Statement on Justice in Palestine: A Letter to Our Communities at Denison University, Kenyon College, Oberlin College, and the College of Wooster

We, as students, faculty, and staff from Denison University, Kenyon College, Oberlin College, and the College of Wooster, express our unwavering solidarity with Palestinians fighting for their freedom against the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the rest of occupied Palestine. As a coalition of community members at our schools from a diverse range of religious and ethnic backgrounds, we are horrified by the senseless and brutal slaughter taking place in Palestine right now. For this reason, we unequivocally oppose the actions of the current U.S. administration for actively sending financial and military aid to the Israeli state as it undertakes a campaign of mass terror against the Palestinian people.

Since October 7th, over 10,000 Palestinian men, women, and children have been brutally murdered by Israeli military forces in and across Gaza and the West Bank, with the number continuing to rise everyday. Amidst the airstrikes that are wiping out entire Palestinian bloodlines, Israel is currently denying food, water, fuel, and other aid from entering Gaza, in what leaders at the international disaster relief organization Oxfam have called the worst humanitarian catastrophe they've ever seen. In a particularly cruel move, Israel has also continued to target journalists, hospitals, schools, places of worship, and refugee camps, all while “humanely” issuing evacuation orders to leave Gaza - an option that is virtually impossible for most Palestinians, given that the only passage available for Gazan refugees has been repeatedly bombed by Israeli military forces.  Among human rights organizations, over 800 scholars and practitioners of international law, conflict studies, and genocide studies, and the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, the consensus is clear: the Israeli assault on Gaza is a genocide. 

However, we want to reiterate that this is not a spontaneous assault on Palestinian life and dignity, but a continuation of the systemic dispossession and occupation of the Palestinian people under Israeli settler colonial rule. 

Here in the United States, students, faculty, and staff at academic and educational institutions are being harassed, punished, and censored for speaking out against Israel's war crimes in Gaza. For example, schools like Brandeis University and even entire states (see Florida) have actively revoked charters from or outright banned student organizations like chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). Organizations and websites, like Canary Mission, continue to publicly doxx students and faculty members who criticize the state of Israel. In Harvard and Columbia, students (particularly Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, South Asian, and Black students, among other students of color) have had their personal images and identities projected on trucks with incendiary rhetoric as retaliation for voicing their support for Palestinian liberation. On a federal level, too, the U.S. Senate has unanimously passed a resolution that labels and condemns campus activism for Palestine as “pro-Hamas” and “pro-terrorism" - a continuation of a disturbing trend.

Since 2014, 293 bills [as of November 2, 2023] have been introduced targeting advocacy for Palestinian rights. These acts constitute a widespread concerted push to limit academic freedom all over the U.S. and shut down advocacy efforts for human rights and justice. Furthermore, lack of support for students and faculty who are harassed and maligned for engaging in anti-racist activism is a failure on the part of these educational and academic institutions.

We need to call and condemn this for what it is: the malicious use of smear tactics and campaigns to silence and intimidate dissenting individuals who uphold the Palestinian fight for freedom - freedom from occupation and restricted movement, the freedom to drink clean water and safely sleep in their homelands, the freedom to love, live, grow, dream, breathe.

We denounce the genocide being committed against Palestinians in Gaza. We denounce the United States government’s support for genocide. We denounce the occupation and subjugation of Palestinians and their land, which has been ongoing for more than seven decades. And we denounce attempts to silence and censure Palestinians and those standing in solidarity with them, including across U.S. college campuses. 

We call on our university administrations to take immediate action to meet our demands:

1. We demand that our university administration publicly join the call for an immediate ceasefire and end to the occupation of Palestine.

2. We demand that university administration uphold the right to free speech for students, faculty, staff, and student organizations as set forth by our respective colleges' institutional policies.

3. We demand that university administration reject any pressure to unjustly punish or investigate students, faculty, staff, or student organizations who vocally express their opposition to Israel’s settler colonial regime of terror and violence. 

4. We demand that university administration decidedly reject the false narrative that advocating for Palestinian rights or the political speech of Palestinians is inherently antisemitic or “support for terrorism.”

5. We demand that our universities clarify their positions regarding their potential financial contributions to and, more importantly, divest from Israeli arms corporations.