OUR STATEMENT
Our group is a plural collective of Stanford faculty who support the cause of Palestinian liberation. We define ‘faculty’ broadly to refer to those involved in making education available at Stanford, including both tenure and non-tenure track faculty, staff, and lecturers.
We stand against all forms of colonialism, racism, and apartheid, practices of domination that are not compatible with universal education or emancipation.
Stanford students from multiple initiatives and organizations, including Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and the Sit-In to Stop Genocide in Palestine, continue to raise their voices in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle against settler-colonial occupation and oppression. Theirs is a critical strategy of refusal to maintain the status quo, and we recognize their courage and dignity at a time when so many are afraid to speak out.
Our primary aim is to support and stand in solidarity with these students exercising their right to free speech, and with those made most vulnerable by the current crisis, especially Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim students. A secondary but also critical aim is to create a fact-based and more inclusive education for all members of the Stanford community with regard to the suppressed, and often distorted, history of the Palestinian people. We believe that examination and elucidation of the historical record and state policies is legitimate and necessary.
We are firm in our commitment to free speech, to our belief in the non-equivalence of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, and to our conviction that enhancing and protecting the safety and welfare of Palestinian and Arab students goes hand in hand with doing so for all students. We must not let the violent mentalities we see outside our university replicate themselves and fester inside Stanford. We recognize the overwhelming sense of grief that has swept campus, and we respect the right of all to express that grief so long as its expression does not target individuals based on their race, ethnicity, religion, or gender identification.
The Palestinian question has become the fulcrum of struggles for liberation on university campuses, and students and faculty who are part of the Palestine solidarity movement are increasingly subject to surveillance, and even criminalization. Thus, we view the movement for justice in Palestine as a crucial terrain for highlighting the defense of freedom of expression and political commitment within the academy; the preservation of free inquiry, engaged pedagogy, and open scholarship; and the survival of egalitarian campus governance in the face of attacks by off-campus groups allied with unconditional United States support for Israel and its policy of apartheid toward–and now genocide of–Palestinians.
In this context, we also support those in Palestine who have called for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions and for international solidarity in their struggle to: end Israel’s continued colonization of Palestine and all Arab lands occupied in June 1967 and dismantle the Wall per numerous UN resolutions on the matter; recognize the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and respect, protect and promote the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.
If you are Stanford faculty or staff and would like to add your name as a public or anonymous signatory, please fill out this Google form.