We are still two or three weeks away from being able to declare complete victory in the UC Berkeley anti-Israel divestment issue. Yes, the veto was most certainly upheld by a 12 to 7 vote with 1 abstention. No one sees that changing. But there are alternative resolutions floating around which could rear up and cause grief.

Having said that I want to reflect on what happened at UC Berkeley and discuss their implications for SPME.

Lesson 1: No matter what the victory the other side will be saying that they won. Jewish Voices for Peace issued a declaration that even though their proposal was vetoed and the veto sustained that they still won because they had the majority of student senators voting in favor of divestment. We had a similar situation with Students for Justice in Palestine at Hampshire College continuing to say that Hampshire College divested from Israel when it was clear that they had not done so last year and again recently. The implications here are clear. We need to do a better job of getting our message out and getting it out faster. When I say we I mean Scholars for Peace and the Pro-Israel community in general.

Lesson 2: We have to rely on people on the campus. If UC Berkeley teaches us anything it is the critical importance of having a strong combination of committed faculty, a strong Israel oriented Hillel director, committed and knowledgeable students and a strong connection to both the Jewish community and to the Israeli consulate. These all came together in the UCB situation. The students who made up the pro-Israel faction were tenacious in their effort to fight off the divestment. The faculty support was more difficult to get. If had not been for the efforts of Mitch Bard and AICE Professor Hanan Alexander of Haifa University things at Berkeley might have been different. Hanan might not have been at Berkeley at this critical juncture if AICE had not been able to extend his stay on campus by a year and in doing so left a strong and articulate voice in place when this divestment attack took place. Professor Alexander was able to get Prof. Malcolm Feeley from the Law School to join him and working with Rabbi Adam Naftalin-Kelman, Israeli Consul General Akiva Tor and the students was able to turn things around after much effort. When Desmond Tutu’s statement came through everyone was shocked. Scholars for Peace in the Middle East past president, Prof. Ed Beck stepped in to get six Nobel Laureates to respond to Desmond Tutu. More would have signed on if there had been more time. The lesson here is that we cannot defeat these initiatives from the top down. We need committed people on the campus.

Lesson 3: We must begin to develop a strong pro-Israel infrastructure combining both faculty and students working together and we must do it immediately. The Berkeley divestment initiative will not end the struggle. Already the Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice for Palestine are spawning look-alike proposals on other campuses. While the semester for many universities and colleges is rapidly ending we can expect student governments all over the US to be hit with divestment movements next year.

Scholars for Peace in the Middle East have just been awarded a substantial grant of $100,000 from a group of donors in New York. We intend for those funds to be used to help faculty create and or develop the infrastructure and the connection with students and the communities surrounding the campus to more effectively fight back. While the Jewish community has done well in funding and supporting students they have not been so effective in helping organize and supporting faculty. It is critical that the community put the resources into faculty as well as into students. SPME can only do so much. We are beginning to see the support come our way. Yet, the work we have to do is daunting and sometimes overwhelming especially when we have to struggle against Palestinians and their ideological supporters as well as against Jewish students and scholars who for whatever reason have decided to support the boycotts and the divestment initiatives.

So the lessons from Berkeley are hard ones. I for one want to thank the students, the faculty, the Hillel director and the Consul General for their hard work in fighting this battle. For other campuses who confront these issues remember that SPME will be with you to give you whatever support and aide we can muster.

All my best,

Samuel Edelman, Executive Director

(Editor's Note: Professor Samuel Edelman can be reached at spmeexecdir@gmail.com )