Staff at the University of Otago are asking that the University adopt boycott, divestment, and other appropriate non-violent means in response to Israel’s human rights violations, breaches of international humanitarian law, and destruction of the education system in Gaza.

Please see our motion here. Below are some answers to key questions. If you have any questions please email us at otagostaff4palestinegmail.com

But the University is Neutral? What about Free Speech?

These are disingenuous arguments: the university often does act in non-neutral ways (eg Fossil Fuels); the university is a corporate institution – investments are not ‘neutral’, they should be ethical.

• Selective application – action has been taken on important issues. Eg: Treaty / Fossil Fuels Divestment: changed in how the university, as collective agent, operates. 
• Kalven Report – Institutional Neutrality. Per the Report, in “the exceptional instance,” the “corporate activities of the university may appear so incompatible with paramount social values” as to override presumption. Genocide – the crime of crimes – is surely the “exceptional instance”.
• University is a space for debate but as a corporate (collective) entity, it should not invest in companies that violate human rights or international law. Knowingly supporting Israel through purchasing decisions is not neutrality; it’s choosing a side.
• In some instances, adopting a position of neutrality (or bystander apathy) is choosing a side.
• Scholasticide is an attack on free speech (every university in Gaza has been damaged or destroyed). If the Uni is committed to the international arena as a space for free speech, it must respond. The deliberate attacks on journalists in Gaza are also unprecedented in modern times – again an attack on free speech. 

But we don’t have any investments or relations of substance?  

Despite all assurances from the University, there is evidence to the contrary. Indirect relations are obscured through third parties, and potential direct relations are hidden entirely. 

• The University has not yet provided evidence that it does not invest in Israeli bonds, weapons manufacturers, or businesses that support the illegal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. If the University really has no genocide-profiteering investments in Israel, they need to evidence this.

Note: Other tertiary institutions in this country have hidden their unethical investments in trusts which aren’t discoverable via OIA requests.

• The University of Otago uses UniSaver Ltd, administered by Mercer (N.Z.) Ltd. as its superannuation investment fund manager. UniSaver is promoted as a key workplace benefit for staff, yet is one of the most unethical superannuation funds in the country. UniSaver invests in three Israeli banks which support illegal settlements in the West Bank, in Israeli government bonds, and in Elbit Systems. Elbit Systems helped to construct the apartheid wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, manufactures weapons and technology that is carrying out the ongoing genocide, and markets its weapons as being battle-tested on Palestinian bodies. UniSaver also invests in several companies named by the UN High Commissioner as being involved in illegal settlements and ethnic cleansing: Expedia, Motorola, General Mills and more. When this was raised with UniSaver directly, they suggested that we “agree to disagree”.
• The University of Otago purchases technology from companies that control the movement and manage surveillance of Palestinians under occupation. One particularly egregious example is Hewlett-Packard (HP), utilised in the university’s new digital workspace rollout. HP provides computer hardware to the Israeli army and maintains data centres through their servers for the Israeli police. This technology has no place in an educational institution with a conscience. This issue has been raised with previous VCs who have suggested that an alternative could be relatively simply chosen but there has been no follow-through: the can has been kicked down the road.

Why boycott Israeli universities?

Israeli universities are complicit in the ongoing systematic violation of Palestinian rights.

• Israeli universities are intimately tied to the project of territorial expansion, intellectual justification and military technology development, they have actively contributed to the settler-colonial project rather than offered substantial critique of the state of Israel.
• Several universities are built on illegal land, for example the Hebrew university in East Jerusalem.
• They train and offer education to Israeli soldiers and develop weapons and technology used directly against the Palestinian people
• Academics help justify the Israeli state military strategies, for example by developing ‘doctrines’ that allow for disproportionate military actions and responses, for example, the “Dahiya doctrine” of disproportionate force employed by the Israeli military in committing war crimes against Palestinian and Lebanese civilians.
• https://bdsmovement.net/academic-boycott#tab1

Academic Boycott: But shouldn’t academics be able to still work with both Palestinian and Palestinian- supportive academics there?

            There remain options for individual collaborations

• Individual academics can still work with colleagues and support them at an individual level. The academic boycott calls only for institutional boycott, that is, withdrawing from research grants, conferences hosted there, journals etc, international partnerships or any formal university – level partnerships.
• Isolating universities there internationally helps challenge their legitimacy as universities.

Why should little old Otago be involved? It’s not our problem…

International law is unambiguous on what needs to happen. Solidarity demands that we respond to Palestinians’ own efforts to end their oppression, including BDS.

• International law is clear on this – and becoming more so…145 of the 193 member states in the UN recognize a Palestinian state.
• We are proud of past actions: History of the bold stance NZ took on nuclear proliferation; Did not send soldiers into Iraq (in combat role)
• Aotearoa/NZ is part of the Western alliance that is backing Israel with weapons and political cover. We are part of a military alliance which has launched attacks on the Red Sea trying to break a blockade of Israel.  
• Government and the media have failed to give voice to the movement for sanctions against Israel. It falls on universities to make an ethical stand against genocide. 
• It is an exceptional set of circumstances that cannot be tolerated as a “tragic” norm. No conflict in the post-WW2 period has seen such a wholesale assault on international law and the targeting of civilians and civilian infrastructure. If this is not opposed through legal and political means it will make other genocides permissible. 
• The university’s privileged position as critic and conscience rests on an international consensus of laws and freedoms that are being destroyed at a precipitous rate to defend this genocide. 
• For staff: Universities across the world have shown leadership on this issue: Antwerp, Bergen, UC Davis, Palermo, University of Quebec and the University of Windsor among many others. 
• Given that genocide is illegal, the support of Otago for any companies, investments or institutions might constitute legal problems for support of genocide.

Divestments and academic boycotts don’t work

Is BDS a surefire way to bring about lasting peace? No. There are no assurances for this kind of work. But, this is a peaceful, international movement, using tactics with a history of success in a range of other circumstances, that was generated by Palestinian civil society and supported by a great many in the Palestinian diaspora.

• Tools are limited – solidarity demands deference to those who are developing tactics on the frontlines (eg: the global BDS movement).
• As an individual institution our action is small but not when considered as part of collective action alongside other universities who have made these moves.
• Impact is broader than $ divestment – cultural and academic isolation might also have positive effects for Palestine. 
• Boycotts and sanctions helped rid South Africa of Apartheid.
• International isolation of Israeli universities, given their significant role in Israel’s military and intellectual justification of their actions, helps challenge the legitimacy of those institutions.

Didn’t this start on October 7^th?  

There is a long, well-documented  history of Israeli terrorism, forced displacement, ethnic cleansing and the systematic violation of Palestinian human rights.

• 1948: The Nakba is both a historical event (hundreds of villages razed, hundreds of thousands of refugees who lost their homes) and a historical reality – separation of families, continuous confiscations of land, settlements, apartheid.
• The UN Security Council resolution 242 (1967) calls for Palestinian territorial sovereignty, statehood and the withdrawal from the West Bank, Gaza and Golan Heights. Suffice to say these commitments have not been upheld and the current Israeli routinely threatens to annex the West Bank. 
• Gaza has been under siege since 2006. Israeli scholar Baruch Kimmerling – Hebrew University Jerusalem –  called Gaza “the world’s largest concentration camp ever” (2007). Conservative UK PM David Cameron called Gaza a “prison camp” (2010).  
• In 2018, the non-violent “Great March of Return” was organized, with civilians marching up to the border wall. 6106 protestors were shot by Israeli snipers, with 183 fatalities, 35 of which were children. One Israeli sniper bragged to Haaretz that they shot ‘42 knees in one day’. 

Whataboutism: eg: why not make a statement about Ukraine? or Iran?

There are always going to be injustices ongoing while the international community, for a host of complex reasons, brings its collective attention to bear on injustices elsewhere. Consistency with such a position would involve doing nothing about everything.

• Re Ukraine, our government has made clear commitments and taken action. Other nations such as Iran are already subject to a range of international sanctions and boycotts. Israel continues to enjoy both international acceptance and ongoing financial support for its military operations.
• This is a clear and present danger/catastrophe – an ongoing genocide. There are very clear lines of culpability and very direct mechanisms such as BDS- mechanisms endorsed by Palestinian groups – for preventing further escalation.
• If anything, we are late to the table on this – we should be chastised for not doing this sooner

Responding to Colonization

For the university to take seriously its treaty obligations it must recognize and respond to settler colonialism – something the UN has already done, describing Israel’s actions as tantamount to settler colonialism. 

• Recognize – Israel is a settler colonial state engaging in occupation, apartheid and a prima facie case for genocide.
• As a Te-Tiriti led institution there should, at the very least, be sensitivity to this. 

What happens if Jewish students tell us they feel unsafe? Won’t this encourage antisemitism? 

There is no reason to feel for anyone to feel unsafe given that both protests and demands are peaceful

• Protests are legally protected, peaceful and the demands within BDS are themselves not only peaceful, but committed to bringing about peace for a people being destroyed. 
• We abhor antisemitism and our critiques are aimed at the state of Israel. Among our group urging divestment are Jewish academics. 
• The absolute safety of people in Palestine is threatened every day, while all students here enjoy the protection of their rights to safety, autonomy and protection. 
• The university value of manaakitanga extends to all our students here, but should also ensure we act when people are so grossly subject to human rights violations – these two actions are possible simultaneously.
• Making individuals feel uncomfortable is not the same as making them feel unsafe. It is a duty of universities to make people feel uncomfortable by challenging their unexamined assumptions and beliefs.