PSM principle not effective

Members of the Palestine Solidarity Movement have proven that they are not serious about accomplishing their goals. The PSM's fifth guiding principle fails to admonish the killing of civilians. Saturday PSM delegates had the chance to modify this principle. The PSM's decision to not modify the fifth principle demonstrates a fundamental immaturity in its vision. The logic in Oct. 15 staff editorial and in Karen Hauptman's letter from the editor is laughable.  Contrary to what Hauptman writes, given PSM's goals, maintaining the fifth guiding principle is a strategically disastrous.

The argument is simple. PSM's primary goal is to influence institutions to divest from companies who invest in Israel. These institutions will never take the PSM seriously so long as the PSM refuses to condemn acts of violence against non-combatants. PSM's misguided hopes of encouraging divestment are doomed provided they continue to cut their own legs out from under them. Someone needs to get it through the heads of these political lightweights that it is a tactically suicidal maneuver to alienate these institutions.

Furthermore, the controversy that the PSM generates by equivocating on violence simply derails the dialogue they would like to start.  I participated in nearly every PSM activity this last weekend. They sure did jabber a lot about divestment. The only problem is that no one else talks about divestment. Non-members and the media want to talk about why the PSM refuses to denounce violence against non-combatants.  The vast majority of writing in The Chronicle has centered not around the topic of divestment but rather around the topic of the problematic fifth guiding principle. The PSM is preventing itself from stimulating the kind of debate it intends to start.

In an attempt to pander to extremists the PSM loses sight of actually being effective.  Morality aside, the PSM's refusal to criticize civilian-targeted violence is just criminally stupid. If they refuse to be tactically realistic this impotent movement is doomed to die in the test tube.  

Adam Bloomfield

Trinity ’06