Read our STATIC op-ed, published November 23rd, 2014.
“True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
Since we announced our campaign, concerns have been raised about our commitment to engaging in “productive dialogue” about issues concerning Palestine and Israel. We, the students of Stanford Out of Occupied Palestine, want to make our stance on these concerns known: this conflict is not an interpersonal dispute, but an issue of grave human rights violations. Interpersonal issues can be resolved through dialogue, whereas human rights violations demand that we take action. We view any attempt to frame the conflict as a dialogue between two equally valid perspectives as insensitive to the reality of the power imbalance between occupier and occupied.
With the support of the United States, Israel exerts asymmetric military, economic, and political control over Palestinian society. The Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian territories restricts the freedom of movement for residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, limits exports and imports, and undermines Palestinian autonomy by subjecting local civilians to Israeli military control. The narrative of the Israeli state cannot be equated with the narrative of those they occupy. Such false equivalences serve neither Israelis nor Palestinians. As Nelson Mandela once put it, “Only free men can negotiate; prisoners can’t enter into contracts.” By pressuring companies to stop business engagements that enable the occupation, divestment aims to level the playing field so that genuine dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians becomes possible.
For this reason we plan to engage in constructive conversations with the Stanford student body. We are eager for dialogue with other groups; in order for such dialogue to be productive and not circular, we simply ask that student groups recognize the existence of the occupation and agree to act against it. In order to affect change at the university, national, and international level, we are gaining a broad base of student support by helping to educate the student body and make space for such conversations. We encourage students to keep an eye out for additional programming.
As the students behind Stanford Out of Occupied Palestine, we are standing with the oppressed in the best way we know how: by answering the call from over 170 non-governmental Palestinian organizations to “implement divestment initiatives against Israel” until Israel recognizes the Palestinians’ right to self-determination and fully complies with international law. It is our responsibility, as students of Stanford, to assess our stakes in the conflict and call into question our university’s investment decisions.
Our campaign is a part of a mutual struggle against human rights violations in Palestine as well as at home. The same corporations that provide tear gas canisters and projectiles to Israeli forces to suppress non-violent protestors in the West Bank also supply them to U.S Police Departments, profiting from the increasing militarization of our police forces. We see examples of this in the Ferguson police force, which continues to terrorize the Saint Louis community in the aftermath of the murder of Michael Brown. The multinational corporation G4S, which profits from the sometimes indefinite detainment of over 6,000 political prisoners, 200 of which are children, in prisons and detention centers in Israel/Palestine, also funds private prisons in the United States and along the US-Mexico border.
These are just some of the various ways that the fight against human rights violations in Israel/Palestine and our struggles to achieve justice for communities at home intersect. Stanford Out of Occupied Palestine is a diverse coalition of concerned students and organizations demanding action to end our university’s complicity in the human rights violations perpetrated by international corporations in Palestine/Israel and the United States. The diversity of our coalition members speaks to our commitment to building solidarity against these interconnected systems of oppression. If our oppressors are collaborating, then so must we.
We are looking for partners in a real peace — the peace that follows justice.
Refer to our Frequently Asked Questions page on our website, “soopalestine.org”, or email us with questions at [email protected].
Signed,
Ramah Awad ’17
Clayton Evans ’15
Emma Hartung ’17
Tianay Pulphus ‘15
Muzzammil Shittu ’17
Co-Signatories: Cole Manley ’15, Di’Vennci Lucas ’17, EKela Autry’17, Elena Marchetti-Bowick ’17, John Carlo Buenaflor ’17, Kleo Greenwood ’17, Kristian Davis Bailey ’14, Madison Donatoni ’15, Michelle Dallalah ’15, Ruqayya Toorawa ’17, Sherif Ibrahim, Victoria Saenz ’17
“True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
Since we announced our campaign, concerns have been raised about our commitment to engaging in “productive dialogue” about issues concerning Palestine and Israel. We, the students of Stanford Out of Occupied Palestine, want to make our stance on these concerns known: this conflict is not an interpersonal dispute, but an issue of grave human rights violations. Interpersonal issues can be resolved through dialogue, whereas human rights violations demand that we take action. We view any attempt to frame the conflict as a dialogue between two equally valid perspectives as insensitive to the reality of the power imbalance between occupier and occupied.
With the support of the United States, Israel exerts asymmetric military, economic, and political control over Palestinian society. The Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian territories restricts the freedom of movement for residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, limits exports and imports, and undermines Palestinian autonomy by subjecting local civilians to Israeli military control. The narrative of the Israeli state cannot be equated with the narrative of those they occupy. Such false equivalences serve neither Israelis nor Palestinians. As Nelson Mandela once put it, “Only free men can negotiate; prisoners can’t enter into contracts.” By pressuring companies to stop business engagements that enable the occupation, divestment aims to level the playing field so that genuine dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians becomes possible.
For this reason we plan to engage in constructive conversations with the Stanford student body. We are eager for dialogue with other groups; in order for such dialogue to be productive and not circular, we simply ask that student groups recognize the existence of the occupation and agree to act against it. In order to affect change at the university, national, and international level, we are gaining a broad base of student support by helping to educate the student body and make space for such conversations. We encourage students to keep an eye out for additional programming.
As the students behind Stanford Out of Occupied Palestine, we are standing with the oppressed in the best way we know how: by answering the call from over 170 non-governmental Palestinian organizations to “implement divestment initiatives against Israel” until Israel recognizes the Palestinians’ right to self-determination and fully complies with international law. It is our responsibility, as students of Stanford, to assess our stakes in the conflict and call into question our university’s investment decisions.
Our campaign is a part of a mutual struggle against human rights violations in Palestine as well as at home. The same corporations that provide tear gas canisters and projectiles to Israeli forces to suppress non-violent protestors in the West Bank also supply them to U.S Police Departments, profiting from the increasing militarization of our police forces. We see examples of this in the Ferguson police force, which continues to terrorize the Saint Louis community in the aftermath of the murder of Michael Brown. The multinational corporation G4S, which profits from the sometimes indefinite detainment of over 6,000 political prisoners, 200 of which are children, in prisons and detention centers in Israel/Palestine, also funds private prisons in the United States and along the US-Mexico border.
These are just some of the various ways that the fight against human rights violations in Israel/Palestine and our struggles to achieve justice for communities at home intersect. Stanford Out of Occupied Palestine is a diverse coalition of concerned students and organizations demanding action to end our university’s complicity in the human rights violations perpetrated by international corporations in Palestine/Israel and the United States. The diversity of our coalition members speaks to our commitment to building solidarity against these interconnected systems of oppression. If our oppressors are collaborating, then so must we.
We are looking for partners in a real peace — the peace that follows justice.
Refer to our Frequently Asked Questions page on our website, “soopalestine.org”, or email us with questions at [email protected].
Signed,
Ramah Awad ’17
Clayton Evans ’15
Emma Hartung ’17
Tianay Pulphus ‘15
Muzzammil Shittu ’17
Co-Signatories: Cole Manley ’15, Di’Vennci Lucas ’17, EKela Autry’17, Elena Marchetti-Bowick ’17, John Carlo Buenaflor ’17, Kleo Greenwood ’17, Kristian Davis Bailey ’14, Madison Donatoni ’15, Michelle Dallalah ’15, Ruqayya Toorawa ’17, Sherif Ibrahim, Victoria Saenz ’17