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| open_letter_to_uo [2024/05/24 08:11] – rcif | open_letter_to_uo [2024/06/20 21:07] (current) – rcif |
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| | - [[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Q1oICBZ_g34f_qLccPLqyH4eZu6uf52POJOYGStlexg/edit|June 6th 2024 open letter on curriculum reform]]. |
| | - [[https://docs.google.com/document/d/1YyUixeMASy4r2qzxPE-5BHyNyYbGftekwpM-WZC3kzU/edit?usp=sharing|Questions for class discussion]] on the [[wp>s:Declaration_of_Independence_(Israel)]] |
| | - Proposals and terms for a parliamentary style debate and [[Israel_palestine_debate|public disputation on the Israel/Palestine question]] |
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| | May 2024 open letter: |
| ===== Wherefore we have resolved ===== | ===== Wherefore we have resolved ===== |
| * To endorse the [[https://international.uoregon.edu/israel-palestine-shared-principles|UO Faculty's Shared Principles for Organizing Educational Events on Current Crisis in Israel and Palestine]], "regretting lives lost on both sides" and will not platform voices that "dehumanize" or demonize the other. We call on the ASUO and GTFF to endorse it as well, and to renounce their policy of bigoted ignorance and apparent anti-Jewish prejudice. | * To endorse the [[https://international.uoregon.edu/israel-palestine-shared-principles|UO Faculty's Shared Principles for Organizing Educational Events on Current Crisis in Israel and Palestine]], "regretting lives lost on both sides" and will not platform voices that "dehumanize" or demonize the other. We call on the ASUO and GTFF to endorse it as well, and to renounce their policy of bigoted ignorance and apparent anti-Jewish prejudice. |
| ===== Proposal for public disputation and terms of debate ===== | ===== Proposal for public disputation and terms of debate ===== |
| Consistent with these statements, we propose a parliamentary style debate and [[Israel_palestine_debate|public disputation on the Israel/Palestine question]]. We call on the philosophy club and the debate society to host the debate, after first showing good faith by a vote no-confidence in the ASUO and the GTFF, after their public display of conspicuous ignorance. We call on faculty from the Liberal Arts (wscr) department to advise on critical reasoning, and help the opponents to come to agreements on terms of debate, on questions at issue, and to stipulate on generally shared premises of ontology, physics, metaphysics, and logic. We call on all other faculty and teaching fellows to host their own public disputations, or else all their union leaders are not scholars, and should therefore voluntarily resign and call for new elections. | Consistent with these statements, we propose a parliamentary style debate and [[Israel_palestine_debate|public disputation on the Israel/Palestine question]]. We call on the philosophy club and the debate society to host the debate, after first showing good faith by a vote no-confidence in the ASUO and the GTFF, after their public display of conspicuous ignorance. We call on faculty from the Liberal Arts (wscr) department to advise on critical reasoning, and help the opponents to come to agreements on terms of debate, on questions at issue, and to stipulate on generally shared premises of ontology, physics, metaphysics, and logic. We call on all other faculty and teaching fellows to host their own public disputations, or else all their union leaders are not scholars, and should therefore voluntarily resign and call for new elections. |
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| An ethical investing committee could be formed, with the stipulation that Israel is not going to be singled out for divestment, nor held to a different ethical standard than other nations, especially not under the theory that a Jewish or Hebrew state is inherently racist or evil, has no right to exist as such or to defend itself against attack, and that Marxist-Leninist terrorism and Arab or Islamic supremacist attacks against it are a priori justifiable. | |
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| In order to avoid various red herrings and equivocations, we will deprecate the unfortunate terms "antisemitism" and "islamophobia" and speak merely of "anti-Muslim" and "anti-Jewish" worldviews and biases, if and when it becomes necessary to do so. We invite all interested scholars to acknowledge our [[revised_ihra_definition_of_antisemitism|Definition of AntiJudaism]], or begin critical analysis and offer commentary. | In order to avoid various red herrings and equivocations, we will deprecate the unfortunate terms "antisemitism" and "islamophobia" and speak merely of "anti-Muslim" and "anti-Jewish" worldviews and biases, if and when it becomes necessary to do so. We invite all interested scholars to acknowledge our [[revised_ihra_definition_of_antisemitism|Definition of AntiJudaism]], or begin critical analysis and offer commentary. |
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| | ===== Ethical Social Governance of Investment portfolio ===== |
| | An ethical investing committee could be formed. |
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| | We should pressure the U.S. State department to stop financing Palestinian "pay-to-slay" terrorism, and come into compliance with existing U.S. law prohibiting it. |
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| | The committee should endorse the [[https://d12t4t5x3vyizu.cloudfront.net/gottheimer.house.gov/uploads/2023/07/PayforSlayFinal7.18.23.pdf|bipartisan congressional letter of July 2023 to State Department and Secretary Blinken]], from over 50 prominent U.S. Congresspeople, requesting a financial investigation of the "PA martyr's fund" and enforcement of the 2018 "Taylor Force Act" [[https://www.congress.gov/115/bills/hr1164/BILLS-115hr1164pcs.pdf|115th H.R. 1146]], against its egregious "[[wp>pay-to-slay]]" stipends given to prisoners and families of suicide bombers. |
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| | We should not encourage more attacks against Israel by listening to a BDS movement which holds that a Hebrew or Jewish state is inherently racist or evil and has no right to exist, and that Marxist-Leninist terrorism and Arab or Islamic supremacist attacks against it are a priori justifiable. We should not entertain efforts to demonize Israel, single it out for moral rebuke, and hold it to a different ethical standard than other nations. |
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| | We should not allow ignorant prejudice and anti-Jewish bias to prevent critical thinking about other systems of oppression such as Roman imperialism, Christian dominionism, militant Islam, and Marxist-Leninism - which have traditionally scapegoated Jews and their institutions in order to prevent such critical thinking. |
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| | We reject the notion that Sabra hummous and pretzels are part of an international Zionist conspiracy to control your snacks and vending machines. But if it is, its one in which the University should invest and with whom it should contract. The University should consider divesting from sugary sodas, candy bars, and potato chips, if it cares about the ASUO mission of promoting the "social, cultural, educational, and physical development" of its students. The University should divest from sweat-shop labor in its ath-leisure apparel stores, if it cares about social justice. And good-faith activists would call for this. And we should invite future Israeli investments in our welfare, or stand collectively guilty of stupid anti-Israeli bigotry to our own hurt and loss, to no apparent benefit but the promotion of prejudiced ignorance. Insofar as it is intended to merely "send a message" and set a moral example, its sends a morally idiotic message that is terrible example for Palestinians, Arabs collectively, and for our own students. |
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| | Pretzels and Hummus are, in our humble opinion the best of both German and Palestinian food, combined in a unique and delicious fusion. Sabra snacks are an appetizing alternative and a generous cultural gift to both Germany and Palestine, helping them both to atone for the unholy alliance between the Arab High Committee of Palestine and the Nazi party of third reich Germany during the 1930's and 40's, which sought and failed to entirely remove Jews from the earth, and are apparently conspiring to do so again. We want more Sabra hummus and pretzels in all our campus stores, in submission to our taste buds and bodies, and in honor of the anti-fascist resistance. We are not afraid to disclose our agenda, but we think you should invest. |
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| ===== Educational Manifesto ===== | ===== Educational Manifesto ===== |
| * [[|history classes]] | * [[|history classes]] |
| * [[|religion classes]] | * [[|religion classes]] |
| | * [[https://youtu.be/oJbfMkbHk7w?t=3163|2024 Class President Luda Iskharov speaks at commencement]] |
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| ===== Union Resolutions, Official Responsa, Media Accounts ===== | ===== Union Resolutions, Official Responsa, Media Accounts ===== |
| * [[https://freespeech.uoregon.edu/sites/default/files/2024-05/Encampment%20Resolution%20Agreement%205%2022%2024.pdf|UO-Gaza encampment agreement facilitated by UO Senate]] | * [[https://freespeech.uoregon.edu/sites/default/files/2024-05/Encampment%20Resolution%20Agreement%205%2022%2024.pdf|UO-Gaza encampment agreement facilitated by UO Senate]] |
| * [[@GradsforPalestine announcement of agreement]] | * [[@GradsforPalestine announcement of agreement]] |
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