(Please respond to this important alert; my own letter
to Governer McGreevey and Rutgers President is
reproduced below; for more details see
http://www.njsolidarity.org/)

Alert: Defend the right to hold The Third North
American Student Conference of the Palestine
Solidarity Movement.

The Third North American Student Conference of the
Palestine Solidarity Movement will be held at Rutgers
University in New Brunswick, New Jersey on October
10-12. This conference, the collective work of
Palestine solidarity groups across North America,
follows upon the work of two previous conferences, at
the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, held in
October 2002, and at the University of California at
Berkeley, held in February 2002. The conference will
bring together Palestine solidarity activists from
across the continent to plan strategies, network with
one another, educate one another, and build a strong
and united movement in solidarity with the Palestinian
struggle for national liberation.

Because the conference serves as such a mechanism for
coordination and discussion, it is under attack by
Zionists and others who wish to see the movement
silenced, stifled and destroyed. While the University
has
recognized the conference as an example of student
free speech and freedom of political association and
expression, much pressure is being brought to bear to
stop the conference from taking place. New
Jersey State Senate President John Bennett called upon
Governor Jim McGreevey to step in and cancel the
conference at Rutgers, New Jersey's public state
university. McGreevey has since expressed
"concern" that the conference will not be "balanced"
and will instead be an "anti-Israel rally."
McGreevey's newly-discovered concern for higher
education is particularly dubious following his
spearheading of
a budget process that deeply slashed funding for
public higher education in the state of New Jersey and
that is leading to major tuition increases for Rutgers
students. McGreevey's stated concern is also troubling
in light of past behavior; during his 2001
gubernatorial campaign, he refused to speak before a
meeting of the
American Muslim Alliance, a major and respected
national Muslim association.

McGreevey will meet next week with Rutgers President
Richard McCormick to discuss the conference, among
other agenda items. It is imperative that the
University's support for freedom of association not be
stifled by a political agenda that operates on
principles of silence and repression. The governor
should be called upon to step aside from his office's
comments, and to support and recognize the importance
of open discussion and freedom of association on
college campuses, and the University's officials
should be praised for their commitment to free speech.

ACT NOW:

Protest attempts to stifle free speech and interfere
in student affairs. Write cordial and factual messages
to:

Governor James McGreevey
PO Box 001
Trenton NJ 08625
Phone: (609) 292-6000
Fax: (609) 292-3454
Email: http://www.state.nj.us/governor/govmail.html

Richard L. McCormick, President
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
83 Somerset Street
New Brunswick
New Jersey 08901
Telephone: 732/932-7454
Fax: 732/932-8060
Email: president@...

Media in your area and especially in New Jersey and
New York. Visit
http://www.al-awda.org/mediaactivism/ for tips and
resources.
============
I am an associate professor at Yale University and is
a cofounder of a group called Academics For Justice
(see http://AcademicsForJustice.org). I write to you
to urge you to unambiguously defend academic freedom
at Rutgers University, now under attack for hosting a
human rights conference in support of freedom for
Palestine. As you may know, Palestinian natives were
forcefully expelled and now 5 million of the 9 million
Palestinians are refugees or displaced people (see
http://PalestineRemembered.com). The rights of
Palestinians are supported unequivocally by the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights article 13 and
countless other UN and International legal
instruments. This is an issue that is easily
determined with any International legal and/or human
rights analysis. That is what a conference hosted by
the New Jersey Palestine Solidarity student group at
Rutgers is about. But even if one disagrees with
the opinions of the organizers and speakers, the first
amendment rights to free speech must be protected.
This is especially the case at a respected academic
institution. Doing any less smacks of McCarthyism and
witchhunts. Considering the increased hostility we
see on campuses across the nation towards Arab and
Muslim students, attacks on such conferences merely
exacerbate discrimination and fear. I ask you to make
an unequivocal statement in support of student rights
to assemble and to speak to issues that concern them
most. I urge you not to succumb to intimidation and
pressure from the few Zionists who claim to speak on
behalf of Jews. The list below of websites from Jews
and Israelis whose views are close to those of the
conference organizers should give us all pause to
think. You are welcome to forward the list back to
those who have sent you messages of complaints that
try to equate criticism of Israel with
"anti-Semitism."

Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD, FABMG

Predominanty Jewish and/or Israeli groups speaking out
for justice and human rights

Action committee for one democratic secular republic
http://www.onerepublic.org
Alliance of Middle East Scientists and Physicians
http://www.keck.ucsf.edu/~yoram/amesp.html
AlNakba in Hebrew http://www.NakbaInHebrew.org
Alternative Information Center
http://www.alternativenews.org/
American Council for Judaism http://www.acjna.org
(see also
http://www.acjna.org/article_view.asp?article_id=94
America-Israel Council for Israeli-Palestinian Peace
http://other_israel.tripod.com
Andalus Publishing http://www.andalus.co.il
(translates Arabic books to Hebrew)
Association for Civil Rights in Israel
http://www.acri.org.il
Bat Shalom, Israeli Women for Peace
http://www.batshalom.org/
Brit Tzedek v? Shalom: Jewish Alliance for Justice and
Peace http://brittzedek.org, www.btvshalom.org
B'Tselem http://www.btselem.org/
Bustan L'Shalom http://www.bustanlshalom.org/
Challenge (Israeli magazine)
http://www.hanitzotz.com/challenge/
The Coalition of Women For a Just Peace
http://www.geocities.com/EndTheOccupation/
Coalition of Women for Peace
http://www.coalitionofwomen4peace.org
Eda Haredit, A hundred thousand anti-Zionist Hasidim
all at one place...
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Senate/7891/satmar.html
Faculty For Israeli-Palestinian Peace
http://www.ffipp.org
The Green Line (Kav Yarok)
http://www.kavyarok.co.il/index_en.php
Gush Shalom http://www.gush-shalom.org/
House of Hope, http:// www.hohpeacecenter.org
Indymedia (Independent Israeli Media Center)
http://www.indymedia.org.il/imc/israel/webcast/index.php3?language=en
The Interfaith Encounter Association
http://www.interfaith-encounter.org
Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions
http://www.icahd.org/eng
Israel Religious Action Center (against religious
bigotry) http://www.irac.org/
Jewish Alliance Against the Occupation
http://www.opentent.org/jews.html
Jews of Belgium Appeal for a Fair Settlement of the
Israeli-Palestinian
Conflict http://www.israel-palestine.be/
Jews For Justice
http://www.mediareviewnet.com/JewsForJustice.htm
Jews For Justice for Palestinians
http://www.jfjfp.org/
Jewish Friends of Palestine
http://www.jewishfriendspalestine.org/
Jews for a Just Peace
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/S_Aberle/
Jews for a Just Peace (Australia)
http://www.geocities.com/jews4jp/
Jews NOT Zionists http://www.jewsnotzionists.org/
Jewish and Arab Women for Peace in the Middle East
http://tx.technion.ac.il/~ada/home.html
Jewish-Palestinian Living Room Dialogue Group
http://www.igc.org/traubman/global.htm
Jewish-Palestinian Encounter
http://www.salam-shalom.net
Jewish Peace Fellowship
http://www.jewishpeacefellowship.org/index.htm
Jewish People Liberation Organization
http://msanews.mynet.net/Scholars/Weizfeld/
Jewish Unity for a Just Peace http://www.junity.org/
Jewish Voice for Peace
http://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org
Jewish Voices Against the Occupation
http://www.jvao.org
Jewish Unity for a Just Peace: http://www.junity.org/
Jewish Voices Against the Occupation:
http://www.jvao.org/
Jews Against Occupation
http://www.jewsagainsttheoccupation.org
Jews for Peace in Palestine and Israel (JPPI)
http://www.jppi.org
Jews Renounce http://www.jewsrenounce.org/
Matzpum, Jews to Ban Israeli Products and Tourism
http://www.matzpun.com/
Middle East Crisis Committee
http://www.thestruggle.com
Nahalat Shalom http://nahalatshalom.org/
Neturei Karta Homepage http://www.netureikarta.org/
Negev Coexistence Forum http://www.ariga.com/dukium
New Israel Fund http://www.nif.org
New Profile (movement for civilization of Israeli
Society) http://www.newprofile.org/
Not in Our Name Coalition
http://www.diak.org/not_in_our_name.htm
Not In My Name! http://www.nimn.org/
"Occupied Territory" http://www.occupied.org/
[The] Other Israel http://other_Israel.tripod.com/
Oz v'Shalom - Netivot Shalom (religious Zionist
anti-Occupation) http://www.ariga.com/ozveshalom
Oznik News Service http://oznik.com/
The Parent Circle http://www.theparentscircle.com
Rabbis for Human Rights
http://www.rhr.israel.net/overview.shtml
Refusenicks http://www.refusersolidarity.net/
Search for justice and equality
http://www.searchforjustice.org
Seruv --Courage to Refuse
http://www.seruv.org.il/defaulteng.asp
Shvil Zahav (The Middle Way) http://www.middleway.org
Ta'Ayush (Arab Jewish Partnership)
http://www.taayush.org
Tikkun Magazine http://www.tikkun.org
Toronto's Jewish Youth Against the Occupation
http://www.TJYATO.tripod.com
Visions for peace with justice in Israel/Palestine
http://www.vopj.org/
Yesh Gvul, The movement for IDF men refusing to serve
in the Occupied Territories.
http://www.diak.org/Haayesh-gvul.htm ,
http://www.yesh-gvul.org/ (in Hebrew and English)

Individuals with excellent work
Uri Avnery http://www.avnery-news.co.il
Israeli musician Gilad Atzmon, see some of his
political reflections at
http://www.gilad.co.uk/inno.html
http://www.gilad.co.uk/refelections.html
http://www.gilad. co.uk/helicopter.html
Iris Bar http://iris_bar.tripod.com/
Norman Finkelstein http://www.normanfinkelstein.com/
Ran HaCohen http://www.antiwar.com/hacohen/h-col.html
David Kirshbaum
http://members.aol.com/savepalestine/index.htm
Michael Neumann
http://members.tripod.com/~mneumann/mnisrael.htm
Ilan Pappe http://defendpappe.freeservers.com/
Tanya Reinhart http://www.tau.ac.il/~reinhart/
Israel Shamir, an Israeli writer
http://www.israelshamir.net
Eyal Weizman's excellent work at
http://www.opendemocracy.com/debates/issue.jsp?debateId=45&id=2
Amira Hass and Gideon Levy and other articles in
Haaretz http://www.haaretzdaily.com/
Rabbi Jeremy Milgrom, Jerusalem, abu-maor@...

Conscientious Objection to Military Service in Israel
http://www.shministim.org/english_letter.html
http://www.refusersolidarity.net/
http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/aipub/1999/SUM/51504999.htm
ttp://www.amnesty-usa.org/news/1999/51506799.htm
http://www.uscj.org/ctvalley/beki/conscientious.html
Israeli Reservists Refusing to Serve
http://www.seruv.org.il/defaulteng.asp


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