Morgan Freeman: Refuse the Keys of Apartheid Israel

Dear Morgan Freeman,

We urge you to DECLINE the Key of Knowledge award from the Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on May 6, 2013.

Please be aware that there are sound bases in international and human rights law on which you should refuse this key.

“The Hebrew University in Jerusalem is deeply complicit in Israel’s occupation and systematic racial oppression of the Palestinian people. The Hebrew University represents part of the academic establishment in Israel. As such, it is implicated in the institutional structures that maintain and uphold the system of illegal colonial control and apartheid over Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory and over those who are citizens of Israel, and which denies Palestinian refugees their internationally recognized right to return to their homes and their lands.

The Hebrew University is itself implicated in serious violations of international law. Specifically, the University illegally acquired a significant portion of the land on which its Mount Scopus campus and dormitories are built. On 1 September 1968, about one year after Israel's military occupation of Gaza and the West Bank (which includes East Jerusalem, according to UN Security Council resolutions), the Israeli authorities confiscated 3345 dunums of Palestinian land. Part of this land was then used to build the Mount Scopus campus of Hebrew University.

The basis for the illegality of the Hebrew University land confiscation deal is that this land is part of East Jerusalem, which is an occupied territory according to international law. Israel's unilateral annexation of occupied East Jerusalem into the State of Israel, and the application of Israeli domestic law to it, are violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and have been repeatedly denounced as null and void by the international community, including by the UN Security Council in its Resolution 252 (21 May 1968). By moving Israelis (staff and students) to work and live on occupied Palestinian land, the Hebrew University is, therefore, in grave violation of the Fourth Geneva Conventions.” [1]

Furthermore, land was illegally confiscated from Palestinian families for the expansion of Hebrew University dormitories on 21 Nov 2004. [2]

Israeli police brutally attacked Palestinian students at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on 20 Nov 2012. The students were holding a peaceful demonstration against the assault on Gaza at the campus’ entrance. Four of them were arrested.[3] The repression of the Palestinian student movement at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem has intensified since Israel’s attacks on Gaza last November, as four Palestinian students were arrested in the past month.

On 6 March, 2013, Israeli police violently attacked and arrested three Palestinian students shortly after a peaceful demonstration in support of the Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strikes which was held at the campus’ entrance.

Palestinian students at the university have been organizing weekly demonstrations in support of Palestinian political prisoners on, and just outside, campus. The 6 March protest was larger than previous demonstrations, with a turnout of more than 70 students. The arrests occurred 20 minutes after the end of the demonstration, when the students were near the entrance of the dorms. Two days later, another politically active student was called for interrogation by the Israeli police. [4]

The fight for equality and accessibility in education is central to every struggle for a just and democratic society. Palestinian students and teachers trying to access education face unlawful detention, armed harassment, curfews, checkpoints, closed schools, dorm raids, an apartheid wall, separated roads, illegal arrest, and bombed schools and universities.[5] [6] [7] Israel institutes a travel ban preventing students from Gaza attending educational institutions in the West Bank which “violates Israeli obligations under international law as an occupying power, and Israel’s commitment under the Oslo accords to treat Gaza and the West Bank as a unified territory”. [8]

From Dec 2008- Jan 2009 Israel bombed the ministry of education, the Islamic University of Gaza, and tens of schools, including at least four UNRWA [the United Nations agency for Palestine refugees] schools, after having largely destroyed the infrastructure of teaching throughout the year and a half of its illegal and criminal siege of the densely populated Gaza Strip.[9]

The announcement on the Hebrew University’s website states:

“The Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University’s (CFHU) Toronto Chapter will present the esteemed Key of Knowledge award to Morgan Freeman in recognition of his work in combating segregation and prejudice, and promoting knowledge, learning and education throughout the world.”

Morgan Freeman, we ask you not to lend your name to this attempt to whitewash Israel’s violation of the educational rights of Palestinian students. Could you possibly accept such an award with a clear conscience? Please decline the Key of Knowledge award from the Canadian Friends of the Hebrew University.

[1] http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=1852
[2] http://electronicintifada.net/content/photostory-hebrew-university-displace-palestinian-families/5328
[3] http://electronicintifada.net/content/israels-repression-palestinian-students-reached-new-level-during-gaza-attack/11948
[4] http://electronicintifada.net/content/israeli-police-arrest-jerusalem-students-crackdown-palestinian-campus-movement/12289
[5] http://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-moves-shut-hebron-orphanages-schools/7463
[6] http://www.israelsoccupation.info/sites/default/files/Closure_of_Schools_Eng.pdf
[7] http://www.thefalcononline.com/article.php?id=7608
[8] http://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-denies-palestinians-gaza-right-study-west-bank/11444
[9] http://electronicintifada.net/content/boycott-calls-renewed-after-israel-bombs-university-teachers-assn/921

To:
Morgan Freeman 

Refuse the Keys of Apartheid Israel

Sincerely, 

As Jews around the world commemorate freedom from slavery, 5 million Palestinians are held by Israel under closure due to the Passover holiday.

Take a leap of faith. Put yourself out there. Fake it until you make it. You may surprise yourself in a good way

This is a phrase so well-known, it has its own Wikipedia entry. I’m here to affirm that it works. I have been faking it for years. And if you stopped reading right there, I’m afraid you will have come away with entirely the wrong idea - on a number of levels. So please keep reading.

To be clear, I’m not recommending that anyone lie on their résumé or literally fake what they don’t know. What I am recommending is that you take a leap of faith about the value of what you do know. Particularly if you are a woman. You might be surprised how far it takes you. You might also be surprised how much you really do know and how useful that knowledge is to others.

Most people who know me would be shocked to learn that I am absolutely terrified of public speaking and participating in public debate. Every time I raise my hand to speak, I can feel my heart jump into my throat and my pulse race. Every. Single. Time. My entire life, I have been plagued by self-doubt and insecurity. I wonder, am I good enough? Am I smart enough? Do people like me? Cue the Stuart Smalley daily affirmation video. These questions have plagued me since I was very young and still do.

I particularly recall an incident from 6th grade. That year I was moved up into a class for gifted students. On the first day of school I stood in the school lobby at 8 am waiting to be let into the classroom. As I was waiting, nerves got the better of me and I vomited my morning strawberry-frosted Pop Tart all over the floor. I was convinced that the other kids would find out that I was not supposed to be there. A mistake had been made. The test had to have been wrong. I was not as good as the other kids. I wasn’t as smart and soon, they would all know.

The school nurse cleaned me up and asked me if I wanted to go home. No, I didn’t. I went to class that day. No one knew I had blown chunks all over my shoes. No one ever did. What I did that day, I was to do on many days again in my life -- I faked it. I powered through and didn’t look back. And I discovered along the way that my place among my classmates was well deserved.

Fast forward to 1998. I had started at Yahoo! as a data analyst in June of that year to look at all this new data that was being collected online that no one knew what to do with. Part of my job was to deal with privacy. I think it got to be my job because no one else wanted to do it. I was 27 years old (the average age of an employee at Yahoo! then) and had worked there for a total of 6 weeks when I was told to represent the company to a new industry association that was creating an industry-wide self-regulatory code for online privacy. I had never represented a company. I had never been part of an industry association. I had never written a self-regulatory code. I had never worked on privacy before. But, okay, sure. Why not?

I joined into the regularly scheduled conference calls and heard people beeping in, one after another. Big company names flew by -- IBM, AOL, Disney, Experian, Axciom, CNET, Microsoft, AT&T, Verizon, Excite, Lycos, (bear with me, this was 1998), were all on the call. It quickly became apparent to me that I was talking to some of the people who had actually written the Fair Credit Reporting Act. They were mostly twice my age and certainly had more than twice the 6 weeks of experience I had. I participated on these calls weekly, too terrified to speak other than to announce myself during roll call.

The more I listened, the more it dawned on me that the people doing most of the talking about “online privacy” knew very little about the online part of the discussion. They knew privacy, sure. But everything was changing around them very quickly and I was sitting in the middle of the thing that they knew the least about. As far as they were concerned or knew, Yahoo! wasthe Internet. I realized at that moment, I was the expert on the call - at least about the Internet. The more I heard other people share their views, the more confident I grew in my own knowledge and competence. One day, I spoke up. Before long, I was a key participant in the discussion. To me, it seemed just like I was faking it. But no one called me on it, so I just kept on. Again, I realized along the way, that I deserved my place among the others.

In Sheryl Sandberg’s book Lean In, she talks about how often women in particular suffer from this sense of masquerading as something you are not, always about to be found out. It has a name, the "impostor syndrome." Tina Fey is quoted in the book as saying, “Seriously, I’ve just realized that almost everyone is a fraud, so I try not to feel too bad about it.” And I have to agree.

The farther along I’ve gotten in my career, the more I’ve run across people that are kind of famous in their field just for being famous. At some point, you look at people’s credentials and it seems these folks are increasingly recognized for having been recognized or win awards for having won the most awards. It’s almost a recursive loop of self-praise and self-congratulations that they live in. I call these folks “Kredential Kardashians.” They may look good, they may get paid a lot, but that doesn’t mean they know anything. Many of them, like the real Kardashians, actually are dumb as rocks.

So keep all that in mind the next time you show up at a meeting where you feel like you are the least knowledgable or experienced person in the room. You almost certainly are not. And if you are, that may well be your most valuable attribute that lets you bring a fresh, unheard perspective to the fore for consideration.

Take a leap of faith. Put yourself out there. Fake it until you make it. You may surprise yourself in a good way.

Social Media vs. Social Business Strategy

              Social Media vs. Social Business Strategy

Interesting article by Brian Solis
 

The six stages are as follows :

Stage 1: Planning - "Listen to Learn"

The goal of this first stage is to ensure that there is a strong foundation for strategy development, organizational alignment, resource development, and execution.

Stage 2: Presence - "Stake Our Claim"

Staking a claim represents a natural evolution from planning to action. As you move along the journey, your experience establishes a formal and informed presence in social media.

Stage 3: Engagement - "Dialog Deepens Relationships"

When organizations move into this stage, they make a commitment where social media is no longer a “nice to “have” but instead, is seen as a critical element in relationship building.

Stage 4: Formalized - "Organize for Scale"

The risk of uncoordinated social initiatives is the main driver moving organizations into Stage 4, where a formalized approach focuses on three key activities: establishing an executive sponsor; creating a hub, a.k.a. a Center of Excellence (CoE); and establishing organization-wide governance. Organizations should plan for a potential CoE pitfall, however, as creating one may lead to scaling problems in the long-term.

Stage 5: Strategic - "Becoming a Social Business"

As organizations migrate along the maturity model, the social media initiatives gain greater visibility as they begin to have real business impact. This captures the attention of C-level executives and department heads who see the potential of social.

Stage 6: Converged - "Business is Social"

As a result of the cross-functional and executive support, social business strategies start to weave into the fabric of an evolving organization.