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Join Feminists for Justice in/for Palestine to call on NWSA to Honor the Academic Picket line and Reaffirm its Unwavering Commitment to Palestinian Liberation & Feminism, including  Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions, BDS.

Preamble: The following statement was first crafted in December 2022 by feminist scholars and activists committed to and under the auspices of Feminists for Justice in/for Palestine (F4JP). It is now being released in June 2023 with some revisions following a long, difficult and still unresolved process trying to make the National Women’s Studies Association (NWSA) more accountable to F4JP, Palestinians, other Indigenous peoples, and marginalized communities and movements from multiple colonial contexts. In specific, the statement was spurred by the need to hold the NWSA leadership accountable for crossing the academic picket line in clear violation of the organization’s 2015 resolution committing to solidarity with Palestine and the movement for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) against Apartheid Israel. Many of us who worked on the statement have long histories of being part of the NWSA, and remain open to participating in its board and future conferences provided that there is a genuine attempt to pause and reflect on Zionist and colonialist practices – such as colonial tourism – that contradict the organization’s feminist solidarity commitments. Rather than be seen as a break-up announcement, this statement is an effort to insist on accountability, transparency and unflinching solidarity from the largest and oldest women’s studies association in North America. We urge NWSA to take up the Zionist-legitimizing event, which we discuss below, under accountability in particular, and unambiguously define settler colonialism, white supremacy, Zionism, Islamophobia, Orientalism, Brahminical-Supremacy, casteism, and other violences as structural issues that require ongoing education, vigilance, self-reflection, coalition building, cross-sectional conversations and an unwavering commitment to building an ethos of transnational solidarity. We are guided by Audre Lorde’s reminder that ​​”Survival isn’t some theory operating in a vacuum. It’s a matter of my everyday living and making decisions.” (A Burst of Light 1988, p.60) We are writing here, putting our words into the public realm, because our survival and liberation for ourselves and our communities cannot and must not be brushed aside as a simple mistake, an oversight, a lack of consideration, an endnote, an errata. 

After Crossing the Academic Picket Line, NWSA is Called upon to Reaffirm its Unwavering Commitment to Palestinian Liberation and Feminism, including BDS. 

This statement, by Feminists for Justice in and for Palestine, National Women’s Studies Association, was first drafted in December 2022, finalized in April 2023, tweaked, and released on June 15, 2023

To sign your name to the statement, please fill out this form. 

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