Resolution 19-018

A Resolution to Boycott, Divest, & Sanction Ties to the Occupation of Palestine

19 April 2024

Sponsors

Senator , for the Campus-At-Large

Senator , for the Campus-At-Large

Senator , for the Campus-At-Large

Senator , for the Campus-At-Large

Co-Sponsors

Students for Justice in Palestine at American University

Dissenters at American University

Senator, for the Capus-At-Large

Senator, for the Campus-At-Large

Senator, for the Campus-At-Large

Whereas, Israel has been engaged in a war against the people of Gaza that has unequivocally^[1] killed more than 33,000 Palestinians^[2]—tens of thousands of whom being children—injured more than 75,000 people^[3], and destroyed over 50% of infrastructure^[4] since October 7th, with the caveat that these numbers are almost certainly under-reported;

Whereas, Israel has been occupying the land of Palestine since 1948, and continues to control everyday life for Palestinians by discriminatory practices including but not limited to checkpoints, raids, and an apartheid wall.

Whereas, Israel has tightened its existing blockade of the Gaza Strip, established in 2006 and called an open-air prison^[5], ^[6], ^[7], thus cutting off already scarce water, food, fuel, and medical supplies into the strip and limiting entry into the strip except through Rafah Crossing and Kerem Shalom, prompting death through starvation and famine which has been repeatedly condemned by the UN^[8], UNICEF^[9], Amnesty International^[10], and Doctors without Borders^[11].

Whereas, Israel has prevented the flow of medical supplies such as anesthesia, iodine, maternity kits, and other items from entering Gaza^[12],^[13] in their targeting and destruction of hospitals, leaving “roughly a dozen of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are only partially functioning”^[14] as done during the two week long siege on Al-Shifa Hospital that killed at least 200 Palestinians and left the hospital in “total destruction” according to local media^[15].

Whereas, Israel has prevented the flow of food supplies entering into Gaza—particularly Northern Gaza—and continues to commit massacres against Palestinians attempting to collect humanitarian aid for themselves or their families, such as the Flour Massacre of February 29, 2024 at the Nabulsi Roundabout in southwest Gaza^[16] and the March 14 Kuwait Roundabout Attack^[17], the largest of five aid massacres^[18] that took place between March 13-15;

Whereas, Israeli attacks on civilian infrastructure have included numerous attacks on refugee camps, displacing Palestinian residents yet again by the ongoing and decades-long expansion of Israeli settlements and frontiers, resulting in over 1.9 million Palestinians in Gaza to be internally displaced as a result of the attacks on civilian infrastructure since October 7th.^[19]

Whereas, Israel is systematically destroying sites of learning and knowledge systems, including targeting and bombing all 12 universities in Gaza^[20] between October and February, murdering around a hundred professors^[21] by the end of January 2024, and destroying or looting Palestinian archives and artifacts, culminating in thousands of school students and hundreds of teachers having been murdered since October, according to UNICEF, and by the 14th of January, 374 schools being damaged^[22] by Israel’s bombing campaigns;

Whereas, at least 95 journalists and media workers^[23] have been murdered and silenced in Gaza, severely diminishing the ability of crimes and harms to be reported to outside authorities, media sources, and audiences;

Whereas, on December 20, 2023, in response to these and more actions taking place in occupied Palestine, hundreds of human rights organizations and movements^[24] called upon the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants for Israeli officials for failure to prevent genocide;

Whereas, on December 29, 2023, in response to these and more actions taking place in occupied Palestine, the Republic of South Africa felt it necessary to submit to the International Court of Justice^[25] an application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in Gaza^[26], stating that Israel “has breached and continues to breach its obligations under the Genocide Convention, in particular the obligations provided under Article I [of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide], read in conjunction with Article II, and Articles III (a), III (b), III (c), III (d), III (e), IV, V and VI”;

Whereas, on January 26, 2024, the International Court of Justice found South Africa’s charges of genocide under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide against the state of Israel to have a plausible case^[27], stating that “South Africa has standing to submit to it the dispute with Israel concerning alleged violations of obligations under the Genocide Convention”;

Whereas, on March 25, 2024, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in occupied Palestine published a 25-page report^[28] on the happenings in Gaza in which it found that “the threshold for Israel’s commission of genocide has been met,” specifically, “that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission of the following acts of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza has been met: killing members of the group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to groups’ members; and deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”;

Whereas, the American University has numerous ties to the Israeli occupation including but not limited to their investments, receiving donations, study abroad programs to Israel, and the Center for Israel Studies.

Whereas, the American University Student Government has previously and unanimously recognized in Resolution 19-017 “Israel’s invasion and genocide of the people of Gaza.”^[29]

Whereas, the American University Student Government, in vowing to “further the interests and [promotion of] welfare of all students at AU,”^[30] recognizes the moral imperative of challenging the American University’s complicity in the genocide taking place in occupied Palestine, in whose land various AU students have family and connections;

Whereas, the American University Student Government has previously recognized in Resolution 19-004^[31] that “the threats posed by funding from certain industries… can only be adequately addressed through the outright rejection of funding, as evidenced by the school’s refusal to accept funding from the tobacco industry, any of its direct or indirect affiliates, or from those working to further its interests,” and extends this framework to giving funding to these industries;

Whereas, the American University Student Government recognizes that complicity in political matters manifests primarily through financial and economic means, such as in purchasing goods, giving money to, or receiving funding from, companies, corporations, and institutions who are implicated in and enable such political matters;

Therefore, be it resolved that the American University Student Government believes the totality of such evidence and data amounts to a credible assertion that there are legitimate, egregious, and overwhelming attacks on Palestinian life by the Israeli Government and other governments, institutions, corporations, companies, and entities which are supporting these attacks and to a credible justification for American University’s intervention into such a matter;

Therefore, be it further resolved that the American University Student Government will commit to ensuring that itself and its financial contributions are not implicated, complicit, involved in, or enabling the ongoing death and destruction of Palestinian life and land and that students are taking the utmost precautions in avoiding complicity with this harm;

Therefore, be it further resolved that the American University Student Government defines complicity, involvement in, and enablement of the destruction of Palestinian life and land as:

1. Affiliation with institutions, corporations, companies, and entities which are financially, logistically, or politically embedded in the mass-killing, -attacking, -maiming, and -destruction of Palestinian people, culture and infrastructure
2. Diminishing, downplaying, or ignoring in words and actions the ongoing indiscriminate mass-killing, -attacking, -maiming, and -destruction of Palestinian people, culture and infrastructure at the hands of the Israeli government, their armed forces, and with the support of the United States

Therefore, be it further resolved that the American University Student Government, in accordance with domestic and international law, will discontinue and prohibit its financial allocations given toward or received from institutions, corporations, companies, and entities that provide material assistance to or profit from the commission or maintenance of the destruction of Palestinian life and land, such as illegal annexation of territory, apartheid, denial of the right to self-determination, war crimes and crimes against humanity, or that discriminate on the bases of race, color, caste, gender, religion, national origin, ethnicity, disability, or age, with a list of these entities including but not limited to:

• Ahava
• AXA
• Barclays
• Boeing Co
• Caltex
• Carrefour
• Caterpillar, Inc.
• Chevron CORP
• Elbit Systems
• Goldman Sachs
• Hewlett-Packard
• Intel
• Joseph Cyril Bamford Excavators, Inc.
• Lockheed Martin
• Northrop Grumman Corporation
• Puma
• The Raytheon Company
• RE/MAX
• Sabra Brands
• Siemens
• Sodastream
• Texaco
• Texas Instruments
• Volvo

Therefore, be it further resolved that the American University Student Government and its subsidiaries will discontinue and prohibit their financial allocations given toward platforming or hosting speakers, events, organizations, contractors, or products which, either materially or ideologically, propagate and/or further the active destruction of Palestinian life and land and the genocide ongoing in occupied Palestine.

Therefore, be it further resolved that the American University Student Government calls upon the American University, the Board of Trustees, and American University Senior Officers to immediately cut all ties with and ensure that the institution’s endowment and investments are not implicated in the ongoing genocide in occupied Palestine by discontinuing and prohibiting financial allocations given toward or received from entities that provide material assistance to or profit from the commission or maintenance of the destruction of Palestinian life and land, such as illegal annexation of territory, apartheid, denial of the right to self-determination, war crimes and crimes against humanity, or that discriminate on the bases of race, color, caste, gender, religion, national origin, ethnicity, disability, or age, with a list of these entities including but not limited to:

• Ahava
• AXA
• Barclays
• Boeing Co
• Caltex
• Carrefour
• Caterpillar, Inc.
• Chevron CORP
• Elbit Systems
• Goldman Sachs
• Hewlett-Packard
• Intel
• Joseph Cyril Bamford Excavators, Inc.
• Lockheed Martin
• Northrop Grumman Corporation
• Puma
• The Raytheon Company
• RE/MAX
• Sabra Brands
• Siemens
• Sodastream
• Texaco
• Texas Instruments
• Volvo

Therefore, be it further resolved that the American University Student Government calls upon the American University to discontinue and prohibit its financial allocations given toward platforming or hosting speakers, events, organizations, contractors, or products which, either materially or ideologically, propagate and/or further the active destruction of Palestinian life and land and the genocide ongoing in occupied Palestine.

Therefore, be it further resolved that the American University Student Government calls upon the American University to cut ties and discontinue all programs that are complicit in and perpetuate the Occupation of Palestine that are as follows, but not limited to:

• Study Abroad in Israel: Tel Aviv University
• Study Abroad in Israel: The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies
• Study Abroad in Israel: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Therefore, be it further resolved that the American University Student Government calls on the American University to publicize all endowments and investments, for the sake of transparency to its community.