As Christian alumni of the University of Michigan, we come to you in love and heartbreak as every university in Gaza has been destroyed by the Israeli occupation forces currently attempting a genocide with U.S. funding. We have witnessed with horror the Israeli forces bomb the world’s oldest Christian communities, even during the most sacred religious services. We reject the antisemitic underpinnings of Christian Zionism and the enduring Islamophobic legacy of imperialism, or what the Reverend Munther Isaac in Bethlehem, Palestine has called a “theology of empire.” We reject the manipulation of our religion to justify colonial violence and occupation and instead stand rooted in the liberation and social justice of our faith tradition.
As Christian alumni, we stand in full solidarity with SAFE, Jewish Voices for Peace, and the TAHRIR Coalition students calling for full disclosure and divestment from industries of war and occupation. We express full support for students of Muslim, Jewish, Christian and all faith traditions who have come together to demonstrate their vision of a more just future at the Gaza Solidarity Encampment in this global student movement. We call on the University to allow its students to follow their consciences without fear of harassment, retaliation, or arrest.
We urge the Board of Regents and President Ono’s Administration to:
Acknowledge that we are immersed in an ethical and moral crisis that eclipses commercial concerns. Acknowledge that the University’s core mission is to promote human welfare, not to run a profitable business.
Seek immediately to establish good-faith, sustained collaborations with those students and alumni who dissent from the University of Michigan’s arms manufacturing and apartheid investments.
Facilitate free inquiry and open dialogues. Faculty in social and political sciences, history, international law, philosophy/ethics, religion, and group dynamics, acceptable to student leaders, should guide the Regents and Administration in establishing action-based accountable collaboration with the University community.
Recall that, to our disgrace, in the past the University of Michigan has disregarded its own students and faculty, and even state and federal law, regarding immoral investments.
The University can be immensely proud of creating an educational environment that nourishes committed engagement and thoughtful, historically informed, courageous dissent. We fervently hope and pray that the Board of Regents and Administration of the University become responsive and accountable to the community it serves.
We pray for peace and act for justice and freedom, starting with our own institutions and complicity.
