Why should VCU Divest?

     As a place of higher learning that offers education at equal opportunity to all students regardless of race or religion Virginia Commonwealth University is a haven for those who seek education.  We feel that it is hypocritical for Virginia Commonwealth University who whole heartedly abides by the equal opportunity laws that govern this nation to in turn be investing money in companies that do substantial business dealings with the state of Israel, for Israel is the greatest purveyor of apartheid and racism in the modern world and our University's funds help Israel set up illegal (under the Geneva convention) Jewish only settlements throughout the occupied territories, control Jewish only roads, and help enforce a racial segregation system based upon ethnicity (including different color license plates for non-Jews)  In addition our University's funds help Israel buy weapons that are used on a daily basis to kill Palestinians civilians, destroy homes and schools, and generally brutalize the Palestinian people.  Virginia Commonwealth University has the motto of "VCU leading the way" we feel that VCU has to live up to this motto and divest its funds from the state of Israel and join the fight for justice for the Palestinian people.
     Israel thinks that international law does not apply to itself, and they can completely ignore Human Rights conventions, UN resolutions and other forms of international law.  If Israel were any other country, it would have been made a “rogue nation” and received the scorn of the international community many years ago.  But because Israel is supported, bankrolled and armed by the United States of America, that does not happen.  The Fourth Geneva Convention, which Israel signed states “the Occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies” and the UN has said in Resolution 465 of 1980 “we determine that all measures taken by Israel to change the physical character, demographic composition, institutional structure or status of the Palestinian and other Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, or any part thereof, have no legal validity and that Israel's policy and practices of settling parts of its population and new immigrants in those territories constitute a flagrant violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War and also constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace in the Middle East.”. The Rome statute of the International Criminal Court (1998) also states "the transfer directly or indirectly by the Occupying power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies" as a War Crime indictable by the International Criminal Court. All of these International laws, and respected International organizations say that Israel is in the wrong and that Israel is in violating the human rights and physical rights of the Palestinians.  Yet they persist the implement a brutal and racist occupation of Palestinian lands.  I say racist because that is what it is.  Those checkpoints that litter the Palestinian lands guarded by heavily armed and sadistic soldiers maintain a strict race-number plate system.  All people of Arab decent be them Muslim, Christian, or secular are given one color license plate, and Israelis are given another color license plate.  Guess who goes strait through the checkpoints without checks, that’s right only the Israeli license plated cars.  Not even ambulances, schools or hospitals are safe from the horrors of the Israeli occupation forces.  Ambulance drives have been stopped, abducted from their ambulances and made to be human shields for Israeli soldiers going house to house. On March 30^th 2002 the ambulance crew of the Ramallah EMS team were forced to be human shields for an Israeli tank convoy for over an hour.  Schools have been closed or demolished.  During the first Intifada the Israelis shut down all Palestinian schools for 3 years. Collective punishment on school children, what did they ever do that hurt Israel so much.  Only a couple weeks ago Israelis opened fire on a hospital, after the wounded had been taken there from when Israel launched a missile into a crowd of civilians.
     Until Justice prevails for the Oppressed Palestinian peoples Virginia Commonwealth University must cease all investments with companies that invest in, sell weapons to, or do substantial business dealings within Israel.  DIVEST NOW!!!!