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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 24, 1978)
Letters My money I am shocked and appalled that the ASUO spent my incidental fee money on a pro-gay advertise ment in the Emerald. After calling the office for an explanation, I was told that the officers responsible for the ad felt that they were re flecting the general student sen timent. Was there a poll taken that would indicate this? I was told there was not. I believe the ASUO acted carelessly and selfishly in its appropriation of funds to pay for the advertisement, and I call for the members responsible for the ad to personally reimburse the ASUO fund with their own money. I also hope that, in the future, my money is not spent for political purposes. P. Sharkey Bleeg Freshman, Accounting Trial continues Today, Wednesday, May 24, the trial will continue of one who protested State Board ownership of stocks in Southern Africa. It is im portant that people come to the trial to visibly support those on trial, for the stronger our case will be and the closer we will be to turning this trial into a victory. The University officials and the court are trying to make this a simple case of trespassing. It’s much more than that; it istheir way of attacking the political stand be hind the sit-in. They want to tell us that we ll be crushed if we stand up and fight. We will never reach the goal of divestiture, much less get the U S. out of Southern Af rica, without overstepping the bounds of the system. The efforts of the court to squash the real issues of the case show how desperate the rep resentatives of the profit system are in trying to continue to plunder the peoples of Southern Africa quietly. Attend the trial today! Victory to the peoples of South ern Africa! Myra Delay 111 N. Garfield, Eugene Policy explained Re: Mike Campbell’s letter at tacking our placement of a “No on 51” ad in the Emerald ..I expected some flak from students support ing this horrendous referendum. Because our student population is so large and diverse, the ASUO Executive sometimes advocates that which some students oppose. We ran the advertisements not out of our own personal prefer ences, but because we firmly be lieve that defeat of Ballot Measure 51 will do more for students than its passage ever could. We do not, as a practice, poll students before embarking on every project undertaken. Our time and money resources pre vent us from scientifically sampl ing student opinion for any and every issue. We talk with students daily and believe the majority of informed and educated students oppose the repeal of the so-called “gay rights ordinance.” Students should know that the ASUO Executive has already taken a position on this very issue by extending “protected class status’’ to homosexuals in our Af firmative Action/Equal Opportun ity hiring policy. It’s unfortunate that some stu dents are upset over our place ment of the ad. It may have been better to simply state our opinion, rather than using student funds to take a position on a controversial issue before the voters. We want students to vote, and admittedly, we may have made a mistake by encouraging them how to vote. But, we will not run “yes on 51 ads! That would accomplish nothing. Keli Osborn ASUO vice-president Fight back In January, the University and the cops arrested 23 people for oDitti<m protesting the State Board’s stal ling on dumping the Southern Af rican stock. Now Attorney General Redden has provided the legal cover the State Board needed to stop the divestment of the $6 mill ion worth of stock. He says that the sale of stock can take place only for PROFIT — moral or politi cal grounds can’t be considered. The University, the courts, Redden, and the State Board have all lined up against the libera tion struggles of the people of Southern Africa. They stand on the side of the Smith and Vorster regimes and the U S. corporations who super-exploit the Blacks there. Redden’s decision to get the State Board off the hook shows that you can’t win anything by pur suing "proper channels.” It was right for the demonstrators to oc cupy Johnson Hall to force the issue. Now we can lay down and let the movement around South ern Africa be crushed or we can fight back. The trial of one of the Johnson Hall demonstrators con tinues on Wednesday at 9 a m. in Municipal Court. Attend the trial and fight back! Victory to the people of South ern Africa. Renee Romanoff Junior, History Letters policy The Emerald will accept and try to print all letters and opinion col umns containing fair comment on ideas and topics of concern or interest to the University commun ity. Letters and opinions must be typewritten, using 65-character margins, and should be triple spaced. Letters and opinions must be signed, with the author's year and field of study (or faculty status) noted. Letters and opin ions will be run on a first-come first-served basis. To Pres. Boyd: Raise the Palestinian flag Submitted by Monathamat Altalabah of the Organization of Arab Students. Editor's note: This letter to Pres. Boyd was also signed by MEChA. the Iranian Student Association, the Eugene Committee for a free Chile, the Committee for a Free Palestine, Sociology Prof. Albert Szymanski, the Gulf Solidarity Committee, and the May Day Cultural Committee. On May 11th the University administration raised the flag of the state of Israel to celebrate its so-called 30th anniversary. We stated on that day that this action on the part of the University had clearly showed a biased political stand in support of the state of Israel and its policies. You personally, Mr. President, have demonstrated your support of the state of Israel and its policies and your opposition to the right of the Palestinian people in more than one occasion. Your visit last fall to the state of Israel and the appearance of your name among the endorsers of the Zionist advertisement in the Emerald May 10 and 11, page 5A, celebrating the creation of Israel, attest to that. By so doing you have sided with injustice, oppres sion, and racism. These are not empty words, Mr. President. Ever since the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 as an exclusive Jewish state, the Palestinian people were dis placed and were denied their right as a nation. For those Palestinians who stayed under Israeli rule, they are de nied their basic human rights as guaranteed by the Univ ersal Declaration of Human Rights and they are treated as third class citizens in their own country. We would like to briefly elaborate on the nature and practices of the colonial settler state of Israel which you enthusiastically support. The history and the policies of the state of Israel are based on the Zionist ideology. This ideology is an out come of 19th century European anti-Semitism. This ideo logy is based on the premise that anti-Semitism is inher ent and eternal in non-Jews. So, Zionism creates an unbridgable gap between a Jew and a non-Jew. Since its inception, Zionism sought the solution to anti-Semitism in the creation of an exclusive Jewish state in Palestine. Some Jewish voices doubted and condemned Zionism and its concept of an exclusive Jewish state. For example, Page 4 Section A Albert Einstein stated, “I should much rather see reason able agreement with the Arabs on the basis of living together in peace than the creation of a Jewish state. Apart from practical considerations, my awareness of the essential nature of Judaism resists the idea of a Jewish state, with borders, an army, and a measure of temporal power, no matter how modest. I am afraid of the inner damage Judaism will sustain, especially from the de velopment of a narrow nationalism within our own ranks against which we have already had to fight strongly, even without a Jewish state.” To create the Jewish state, the Zionist movement followed the European pattern of Colonization in Africa. It depended fundamentally on the gathering of Jews from all over the world and the expulsion and displacement of as many of the indigenous Palestinians as possible to make room for the Jewish immigrants. This was culmi nated in the eviction of 1.5 million Palestinians from their homes which was made possible by the terrorist actions of the Zionist movement as witnessed in the massacres of Deir Yassin and Kafr Kassim. The colonial process through which Israel was founded did not come to an end the moment the state was proclaimed in 1948. On the contrary, it has left its stamp upon the character, the essential nature, as well as the conduct of its product state. The war of 1967 resulted in the swallowing up of the rest of Palestine, Sinai, and the Golan Heights: the recent invasion of Southern Lebanon last March is another man ifestation of this colonial expansionist policy. In addition to the colonial expansionist policy of the Israeli state, its internal policies are based on terrorism, racial segregation, oppression, and most important, the continued denial of the right of the Palestinians to self determination. Institutionalized racism effects all aspects of the daily lives of the Palestinians inside Israel: in work opportunities, education, civil rights, and in cultural ex pression. Palestinians still live under military laws which restrict and regulate their movements. In short, the in stitutionalized racism and the living conditions that the Palestinians live under are similar to those conditions experienced by the indigenous populations of South Af rica and Zimbabwe. These practices and policies have been repeatedly condemned by the U.N. To mention a few examples; U.N. resolution 3379 (XXX) of 10/11/75 declaring. “Zionism is a form of racism and racial dis crimination”, U N. resolution 3324E (XXIX) of 12/16/74 condemning “the strengthening of political, economic, military, and other relations between Israel and South Africa.” These, Mr. President, are the essential features of the nature and policies of the state of Israel. As you might know, the Palestinian people have struggled against the creation of this racist state and its practices. This struggle has won worldwide support, most notable of which is that of the U N. embodied in the General Assembly resolution 3376 of 11-10-75. This resolution “reaffirms the exercise by the Palestinian people of its inalienable rights in Pales tine, including the right to self-determination without ex ternal interference and the right to national independence and sovereignty, b) The exercise by the Palestinians of their inalienable rights to return to their homes and pro perty from which they have been displaced and up rooted.” These, Mr. President, are documented facts which can be easily verified. The raising of the Israeli flag symbolizes to us and the other third world people, the support of the administration of these racist policies and practices. The University’s task, through the propagation of knowledge and truth is supposedly geared towards the eradication of injustice, racism, and oppression. The University administration has done the exact opposite in the incident in question As you well know, Mr. President, this is not the first time the University administration has taken the side of injustice. We would like to remind you of the administration’s stand with regard to the just struggle of the United Farmworkers, and its stand on the divestiture of the University of Oregon stocks in South Africa. In both cases the University defied the students' wishes and re sorted to the harassment and the arrest of students. We feel, Mr. President, that the University adminis tration intends to continue its policies of neglect and dis spect towards Third World people and their struggles — Therefore, the Palestinians and other Arab students and their supporters insist on their previous demand to raise the Palestinian flag on June 5th in recognition of the just struggle of the Palestinian people for a democratic and secular state of Palestine. We hope the University ad ministration will adhere to the principle of neutrality and avail itself of their new opportunity. Wednesday, May 24, 1978
