacre, to the Jackson State Massacre, to the U.S.-Israeli-South-African invasion of Angola in the 1970’s, to the U.S.-Israeli-South-African creation of death squads across the African continent which have murdered millions and stripped Africa of unimaginable wealth, 

WHEREAS, today’s white suburban power structure was built with a trillion-dollar federal highway subsidy, and with massive governmental subsidies to build all-white suburban settlements, which have sucked the wealth and political power of Black America into virtually all-white enclaves, while barring the bulk of Black America from entry, 

WHEREAS, white political, economic, employment, and educational power has always been built on massive federal subsidies, from the railroads in the 19th century, to the government-backed white academies created to suck away resources from any public educational system that might benefit Black students, 

THEREFORE, the Michigan Student Assembly finds it obscene that a violent, 400-year steamroller of white privilege– where whites use the riches of Black labor to perpetuate a closed circle of privileged white university admissions, a closed circle of white business connections, a closed circle of white jobs, perpetuated by a heavily subsidized white suburban political machine,– is called a “meritocracy”, while the slightest effort to get Black students into the University is called “reverse racism”; 

THEREFORE, the Michigan Student Assembly demands that the University of Michigan Board of Regents immediately guarantee admission, tuition-free, to every Black student who graduates from every Michigan high school, together with year-round tutoring for every new student who needs it; 

THERFORE, we declare, in advance, a highly visible picket line and a 3-day student strike, if any state authority attempts to “stand in the schoolhouse door” to block the open admission of Black students to this University.

____________________________________________________________________

South_Africa_1976Photo: In 1975, Israel had helped South Africa to invade Angola, sending military advisers and electronic equipment to the front. 

The next year, you see the Prime Minister of Apartheid South Africa, John Vorster (second from right), meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin (right), with future Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin (left), and with Moshe Dayan, in Israeli-occupied Jerusalem (al-Quds).

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4 Responses »

  1. In the '60's two black men in America; one a Christian and one a Muslim shared a similar dream with different philosophies and means to achieve them.

    Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. had "a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed… that all men are created equal."

    Malcolm X's radical creed was, "Anything you can think of that you want to change right now, the only way you can do it is with a ballot or a bullet. And if you're not ready to get involved with either one of those, you are satisfied with the status quo. That means we'll have to change you."

    Both men dreamed of a world freed from the bondage of prejudice and racism, a world in which their children would not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. While King consistently advocated for a brotherhood of all peoples and persisted in only nonviolent actions to achieve it; not until after a pilgrimage to Mecca, did X evolve in his spirituality and thus reject his separatist beliefs and begin to advocate for unity and a world wide brotherhood.

    Both men engaged in the struggle to wake up good people whose ears were not ready to hear, whose eyes were not ready to see and whose hearts were not yet pierced to bleed for the least and oppressed of humanity.

    Both men were shot dead before either could see any of their dreams realized.

    Last Friday, Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen introduced H.Res.867, calling on the Obama Administration to “oppose unequivocally any endorsement or further consideration” of the Report of the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict/Goldstone Report.

    This is a dangerous resolution that endorses the Obama Administration to continue to shield Israel accountable for war crimes it committed, as documented by the Goldstone Report, before, during, and after its assault on the Gaza Strip in December 2008-January 2009.

    The resolution also undermines support for the universality of human rights and contains numerous inaccuracies regarding the Goldstone Report.

    On October 23, 2009, Journalist and executive director of If Americans Knew, Alison Weir, reported "President Obama just signed a presidential memo eliminating a tariff on Israel that protected American dairy farmers and that raised money for the American economy.

    Council for the National Interest President, Eugene Bird noted, “Once again we see Israel receiving special treatment, at the cost to Americans. Even American citizens who oppose protective tariffs want to see a fair and equitable policy. Instead we have a policy change — implemented without public input or debate — that benefits one of the richest nations on earth, and a nation that consistently flouts US laws and policies in violation of US trade agreements [and] has been blocking some American products entirely. A serious look should be taken at how Israel has prevented certain American products from being imported into Israel, for example orange juice.”

    For decades Israeli policies have prevented Palestinian exports causing Palestinian farmers to lose their livelihoods, reaping unemployment and malnutrition at what the Red Cross has called “devastating” levels in Gaza.

    The UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict Goldstone Report: Human Rights in Palestine Conclusions and recommendations to the international community:

    Article 1975: [d] The Mission recommends that States involved in peace negotiations between Israel and representatives of the Palestinian people, especially the Quartet, should ensure that respect for the rule of law, international law and human rights assumes a central role.

  2. If Anyone wonders what they can do and/or feels Helpless…Youre not.

    Its simple- DIVEST ISRAEL!

    Look it up online. Those companies are listed.

    Also contact them once you have made that decision.

    Hit them in the pocket, where it hurts. Force change, Pressure Israel, pressure companies and corporations that do business with Israel!

  3. [...] Original post: Palestine Think Tank » Education Grassroots Activism Ideas and … [...]

  4. It's like déjà vu all over again! I hope the authors of this resolution succeed, but I do have a couple of doubts about its content. It perhaps tries to say too much at once – demanding a boycott of Israel and affirmative action for black students. There may be decent people who agree with the first demand, but not the second – it would be better to put forward the demands separately, so people who oppose Israel but don't necessarily agree with all the demands can support the boycott. The resolution tries to fuse Zionism with 'white supremacism', but they are not the same thing at all. It rightly demands 'that Congress cut off all aid to the racist state of Israel, the last Apartheid State on Earth'. It cut off aid to the last-but-one apartheid state in the eighties. If the USA had dumped Israel before South Africa, the left (and the Zionists!) would say it was because of white supremacy. But it didn't. It ditched white apartheid long ago, but still supports Jewish apartheid to the hilt. This discrepancy can hardly be explained by the concept of white supremacy… But again, good luck Michigan!

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