Barnard: Stop Legitimizing Apartheid! Cancel Kenneth Stern’s Events! by JVP Columbia

Please TAKE ACTION RIGHT NOW and send your letter to the UN Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide and the International Criminal Court Prosecutor.

The fact is, Zionism is a distinct, ethno-nationalist political ideology that many Jews of all kinds—from Orthodox Jews to secular socialist Jews—have opposed since its inception. As Jewish students, it is deeply painful to see our Judaism, an incredibly meaningful part of our identities, be weaponized to fuel a violent, settler-colonial project that has resulted in the displacement, subjugation, and genocide of millions of Palestinians. Conflating anti-Zionism with antisemitism does not protect Jews.

Continue reading at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd8qBJXulqJ-iSSb9bsJ0QNsXK3HfWCVDKxNmeXp6ZzSZJYmg/viewform

A Postcolonial Analysis of the Genocide Convention With Reference to the Lived experiences of the Palestinian People Under Settler Colonial Rule by Claudia Laurel Bell

PLEASE TAKE ACTION RIGHT NOW AND SEND YOUR LETTER TO THE UN OFFICE OF THE SPECIAL ADVISER ON THE PREVENTION OF GENOCIDE AND THE INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT PROSECUTOR.

Native people under colonial rule have suffered a multitude of human rights abuses throughout history. The human rights community has attempted to address this by granting colonised peoples self-determination, in addition to creating international laws that seek to prevent and punish the mistreatment of vulnerable people more broadly. However, a growing number of scholars have argued that international human rights law not only fails to sufficiently account for abuses that continue to be perpetrated against native peoples, but also, by doing so, actively contributes to their marginalisation. I will follow this academic trajectory, and will argue that the Genocide Convention specifically, was constructed in accordance with the vested interests of colonial powers. The resulting definition of genocide omitted acts occuring to native people, such as ethnic cleansing and forced assimilation, as it suited the political agendas of colonial countries. I will challenge this position and assert that if genocide is to be understood as the destruction of the group, rather than its individual constituent parts, then any action designed to intentionally decimate the group, (as a metaphysical entity existing beyond its human participants), should be considered genocidal. More specifically, non-lethal methods, often referred to as cultural genocide, should be included in the Genocide Convention. I will contextualise this argument within Palestine and apply a settler-colonial lens to the engagement between the Israeli State and the Palestinian people. I will argue that settler-colonisation has an intrinsically genocidal dimension; it follows therefore that the treatment of the Palestinians by the Israeli State can be plausibly considered. It will be concluded that if international human rights law is to effectively protect vulnerable communities from human rights abuses, such as genocide, it needs to be consistently evaluated and reconsidered from a multitude of perspectives.  


Continue reading at https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/d8-kd5c-wp12/download

Genocide is not justice, and its advocates don’t belong on our campus by Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine

Please TAKE ACTION RIGHT NOW and send your letter to the UN Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide and the International Criminal Court Prosecutor.

It’s time that we, as Columbia students, reconsider to whom we give space, and why. Why was Shaked invited to speak in the first place? Why was she given the space to propagate her hatred and calls to genocide?

Continue reading at http://columbiaspectator.com/opinion/2016/09/20/genocide-not-justice-and-its-advocates-dont-belong-our-campus

Columbia University Black Student Union Condemns Campus Zionist Group, Reaffirms Solidarity with Palestine

In light of recent flyering campaigns done by Aryeh: Columbia Students Association for Israel (formerly known as LionPAC), in which they use the image and words of Martin Luther King, Jr. in favor of their Zionist views, we as the Columbia University Black Students’ Organization, write to condemn their co-optation of Black liberation struggle for the purposes of genocide and oppression and we re-proclaim our unequivocal support of Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace – Columbia/Barnard Chapter, and the people of Palestine in their fight for freedom from Israeli apartheid.

Continue reading at https://bayareaintifada.wordpress.com/2015/03/25/black-student-union-condemns-campus-zionist-group-reaffirms-solidarity-with-palestine/

TAKE ACTION now and write a letter to the UN Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide. Make sure to post a copy of the letter in our comments as well, so we can publish it.