"Divestment is an excellent strategy for educating students on economic ties and it's the most effective way that students in the U.S. can participate in the movement to end the oppression of the Palestinians," said University of Texas senior Andy Gallagher, a Students for Justice in Palestine member.

Not only is the argument for divestment a move toward ending Palestinian suffering, but for others, the campaign is a move for peace.

"I think divestment is definitely a step toward peace. It isn't the end, though. What divestment does is it takes the U.S. from the position of a biased player to impartiality," said Will Youmans, a member of Berkeley Law Students for Justice in Palestine.

Others view divestment as more of a last resort effort than anything.

"I don't want to divest. I want to continue investing in Israel, but an Israel that is no longer occupying territories outside its legal borders and that is living in peace with its neighbors," Harvard psychology Prof. Elizabeth Spelke said.

While numerous Pro-Israeli groups have accused the divestment movement of working under the auspices of anti-Semitism, it is not a motive for divestment supporters. Instead, their campaign is fueled by respective compassion for the people of Palestine.

"If what we're doing is racist, then what they are doing is definitely racist," Gallagher said matter-of-factly.

At Harvard, President Lawrence Summers inferred that divestment campaigns were "anti-Semitic in their effect, if not their intent" in a speech during morning prayer services last month.

His statements angered countless divestment supporters both on and off of the Harvard campus.

"I was very offended and ashamed by the comments made by the president of my university," Harvard Law student Faisal Chaundhry said.

"By stating that divestment is a form of anti-Semitism, he is essentially trying to silence those who would criticize the deplorable policies of the Israeli government. Coming from the president of such a world-renowned institution, these comments are very frightening, since they constitute a glaring abuse of the term 'anti-Semitism,' as well as threaten the academic freedom of speech of people all over the country," Chaundhry said.

The parallels made between the actions taken in Israel and the events of the South African Apartheid have been used as a key tool in supporting divestment.

"Israel, like South Africa, is privileging the minority while completely neglecting the majority. Israel is trying to completely erase the Palestinian connection to the land," Youmans said.

As the divestment movement grows and spreads to various campuses, it will indelibly put pressure on the various university administrations.

Because of the divestment campaign for South Africa between 1985 and 1987, 89 universities divested, as did more than 100 corporations. But, no university has announced plans to divest from Israel yet.

Regardless of how University administrators react toward the divestment movement, the issue has taken hold of a substantial number of university students.

"Students are really attracted to divestment because it is based on human rights, social responsibility and equality," Youmans said.

The divestment website for Berkeley, as well as the other University of California campuses, www.ucdivest.org, has garnered close to 1,300 signatures of students, faculty, staff and community members.

Among the various strategies espoused in the Berkeley movement, rallies and protests have peacefully addressed concerns regarding the school's financial investments in Israel.

But at an April 2002 sit-in, Berkeley administrators ordered the arrests of more than 40 students and threatened a number of them with severe academic sanctions.

Where the University of Texas is concerned, groups such as the Palestinian Solidarity Committee and Students for Justice in Palestine have been pro-active in their approach to alert their university community's opinion on the current situation in the Middle East. Documentary film screenings and speakers spread general awareness for their purpose.