John,

In response to the Israeli military’s attacks on Rafah, hundreds of thousands of people have fled the city. But there is nowhere safe in Gaza to go. While bombing and starving millions of people in Gaza, Israeli forces are also ramping up deadly attacks in the West Bank—including killing children.

Across the United States and the world, students have been protesting to demand their academic institutions and governments stop investing in this anti-Palestinian oppression and violence.

But they’re being met with brutal repression and state-sanctioned violence. For example, police just broke up the peaceful University of Michigan Gaza solidarity encampment, violently arresting and pepper spraying students, some of whom were hospitalized.

It is disgraceful that university administrators and government officials in our country are sending in militarized police forces, and even snipers, to stop students from exercising their First Amendment rights.

Sign on today to demand college and university administrators stop criminalizing student protests and stop suppressing the very debate that academic institutions seek to inspire in their students. We must listen to students demanding an end to genocide, not silence or brutalize them.

From the civil rights movement and beyond, our country has a long history of student activists winning progress.

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to visit the University of Michigan’s Gaza solidarity encampment on the Diag, an area of campus historically used for student protests. In the 1980s, following student protests for divestment, the state of Michigan passed legislation pushing public colleges and universities to divest from South Africa.

Now, students are peacefully protesting for an end to U.S.-backed atrocities in Palestine, including the destruction of all universities in Gaza. Some students are even renaming buildings after Palestinian children that have been killed.

These students should be listened to and praised for standing up for what they believe in, not vilified, silenced, or made homeless after being banned from campus. No student should be met with academic repercussions or police brutality on their own campuses for peacefully exercising their right to free speech and assembly.

For speaking up about our country’s complicity in human rights violations, more than 3,000 students and faculty have been arrested at Gaza solidarity protests in recent weeks.

Many have been injured and hospitalized from rubber bullets, tear gas, tasing, and brutal beatings from police—including police choking them and wrestling them to the ground. One professor heard from his doctor that he was lucky to be alive.

Please add your name to join the call to U.S. colleges and universities: End the repressive tactics and violent crackdowns on Gaza solidarity encampments. Your students’ constitutional rights don’t end when they enter campus grounds, and you’re supposed to protect them—not endanger them with police brutality.

Thank you for continuing to speak out for justice and equity for all people.

In solidarity,

Rashida