We, the undersigned members of the NYU faculty, call on our colleagues and the wider university community to take a stand in support of human rights and respect for international law.

There is good reason to believe that NYU is invested in companies which contribute to or profit from – and thus help perpetuate – Israel’s ongoing occupation and illegal settlement of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, its military and economic siege of Gaza, and its denial of the most basic human and civil rights to the 4.5 million Palestinians who live in these occupied Palestinian territories. While we may hold different views on the situation in Israel/Palestine, we are united in the belief that our university should not be complicit in the systematic denial of the rights of the Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation. We therefore believe that NYU must divest itself of any holdings it may have in such companies.

For decades, the State of Israel has brutally suppressed Palestinian demands for self-determination. Since 1967, Israel has implanted hundreds of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and unilaterally annexed East Jerusalem, both of which are actions deemed illegal by the international community, including the United States. The International Court of Justice has ruled that Israel’s construction of a wall that encloses parts of the West Bank and further infringes on Palestinian lives and livelihoods is a violation of international law. Israel’s policies violate the rights of Palestinian refugees, as stated in UNGA 194. At the same time, Israel has turned the impoverished and densely-populated Gaza strip into the world’s largest open-air prison and launched repeated military assaults against it. The Israeli offensive against Gaza this past summer killed more than 2,100 Palestinians, the great majority of them civilians and a quarter of them children.

Several multinational corporations have been targeted in recent years for their profiteering from the occupation. These include Caterpillar, which sells the bulldozers that routinely demolish Palestinian homes and uproot their olive trees; Veolia Environment, which helped construct and currently operates the light rail system connecting West Jerusalem to illegal Israeli settlements; Motorola Solutions, which provides motion-detection “virtual fences” for the illegal West Bank settlements, as well as a mobile communication system for the Israeli Army; Hewlett-Packard, which provides biometric identification systems used at Israeli military checkpoints to control the movement of Palestinians; G4S, which provides equipment for Israeli prisons holding Palestinian political prisoners and for Israeli military checkpoints and the Separation Wall; Elbit Systems, which manufactures Hermes military drones that Israel uses for targeted extrajudicial killings in Gaza; and Northrop Grumman, which supplies the Israeli military with the Longbow system for Apache AH64D helicopters, including Longbow Hellfire missiles, as well as radar engineering and support for F-15 and F-16 combat jets. A growing number of organizations, including TIAA-CREF, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Methodist Church, the Mennonite Church and the Quaker Friends Fiduciary Corporation, have already divested from some of these companies

NYU students, faculty and staff have a long and proud tradition of demanding that the university live up to its professed values, from the anti-apartheid struggle to the current fossil fuels divestment campaign. The time has now come for NYU to take action that, by exerting financial and moral pressure, can help end the Israeli occupation and support the aspirations of both Palestinians and Israelis for justice and self-determination.

We therefore call on NYU to divest from all companies in its portfolio that contribute to or profit from the Israeli occupation, and we ask our Faculty Senators to take action to achieve that goal.

If you are an NYU faculty member and would like to sign this statement, please do so below.
1. Rodolfo G. Aiello, Senior Lecturer (Retired) of Spanish and Portuguese
2. Dena Al-Adeeb, Adjunct Faculty Media Culture and Communication
3. Robert C. Allen, Global Distinguished Professor of Economic History, Social Science NYUAD
4. Gary Anderson, Professor of Administration, Leadership and Technology
5. Sinan Antoon, Associate Professor of The Gallatin School
6. Emily Apter, Professor of Comparative Literature
7. John Archer, Professor of English
8. Aline Baehler, Senior Language Lecturer, French
9. Adam H. Becker, Associate Professor of Classics & Religious Studies
10. Thomas Bender, University Professor of the Humanities, History
11. Sebastián Calderón Bentin, Assistant Professor of Drama
12. Emanuela Bianchi, Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature
13. Barbara Browning, Associate Professor of Performance Studies
14. Paula Chakravartty, Associate Professor of Gallatin School & Department of Media, Culture and Communication (MCC)
15. Benoit Challand, Assistant Professor of Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies
16. Vivek Chibber, Professor of Sociology
17. Stephen Ezra Claverie, Language Lecturer, Writing Program
18. Robert Cohen, Adjunct Professor of German (retired)
19. R. David Coolidge , Adjunct Assistant Professor of Public Service
20. Frederick Cooper, Professor of History
21. Catherine Coray, Associate Arts Professor of Drama
22. Arlene Davila, Professor of Anthropology & Social and Cultural Analysis
23. Patrick Deer, Associate Professor of English
24. Patricia DeGennaro, Adjunct Professor of International Security, International Affairs
25. Dipti Desai, Associate Professor of Art & Art Professions
26. Muriel Dimen, Adjunct Clinical Professor of Psychology, Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis
27. Carolyn Dinshaw, Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis and English
28. Hasia Diner, Paul and Sylvia Steinberg Professor of Amrican Jewish History, Hebrew and Judaic Studies/History
29. Fabienne Doucet, Associate Professor of Education, Teaching & Learning
30. Lisa Duggan, Professor of Social & Cultural Analysis
31. Stephen Duncombe, Associate Professor of Gallatin & Media, Culture and Communication
32. Hartry Field, Professor of Philosophy
33. Sibylle Fischer, Associate Professor of Spanish & Portuguese
34. Valerie Forman, Associate Professor, Gallatin
35. David Frank, Assistant Professor/Faculty Fellow, Environmental Studies/Center for Bioethics
36. Elaine Freedgood, Professor of English
37. Sharon Friedman, Associate Professor of the Gallatin School
38. Toral Gajarawala, Associate Professor of English
39. Michael Cole Gilsenan, Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies and Anthropology
40. Jeff Goodwin, Professor of Sociology
41. Gayatri Gopinath, Associate Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis
42. Linda Gordon, University Professor of History
43. Manu Goswami, Associate Professor of History
44. Greg Grandin, Professor of History
45. Ed Guerrero, Associate Professor of Cinema Studies & Social and Cultural Analysis
46. Hannah Gurman, Clinical Assistant Professor of Gallatin
47. Hala Halim, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature & Middle Eastern Studies
48. A. B.  Huber, Assistant Professor of Gallatin
49. Dale Hudson, Associate Teaching Professor and Curator of Film and New Media NYUAD
50. Asli Igsiz, Assistant Professor, Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies
51. Seung-hoon Jeong, Assistant Professor of Film and New Media, NYU Abu Dhabi
52. Natalie Jeremijenko, Associate Professor of Art, The Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, & Human Development
53. Mona Jimenez, Associate Arts Professor MIAP, Cinema Studies
54. Neville Robert Kallenbach, Professor of Chemistry
55. Marion Kaplan, Professor of Modern Jewish History, Hebrew and Judaic Studies
56. Priscilla Karant, Master Teacher, American Language Institute
57. Rebecca E Karl, Associate Professor of History & East Asian Studies
58. Arang Keshavarzian, Associate Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies
59. Monica Kim, Assistant Professor of History
60. John King, Assistant Adjunct Professor of School of Professional Studies
61. Ilya Kliger, Associate Professor of Russian and Slavic Studies
62. Michael S. Landy, Professor of Psychology and Neural Science
63. David Levene, Professor of Classics
64. Debra Levine, Assistant Professor of Theater of NYU Abu Dhabi
65. Grace Lile, Adjunct Professor, MIAP, Cinema Studies
66. Zachary Lockman, Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, & History
67. Thomas Looser, Associate Professor of East Asian Studies
68. David Ludden, Professor of History
69. Ritty Lukose, Associate Professor of The Gallatin School
70. Holly Maguigan, Professor of Clinical Law
71. Randy Martin, Professor of Art and Public Policy
72. Erin B Mee, Assistant Professor/Faculty Fellow, English Literature
73. Eve Meltzer, Associate Professor of Visual Studies, Gallatin
74. Pascal Menoret, Assistant Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Arab Crossroads, NYUAD
75. Ara H. Merjian, Associate Professor of Italian Studies
76. Salwa Mikdadi, Associate Professor Practice of Art History, NYU Abu Dhabi Art and Art History
77. Mara Mills, Assistant Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication
78. Amir Minsky, Assistant Teaching Professor of History at NYU Abu Dhabi
79. Bella Mirabella, Associate Professor  of Gallatin
80. Nicholas Mirzoeff, Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication
81. Michele Mitchell, Associate Professor of History
82. Harvey Molotch, Professor of Sociology and Social & Cultural Analysis
83. Marie Monaco, Associate Professor of Neuroscience & Physiology
84. Jennifer L. Morgan, Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis and History
85. Sara Nadal-Melsió, Visiting Assistant Professor of Spanish and Portuguese
86. Vasuki Nesiah, Associate Professor of Practice, Gallatin School
87. Molly Nolan, Professor of History
88. Tavia Nyong’o, Associate Professor of Performance Studies
89. Sana Odeh, Clinical Professor of Computer Science
90. Bertell Ollman, Professor of Politics
91. Michael Peachin, Professor of Classics
92. Leslie Peirce, Silver Professor of History
93. Marta Peixoto, Associate Professor of Spanish and Portuguese
94. Ann Pellegrini, Professor of Performance Studies & Social and Cultural Analysis
95. Susan M. Pelosi, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Silver School of Social Work
96. Erin Pettigrew, Assistant Professor of History and Arab Crossroads Studies
97. Dana Polan, Professor of Cinema Studies
98. Maurice Pomerantz, Assistant Professor of Literature, NYU Abu Dhabi
99. Mary Louise Pratt, Silver Professor of SCA/Spanish and Portuguese
100. Rayna Rapp, Professor of Anthropology
101. Nancy F Regalado, Professor (emerita) of French
102. Timothy J. Reiss, Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature
103. Moss Roberts, Professor of Chinese, East Asian Studies
104. Andrew Ross, Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis
105. Kristin Ross, Professor of Comparative Literature
106. Everett K. Rowson, Associate Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies
107. Josefina Saldaña-Portillo, Associate Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis
108. Linda Sayed, Visiting Assistant Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies
109. Nadrian C. Seeman, Professor of Chemistry
110. Ella Shohat, Professor of Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies
111. Nikhil Pal Singh, Associate Proffessor of Social and Cultural Analysis and History
112. Laura Slatkin, Professor of Gallatin/Comparative Literature
113. John Singler, Professor of Linguistics
114. Julie Sloane, Teacher of Undergraduate Film & Television
115. George Solt, Assistant Professor of History
116. Marie Cruz Soto, Clinical Assistant Professor
117. Justin Stearns, Associate Professor of Arab Crossroads Studies
118. Helga Tawil-Souri, Associate Professor of Media Culture and Communication
119. Diana Taylor, University Professor, Performance Studies and Spanish
120. John Kuo Wei Tchen, Associate Professor of Gallatin School & Social and Cultural Analysis
121. Sinclair Thomson, Associate Professor of History
122. Zeb Tortorici, Assistant Professor Spanish and Portuguese
123. Thuy Linh Tu, Associate Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis
124. James S. Uleman, Professor of Psychology
125. Nader Uthman, Clinical Assistant Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies
126. Daniel Walkowitz, Professor of Social & Cultural Analysis & History
127. Stephen Wangh, Arts Professor Emeritus of TSOA Undergraduate Drama
128. John P Waters, Director of Studies, Clinical Assistant Professor, Irish Studies
129. Andrew Weiner, Assistant Professor of Art and Arts Professions
130. Barbara Weinstein, Silver Professor of History
131. Michael A. Westerman, Associate Professor of Psychology
132. Matthieu Wyart, Associate Professor, Physics
133. Marilyn B. Young, Professor of History
134. Edward Ziter, Associate Professor of Drama
135. Angela Zito, Associate Professor of Anthropology & Religious Studies