Open
letter in defense of Palestine solidarity activists at
Harvard
We stand together against the
racist harassment and demonization of Pro-Palestine student activists
at Harvard and elsewhere across the country. These attacks are
designed to intimidate, weaken, and silence people's right to speak
out in support of the Palestinian people's struggle against occupation
and apartheid. Their educational and professional futures are being
threatened and right wing political operatives have even rented a TV
truck to drive around campus displaying the students' faces. Some are
even receiving death threats.
Despite these attacks, student
leaders at Harvard are standing tall.
The case of Harvard University is
only one of many examples of the attacks that those who express
solidarity with the Palestinian struggle face; attacks that are
rapidly escalating at this time. Likewise, violent hate crimes against
Palestinians are taking place around the country.
We are coming together to support Free Speech
rights. We oppose the efforts to demonize and
criminalize dissent. We reject the campaign that tries to silence
those who support the Palestinian people in their just struggle
against occupation and apartheid.
We the undersigned stand with the courageous students at
Harvard and elsewhere who are
being attacked because they stand with the people of
Palestine.
Initial list of
signers:
- Jalil Muntaqim, Co-Founder, Spirit of Mandela, National Jericho
Movement
- Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab
Studies, Columbia University
- VP Sanu, President, Students' Federation of
India
- Peter Mertens, General Secretary, Workers Party of
Belgium
- Vijay Prashad, Director, Tri-Continental: Institute for
Social Research
- Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Historian
- Tanvir Murad, General Secretary, Bangladesh Association of New
England
- Erika Uyterhoeven, Massachusetts State Representative
- John Womack Jr., Emeritus Professor of History, Harvard
University
- Jodie Evans, Co-Founder, CODEPINK
- Charlotte Kates, International Coordinator, Samidoun Palestinian
Prisoner Solidarity Network and National Lawyers Guild
- Mahdi Bray, American Muslim Alliance, National Executive
Director
- Nasser Rabbat, Professor, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology
- Gerald Horne, Moores Professor of History, University of
Houston
- Brian Becker, National Coordinator, ANSWER Coalition
- Manolo De Los Santos, Co Executive Director, The People's
Forum
- Lamis Deek, Al-Awda
- Willie Burnley Jr, Somerville City Councilor
- Jodi Dean, Author & Professor, Hobart and William Smith
Colleges
- Tanalís Padilla, Professor, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology
- Camilo Pérez-Bustillo, Executive Director, National Lawyers Guild,
Bay Area/SF chapter
- Pankaj Mehta, Professor, Boston University
- Medea Benjamin, Co-Founder, CODEPINK
- Christopher Hasty, Professor Emeritus, Harvard University
- J.T. Roane, Assistant Professor, Rutgers University
- Vijay Iyer, Professor of Music & African and African American
Studies, Harvard University
- Marjorie Cohn, Founding Dean, People’s Academy of International
Law
- Robyn C. Spencer-Antoine, Associate Professor of History, Harvard
University
- Alex Hanna, Director of Research, Distributed AI Research
Institute
- Charisse Burden-Stelly, Associate Professor, Wayne State
University
- Immanuel Ness, Chair, New York Peace Council
- Rabab Abdulhadi, Director & Senior Scholar, Arab & Muslim
Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies Program at San Francisco State
University
- Humayun K Morshed, President, Boston BanglaAid Inc
- Brian Cleary, Assistant Professor, Boston University
- Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Title constitutional rights lawyer
- Bikrum Gill, Assistant Professor, Virginia Tech
- Manu Karuka, Professor, Barnard College
- Radhika Desai, Director, Geopolitical Economy Research Group
- Jacqueline Luqman, Coordinator, Mid-Atlantic Region and Member of
the Coordinating Committee of the Black Alliance for Peace
- Jeffrey Frank, Lawyer, National Lawyers Guild
- Dr. Ken Hammond, Professor, New Mexico State University
- Roger McKenzie, International Editor, Morning Star newspaper
- Corinna Mullin, Faculty, CUNY
- Jorge Rocha, Co-Chair, DSA International Committee
- Suzanne Adely, President, National Lawyers Guild
- Nina Farnia, Faculty, Albany Law School
- Sonia Vaz Borges, Asisstant Professor, Drexel University
- Michael Letwin, Former President, Assn. of Legal Aid
Attorneys/UAW 2325
- Calla Walsh, Co-Chair, National Network on Cuba
- Steve Ellner, University Professor
- John King, Associate Adjunct Professor, NYU
- Brahim Rouabah, Organizer, Algeria Revolt
- Momodou Taal, The Malcolm Effect Podcast
- Audrey Bomse, former co-Chair, Palestine Subcommittee of
National Lawyers Guild
- Jeannette Graulau, Associate Professor, Lehman
College
- Rhea Rahman, Assistant Professor, Brooklyn
College
*Organizations/institutions listed for identification purposes
only
Context
Last week, at Harvard University,
dozens of student organizations signed on to a letter denouncing the
Israeli occupation and recognizing it as the source of the Palestinian
resistance. In retaliation, right-wing forces, enabled by the
university administration, mobilized their forces to employ
intimidation and scare tactics to instill fear in student leaders at
the helm of the Palestine solidarity movement. Billionaire and hedge
fund CEO Bill Ackman called for Harvard to release the
identities of the
individual student activists involved with the intent of blacklisting
them from future employment. Adam Guillette, president of right-wing
extremist corporation Accuracy in Media, proudly paraded a truck with
the names and faces of these student leaders around Harvard’s campus
to escalate the suppression of their voices. Notably, it is primarily
Black and Arab students and their organizations that face the brunt of
these attacks that come in the form of harassment, defamation, and
even death threats– a reality that no student should ever have to
experience.
“We are demanding an end to the
siege of Gaza and insisting that the U.S. government stop funding the
murderous attacks against the people of Gaza and against all
Palestinian people. Despite the attacks on ourselves, our fellow
students, our futures – we refuse to renounce our conscience,” stated
Amari Butler, a Harvard student organizer with African and African
American Resistance Organization (AFRO) and a target of these vicious
attacks.
Kojo Acheampong, another organizer
with AFRO and target of racist attacks stated, “When people in the
U.S. supported the BDS movement they were targeted for censure. When
the Palestinian people in 2018-19 launched the nonviolent movement
called the Great March of Return they were shot down by Israeli
snipers. Hundreds were shot dead and thousands were wounded. The US
supporters of the nonviolent movement were ignored by the mainstream
media or demonized by Israeli supporters. Every form of opposition to
Israeli apartheid, whether it is nonviolent or involves armed
resistance, is condemned. Now those who support the Palestinian people
are accused of being supporters of terrorism.”
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