Executive Order 13067 issued by President Bush in 2006 and expanded in April 2007 imposes a trade embargo prohibiting most American businesses from operating in the Sudan. The goal is to use economic sanctions to get the Khartoum government to stop the genocide. The shareholder project addresses American business that indirectly supports commerce with Sudan. The Porters claim that Berkshire Hathaway invests in a Chinese oil company that is a subsidiary of The China National Petroleum Company which does business in Sudan and thereby indirectly funds the Sudanese military.

• To read the full account, click here.
• To visit the web site chronicling their efforts click here.
• For more information, visit www.SudanDivestment.org

On this side of the pond, American reaction has been predictable. The American Jewish Committee "emphatically reject[s] the premises of these motions. They are based on a one-sided interpretation of the Middle East conflict, and inflict collective punishment on Israeli academics." AJC urges its members to write letters to the UCU. The Simon Wiesenthal Center ties the present action to "several shameful efforts among British unions to delegitimize Israel . the National Union of Journalists passed a motion to boycott Israeli goods. And recently a group of British doctors and architects also called for boycotts within their fields of work." Wiesenthal Center decries "this unjust, one-sided and ultimately anti-Semitic initiative singling out Israeli academics and institutions" and joins the call for a letter writing campaign.

The contemplated UCU boycott differs from some others because it appears to invite an intellectual "shunning" process, rather than a purely economic sanction: British academics and institutions, in their searches for (presumably) truth in all fields of study, are asked not to accept Israeli academics as participants. We invite your views on how to respond to the calls for boycott of Israeli academics, as well as boycott calls addressing commerce.

But on this, as on several other matters, I have come to realise that it no longer serves my interests as a researcher in higher education, nor can I usefully contribute to advancing reasoned debate on this matter within the Union. I am not a Zionist (that is, I do not defend Israel's "absolute" right to exist, with its current boundaries, in the face of other, conflicting needs) and I have often found fault with actions and decisions of the Israeli government. Nevertheless, as far as I can tell, this boycott is not supported by Israeli protest groups concerned with developing improved relations with Palestine. I cannot align myself with it. The universities in Britain are also in an 'interesting' position since the British government has repeatedly suggested that some of them are hotbeds of terrorism, offering platforms for radical Muslim ideas and groupings. Apart from anything else, it was singularly unpolitic for those members of UCU who want to progress this action to have chosen this time to set up the plan for an academic boycott. To me, it suggests that the Union is neither properly led, nor effectively representative. As with other organised work unions in the UK (and thanks mainly to the legislation curbing Union powers that Thatcher introduced), the actions of the union are increasingly irrelevant to its original purpose.

Perhaps it is this functional vacuum that has attracted unrepresentative policies and actions that are extremely effective at making a sound and fury.. but signify....?

Ruth Campbell, Ph.D

"RELATIONS BETWEEN Israelis and Palestinians have reached such a low point that many on both sides are increasingly despairing of peace efforts. . [G]roups that consider the two-state solution as the cornerstone of their vision for a secure and lasting peace are increasingly dismissed as passé, unrealistic. "It's over," many are saying from within those communities.

"Is it really over?

"Not even close. A negotiated separation agreement between Israelis and Palestinians that would allow both to live in their sovereign states, with peace and security, can work. True, there are challenges to achieving this goal, including the Israeli settlement enterprise, the question of Hamas, regional spoilers, and absentee US leadership. But the alternatives are either unacceptable or unrealistic.

"One alternative is perpetual conflict. Israeli and Palestinian hard-liners say there will be peace only when the other side is defeated. Surrender is not an option for either side, as we have seen in 20 years of on-again-off-again violence. .

"The other alternative is propounded by those, mainly on the Palestinian (and Israeli) far left, who support a "one-state solution," . A binational state, too, is a recipe for perpetual conflict.

"But it's not just a matter of bad alternatives. It's a matter of real, feasible opportunities, which can make compromise easier for both sides.

"The two-state solution stipulates a historic compromise, a grand deal that a majority of Israelis and Palestinians have repeatedly said they support. It involves an end to Israeli territorial claims in the West Bank and an end to Palestinian claims inside Israel. It requires a Palestinian recognition that those refugees from the 1948 war choosing to return will largely do so to a new Palestinian state rather than to what is now Israel, and an Israeli recognition that a fulfillment of the right they believe they have to settle in the West Bank will be either in a Palestinian state or as part of a negotiated minor West Bank land swap. It requires complex compromise-formulae to both divide and share the holy city of Jerusalem as the capital of two states, to divide and share resources such as water.

"We are used to dynamics on the ground making it increasingly difficult for both sides to consider such compromises. But that is not always the case. Now, for example, the League of Arab States is urging Israel to consider a substantial incentive for compromising: full peace and normal relations with all 22 members of the Arab umbrella-organization, in return for an Israeli withdrawal from the territories it occupied 40 years ago. Senior Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his defense and foreign ministers, have lately expressed interest in exploring the Arab League's initiative.

"The question is not whether a two-state solution is attainable. The question is whether Israelis, Palestinians, and Americans will exercise the political will to make it happen."

(Ori Nir is a spokesman for Americans for Peace Now. Rafi Dajani is the Executive Director of the American Task Force on Palestine.)

Monacelli, a reading and language arts teacher, incorporates technology into her curriculum in an effort to engage her students. Each month, following extensive research, student groups produce a script and recorded presentations on specific topics. Their podcasts are reproduced on websites and can be downloaded into MP3 players.

In January 2007, the podcast topic was the Holocaust. Students learned about the contest from a flyer that school principal Terry Pearsall-Hargett left in the teacher's mailbox. As the students began their research, many of them became deeply disturbed by what they were learning when they came across the Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, which holds 300 recorded interviews. Captivated by the personal stories of the survivors, the students were unable to pull themselves away. According to Monacelli, "They sat with headphones for days and listened to each of the personal accounts as they read along. It really opened their eyes to the personal and emotional aspects of the Holocaust that often cannot be captured in the written word."

The power of Holocaust studies has been widely recognized by educators. In this case the students knew nothing of the Holocaust and had never even heard the word before they began this project. The impact was profound. As Monacelli observed, "The project changed me because I got to watch my students grow in that way and take what I would consider to be a major step towards becoming caring and responsible adults. It is not every day that you get to see that kind of transformation right before your eyes, not even as a teacher. You could never understand just how much they learned from those survivors unless you were there to see them learn. The survivors you hear in that podcast are as close to them as if they were still alive and sitting right there with them. Those survivors taught my kids invaluable lessons that could not have been learned any other way. They call them by their first names, that is how close they feel to them. Although all of those survivors are deceased, they were alive again to us for a short period of time. And they are still alive every time someone hears their story through that podcast. That has been the incredible part for us. It has touched so many people. Now I really understand the significance of the Holocaust and so do my students."

In the Philadelphia area, there are many survivors, several of them authors, who are available to present their riveting, eyewitness testimonies to teachers and students. They represent the last generation who will be able to do so

Survivor speakers for schools and institutions are available through the PA Holocaust Education Council www.PHEC.ORG. Recorded survivor of Philadelphia area testimonies are available at the Gratz College Holocaust History Oral Archive. Call: 215-635-7300.

• To download or listen to the podcast click here.
• To learn more about the Voice/Vision Holocaust Survivor Oral History Archive at the University of Michigan-Dearborn click here.

Connie Beresin, Alisa Field, Brian Gocial, Nancy Gordon, Eve Klothen, Sidney Margulies and Josh Pasek.

Everything we do, every policy, every action, every mailing that comes to you, every newsletter, and each program, is designed and composed by volunteer hands. So we recognize the community service that these members have given and thank them sincerely for it.