STAND WITH US : Urgent : Action Alert - Sign Petition - Overturn Spain's Boycott of Israeli University

ACTION ALERT

OVERTURN SPAIN'S BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL'S ARIEL UNIVERSITY CENTER

SIGN THE PETITION—AND WRITE TO THE U.S. AND SPANISH GOVERNMENTS

THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENGERGY SHOULD DEMAND THAT SPAIN REVOKE ITS
DISCRIMINATORY DECISION, OR LOSE U.S. SPONSORSHIP AND THE PRIVILEGE OF HOLDING
THE SOLAR DECATHLON

Click Here to sign now.

Political extremists have launched yet another Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign targeting Israel. They pressured Spain into abruptly expelling Ariel University Center (AUC) from the 2010 Solar Decathlon, an international competition for building a self-sustaining solar house, even though Ariel’s team was chosen as one of 20 finalists. The U.S. Department of Energy created the first Solar Decathlon in 2002, agreed in 2007 to have Spain host the competition in alternating years, and is co-sponsoring the 2010 event.

BDS’s goal of spreading the 60-year-old Arab boycott against Israel violates all standards for international cooperation which call for transcending political grievances in joint research that will advance human knowledge and benefit humanity. BDS activists oppose and threaten those ideals. Spain has capitulated to their demands.

PETITION

To: U.S. Department of Energy; U.S. State Department; Members of U.S. Congress; Secretary General of Housing, Kingdom of Spain; Prime Minister Jose Luis Zapatero, Kingdom of Spain; OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights

We, the undersigned,

Demand that Spain reinstate Israel’s Ariel U in the international solar competition immediately. The AUC team had been accepted as one of 20 finalists, had already received some Decathlon funds to complete their project, and had worked for over a year when, with no warning, Spain’s Minister of Housing wrote on 9/11/09 that they had been expelled.

Urge U.S. officials to revoke U.S. co-sponsorship of Spain ‘s Solar Decathlon if Spain does not reverse the policy. The U.S. should not be complicit in a boycott against Israel.

Condemn Spain’s violation of its 2007 “Memorandum of Understanding” with the U.S. which granted it the right to the host the 10th Decathlon. The agreement did not give Spain the right to arbitrarily exclude teams on political grounds.

Condemn Spain for capitulating to the malicious BDS political campaign. The BDS letter to Spain (Sept. 14, 2009) is a screed of extremist demands, distortions of international law, and demonization of Israel and even of its environmental innovations. BDS has no interest in furthering this crucial area of research, and should not be allowed to impose its political vendettas on students engaged in serious research that will contribute to human progress. “Boycott is incompatible with the hallmark of academic culture: a free, research-based dialogue,” according to the Rector of Norway’s University of Science and Technology.

Condemn Spain’s misrepresentation of EU policy to justify the exclusion. Ariel’s location in the West Bank does not violate any EU policy on cooperative projects. Israel has extensive economic, cultural and scientific programs with the EU. Between 2007 and 2009, there were 428 joint scientific projects, some of which were located over the Green Line, the 1949 Armistice lines. Israel and the Palestinians have been negotiating to determine what the future borders between them should be.

Condemn Spain for punitive, discriminatory actions against Arab and Israeli students at Ariel U, and against the diverse group that was on the Decathlon team. They have been a model of Arab-Israeli cooperation.

We respectfully remind all parties that Israel and the Palestinians are trying to work out a solution to their conflict. Many peace proposals have placed Ariel within Israel’s final borders with the Palestinians. This boycott presupposes and prejudices the outcome of future negotiations.

Call upon the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) to investigate whether Spain’s actions qualify as anti-Semitic according to the OSCE’s 2004 Vienna Declaration. Anti-Semitism includes “the singling out of Israel for discriminatory treatment in the international arena,” according to the London Declaration on Combating Anti-Semitism of 2008. International polls have shown Spain has the highest rate of anti-Semitic attitudes of any country in Europe.

Signed

Urgent : Action Alert - Sign Petition - Overturn Spain's Boycott of Israeli University