Stanford Out of Occupied Palestine (SOOP) will be bringing a divestment resolution to the undergraduate student senate this year. We believe that our university should take no part in supporting and benefiting from companies that enable and profit from the injustices of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
This resolution is in response to the call for solidarity issued by Palestinians themselves. After decades of suffering under military occupation, and after decades of a “peace process” whose main outcome was the doubling of illegal Israeli settlement in the West Bank, Palestinian civil society has reached out to people of conscience all over the world to launch grassroots campaigns to boycott Israeli institutions, divest from companies that support Israel’s actions, and sanction the state of Israel.
We feel morally obliged to respond to the Palestinian call for solidarity, especially given that the United States and other world powers provide practically unconditional political and diplomatic backing to Israel’s actions. Israel has shown no signs of backing away from its unjust treatment of Palestinians. Operation Protective Edge was the third assault on the civilian population of Gaza in the last seven years, killing over 2,100 Palestinians, 70% of whom were civilians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared in July that Israel will never agree to Palestinian sovereignty in the West Bank. Israel recently illegally seized 1,000 acres of land in the West Bank for new settlements, and announced the construction of an additional 2,600 illegal settlement housing units in Occupied East Jerusalem. International pressure is critical in challenging the oppression and dispossession of the Palestinians.
Stanford University holds a prominent place among academic institutions nationally and internationally. We have a special voice, and with that voice comes the responsibility to speak out in the name of justice. In the tradition of prior student-led campaigns to divest from apartheid South Africa, from Darfur, and from coal, we hope Stanford will become a leading part of the growing international movement standing in solidarity with Palestinians to end Israeli abuses of human rights and violations of international law.
We invite concerned student groups and individual students to join us in this effort, or to contact us for informational materials and educational workshops to spread the word.
For more information:
This resolution is in response to the call for solidarity issued by Palestinians themselves. After decades of suffering under military occupation, and after decades of a “peace process” whose main outcome was the doubling of illegal Israeli settlement in the West Bank, Palestinian civil society has reached out to people of conscience all over the world to launch grassroots campaigns to boycott Israeli institutions, divest from companies that support Israel’s actions, and sanction the state of Israel.
We feel morally obliged to respond to the Palestinian call for solidarity, especially given that the United States and other world powers provide practically unconditional political and diplomatic backing to Israel’s actions. Israel has shown no signs of backing away from its unjust treatment of Palestinians. Operation Protective Edge was the third assault on the civilian population of Gaza in the last seven years, killing over 2,100 Palestinians, 70% of whom were civilians. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared in July that Israel will never agree to Palestinian sovereignty in the West Bank. Israel recently illegally seized 1,000 acres of land in the West Bank for new settlements, and announced the construction of an additional 2,600 illegal settlement housing units in Occupied East Jerusalem. International pressure is critical in challenging the oppression and dispossession of the Palestinians.
Stanford University holds a prominent place among academic institutions nationally and internationally. We have a special voice, and with that voice comes the responsibility to speak out in the name of justice. In the tradition of prior student-led campaigns to divest from apartheid South Africa, from Darfur, and from coal, we hope Stanford will become a leading part of the growing international movement standing in solidarity with Palestinians to end Israeli abuses of human rights and violations of international law.
We invite concerned student groups and individual students to join us in this effort, or to contact us for informational materials and educational workshops to spread the word.
For more information:
- Check out our Coalition Members
- Read the op-ed that launched our campaign, "Stanford must divest from the occupation of Palestine".
- Read our Case for Divestment.
- Contact us!