April 25, 2024

Dear Dean Fried, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health Administration, and Faculty: 

We, as alumni of the Mailman School of Public Health, are writing to express our profound disappointment with the actions and inactions of the Columbia University and Mailman administration regarding the ongoing genocide in Gaza and the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestine. We strongly condemn the violent NYPD arrests of over 100 Columbia University peaceful student protestors on April 18th, including at least one Mailman student. The administration’s deliberate disregard and punishment of faculty members and students who are advocating for Palestine, applying the very frameworks taught in Mailman classroom settings, is hypocritical and unjust. Mailman’s retaliation against faculty and students standing in solidarity with Palestine directly violates the core teachings of public health.

While Mailman may think it is not to blame for the violent repression happening on main campus, professors who have taught on the public health crisis long before October 7, 2023, in occupied Palestine have been silenced, specifically Professor A. Kayum Ahmed. This censorship is a direct threat not only to academic freedom but to the principles Mailman purports to uphold. If public health is everywhere, public health educators must talk about Palestine. If health is a human right, public health professionals must advocate for the right to health of Palestinians.

The 75+ years-long illegal occupation, ethnic cleansing, forced displacement, and genocide in Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem is a public health and human rights crisis. Public health violations during this genocide and illegal occupation at the hands of the United States-backed Israeli government include the following:

1. Deliberate destruction of health infrastructure, effectively limiting access to medical care

2. Deliberate destruction of critical civilian infrastructure and restriction of access to clean water, sanitation, and medicine, effectively fueling disease

3. Deliberate infliction of psychological trauma due to continuous exposure to extreme violence and mass murder, exacerbating mental health issues and straining the healthcare system.

4. Deliberate restrictions on access to medications and medical supplies, compromising healthcare delivery

5. Deliberate withholding of food, effectively causing malnutrition 

6. Deliberate disruption of maternal and child health services, raising mortality rates

As public health professionals and practitioners, we must fight to dismantle the powers that have created a world where such atrocities are allowed to occur with impunity.

To Dean Fried and Mailman administrators, we unequivocally declare our refusal to support Columbia Mailman in any capacity until it fulfills the demands set forth by @cuapartheiddivest and the student organizers of @cumc4palestine. As Mailman alums, we stand in full solidarity with the people of Palestine and all student organizers, especially @cumc4palestine, and all their demands. 

Together, we call on Columbia University and the Mailman School of Public Health to: 

1. Divest all of Columbia’s finances, including the endowment, from companies and institutions that profit from Israeli apartheid, genocide, and occupation in Palestine. Ensure accountability by increasing transparency around financial investments.

2. Sever academic ties with Israeli universities, including the Global Center in Tel Aviv, the Dual Degree Program with Tel Aviv University, and all study-abroad programs, fellowships, and research collaborations with Israeli academic institutions.

3. Stop displacement and land grabs, whether in Harlem, Lenapehoking, or Palestine. Cease expansion, provide reparations, and support housing for low-income Harlem residents. No development by Columbia without real community control.

4. End the targeted repression of Palestinian students and their allies on and off campus, including through university disciplinary processes. Defund Public Safety and disclose and sever all ties with the NYPD.

5. Release a public statement calling for an immediate, permanent ceasefire in Gaza, denouncing the ongoing genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people, and call on government officials to do so too.

6. Grant full amnesty for all students, staff, and faculty disciplined for their involvement in the encampment or the movement for Palestinian liberation. 

Additionally, as alumni of the program, we demand that you drop all charges against student protestors, reinstate Dr. Kayum Ahmed, and create programs that actively support students exercising their right to protest. We look to @cumc4palestine, our future fellow CUMC alums, for further direction in supporting the Palestinian right to life and self-determination, ultimately realizing the Public Health Oath, authored by Dean Fried and students in 2008 and recited twice throughout our tenure at Mailman.

To our faculty, we implore you to recognize the urgency of this moment. You have equipped us with the knowledge to identify injustice, and now we invite you to join us as we use our collective voice to call on Mailman to live up to its vision of a healthy and just world for everyone, including the Palestinian people.

Fellow alumni across the medical center, we urge you to call and/or email Columbia Public Safety at 212-854-2797, the Office of Columbia University President Shafik at 212-854-9970 (officeofthepresident@columbia.edu), Dean Linda Fried (lf2296@cumc.columbia.edu), and the Mailman Associate Dean for Development and Alumni Relations Laura Sobel (ls3875@gmail.com) expressing these sentiments. 

In solidarity, 

Mailman School of Public Health Alumni