The Amateur

Computerist

http://www.ais.org/~jrh/acn/

Summer 2024 Support for Student Encampments Spring 2024 Volume 38 No. 1

Table of Contents

Public Statements in Support of the Pro-Palestinian

Movement and Free Speech

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Page 1

Solidarity Encampments at 130+ Universities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 2

Faculty and Staff of University of California. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 5

Wesleyan University President Michael Roth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 6

Connecticut College Faculty and Staff . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 7

Members of the UCLA Department of History. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 9

Organizations in Solidarity With Protests for Gaza . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 11

In Defense of Free Speech and Peaceful Protest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 12

Over 1400 Int’l Faculty Support CU Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 14

UW-Madison in Solidarity With Student Protest . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 17

CCR: Solidarity With Calling for End to Genocide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 19

CU Alumni Boycott Reunion to Aid Palestine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 21

UTS Trustees Endorse Divestment Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 22

Solidarity Statement CU Library Workers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 25

Independent CU Student Workers Statement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 28

Gaza: Killing of Hind Rajab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 31

Students File Civil Rights Complaint . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 34

Call for a National Week of Rage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 37

“I Can’t Sleep” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 39

Introduction

At 4 a.m. on Wednesday, April 17, 2024, a group of Palestinian,

Jewish and other students at Columbia University in NYC began con-

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structing a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment.” A large poster read, “We

demand: 1. Financial divestment, 2. Academic boycott, 3. Stop the

displacement, 4. No policing on campus, and 5. End the silence.” The

peaceful encampment on the small East Lawn did not block any building

or walkway. On Thursday, April 18, the University authorized the NYPD

to enter the campus and clear the encampment. The police arrested 108

protestors without any resistance. The arrest of students peacefully

demonstrating for an end to the genocide of Palestinians and for the end

of Columbia University’s investment in Israel and the war industries

contributing to that genocide, triggered similar encampments and demands

on many U.S. campuses, at some of which the police were called. In April

and May 2024, in the U.S. there were more than 120 encampments and

more than 3,000 people arrested or detained at campus protests.

This issue of the Amateur Computerist begins with a list of over 130

universities in the U.S. and in other countries where students set up such

encampments in support of the people of Palestine and for an end of the

war against Gaza. The list is followed by a collection of public statements

made during the encampments in support of the student-led pro-Palestin-

ian movement and in defense of the rights of peaceful assembly and free

speech on campuses.

The issue ends with three articles and a blog post, “I Can’t Sleep,”

which document the source of the anger and frustration that is motivating

people all over the world to seek ways to help end the inhumanity being

imposed on Gaza and the Palestinian people in the West Bank.

Gaza Solidarity Encampments at

130+ Universities

(April and May 2024)

American University

Arizona State University

Auraria Campus (Denver)

Barnard College

Berklee College of Music

Brown University

Bryn Mawr College

Cal Poly Humboldt

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Case Western Reserve University

Columbia University

Community Collage of Denver

Cornell University

CSU Sacramento

CUNY (CCNY Campus)

D.C. Encampment

DePaul University

Drexel University

Duke University

Emerson College

Emory University

Fashion Institute of Technology

Floride State University

Fordham University

Gallaudet University

George Mason University

George Washington University

Georgetown University

Hamline University

Harvard University

Haverford College

Howard University

Indiana University - Bloomington

Indiana University - lndianapolis

Johns Hopkins University

Louisiana State University

Loyola University

Mass Institute of Technology (MIT)

Metropolitan State Univ of Denver

Miami University

Michigan State University

Middlebury College

New York University (NYU)

North Carolina

North Carolina State

Northeastern University

Northwestern University

Oberlin College

Occidental College

Ohio State University

Persons The New School for Design

Pitzer College, Clarermont

Princeton University

Purdue University

Rhode Island

Rice University

Rutgers University

San Francisco State University

Smith College

Sonoma State University

Stanford University

Stony Brook University

Swarthmore College

Syracuse University + SUNY ESF

Temple University

The New School

The University of Connecticut

Triangle Solidarity Encampment

UNC Chapel Hill

Tufts University

Tulane Encampment

University of Albany

University of Arizona

University of California - Irvine

University of California - Riverside

University of California - Berkeley

University of California - Los Angeles

University of California - Santa Barbara

University of Chicago

University of Colorado

University of Florlda

University of Georgia

University of Illinois Urbana

- Champaign

University of Mary Washington

University of Maryland

University of Maryland - Baltimore

University of Massachusetts - Amherst

University of Michigan

University of Minnesota

University of New Mexico

University of New Orleans

University of North Carolina

- Chapel Hill

University of North Carolina - Charlotte

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University of Notre Dame

University of Pennsylvania

University of Pittsburgh

University of Rochester

University of South Florida

University of Southern California

University of Texas - Arlington

University of Texas - Austin

University of Texas - Dallas

University of Utah

University of Vermont

University of Washington

University of Wisconsin - Madison

University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

Vanderbilt University

Virginia Commonwealth University

Virginia Tech

Washington University

Wayne State University

Wesleyan University

Yale University

American University in Cairo

Beirut Arab University

Concordia University

IPSI - Institut de Presse et des

Sciences de l'Information - Manouba

Tunisia

Istanbul Teknik Üniversitesl

Jawaharlal Nehru University

Kuwait University

McGill University

NYU Berlin

NYU Buonos Aires

Quebec Encampment

Sciences Po (Paris)

Selçuk University

Sorbonne University

University of Alberta

University of British Columbia

University of Jordan

University of Melbourne

University of Quebec in Montreal

University of Queensland

University of Sydney

University of Tokyo

University of Valencia

University of Warwick

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University of California

Faculty Statement on Protests*

(April 24, 2024)

Faculty across the University of California system have

signed onto the statement, “Support Students’ Right to

Nonviolently Protest at the University of California.”

[Nonviolent student protests at the University of California change the world. Entire

academic departments owe their existence to nonviolent student protests at the University

of California. The nationwide student movement to end the Vietnam War can trace its

beginnings to nonviolent student protests at the University of California.]

As faculty and staff at the University of California, we believe that the

ability to protest nonviolently is essential to our democracy and a basic

human right that must be respected and protected. We bear the responsibil-

ity of ensuring the safety, welfare, and basic human rights of our students.

After more than 108 students engaged in a peaceful protest were arrested,

suspended from their courses, and evicted from university housing on

April 18, 2024 at Columbia University, with NYPD Chief of Patrol, John

Chell, stating that “the students that were arrested were peaceful, offered

no resistance whatsoever, and were saying what they wanted to say in a

peaceful manner,” we believe that this basic human right requires our

active protection.

Arresting or punishing students who protest peacefully and nonvio-

lently on our campuses is antithetical to our university’s highest ideals of

learning and scholarship and violates our university’s fundamental values

of decency and respect. Especially during difficult moments of intense

political contestation, it is essential that all members of our university

community respect each other and not engage in authoritarian power

plays. Our university has witnessed acts of police violence against students

protesting peacefully (Davis in 2011), suspensions, evictions, and mass

firings without due process (Santa Cruz in 2015 and again in 2020), and

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the use of university facilities as a field jail (Los Angeles in 2020). These

infamous and disgraceful actions damage our confidence in each other and

must not be repeated. In every action we take, we express our values as

members of our treasured community.

As our students stand up and use their voices, we will always do our

best to support them and their basic human rights, and thereby support our

university and our democracy.

https://dailynous.com/2024/04/29/university-of-california-faculty-statement-on-protests/

Statement by Wesleyan University

President Michael Roth*

(April 29, 2024)

Dear friends, This morning you can find pro-Palestinian protesters

camped out behind North College. The students there know that they are

in violation of university rules and seem willing to accept the conse-

quences. The protest has been non-violent and has not disrupted normal

campus operations. As long as it continues in this way, the University will

not attempt to clear the encampment. The University will not tolerate

intimidation or harassment of students, staff, or faculty. Protesters assure

us that they have no intention of engaging in these kinds of actions. We

will continue to monitor the situation to keep everyone safe and will send

updates as necessary. There will be many on campus who cheer on the

protesters, and many who are offended or even frightened by their rallies

and messages. But as long as we all reject violence, we have opportunities

to listen and to learn from one another. This may not happen during the

chanting and drumming, but it can happen during some of the planned

discussion sessions and deep conversations that will take place throughout

the week. This is a challenging time in world affairs and in the lives of

many – including college students – concerned about their own relation to

the brutal war in the Middle East. May we at Wesleyan find ways to learn

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from this difficult moment – determining what it is we can do to serve the

goal of a sustainable peace – even as we finish out this academic year.

With hope, Michael S. Roth, President

https://roth.blogs.wesleyan.edu/

See blog post on Apr 29, 2024

Connecticut College Faculty and Staff

Statement of Solidarity with Students

and Colleagues Across the Nation*

(May 2, 2024)

The undersigned Faculty and Staff at Connecticut College stand in

solidarity with our colleagues and students across the nation who have

been subjected to arrests, violence, and repression. We echo the national

Faculty for Justice in Palestine positions that state:

1. Institutions of higher education have never been apolitical spaces, and

choosing to remain neutral in the face of a genocide is, itself, a political

position.

2. Criminalizing students for peaceful protest demonstrates these institu-

tions’ deplorable commitment to the repression of academic inquiry and

the shackling of critical thought.

3. Student activism, and student protest in particular, is a time-honored

social and political tradition in the United States.

4. We condemn in the strongest possible terms the recent spate of arrests

of peaceful student activists, faculty, and staff at Columbia, Barnard,

Emory, Tustin, Princeton, Northeastern, Emerson, USC, and many more.

These students assembled on campus property to voice their opposition to

institutional study abroad programs in Israel that violate college nondis-

crimination policies; college and university investments in U.S. companies

that produce weapons for sale to Israel; and Israeli companies that develop

surveillance and policing technologies deployed to advance the ongoing

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genocide of Palestinians.

5. The criminalization of nonviolent student protesters constitutes a willful

and cynical flouting of the mission of universities as speech havens, where

the strong protections of academic freedom must apply and be upheld. It

also gravely impacts the criminalized students’ careers and sustenance,

contributes to the moral panic that conflates criticism of Israel with anti-

Semitism and terrorism, and reinforces the rise of the new McCarthyism

across society.

6. Policies for the future protection of speech, including and especially

dissent are vital to the functioning of educational institutions.

7. Divestment is a tried and true political strategy. Faculty play a crucial

role in supporting student demands for universities and colleges to divest

from companies supporting Israeli state violence, genocide, apartheid, and

occupation.

We also stand in solidarity with Israeli organizations and activists

who oppose Israeli apartheid and Jewish supremacy such as Shoresh. At

Connecticut College in particular, we are firmly committed to combating

any form of racism, including anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian racism,

Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, anti-Blackness, and white supremacy. We

are also firmly committed to combating all forms of oppression, including

caste hierarchies and those targeting sexuality, trans and non-binary

gender identification, and disabilities of any kind. We strongly reject any

claim by our administration that a critique of Zionism is anti-Semitic or

that Zionism is “part of Jewish shared ancestry and religion” (email on

“Public Inquiry and Freedom of Expression Policy Interpretation Guid-

ance”) rather than a historically constructed political reality. We are firmly

committed to support and encourage the free exploration of ideas without

fear of intimidation or censure, most especially for our students. We are

also committed to pursuing transparency in our own institution’s

investments.

Faculty Statements of Support for Student Protestors and other relevant

statements:

UT Austin – Statement from Concerned Faculty

UT Austin Faculty Response to Police Violence

Columbia University AAUP Letter

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Columbia University Faculty & Staff for Justice in Palestine Call for Boycott

of Commencement

Columbia University Apartheid Divest Divestment Proposal

Letter to Boycott Columbia signed by thousands

Columbia & Barnard AAUP condemnation of student suspensions and NYPD

sweep

AAUP Joint Statement on Rights and Freedoms of Students

FJP Statement About Campus Repression

AAUP Statement, Legislative Threats to Academic Freedom: Redefinitions of

Anti-Semitism and Racism

AAUP Statement, Polarizing Times Demand Robust Academic Freedom

CUNY Statement on the Arrests

UPenn Statement on Suppression of Student and Faculty Dissent

NYU Letter from Chairs and Directors

University of California Support for Nonviolent Protest

Washington University Faculty Response

Vanderbilt University Faculty Letter to Administrators

Faculty for Justice in Palestine Network Chapters

* https://thecollegevoice.org/2024/05/02/faculty-statement-of-solidarity-with-student-

protestors/

Statement of Members of the

Department of History in Response to

the Attack on the UCLA Encampment on

30 April, 2024*

(May 1, 2024)

We, members of the History Department, a number of whom were

present during the events of the night of 30 April to 1 May, strongly

condemn the mob attack on our students and the university’s failure to

support our students’ right to protest peacefully and to be kept safe while

doing so.

The encampment itself had been a model of its kind: it was limited to

members of the university community through the checking of IDs to gain

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access; participants made continual efforts to avoid engagement with

hecklers; and it maintained its focus on its own concerns. This orderly and

self-disciplined environment seemed to have the support of the university

administration, which initially praised its decorum. This policy on the part

of the UC and UCLA administration earned high praise for its restraint

and for its clear dedication to protecting the rights of students to protest

peacefully.

In a sharp reversal, on 30 April, President Drake issued a statement

declaring that the encampment was “unlawful,” and Chancellor Block

called it “unauthorized.” Such statements withdrew official protections

from these peaceful student activities, making the students vulnerable to

attack. Later that night, the campus was invaded by a violent mob of

individuals including many not affiliated with the campus community.

History faculty who were present reported that many were middle-aged

men; some shouted white supremacist slurs; and others brandished flags

linked to violent, right-wing organizations. The security personnel who

had been stationed around the barricade left the scene, abandoning it to

attack. The violent mob used toxic spray, fireworks, pieces of the

barricade, pipes, boards, and bottles to assault the students and faculty

inside the encampment. They tore the barricades apart to get at the

students inside. During this time, the security personnel and campus police

made no effort to stop them. Student journalists and faculty observers

outside the encampment were also threatened and assaulted. When police

finally arrived many hours later, they watched the attacks, failing to come

to the aid of those in the encampment. Some history department faculty

who were at the scene reported that police, far from putting a halt to the

violence, seemed to be marching alongside the mob. No emergency aid

was provided to the students who were bleeding, gassed, or concussed.

Today we heard many first-hand accounts of the violence and the lack of

support from police and security forces.

We want to object in the strongest possible terms to this travesty. We

are horrified that Chancellor Block abdicated his responsibility to protect

and support students. His statements (and those of President Drake)

opened the way to these attacks on our community. The exemplary nature

of this encampment made it a target for those who oppose the free exercise

of views other than their own. We demand that the Chancellor and the

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President be held accountable for their actions in sacrificing student safety

and liberties to political expediency. We call for the resignation of

Chancellor Gene Block.

We want the university to stand up for the safety and the rights of the

campus community by defending the continuing existence of the

encampment. The encampment must be protected and the rights of peace-

ful protests upheld.

Signed by over 40 Members of the UCLA Department of History

https://history.ucla.edu/2024/05/01/statement-of-members-of-the-ucla-department-of-

history-faculty-in-response-to-the-attack-on-the-encampment-on-30-april-2024/

Statement in Solidarity With Student

Protests for Gaza*

(April 29, 2024)

We, the undersigned organizations, stand in solidarity with the

students nationwide and globally who are bravely protesting in encamp-

ments and otherwise to condemn Israel’s ongoing bombardment of Gaza

– actions which human rights organizations, a federal U.S. court, and the

International Court of Justice have said “plausibly” constitute genocide.

We commend the students who are exercising their right to protest

peacefully despite an overwhelming atmosphere of pressure, intimidation

and retaliation, to raise awareness about Israel’s assault on Gaza – with

U.S. weapons and funding. These students have come forth with clear

demands that their universities divest from corporations profiting from

Israeli occupation, and demanding safe environments for Palestinians

across their campuses. The students’ courage and determination in the face

of adversity inspire us all to take action and speak out against injustice

wherever it occurs. As they risk everything right now, it is critical that all

of us do everything we can to support them.

We join them in calling for an immediate and lasting cease-fire and

an end to the U.S. government’s and institutions’ role in the ongoing

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genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

As we stand in solidarity with the students protesting in encampments

across the country, we reaffirm our commitment to amplifying their

voices, condemn the university administration officials’ violent response

to their activism, and demand that universities remove the presence of

police and other militarized forces from their campuses.

In solidarity

Signed by more than 250 organizations, listed at:

https://www.mpowerchange.org/gazastudentprotests.

https://www.mpowerchange.org/gazastudentprotests

American Association of University

Professors Statement “In Defense of the

Right to Free Speech and Peaceful

Protest on University Campuses”*

(April 29, 2024)

The AAUP and its chapters defend the right to free speech and

peaceful protest on university campuses, condemn the militarized response

by institutional leaders to these activities, and vehemently oppose the

politically motivated assault on higher education.

Our colleges and universities are places of free and open expression,

inquiry, and debate. Even in sharp disagreement, our goal is communica-

tion in service of learning and understanding. The critical evaluation of

different points of view and the questioning of even the most deeply held

beliefs are essential to learning. So too is our students’ right to protest and

to express their political convictions.

In a democratic society based on the fundamental value of free

speech, it is unacceptable to respond to demonstrations with violent

repression. When the Speaker of the House of Representatives equates

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protesters at Columbia University with terrorists, he irresponsibly incites

violence. When politicians demand the resignation of university presi-

dents, they threaten the autonomy of private universities. These actions

continue an alarming and decades-long trend of undermining the shared

governance, academic freedom and independence that have made

American higher education globally preeminent. These recent interfer-

ences and threats are part of an ongoing partisan, political attack intended

to dismantle higher education in service to the public interest, and make

our institutions beholden only to corporate, political and private interests.

They are an existential threat to democracy.

We condemn, in the strongest possible terms, the heavy-handed,

militaristic response to student activism that we are seeing across the

country. At this critical moment, too many cowardly university leaders are

responding to largely peaceful, outdoor protests by inviting law enforce-

ment in riot gear to campus and condoning violent arrests. These

administrators are failing in their duty to their institutions, their faculty,

their students, and their central obligation to our democratic society. When

university administrators limit when, where, and how free speech may be

exercised, and require advanced applications for permission of such

expression, they effectively gut the right itself. To insist that harsh

discipline and violent repression are necessary to combat hate on a college

campus is a pretext to suppress protest and silence speech.

Harassment and hate have no place on college campuses or anywhere.

Universities have carefully developed policies and disciplinary procedures

based on due process to address these long-standing problems and these

must be used now and allowed to run their course. Policies enacted

unilaterally after October 7 violate principles of shared governance, and

institutions should enforce only mutually-approved policies which, on a

college campus, should be focused on restorative justice and learning in

service of understanding.

We are alarmed at the shameless exertion of pressure on university

leaders by the nation’s politicians, by the universities’ most powerful

donors, and by other interest groups. We are even more alarmed at how

quickly our institutional leaders have capitulated to that pressure. In just

a few months, too many university leaders have abandoned long-standing

principles of academic freedom and shared governance that are meant to

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protect colleges from such outside influence. Policies guaranteeing

academic freedom and free speech mean nothing if they are not upheld in

times of stress. We call on institutional leaders to reinstate student

organizations shut down in recent months for political activity, to drop

charges against peaceful protesters, to observe due process in disciplinary

actions, to keep armed law enforcement off campuses, and to uphold

fundamental freedoms for students and faculty.

AAUP stands with our chapters and members nationwide who are

defending free speech, the right of assembly, and associational rights for

students. The way forward is through education and dialogue, not through

zip-ties and fear-mongering. We invite all AAUP members, AAUP

chapters, higher-education unions and any organizational ally to endorse

these positions by signing this statement.

Signed by at least 100 AAUP Chapters and other groups.

https://www.aaup.org/media-release/defense-right-free-speech-and-peaceful-protest-

university-campuses

Letter Signed by Over 1400 International

Faculty Supporting Columbia Students’

Protest Encampment*

(April 23, 2024)

We, the undersigned, stand in solidarity with members of the

Columbia University community demanding that the University divest

from Israel’s U.S.-backed genocide in Gaza and the West Bank. We write

to announce our initiation of an academic and cultural boycott of

Columbia University and Barnard College.

Israel has undertaken a systematic campaign to destroy the Palestinian

education system. Thousands of students, teachers and professors have

been martyred, and 80% of educational facilities in Gaza have been

partially or wholly destroyed, including every university, the Gaza

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Municipal Archive and hundreds of libraries, bookstores, and publishing

houses.

We are appalled by the Columbia administration’s decision to call the

NYPD’s Strategic Response Group onto campus, in full riot gear, to arrest

over one hundred peacefully protesting students. At the time of the arrest,

NYPD representatives stated that “students were peaceful, offered no

resistance whatsoever” and that the assessment of “danger” was the

University’s alone. We are appalled by the decision to summarily suspend

these students at both Barnard and Columbia, and further, to evict Barnard

students from their student housing. We reject the false language of

“safety” President Shafik has invoked to justify these actions. Likewise,

we reject as ludicrous the idea that the Columbia administration was

forced to call in the NYPD because of the need to “protect students from

rhetoric that amounts to harassment and discrimination.” Indeed, it is the

University’s own decision to arrest, intimidate, criminalize, and punish

students that has endangered their safety. If a university would rather

arrest its own students than listen to their demands – if it would rather

imitate the military tactics of a state that has destroyed every university in

Gaza, burying students and colleagues under the rubble, than divest from

it – then is it still a university? We see the administration’s actions for

what they are: an embarrassing attempt to appease donors, trustees, and

members of Congress by cracking down on students peacefully protesting

the University’s complicity in genocide.

To this end, we are initiating a boycott of Columbia University and

Barnard College until the following demands are met:

1. Barnard College, Teacher’s College, and Columbia University

must reverse and expunge all suspensions and charges from

protesting students’ records, and immediately restore these

students’ campus privileges. This includes reversing the suspen-

sion of the student groups Columbia Students for Justice in

Palestine and Columbia Jewish Voices for Peace.

2. University administration must remove police presence from

campus and end the targeted repression of students involved in

anti-genocide protesting, both on and off campus.

3. Presidents Minouche Shafik (Columbia) and Laura Rosenbury

(Barnard) must resign.

Page 15

We call on academics of conscience worldwide to join us.

Until these demands are met, our boycott comprises the following

actions, and will affect all non-clerical members of University administra-

tion, as well as tenure and tenure-track faculty.

1. We will not participate in academic or other cultural events

held at or officially sponsored by Columbia University or

Barnard College.

This includes, but is not limited to, workshops, conferences,

talks, screenings, and invited lectures.

2. We will not collaborate with Columbia or Barnard faculty who

hold positions within the university administration in addition to

their academic appointments.

This includes but is not limited to: invitations to academic events

at our universities; collaboration on any new grants and work-

shops; co-authorship of papers.

3. Some signatories may further engage in common sense

boycotts of faculty independently of their administrative role

based on faculty members’ particular complicity with Columbia

and Barnard’s repression. Likewise, some signatories may

engage in common sense boycotts of publications affiliated with

Columbia University.

We endorse and reiterate the demands of the Gaza Solidarity

Encampment: divest all of Columbia’s finances, including the endowment,

from companies and institutions that profit from Israeli apartheid, geno-

cide and occupation in Palestine; and ensure accountability by increasing

transparency around financial investments.

We stand in full solidarity with the brave students, clerical staff,

graduate workers, post-doctoral workers, and faculty at Columbia,

Barnard, and Teacher’s College resisting genocide, from Gaza, from Pal-

estine, to Morningside Heights.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jvYNy_3KxUQu4d0fgBZqlmMXXOGleip35

_7lB2WobrQ/edit

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Statement in Solidarity With Student

Protest From the University of

Wisconsin-Madison Community*

(April 30, 2024)

We, the faculty, staff, alumni, and donors of the University of

Wisconsin-Madison, proudly and enthusiastically affirm the rights of

student activists to protest Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza and its

continuing occupation, assassinations, land dispossessions, and arrests in

the West Bank. We are heartened to see our students’ commitment to

critical thinking and civic engagement on display, alongside that of their

peers across the nation. Our student protestors embody the university’s

commitment to the Wisconsin Idea in action through the fight for human

life and dignity. They exemplify our shared philosophy that education

must “… influence people’s lives beyond the boundaries of the class-

room.”

This action is a powerful new chapter in UW-Madison’s long and

impressive history of student activism. On October 18, 1967, hundreds of

students staged a sit-in at Commerce (now Ingraham) Hall to protest on-

campus recruiters from Dow Chemical Company, a key manufacturer of

Napalm for the U.S. Military in Vietnam. Like our students today, those

students demanded that the university cease its material and ideological

support for entities aiding mass murder in another country. They sought

to achieve these demands through peaceful and conscientious protest.

When Madison police arrived at the scene of the Dow Chemical protest in

1967, they quickly and viciously attacked student protesters with clubs and

tear gas, injuring and arresting dozens, in a horrific display of coercive

force. To this day, that unprovoked and unnecessary police violence

remains a dark stain on the university’s history. Then-Chancellor Bill

Sewell shared his “regret” for bringing police to campus and warned that

such a response “must not be repeated.” We urge the university, which

now proudly celebrates those students and their activism, to heed Sewell’s

words today.

In affirming our students’ concerns and demands, we reject the

Page 17

weaponization of antisemitism. It is neither antisemitic nor a danger to

campus safety for students to engage in peaceful protest. Nor is it anti-

semitic to oppose the violent actions of the Israeli government and army

that contribute to the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people. As many

of us wrote in a letter on December 21, 2023, “We cannot have educa-

tional conversations if critical interrogation [sic] of Israel or Zionism are

censored as antisemitic.” As scholars of nationalism – many of whom are

members of our UW-Madison community – have shown, the distinction

between a people and a nation-state is an essential framework for the spirit

of critique.

We expect the UW-Madison administration, including the Dean of

Students and University of Wisconsin Police Department, to honor our

shared values of protecting students’ rights to free expression by refraining

from the punishment of students, staff, faculty, and community members

exercising their right to peaceful protest. We have seen alarming responses

to peaceful protests from our peer institutions, including many of those

with which we are in close community. As the Daily Cardinal recently

reported, Chancellor Mnookin has the power to protect students from such

harmful and drastic measures by allowing students, should they so desire,

to erect tents. We call on our colleagues in the UW-Madison administra-

tion to listen to our students and engage with their demands. We ask them

to seek to understand why the students are enacting historic strategies and

tactics of organizing and activism.

Now is the time for our UW administration to live up to our institu-

tional mission: “to provide a learning environment in which faculty, staff

and students can discover, examine critically, preserve and transmit the

knowledge, wisdom and values that will help ensure the survival of this

and future generations and improve the quality of life for all.” Our

students embody this commitment, and as they offer a tangible opportunity

for us to do the same, we implore our university community to learn with

and from them in this moment.

We, the undersigned, demand:

! No punishment of any UW-Madison community member (ie:

student, faculty, staff, etc.) in the form of violence, arrest,

suspension, expulsion, academic discipline, or the loss of

residential privileges or employment.

Page 18

! Administration liaise directly with faculty, staff, and student

representatives in order to seriously and fairly take into consider-

ation protest demands.

! Transparency in university finances, particularly in the

disclosure of ties with and investments in companies that supply,

coordinate with, and profit from Israeli apartheid and the ongoing

violence in Gaza.

In Solidarity with the Students

Signed by 900 UW-Madison faulty, staff, alumni, parents and donors.

https://www.instagram.com/lachristagreco/p/C6ZTh3GAyoe

In Solidarity With Students Calling for

End to Complicity in Israel’s Genocide

Of Palestinians in Gaza*

(April 25, 2024)

New York, April 25, 2024 – In response to the crackdown on college

students protesting Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the Center for Constitutional

Rights issued the following statement:

We stand in solidarity with the student activists facing repression for

demanding that their universities end their complicity in Israel’s genocide

of Palestinians. In a futile attempt to mollify politicians and donors,

college presidents like Columbia’s Minouche Shafik have suspended

students and called in the police to clear their encampments. Such

repression is not new. Months before the first tent popped up on the lawn,

Columbia suspended Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice

for Peace, and universities started suppressing speech by Palestinian rights

advocates years ago.

The furor over campus protests hit the news cycle just as Palestinians

uncovered another mass grave in a hospital recently evacuated by Israeli

forces, and families are searching for signs of their loved ones among

Page 19

mutilated and decomposing bodies. Those condemning the students aim

to draw attention away from the cause of their outrage: Israel’s genocide

in Gaza and U.S. institutions’ unconditional support for it. In response to

the lawsuit brought against President Biden by Palestinians and Palestinian

human rights organizations, a U.S. federal judge found that “the ongoing

military siege in Gaza is intended to eradicate a whole people and

therefore plausibly falls within the international prohibition against

genocide.” He then stated: “It is every individual's obligation to confront

the current siege in Gaza.”

Students are doing just that. More headlines and outrage have focused

on their nonviolent tactics than on Israel’s killing of 35,000 Palestinians,

its campaign of starvation that could kill hundreds of thousands more, and

its destruction of Gaza’s institutions and infrastructure. During his

testimony in court, one of our clients described in agonizing detail how all

the places in Gaza that Palestinians have known and loved – including

their universities – have been wiped out.

After nearly seven months of incessant, deliberate obliteration of

Palestinian life, students are demanding that their schools take action.

Suppression of their advocacy only intensifies their resolve and inspires

other students to join the effort. The movement is growing by the hour.

Following in the tradition of the students who protested the Vietnam war

in 1968 – including our former president, Michael Ratner – and those who

compelled Columbia and other universities to divest from South Africa in

the 1980s, today’s student activists stand on the right side of history. We

commend their leadership and are proud to stand with them.

https://ccrjustice.org/home/press-center/press-releases/solidar ity-students-calling-end-

complicity-israel-s-genocide

Page 20

Columbia University Alumni Boycott

Reunion

Redirect All Donations to Aid for

Palestine Until Student

Demands Are Met*

(May 4, 2024)

Organizers have planned an alternative event that will not financially

support Columbia.

We Stand in Solidarity with Thousands of Alumni and Their Statements

New York, NY – We, the alumni of Columbia University and Barnard

College, write to announce a boycott of the upcoming Columbia College,

SEAS, and Barnard alumni reunions, scheduled for May 31 to June 1. We

will be redirecting the money that would otherwise have gone toward

tickets to reunion events, as well as all other alumni donations, to direct

aid to Palestine.

We are unable to reconcile the University’s recent actions with the

values and principles that defined our education at Columbia and Barnard.

The University administration’s brutal repression of student and faculty

voices, and the use of law enforcement against peaceful protestors, have

forced us to remove ourselves from any and all initiatives sponsored by

the current Columbia University administration until these wrongs are

rectified.

We join thousands of alumni from 20+ organizations in signing onto

an alumni petition expressing our complete and unwavering support for

students’ right to free speech and assembly, and on-campus advocacy for

the dignity and human rights of Palestinians.

We call upon the University to meet the demands of student protestors

for divestment from companies supporting Israel’s government, disclosure

of those investments, full amnesty for students and professors unfairly

disciplined for exercising their free speech in calling for freedom, safety,

and self-determination for the Palestinian people, and all other demands

outlined in detail in our petition.

We will be hosting alternative reunion events on Friday, May 31, and

Page 21

Saturday, June 1, in solidarity with student and faculty protestors and

unaffiliated with Columbia University. This alternative reunion is

welcome to all who feel similarly or wish to learn more in good faith.

Our alumni donations and reunion ticket events will be redirected

from Columbia University to the following causes:

United Nations Relief and Works Agency: UNRWA USA is an

independent nonprofit supporting the work of the United Nations Relief

and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East through fund-

raising, education, and advocacy.

Palestine Children’s Relief Fund: The PCRF is a legally registered

non-political, non-profit, 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization established in

1991 by concerned people to address the medical and humanitarian needs

of Palestinian and Arab youths in the Middle East.

World Central Kitchen: WCK is an NGO, non-for-profit organization

that recently resumed operations of providing meals to millions of Gazans

facing starvation after losing seven of its members in an Israeli air strike.

https://bwog.com/2024/05/columbia-and-barnard-alumni-announce-a-boycott-of-

university-reunions-and-plans-to-send-funds-from-alternative-events-to-aid-in-palestine/

Union Theological Seminary Board of

Trustees Endorses Divestment and

Other Strategies for Companies

Profiting From War in Palestine/Israel*

(May 9, 2024)

Union Theological Seminary (UTS) in the City of New York has a

long history of preparing religious and spiritual leaders for lives commit-

ted to creating a more just and peaceful world for all. This commitment is

not just one among many; it is core to our very identity. In line with this,

we have long sought to manage our endowment in a manner that reflects

these values. Over the decades, we have developed what are called

Page 22

“socially responsible investment (SRI) screens” to express our values and

not financially support damaging and immoral investments, including our

early divestment from the dehumanizing system of apartheid in South

Africa. More recently, this has included screens against investing in for-

profit prisons and fossil fuels, among many other screens. Indeed, we were

the first institution of higher education to divest from fossil fuels in 2014.

Our policies remain both consistent and evolving. When we proactively

create screens, we intend for them, in principle, to be applicable in a

global context and be sustainable over time. This makes our screens

stronger, not weaker – and wider, not smaller.

Our screens already prevent investments in armaments, weapons, and

defense manufacturers, as well as companies that participate in human

rights violations. Managing our endowment in a manner that actively

seeks the good and leverages our resources to reduce harm is an ongoing

process, and we will remain committed to these principles into the future.

With respect to companies that are profiting from the present war in

Palestine, we continue to hold these standards high and have taken steps

to identify all investments, both domestic and global, that support and

profit from the present killing of innocent civilians in Palestine, whose

numbers are now over 34,000 – and a humanitarian crisis of ever-growing

magnitude. Union’s president, faculty, and students have repeatedly made

strong public calls for an immediate ceasefire and will continue to do so

until this continually escalating war has stopped. These calls are supported

by today’s decision by Union’s Investment Committees to withdraw

support from companies profiting from the war. We have been working on

this decision since November of 2023, a decision that has required

research and exploration into our investment portfolio, and that research

and monitoring will continue.

Let us share with you directly our multifaceted policy related to

companies profiting from the war in Palestine adopted by the Board of

Trustees Investment Committee today and endorsed by Union’s Board of

Trustees:

We are revising the section of our investment policy statement section

pertaining to responsible investing to include an overt reference to the

Israel-Palestine hostilities, in addition to current robust policies regarding

fossil fuels, military weapons, private prisons, etc.

Page 23

We are directing our investment consultants and conferring with other

resources to determine a list of those companies substantially and

intractably benefiting from the war in Palestine that may not be captured

by existing screens. We are also identifying resources to monitor changes

to company activity over time.

We are directing our investment managers to exclude those compa-

nies from the portfolios managed on behalf of Union.

If relevant holdings are held in commingled accounts or mutual funds,

we are directing the manager of those funds to divest, or we will find

another alternative vehicle.

We are joining the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility

(ICCR) so that in addition to our individual institutional divestments, we

can align ourselves with other like-minded activist institutions engaging

with corporations on their activities related to human rights. This strategy

emerged from previous divestment and corporate engagement movements,

which found collective leverage to be an important part of bringing needed

pressure to bear on areas where we seek to create pressure and impact.

As we also learned from previous divestment actions, we are also

exploring investments that proactively support humanitarian and

entrepreneurial companies doing positive work in the region.

With the ICCR among our guides in this process to expand our

responsible investor toolkit, we commit to making participation in our

meetings with ICCR open to students and others, in addition to main-

taining our present policy of having direct UTS student representation on

our Investment Committee. We believe that teaching others how to

responsibly and morally manage investments is a key dimension of

Union’s teaching mission and our commitment to transparency.

To be clear, as we take these actions, we remain unequivocal in our

denouncement of the horrific killing by Hamas of Israeli citizens on

October 7, 2023, and call for the immediate release of all hostages. With

respect to both Palestine and Israel, we affirm their right to secure

existence and self-determination. We also remain committed in all we do

to stand against all forms of hatred, including antisemitism and

Islamophobia. Our investment policies will continue to adapt, guided by

our values, to strengthen the resolve that undergirds our decision today.

We do not take this step lightly, and we do so with all humility, recogniz-

Page 24

ing that our work on the global stage is far from finished. Although our

investments in the war in Palestine are small because our previous, strong

anti-armament screens are robust, we hope that our action today will bring

needed pressure to bear to stop the killing and find a peaceful future for

all.

https://utsnyc.edu/blog/2024/05/09/union-theological-semi nary-board-of-trustees-

endorses-divestment-and-other-strategies-for-companies-profiting-from-war-in-palestine-

israel/

Solidarity Statement Representing Library

Workers Across the Columbia

University Libraries System*

(May 12, 2024)

Libraries should cooperate with all persons and groups concerned with

resisting abridgment of free expression and free access to ideas.

— Library Bill of Rights, American Library Association (ALA)

The following is a statement by library workers in the Columbia

University Libraries (CUL) system. We speak not as representatives of the

system, but as individuals with common concerns grounded in our

community membership and adherence to the values of librarianship.

Library workers hold a range of opinions, emotions, and experiences.

Recent events require us to speak in unison and with moral clarity.

As a collective of library workers within CUL, and members of the

Columbia University community, we take seriously our role as stewards

of knowledge. We are charged with encouraging critical thinking through

the accessible provision of research materials and instructional tools for

learning.

We are appalled by President Shafik's and the Columbia Board of

Trustees’ deployment of public and private security entities on our campus

(cf. “Letter to the NYPD,” 18 April, 2024,

https://publicsafety.col

Page 25

umbia.edu/content/letter-nypd). These actions stand in clear contradiction

to all values espoused by academic institutions, impede us in serving the

libraries’ many communities, and undermine core library values of free

thought, free expression, and right of access to information that we uphold

in our daily work.

Student arrests and suspensions for protesting the University’s

complicity in the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people directly

contradicts the administration’s stated desire to encourage “thoughtful,

rigorous debate.” These actions highlight the University’s hypocrisy when

it promotes itself using archival materials that document its past suppres-

sion of student dissent (http://tiny.cc/j5juxz). Current policing actions to

quell dissent also contradict intellectual freedom as a central value of

librarianship. University officials’ use of law enforcement on our campus

and threats of State violence stand in the way of our commitment,

grounded in ALA principles, to serving the public good of “creating

informed, connected, educated, and empowered communities.”

As library workers, we oppose the escalated and violent suppression

of speech, as well as increasing crackdowns on the free exchange of ideas

– two pillars of our academic community that Columbia claims to uphold

– that have come to define the 2023-2024 academic year. Locked campus

gates, whether against our Harlem neighbors or members of our university

community, are a disturbing symbol of the anti-democratic and anti-

intellectual climate the current Columbia administration are attempting to

make the new normal.

We endorse Columbia University Apartheid Divest’s six demands

(

https://cuad.org/).

We reject anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, anti-Black racism, anti-

semitism, and Islamophobia. We reject the conflation of advocacy for

Palestinian rights with anti-semitism, as thoughtfully articulated by the

April 10 Jewish faculty op-ed in the Columbia Spectator

(http://tiny.cc/h7juxz).

We stand in solidarity with students, faculty, and staff seeking

unfettered access to our libraries, archives, and special collections.

We bear witness and will continue to work to hold those in power

accountable.

We invite colleagues across the Columbia University Libraries to

Page 26

affirm their support for this statement by signing onto this form:

https://cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/form/view/yNLzKfb6AX81bByNgwicS3

XEMy0FYQvbnRi8XPaZ9W0/.

79 (and counting!) signatories as of 12 May, 2024

Sources and further reading

American Library Association, “Core Values of Librarianship,” 21 January, 2024,

https://www.ala.org/advocacy/adv ocacy/intfreedom/corevalues.

Catlin, Samuel P. “The Campus Does Not Exist: How Campus War Is Made,”

Parapraxis:

https://www.parapraxismag azine.com/articles/the-cam pus-does-not-exist.

Becher, Debbie, et. al. “Jewish faculty reject the weaponization of antisemitism,”

Columbia Spectator, 10 April, 2024,

https://www.columbiaspectator.com/opinion/2024

/04/10/jewish-faculty-reject-the-weaponization-of-antisemitism/.

Columbia Law Fellows/Honorees in Support of pro-Palestine Students & Com-

munity Members, “Open Letter to Dean Lester, President Shafik, and the broader Colum-

bia Law School and Columbia University community,” 18 April, 2024,

https://docs.go

ogle.com/document/d/16F6Vx8KaVDyMK7GRIOlgNS5l4nFlyUss2xjbIELNYQA/mo

bilebasic.

Columbia University Libraries, “1968: Columbia in Crisis,” Online exhibition:

https://exhibitions.library.columbia.edu/exhibits/show/1968.

Librarians and Archivists with Palestine, “2023 Gaza Statement”: https://librarians

withpalestine.org/2023-statement-on-gaza/.

“Israeli Damage to Archives, Libraries, and Museums in Gaza,” October 2023 to

January 2024:

https://librarianswithpalestine.org/gaza-report-2024/.

United Nations’ Human Rights Council, “Anatomy of a Genocide: Report of the

Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied

since 1967, Francesca Albanese,” 55

Session, 26 February – 5 April, 2024:

https://www

.ohchr.org/en/documents/country-reports/ahrc5573-report-special-rapporteur-situation-

human-rights-palestinian.

https://cu-librarians-free-palestine.cargo.site/

Page 27

Statement by the Independent Student

Workers of Columbia University*

(May 29, 2024)

On April 30, the NYPD invaded our campus for a second time,

inflicting unprecedented violence on our students and community

members. They did so at the behest of the Columbia administration, Board

of Trustees, and powerful individuals unrelated to our community. In

direct response, hundreds of student workers at Columbia coalesced to

take action. In spite of our contractual obligations, in spite of the

limitations of end-of-term labor actions, we came together and forged a

strategy forward to tell Columbia: there is no threat, no contract, no

suppression that will keep us from standing up for what is right and just.

We formed the Independent Student Workers at Columbia, a rank-

and-file group of teaching assistants, researchers, graders, and instructors

of record. On May 6, 2024, we announced the start of a sickout. A sickout,

for those unfamiliar, is a labor action in which workers call in sick as a

means to disrupt the functioning of their employer’s business. On May 24,

2024, after two and a half weeks of successful labor action, we concluded

the sickout.

We called this sickout because we were sick of Columbia. We were

sick of the administration’s reprehensible treatment of student-protesters.

We were sick of the militarization of our campus. We were sick of the

University’s complicity and investment in genocide and apartheid. We

called the sickout to demand amnesty for those facing disciplinary action

for their participation in pro-Palestinian protest, including fired employ-

ees, and to demand the immediate and permanent removal of the NYPD

from campus.

From the onset of the sickout, hundreds of graduate and undergradu-

ate student-workers, faculty, and staff joined our movement to withhold

labor. Together, we refused to submit grades, provide service work, or

otherwise contribute to the administration’s attempts to conduct business

as usual. Through our combined efforts, we withheld over 6000 grades

across at least 45 different departments. The administration knows this

well, even as they desperately try to divert public attention from the

Page 28

impact of these concerted actions.

Success, however, stems not only from what we interrupt, but also

from what we gain. So, what did we gain from this action?

Over two and a half weeks, we saw numerous suspensions lifted, and

watched as the NYPD slinked off campus. While we have not yet won

total amnesty nor the permanent removal of the NYPD, the victories so far

reflect the strength of our movement. Our message is clear: if Columbia

does not resolve these demands, we will be back in the Fall. If we have

learnt anything through years of labor organizing at Columbia, it is how

to strike and how to win – with or without union protections. Indeed, as

pressure mounted with our concerted action, we protected each other from

threats of retaliation, and watched as the administration flinched.

We claim these victories alongside our faculty, staff, and undergradu-

ate allies at Barnard and Columbia. Through these weeks, we have gained

a robust alliance with these different constituencies that make up our

campus community. Indeed, in the previous three weeks, faculty, staff,

graduate, and undergraduate students came together on short notice to

launch the largest coordinated labor action on campus since the Fall 2021

SWC strike. Our sickout coincided with the first ever faculty and staff

service strike, while undergraduates amplified both actions with letters to

department chairs, deans, and university officials. Our sickout was but one

of a wave of actions on campus. This the administration would be wise not

to forget.

We gained, too, hundreds of new organizers. As the sickout took off,

nearly 200 new graduate and undergraduate students and student-workers

volunteered to organize their departments and friends in the name of

divestment and justice. The political activation engendered by the sickout

will carry us far. As we chant at our rallies and pickets, we will always

stand up and fight back. This, too, the university would be wise not to

forget.

Though the sickout has ended, we will all remember why we fell ill

in the first place. Some became sick the moment they learned of the Nakba

and of Columbia’s investment in the settler-colonial state of Israel. Others

fell ill this past fall, when the University banned SJP and JVP and began

to suspend student-activists. Hundreds caught the sickness on April 18,

when the NYPD flooded East Butler Lawn and arrested peaceful activists

Page 29

en masse for the first time since 1968.

Many more fell ill on the evening of April 30. We fell ill when the

administration locked down campus. We fell ill when pigs in riot gear

created a militarized zone that stretched for blocks, preventing witnesses

and journalists from documenting police brutality. We fell ill when the

NYPD kettled us and threatened us on the streets outside our own

university; when they threw our friends to the ground and arrested our

colleagues for as little as calling for an EMT; when they prevented injured

students from accessing medical care; when a bullet ripped through the air

inside of Hind’s Hall, fired by some careless or idiotic cop.

We fell ill because when our students cried out in protest – in an

earnest plea for humanity – the administration ignored them, then

threatened them, suspended them, tried to corral them into designated free-

speech zones, and finally sicced the NYPD on them. This we will not

forget.

When student-activists set up the first encampment on the morning of

April 17, they helped set off an international student movement. Just as

they had modeled their encampment on those that had come before, the

Gaza Solidarity Encampment became a model for protests that would rise

up after. In other words, these student-activists helped set a precedent for

a wave of conscientious protests.

When Shafik called the police on those same students the next day,

she established another precedent – one in which police violence became

an acceptable response to student activism. University administrators

across the country followed her example, and police violence toward

students escalated rapidly.

On April 30, the Baroness set yet another dangerous precedent by

inviting and then lauding the invasion of our campus by the NYPD, whose

officers, like Shafik, are equal parts brutal and incompetent. She and the

Board of Trustees sought to make the occupation of college campuses by

armed police the new normal. They hoped to establish this new precedent

in which the specter of police violence looms ever present. This is a direct

threat not only to pro-Palestinian activists, but to any organization and any

group that speaks against the administration, and indeed to any student at

all. This, too, we will not forget.

The administration has worked hard to make us feel disempowered

Page 30

and isolated as individuals. But as the Gaza Solidarity Encampment has

demonstrated, as the faculty and staff service strike has demonstrated, and

as our sickout has demonstrated, we are powerful together.

We conclude this sickout in a moment of strength and of hope. We

conclude this sickout emboldened by our successes and poised for future

actions. We remain in solidarity with our students, our faculty, and staff.

Though campus has emptied for the summer, we will be back – all of us,

together, undaunted, in the Fall. We will continue to mobilize and

organize until then. On College Walk, in the streets of Morningside

Heights, in dorm rooms and classrooms, in administrative buildings, in

libraries and dining halls, we will be back, and we will continue our strug-

gle for collective liberation until all halls are Hind’s Hall – until we are all

free.

https://cuapartheiddivest.substack.com/p/until-all-halls-are-hinds-hall

[Editor’s Note: The following is a press release issued by the Office of the United Nations

High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on July 19, 2024. It can be seen online

at:

https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2024/07/gaza-killing-hind-rajab-andher-fam

ily-war-crime-too-many-warn-experts.]

Gaza: Killing of Hind Rajab and Her

Family – a War Crime Too Many,

Warn Experts

GENEVA (19 July 2024) – The killing of five-year old Hind Rajab,

her family and two paramedics may amount to a war crime, independent

experts* warned today, denouncing Israeli claims that its troops were not

in the area at the time as “unacceptable.”

They urged an immediate halt to the attacks against the civilian

population in Gaza, which have already killed more than 38,000 Palestin-

ians, including 13,000 children, warning that the systemic nature of the

attacks may amount to a crime against humanity.

Page 31

“The absence of proper investigation and accountability, more than

five months after the tragic killing of Hind and six other members of her

family trapped in a car which came under Israeli fire in Gaza is deeply

troubling and may in itself amount to a violation of the right to life,” the

experts said.

Two paramedics from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society were also

killed when their ambulance came under Israeli fire while attempting to

save Hind’s family. Audio recordings of calls between Hind and emer-

gency services suggest that she was the only survivor in the car before she

was also killed.

Recent forensic analysis of the crime scene offers compelling

evidence about the location of the family’s car stranded in the line of sight

of an Israeli tank and how it was shot at from very close range using a type

of weapon that can only be attributed to the Israeli forces.

“The brutality of these killings seem to illustrate how reckless the

army has been in its Gaza campaign: all instances of extrajudicial killing

must be duly investigated and accounted for,” the experts said.

“Hind’s family, like many others in Gaza, had been forcibly displaced

multiple times since Israel’s military operations in the strip,” the experts

said. “They were shot dead while fleeing the neighbourhood of Tal Al-

Hawa seeking safety, in what seems to be part of a broader pattern of

indiscriminate killings of civilians attempting to find shelter and escape

the fighting in Gaza upon so-called ‘evacuation’ orders by the Israeli

military.”

“These killings are not isolated cases,” the experts said. “We are

extremely troubled by the pattern of apparent indiscriminate and targeted

attacks against civilians in Gaza, including on locations used for hu-

manitarian assistance or to shelter IDPs,” they said. “The firing of heavy-

calibre projectiles at a humanitarian zone near an office of the Interna-

tional Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Gaza, killing 22 displaced

civilians, and most recently the attacks on IDP tents in Al Mawasi area, on

Ash Shati' Refugee Camp, and on the UNRWA Abu Oreiban school

sheltering IDPs, among others, killing nearly 320 Palestinians, half of

them women and children, have reinforced the fact that there is no safe

place in Gaza” the experts said. “Such attacks amount to grave violations

of international humanitarian law, must be promptly and reliably in-

Page 32

vestigated, and should be severely punished.

“The willful or indiscriminate killing of protected persons, including

civilians, medical personnel and humanitarian workers, amount to war

crimes, and if systematic, crimes against humanity, and should be

prevented at all costs,” the experts warned. “We remain deeply troubled

by the total impunity and apparent lack of investigations, and prevention

of these crimes. This is all the more worrisome in the context of the recent

order from the International Court of Justice for Israel to take immediate

measures to protect Gaza’s population from the risk of genocide,” the

experts said.

“The Government of Israel and its armed forces must take immediate

measures to protect the right to life of all protected persons in Gaza,

including women and children” they said.

They urged the Israeli Government to allow access of independent

experts, including international human rights monitoring bodies into Gaza

to ensure that all violations of international law committed since the

beginning of the Israeli military operation in Gaza are credibly investi-

gated. The experts repeated their offer of technical assistance.

Renewing calls for an immediate end to the bloodshed and grave

violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, including

the unconditional release of all hostages, the experts urged the interna-

tional community to ensure accountability for those responsible and

protection and urgent assistance for the population in Gaza.

*The Experts:

Morris Tidball-Binz, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary

executions;

Ben Saul, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and

fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism;

Dorothy Estrada Tanck (Chair), Laura Nyirinkindi (Vice-Chair), Claudia Flores,

Ivana Krstiæ, and Haina Lu, Working group on discrimination against women and girls;

Paula Gaviria Betancur, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of internally displaced

persons;

Reem Alsalem, Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, its causes and

consequences.

The Special Rapporteurs, Independent Experts and Working Groups are part of what

is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Special Procedures, the

Page 33

largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name

of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either

specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures’

experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for

their work. They are independent from any government or organization and serve in their

individual capacity.

[Editor’s Note: On April 25, 2024, the advocacy group Palestine Legal* filed a civil rights

complaint on behalf of some Columbia University students just after the NYPD arrested

Gaza encampment protesters. The complaint alleges anti-Palestinian discrimination and

harassment by fellow students, professors, and/or Columbia administrators. The following

article is from the Palestinian Legal website at: https://palestinelegal.org/news/2024/4

/25/columbia-students-file-civil-rights-complaint-after-nypd-arrests-national-guard-thr

eat.]

Columbia Students File Civil Rights

Complaint

April 25, New York, NY – Today, Palestine Legal filed a civil rights

complaint with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights

(OCR), demanding an investigation into Columbia University’s discrimi-

natory treatment of Palestinian students and their allies, including by

inviting NYPD officers in riot gear – for the first time in decades – to

arrest over a hundred students peacefully protesting Israel’s genocide last

week.

The complaint comes one day after Columbia suggested the National

Guard could be brought in to remove student protesters – implying state

violence could be used on campus.

The complaint alleges how, for more than six months, Palestinian

students, Arabs, Muslims, students perceived to be Palestinian, and

students associated with or advocating for Palestinians, have been the tar-

get of extreme anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and Islamophobic harassment,

including receiving multiple death threats, being harassed for wearing

keffiyehs or hijab, doxed, stereotyped, being treated differently by high-

ranking administrators including Columbia University President Minouche

Page 34

Shafik, an attack with a chemical agent that led to at least 10 students

requiring hospitalization and dozens of others, including a Palestinian

student, seeking medical attention, and more.

Palestine Legal is representing four students and the student group

Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), who have all been the

target of anti-Palestinian discrimination and harassment by fellow

students, professors, and/or Columbia administrators.

“As a Palestinian student, I’ve been harassed, doxxed, shouted down,

and discriminated against by fellow students and professors – simply

because of my identity and my commitment to advocating for my own

rights and freedoms,” said Maryam Alwan. “I’m horrified at the way

Columbia has utterly failed to protect me from racism and abuse, but

beyond that, the university has also played a role in this repression by

having me arrested and suspended for peacefully protesting Israel’s

genocide in Gaza. The violent repression we’re facing as peaceful anti-war

protesters is appalling. Palestinian students at Columbia deserve justice

and accountability, not only for Israel’s decades-long oppression and

violence against our people, but for the racism and discrimination we’ve

experienced here on Columbia’s campus.”

Columbia has actively contributed to pervasive racism and discrimi-

nation against Palestinian students on campus, causing both mental and

physical harm. For example, students have been arrested, assaulted,

suspended, locked out of campus and their classes, forced to seek medical

attention, and forced to drop classes and delay their own graduation.

After bringing NYPD officers in riot gear to violently arrest students

peacefully protesting Israel’s genocide in Gaza, university leaders

alarmingly threatened that the National Guard would be brought in to

forcibly remove the peaceful students from their own campus. This

disturbing threat of military violence is gravely concerning. Columbia

University has a responsibility to protect all of its students – including

Palestinians and their supporters – and should not threaten police or

military violence to attack or intimidate them.

“Columbia’s vicious crackdown on student protests calling for

Palestinian freedom amidst an ongoing genocide should alarm us all.

Students have always been at the forefront of the most pressing social

issues of the day,” said Palestine Legal Staff Attorney Sabiya Ahamed.

Page 35

“We urge federal civil rights officials to do what Columbia has disgrace-

fully failed to: ensure the rights of Palestinian and allied students are

protected at a moment when their voices are most essential.”

The discrimination, intimidation, harassment, stereotyping, disparate

treatment, and racial profiling described in the complaint are not isolated

instances but are the product of both deep-rooted, dehumanizing bigotry

against Palestinians and decades-long systematic efforts by anti-Palestin-

ian groups and their allies to suppress advocacy for Palestinian rights on

college campuses.

Palestine Legal has documented trends in repression based on the over

2200 incidents of suppression of Palestinian rights advocacy the organiza-

tion responded to between 2014 and 2022, many involving harassment and

censorship attempts by university administrations and right-wing

organizations aimed at intimidating Palestinians and their supporters into

silence and inaction. Since October 7

alone, the organization has received

reports of over 1,800 incidents, over five times the number we received in

all of 2022, reflecting an exponential rise in anti-Palestinian repression

across the U.S.

In March 2024, Palestine Legal, together with NYCLU sued

Columbia over its suspension of SJP and Jewish Voice for Peace for their

peaceful protest.

UPDATE: The Department of Education informed Palestine Legal that the Office for

Civil Rights has opened an investigation into Columbia University after students filed a

federal civil rights complaint for extreme anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and Islamophobic

harassment on campus. This comes less than 48 hours after Columbia called in the NYPD

to violently arrest dozens of peaceful student protesters, with hundreds of police coming

on campus, some with guns drawn, using sledgehammers, batons, and flash-bang

explosives.

* Founded in 2012, Palestine Legal is an independent organization dedicated to protecting

the civil and constitutional rights of people in the U.S. who speak out for Palestinian

freedom. About the complaint contact Danya Zituni at Palestine Legal

media@pal

estinelegal.org.

Page 36

[Editor’s Note: The following is a Media Advisory released on July 20,2024, by

CUNY4Palestine (C4P), Within our Lifetime (WOL Palestine), and National Students for

Justice in Palestine (NSJP). The Week of Rage was to begin on July 22, 2024.]

Call for a National Week of Rage

We reject the smearing and caricature of the Student Intifada by mass

media and continue to demand an immediate end to our universities’

complicity in the Gaza genocide.

New York, New York – On Monday, July 22, CUNY4Palestine,

Within Our Lifetime, and National Students for Justice in Palestine call for

a Week of Rage to protest the filming of an FBI: Most Wanted episode at

CUNY Queens College featuring a fictionalized Gaza Solidarity Encamp-

ment scene, complete with tents, a “chase and arrest” scene, and a mock-

explosion. This is a clear attempt to simultaneously demonize and profit

from the Student Movement against the ongoing genocide of Palestinians

in Gaza. This episode deliberately obfuscates and undermines the concrete

demands of the Student Intifada: our universities must divest from settler

colonialism and genocide and cut all ties with Israeli academic institu-

tions.

In a recent email issued by Queens College, the VP of Student Affairs

claimed that the episode being filmed on QC campus is about “climate”

rather than about Palestine. Whether or not the fictionalized encampment

is framed around Palestine solidarity or climate, the rental of the QC

campus for this film shoot is a clear attempt to simultaneously demonize

and profit from the student movement against the ongoing genocide of

Palestinians in Gaza. CUNY is obviously attempting to capitalize off of

recent Pro-Palestine encampments while ignoring and erasing Palestine.

Palestine, Stop Cop City, Indigenous Liberation, demilitarization and

climate – our struggle is one. This is a slap in the face to all of our

movements.

This exercise in copaganda comes as the Zionist-imperialist genocide

in Gaza enters its 290

day and as our comrades from the CCNY

encampment face ongoing criminalization – including felony charges – for

organizing in solidarity with the Palestinian liberation struggle. The

Page 37

portrayal of the student encampment by FBI: Most Wanted is designed not

only to manufacture consent for the brutal repression of our movement for

Palestinian liberation but to hasten the expansion of fascist policing of the

working-class, Indigenous, Black, and Brown communities.

The media industry has a storied history of working hand-in-hand

with the police and military to normalize and sensationalize the racist

police state and U.S. empire, glorifying agents of state repression as

heroes and further vilifying the state’s victims. We understand corporate

media to be the propaganda wing of the capitalist-imperialist state. It is the

media’s duty to legitimize and mock the violent repression faced by

students and our broader communities at the hands of both the state and

the Zionist/fascist vigilantes it enables.

The repression of our movements and communities will only be

compounded by the construction of more than 69 Cop City projects of

varying sizes across Turtle Island.* Under the guise of “training” and “de-

veloping security,” private corporations and capitalists are pouring

millions of dollars into these militarized police training centers and

programs nationally. Queens itself is set to be the site of the latest cop city,

providing training for 18 police departments at the cost of $225 million.

The malicious framing of this film shoot is especially egregious in

light of QC President Frank Wu’s forcible shutdown of all but one

entrance at QC during the CCNY encampment, preventing further protests

from materializing. Wu has also called for increased police presence at

every QC student protest for Palestinian liberation and against genocide.

Back in November, he called upon the NYPD to investigate the Muslim

Student Association (MSA) over social media posts.

All of these actions culminate in a culture of pro-cop, anti-Palestinian

repression; President Wu has shown that rather than protect his students,

he will defend the interests of the empire.

Instead of heeding our encampment’s Five Demands to divest,

boycott, demilitarize, and reinstate a People’s CUNY, the CUNY

administration has invested millions more in “security,” refused FOIA re-

quests for disclosure of public records, and continued to build relation-

ships with Zionist institutions – all while aiding and abetting the NYPD’s

brutalization of Palestine solidarity organizers city-wide.

In the face of the accelerating atrocities in Gaza and rising fascist

Page 38

repression across Turtle Island, we must continue to organize and mobilize

for an end to the genocide and for a free Palestine, from the river to the

sea. The more they try to silence us, the louder we will be. Disclose,

Divest, We Will Not Stop, We Will Not Rest!

* ‘Turtle Island’ is the name for the lands now known as North and Central America. It

is a name used by some Indigenous peoples who believe their land was formed on the

back of a turtle. Though regional versions exist, the core of this creation story relates to

a time when the planet was covered in water.

“I Can’t Sleep”*

by Paul Biggar,** Dec 14, 2023

I can’t sleep. I’m lying in bed every night, and images of Gaza are

running through my head. Fathers holding their babies, dead, caked in

dust. Bombs dropped on homes,

on hospitals,

on schools.

Tens of thou-

sands of dead,

in indiscriminate bombings.

Children crying, pulling

through rubble to find their families.

The inhumanity of the soldiers is unbearable. They shoot civilians in

the street,

imprison and torture children,

and strip and humiliate innocent

men.

But the soldiers are having fun.

They’re posting to TikTok,

doing

some war crimes,

then celebrating on the beach.

I hate them. I hate

them.

I can’t work. I code for five minutes before their bodies come back.

I must work, but who can do a startup through a genocide, when 20,000

are dead,

when the Israeli-imposed starvation is setting in.

I try though;

the distraction is good for me.

I look at my colleagues – the founders, the investors, my network, my

friends, my advisors. I’m afraid to open their twitters. Each time I do, it’s

a roulette: is it business as usual – a new fundraise, the latest in AI, a new

model released. The blasé posts are a relief. I can tell myself that they’re

censored, afraid to speak up about the genocide. Unable or not knowing

how to do it. That’s understandable.

Page 39

The propaganda kills me. People I thought were friends, were allies.

So much humanity for those killed on October 7, none for the people

killed on the 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, or in November or December.

20,000

people, killed by deliberate, indiscriminate bombing.

None either for the people killed onOct. 6, 5, 4.

For the people

massacred in 1948

and since. No protest of the illegal occupation,

the

illegal settlements,

The razing of the villages

and the olive groves.

They don’t exist to them; they didn’t happen.

Have they no questions about why two million people live in Gaza

and how they came to be there.

How Israel carefully controls the calories

allowed into Gaza,

keeping everyone starving. That Israel can turn off

the water,

can turn off the electricity.

That this is something a country

is able to do to a people. That this is something a country is willing to do

to a people.

Is this what Israel is? The tech outpost, the U.S. ally, the beacon of

democracy in the Middle East? A country that kills journalists

and

writers in surgical strikes.

That forces doctors away from ICU babies,

leaving them to die and rot in their incubators.

Whose snipers shoot

children and grannies in the head.

Seventy nine year old Hadiya Nassar

was killed by an Israeli sniper in December. Poet, writer, and professor

Refaat Alareer was killed by a missile which also killed his brother, his

sister, and her four children.

When the cofounder of Hamas was nine years old, his uncle was

massacred by Israeli soldiers in the Khan Yunis massacre, along with 274

other unarmed Palestinians. He was shot in house-to-house searches.

Others were lined up and executed. How many Hamas’ are being created

today.

When you read about the Holocaust and the Nazis, you like to

imagine you’d be the good guy. You’d fight the Nazis, you’d free the

concentration camps. But apparently I wouldn’t. Apparently I would have

just sat there paralyzed, incapable of doing anything about the genocide

I see every day. Unable to think of any way to help. All I can do is retweet

and protest and write a stupid blog post. I feel so stupid.

I wasn’t ready to see that my friends are Brownshirts.

That they

actively cheer on the genocide.

The anger, the desire – the need even –

for retribution against innocent civilians. I wasn’t ready for my friends

Page 40

being camp guards, party officials, propagandists.

The propaganda is real, and organized,

and obvious.

Posting about

anti-semitism in universities to cover indiscriminate bombing of civilians

– have you no shame. Repeating Israeli claims which have no proof, and

no credibility.

Keeping the discussion anywhere except on Palestinians

being murdered in Gaza. Denying the number of dead because the

numbers are reported by Hamas.

Of course, everyone is Hamas now. The child ripped in two by an

MK-84

is Hamas. The woman screaming for her sister, digging at the

rubble – she’s Hamas. The orphaned nine year old, now the sole parent of

her four year old brother. Both are Hamas. Death and trauma stalk

Palestinian children.

Sometimes I work out how many people my taxes have killed.

Intrusive thoughts. Maybe they’re used for roads or healthcare, but maybe

I bought a bomb last year and it razed a city block in Khan Yunis. Maybe

it killed 50 people. Maybe one killed 50 people.

My investors keep posting. How unsafe the kids feel at Harvard.

Railing against “From the river to the sea” as they conveniently omit

“Palestine will be free.”

Cancelling Tiktok for teaching the kids history

instead of U.S. and Israeli propaganda.

“Members of the Haganah

paramilitary group escort Palestinians expelled from Haifa after Jewish

forces took control in April 1948 (AFP).” Middle East Eye

Anything to keep your eyes off the rubble that Gaza has become.

The trail of tears to an empty desert, bombed and shot as they go.

Anything to avoid their own culpability in this genocide. They are Hess.

They post Israeli flags on twitter as Israel drops bombs on Gaza. They

protest a cease-fire. THEY PROTEST A FUCKING CEASE-FIRE.

I don’t know what to do, but I know these are not my people. Who

can work with people whitewashing genocide. Are we supposed to pretend

it’s business as usual as we send our friends’ intros, frolic at conferences,

discuss monetization strategy.

To Ed, Erica, Michael, and especially Matt, we’re done.

I’ll never

pitch you again, never ask for help, never send intros or recommend you.

I’m done with Boldstart, and DCVC, and Harrison Metal, and Redpoint.

(I’m also done with Bessemer

and Sequoia

and First Round.

)

I’m ashamed that these are some of my biggest supporters over the

Page 41

years, the people who invested in me, twice, the people who helped, who

advised. I cannot work with the people whitewashing a killing, the people

who know it’s happening, and who cover for it, who support the IDF and

the U.S. administration which allows it, which funds it.

Oct. 7 was an atrocity, and so was every day since then. 20,000

Palestinians have been killed by indiscriminate, deliberate Israeli bombs.

Atrocities happened long beforeOct. 7 as well. The occupation was no

secret. Hundreds of Palestinians killed each year since the Nakba. The rest

kept under the Israeli boot, stripped of their rights and homes and dignity.

Their politicians tweet about Palestinians like they aren’t human.

They discuss them like their lives don’t matter. They call them “animals.”

They have killed thousands of Palestinians, and give every indication that

they will continue the genocide.

They are saying it out loud.

I can see it, and so could Ed and

Michael and Matt and Erica. They simply choose not to.

Pro-Israeli investors have created a culture of fear in tech where

supporters of Palestinian freedom feel unable to raise their voices. I have

spoken to many people in tech who are afraid that if they speak up, they’ll

be unable to raise their next round, and lose 5-10 years of work on their

venture, for their families and for their employees.

We must break the silence around the genocide in Gaza. I know this

is a big ask. I know there are significant risks involved, and that’s not your

fault. But all the same, we cannot continue to be complicit in this

genocide.

Above all, name it. Say publicly what you see happening, and say that

what Israel and the U.S. are doing is wrong. Feel silenced? Say that!

Just like most in tech made “Black Lives Matter” statements in 2020,

come out and say #Free-Palestine. Put a banner on your website.

Secondly, don’t make money for investors who whitewash genocide,

namely partners at Boldstart, DCVC, Harrison Metal, Redpoint, Bessemer,

Sequoia, or First Round.

Tech workers: Don’t work for companies who take funding from

these firms. If you already work there, contact management and the

founders, ask difficult questions in all-hands, anonymously if you need to.

Threaten to get a new job – actually do get a new job.

Founders: don’t take money from these firms. If you already have,

Page 42

contact your partner to register your discomfort, and ask them to divest.

Prevent them from investing in later rounds.

Attend a protest. Find your local (U.S.) Jewish Voice For Peace or

international protest.

Call your representative and senator.

Follow Palestinian journalists and sources to follow what’s happening

in Gaza through their eyes:

1) Motaz Azaiza, https://www.instagram.com/motaz _aza iza/,

2) Hind Khoudary, https://www.instagram.com/hind khoudary/,

3) Bisan Owda,

https://www.instagram.com/wizard_bisan1/,

4) Plestia Alaqad, https://www.instagram.com/byple stia/,

5) Al Jarzeera, https://www.aljazeera.com/,

6) Mohamad Safa, https://x.com/mhdksafa,

7) sippin on that https://x.com/vivafalastin,

8) missfalasteenia, https://x.com/missfalsteenia,

9) Nour Naim, https://x.com/NourNaim88,

10) Eye On Palestine, https://www.instagram.com/eye .on.palestine.

Finally, please share this post or my post on Twitter, Mastodon,

Threads, Bluesky, Linkedin.

Notes

1. See for example here (https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest /news /2023/10/damning-

evidence-of-war-crimes-as-israeli-attacks-wipe-out-entire-families-in-gaza/) or here

(https://www.pbs.org /newshour/show/people-in-gaza-describe-living-through-bombings-

with-no-way-to-escape/), but hundreds of apartment blocks were in Gaza before its des-

truction (https://www.nbcnews .com/news/world/satellite-images-devastation-gaza-israel-

airstrikes-rcna119774). +972 Magazine (https://www.972mag.com/mass-assassination-

factory-israel-calculated-bombing-gaza/) reports that Israel has “A concerted policy to

bomb family homes,” and details many accounts from those whose homes were bombed

and families killed.

2. As of Nov 11, Israel had destroyed over half of hospitals (

https://www.hrw.org/news

/2023/11/14/gaza-unlawful-israeli-hospital-strikes-worsen-health-crisis.) in Gaza.

3. Israel bombed a UN school on Nov 19, killing “dozens” of women and children

(

https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/18/world /gaza-school-strike-video/index.html) sheltering

there.

4. The official death count (

https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-gaza-health-

ministry-health-death-toll-59470820308b 31f1faf73c703400b033) on Dec 13 is 18,600,

including over 5000 children. however, officials have lost the ability to count.

Page 43

The accuracy of the Gaza Ministry of Health’s reporting of death tolls has been

shown to be accurate by recent studies when looking at the 2008, 2014, and 2015 wars.

U.S. medical journal Lancet (

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article /PIIS0140-

6736(23)02713-7/fulltext) reviewed and affirms the numbers provided in the current war.

“These figures are professionally done and have proven to be reliable,” said Omar

Shakir (

https://apnews.com/article/isr ael-hamas-war-gaza-health-ministry-health-death-

toll-5947082 0308b31f1faf73c703400b033), Human Rights Watch’s Israel and Palestine

director.

5. Even President Biden has called the attacks “indiscriminate,” (

https://apnews.com

/article/biden-israel-hamas-oct-7-44c4229d4c1270d9cfa484b664a22071) though the death

toll and pictures of a destroyed Gaza demonstrate that directly.

6. Example (

https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-gaza-buried-rubble-airstrikes-

89c0e8d0934d573d94d2fbfeba44d933).

7. Israeli soldiers have been recorded shooting civilians who pose no threat, including

children (

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/west-bank-palestinian-boys-shot-1.7044430)

and a mentally disabled man (

https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/05/middleeast/mentally-disa

bled-man-shot-west-bank/index.html). They even shot an Israeli civilian (https://www.cnn

.com/2023/12/04/middleeast/castleman-israel-jerusalem-hamas-shot-backlash-intl/) in

Jerusalem, who was unarmed and had surrendered, falsely believed to be Hamas:

“When the soldiers saw him I’m assuming they thought he was a terrorist. But then

when Yuval realized that that’s what they’re thinking, he opened his jacket to show he

had nothing underneath, and got down on his knees. He opened his hands, so they could

see he had nothing in his hands,” said Itkovich.

“He was shouting in Hebrew. He was shouting ‘I’m an Israeli.’ He threw his wallet,

his identification, on the way so they could see he’s an Israeli. And they just shot him.

They gunned him down,” he said.

8. This well-referenced Human Rights Watch article (

https://www.hrw.org/news/2023

/11/29/why-does-israel-have-so-many-pales tinians-detention-and-available-swap) (see

similar on CNN (https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/29/middleeast/palestinian-prisoners-isr

aeli-judicial-system-west-bank-mime-intl/) and NBC (https://www.nbcnews.com/news

/world/israel-palestinian-hamas-prisoner-release-gaza-west-bank-rcna127353)) contains

so many harrowing descriptions of shocking treatment of prisoners that you should read

the whole thing. These excerpts barely do it justice:

As of November 1, Israeli authorities held nearly 7,000 Palestinians from the

occupied territory in detention for alleged security offenses.

Far more Palestinians have been arrested since the October 7 attacks in Israel than

have been released in the last week. Among those being held are dozens of women and

scores of children.

The majority have never been convicted of a crime, including more than 2,000 of

them being held in administrative detention, in which the Israeli military detains a person

without charge or trial. Such detention can be renewed indefinitely based on secret

information, which the detainee is not allowed to see. Administrative detainees are held

on the presumption that they might commit an offense at some point in the future.

Page 44

More than 1,400 complaints of torture, including painful shackling, sleep

deprivation and exposure to extreme temperatures [...]

[...] in 22 cases of detention of Palestinian children they documented in 2023, 64

percent said they were physically abused and 73 % were strip searched by Israeli forces

while in detention.

Prisoners released by the IDF in November report being beaten:

Na’im told CBS News (

https://www.cbsnews.com/news /Israel-hamas-palestinian-

prisoners-describe-imprisonment-hopes-for-future/). “Any new prisoner was coming in,

he looked beaten up. We requested medicine or other stuff and they refused to give it to

us.”

“He kept beating me for eight minutes with a stick and without caring where it

lands,” Mohammed Nazal told Al Jazeera (

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/3

/how-a-palestinian-teens-release-exposed-israeli-mistreatment-of-prisoners) of how an

Israeli guard tortured him.

“I was covering my head. The stick was aimed here, at my head, but my hands

would receive the blow.”

Ahmed Al-Salaima told PBS (

https://www.youtube.com/watch) “After October 7,

they started hitting female prisoners. And they started to reduce the quantity of the food.

There were 9 of us in the room and they gave us two meals in small quantities. Before

entering the jail, I was 158 pounds, but now I’m 121 pounds.”

PBS has more testimony (

https://www.youtube.com/watch) by released prisoners

on their treatment.

New testimony from Gazan boys (

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/12/12

/like-we-were-lesser-humans-gaza-boys-men-recall-israeli-arrests-torture) captured on

December 5 shows the torture continues. It is even described to politicians (https://x.com

/ragipsoylu/status/1724802180555985287) who inspect the prisons.

9. The IDF captured (https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/07/middle east/gaza-israeli-soldiers-

detained-men-intl/index.html) a group of men, stripped them to their underwear, blind-

folded them and put them in trucks. The IDF later admitted (https://www.haaretz.com

/israel-news/2023-12-10/ty-article-live/israels-ground-off ensive-in-gaza-deepens-as-arab-

eu-leaders-push-for-a-cease-fire/0000018c-5187-df2f-adac-ffaf03700000) that 85-90%

of these men had no connection to Hamas, and provided no proof about the remaining 10-

15%.

10. This compilation thread (

https://x.com/muhammadshehad2/status/171967965079

4762643) by Palestinian writer and Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor Comms Chief

Muhammad Shehada (

https://x.com/muhammadshehad2) shows social media of IDF

soldiers torturing prisoners, followed by Israeli civilians mocking and memeing about it.

This was confirmed (

https://x.com/muhammadshehad2) by other media.

11. From ABC (https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/amid-outcry-gaza-tactics-

videos-soldiers-acting-maliciously-10 612152: (page no longer available)) (Same article

at The Hill at:

https://thehill.com/homenews/ap/ap-international/ap-amid-outcry-over-

gaza-tactics-videos-of-soldiers-acting-maliciously-create-new-headache-for-israel/).

In one, soldiers ride bicycles through rubble. In another, a soldier has moved

Page 45

Muslim prayer rugs into a bathroom. In another, a soldier films boxes of lingerie found

in a Gaza home. Yet another shows a soldier trying to set fire to food and water supplies

that are scarce in Gaza.

12. This isn’t the only video (

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/israeli-army-in-west-

bank-uses-palestinian-detainee-as-human-shield/3049924) I’ve seen of Palestinians being

used as human shields by the IDF in the occupied Palestinian territories, but I’m trying

to restrict most of the references in this piece to legacy media sites.

13. Example:

https://www.tiktok.com/@hussainbol37/video/7300 293728646728992.

14. This CNN chart (https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/07/middleeast/palestinian-israeli-

deaths-gaza-dg/index.html) updates as the death toll increases.

15. Israel blockaded Gaza (https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world /u-n-stops-delivery-of-

food-and-supplies-to-gaza-as-communications-blackout) from receiving food after

October 7, (https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_en try/defense-minister-announces-

complete-siege-of-gaza-no-power-food-or-fuel/) though a small amount (about 20 trucks

a day, for a region that needs 100 trucks a day for subsistence) was allowed through

during the Humanitarian pause. Gazans on the ground (

https://www.aljazeera.com

/gallery/2023/12/12/photos-israel-is-bombing-starving-palestinians-in-southern-gaza)

report they are starving.

16. By Oct. 17, over 3,000 Gazans had been killed by Israel (

https://www.reuters.com

/world/middle-east/how-many-palestinians-have-died-gaza-war-how-will-counting-

continue-2023-12-06). By Dec 12, that number had risen to over 18,000.

17. Even President Biden, a self described Zionist and friend of Israel, has referred to

Israel’s actions as “indiscriminate bombing (

https://apnews.com/article/biden-israel-

hamas-oct-7-44c4229 d4c1270d9cfa484b664a22071).”

18. Labib Dmaidi was shot dead on October 6 by Israeli settlers. (https://www.aljaz

eera.com/features/2023/12/1/my-son-was-killed-on-october-6-there-was-no-hamas ).

Dozens have been killed each year, (https://www.cnn.com/2023/11/07/middleeast/pal

estinian-israeli-deaths-gaza-dg/index.html) including in 2014 when thousands were killed.

19. The Deir Yassin massacre (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/4/9/the-deir-yassin-

massacre-why-it-still-matters-75-years-later) in 1948 was committed by the forces that

would become the IDF, in which at least 107 people were massacred.

“Women and children were stripped, lined up, photographed, and then slaughtered

by automatic firing and survivors have told of even more incredible bestialities,” the

report said. “Those who were taken prisoners were treated with degrading brutality.”

This was part of the Nakba, (

https://arabcenterdc.org/resource/the-nakbas-coming-

stages-patterns-process-and-predictability/) in which 15,000 Palestinians were killed and

750,000 were forced to flee.

20. Israel has been deemed to violate many of the UN Conventions (

https://itisap

artheid.org/Documents_pdf_etc/IsraelViolationsInternationalLaw.pdf) that were specif-

ically drawn up after World War II to prevent the Nazis’ actions from happening again.

Occupying land annexed by force (including Gaza and the West Bank) is illegal.

21. Israel supports (

https://www.btselem.org/publications/202111_state_business)“settle-

ments” (https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/01/middleeast/settlements-explainer/index.html)

Page 46

to expand possession (https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/the-extreme-ambitions-

of-west-bank-settlers) of Palestinian territory, despite being against international law

(https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/gross-violation-israels-occupation-west-bank-

illegal-new-un-report-finds). The settlers (https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east

/france-weighing-sanctions-address-west-bank-settler-violence-2023-12-11/) are fre-

quently violent, (

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hilltop_Youth) and they are often armed

or accompanied by the IDF (https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2023/10/23

/israel-hamas-war-settlers-speed-up-eviction-of-palestinian-bedouins-in-west-bank-hills-

amid-war_61957 80_4.html). There are now 500,000 settlers in the West Bank.

22. During the Nakba, pre-Israeli militias razed villages (

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki

/List_of_towns_and_villages_depopulated_during_the_1947%E2%80%931949

_Palestine_war) to prevent the returns of Palestinians to their land.

From 1947 to 1949, some 750,000 (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/5/15/nak

ba-mapping-palestinian-villages-destroyed-by-israel-in-1948) Palestinian Arabs were

made refugees, and more than 500 Palestinian towns and villages were depopulated, most

through direct attacks by Zionist militias that later became the Israeli Army.

23. From the Yale Review of International Studies: Israel’s Campaign Against Palestinian

Olive Trees (

http://yris.yira.org/gl obal-issue/6018). Remarkably, olive trees contribute

to 14% of Palestine’s economy. Beyond the monetary value, olive trees have become

symbolic of Palestinians attachment to their land. Since 1967, more than 800,000

Palestinian olive trees have been illegally uprooted by the Israeli authority. In August

2021 alone, more than 9,000 have been removed.

24. Gaza is a tiny strip of land that was occupied by Egypt in 1948, and so was one of the

only safe places for refugees from the Nakba to go. After 750,000 fled from Israeli

massacres throughout Palestine, over 200,000 settled in Gaza.

25. From The Guardian in 2011 (

https://www.theguardiancom /world/2012/oct/17/israeli-

military-calorie-limit-gaza):

The Israeli military made precise calculations of Gaza’s daily calorie needs to avoid

malnutrition during a blockade imposed on the Palestinian territory between 2007 and

mid-2010, according to files the defense ministry released on Wednesday under a court

order.

26. Israel controls the water in Palestine (

https://www.btselem.org/publications/202305

_parched). West Bank Palestinians get access to only a third of the water that Israelis can

use, and only 82% of the WHO recommended minimum.

From Amnesty International (

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest /campaigns/2017/11/the-

occupation-of-water/) in 2017:

In Gaza, some 90-95% of the watersupply is contaminated and unfit for human

consumption. Israel does not allow water to be transferred from the West Bank

to Gaza, and Gaza’s only fresh water resource, the Coastal Aquifer, is

insufficient for the needs of the population and is being increasingly depleted

by over-extraction and contaminated by sewage and seawater infiltration.

From Human Rights Watch (

https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/11 /16/israeli-authorities-

cutting-water-leading-public-health-crisis-gaza):

Page 47

After October 7, the Israeli government shut off the pipes that supply Gaza

with water.

It has since only resumed piping water to some parts of southern Gaza while some

water has entered via Egypt, but it’s not reaching everyone and is not nearly enough to

meet the needs of Gaza’s population, requiring many to rely on the local water supply.

According to the UN however, more than 96 percent of the water supply in Gaza is “unfit

for human consumption.”

27. Israel controls access to fuel in Gaza, as it has for two decades.

From Al Jazeera (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/25 /gaza-is-out-of-fuel-out-of-

time-under-israels-bombardment):

Israel classed diesel as a “dual use” good that can be used for military as well

as civilian purposes. Therefore, it is heavily controlled or restricted.

However, Israel wrote the rule book on “kosher fuel” for Gaza, a highly complex

system of approvals and monitoring put in place to guarantee that “civilian use” fuel

flows only to Gaza’s sole power plant.

28. From Times of Israel (

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/defense-minister-

announces-complete-siege-of-gaza-no-power-food-or-fuel/):

“I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no

food, no fuel, everything is closed,” [Defense Minister] Gallant says following an

assessment at the IDF Southern Command in Beersheba. “We are fighting human animals

and we are acting accordingly,” he adds.

29. The Khan Yunis massacre (

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kh an_Yunis_massacre) was

documented in Footnotes In Gaza (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Footnotes_in_Gaza) by

Joe Sacca, containing many first-person accounts, including a conversation in the

foreword with Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi (

https://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/Abdel_Aziz_al-

Rantisi) [see note 2], co-founder of Hamas (along with Sheikh Ahmed Yassin). He stated

“I still remember the wailing and tears of my father over his brother. I couldn’t sleep for

many months after that … . It left a wound in my heart that can never heal. They planted

hatred in our hearts.”

30. At least 68 journalists (

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in

_the_2023_Israel%E2%80%93Hamas_war) have been killed in Gaza since the war

began. Reporters Without Borders claims Israel is “eradicating” (

https://rsf.org/en /israel-

eradicating-journalism-gaza-ten-reporters-killed-three-days-48-start-war) journalism in

Gaza.

31. The killing of Refaat al-Areer (

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki /Refaat_Alareer) on

December 7, a well-known Palestinian poet and writer. It is alleged (

https://euromed

monitor.org/en/article/6014) that he was targeted in a surgical strike which destroyed only

the apartment at which he was staying. The Israeli missile strike also killed his brother,

his sister, and her four children.

32. Israeli soldiers forced doctors and staff to leave Al Nasr hospital on November 10.

Two weeks later (

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/abandoned-babies-found-decom

posing-gaza-hospital-evacuated-rcna127533), 5 babies were found decomposing in the

ruins of the hospital.

Page 48

33. Hadiya Nassar, a 79 year old Palestinian woman, was shot by an (https://www.pale

stinechronicle.com/older-than-israel-elderly-palestinian-woman-in-viral-video-killed-in-

gaza/) Israeli sniper. Israeli soldiers have also been seen killing children and elderly men

(

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-war-army-kills-elderly-taking-pr-

photo-safe-corridor).

During the Great March of Return, Israeli snipers shot over 6000 unarmed civilians

(

https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2018/10/gaza-great-march-of-return/),

killing at least 150. The testimony of the soldiers (

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-

news/2020-03-06/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/42-knees-in-one-day-israeli-snipers-

open-up-about-shooting-gaza-protesters/0000017f-f2da-d497-a1ff-f2dab2520000) is

horrifying, as was a video shared of an onlooker cheering (https://www.the guardi-

an.com/world/2018/apr/10/video-appears-show-cheers-israeli-sniper-shoots-palestinian).

This has been happening a long time, such as this story from 2005 (https://www.the

guardian.com/world/2005/jun/28/comment.israelandthepalestinians).

34. Nazis

35. I recommend reading the report from Jewish Currents, calling the invasion a genocide

(

https://jewishcurrents.org/a-textbook-case-of-genocide). It has also been called a

genocide by the International Federation for Human Rights (

https://www.fidh.org /IMG

/pdf/fidh_resolution_on_israel_s_unfolding_crime_of_genocide_and_other_crimes

_in_gaza_and_against_the_palestinian_people.pdf), Director of the New York office of

the High Commission for Human Rights Craig Mokhiber (https://www.document

cloud.org/documents/24103463-craig-mokhiber-resignation-letter).

36. Lee Fang and Jack Poulson uncovered the pro-Israel information machine (https://

www.leefang.com/p/inside-the-pro-israel-in formation), a collaboration between pro-

Israeli investors, tech executives, activists, and government officials. They collaborate to

fire anyone arguing in favor of Palestinian freedom, including Courtney Carey from Wix,

and Paddy Cosgrave from Websummit, and to put public pressure on any comments

deemed anti-Israel.

37. When folks suddenly start talking about anti-semitism at universities, or maligning

slogans of Palestinian freedom, we know it’s to cover up the genocide that’s going on in

Gaza.

38. Joseph Massad, professor of modern Arab politics and intellectual history at Columbia

University, makes the case (https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/israeli-claims-no-

credibility-outside-of-west-gaza) that Israeli propaganda has been repeatedly shown to

be false, and that they have no credibility apart from what is parroted by Western news

organizations.

39. The accuracy of the Gaza Ministry of Health’s reporting of death tolls has been shown

to be accurate by recent studies (

https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-gaza-health-

ministry-health-death-toll-59470820308b31f1faf73c703400b033) when looking at the

2008, 2014, and 2015 wars. U.S. medical journal Lancet (

https://www.thelancet.com

/journals/lancet/article /PIIS0140-6736(23)02713-7/fulltext) reviewed and affirms the

numbers provided in the current war.

“These figures are professionally done and have proven to be reliable,” said Omar

Page 49

Shakir (https://apnews.com/article/isr ael-hamas-war-gaza-health-ministry-health-death-

toll-594708203 08b31f1faf73c703400b033), Human Rights Watch’s Israel and Palestine

director.

40. A 2000 lb. bomb (

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_84_bo mb). From the NY Times

(https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/25 /world/middleeast/israel-gaza-death-toll.html):

Israel’s liberal use of very large weapons in dense urban areas, including U.S.-

made 2,000-pound bombs that can flatten an apartment tower, is surprising,

some experts say.

“It’s beyond anything that I’ve seen in my career,” said Marc Garlasco, a military

adviser for the Dutch organization PAX and a former senior intelligence analyst at the

Pentagon. To find a historical comparison for so many large bombs in such a small area,

he said, we may “have to go back to Vietnam, or the Second World War.”

In fighting during this century, by contrast, U.S. military officials often believed that

the most common American aerial bomb – a 500-pound weapon – was far too large for

most targets when battling the Islamic State in urban areas like Mosul, Iraq, and Raqqa,

Syria.

41. An MK-84 costs $16,000, so your taxes can kill more civilians than you think.

42. I’ll note that the same conservatives screaming about freedom of speech for the last

decade were the first to ask for freedom of speech to be shut down at universities.

43. “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” is deliberately misconstrued to imply

the genocide of the the Israel people. When taken at face value, it can clearly be seen to

aim for Palestinian freedom. Jewish Currents has a good article (

https://jewishcurrents

.org/what-does-from-the-river-to-the-sea-really-mean) on this from 2021.

44. Tech leaders such as the Information’s Sam Lessin called out Tiktok’s foreign

ownership, complaining that it is a major national security threat. My understanding is

that this referred to the significant difference between pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian

hashtags, with #freepalestine winning by a margin of 4-1.

Tiktok responded essentially that the kids are alright (https://twitter.com/lessin

/status/1718810964060156243), and that millennials are much more likely to sympathize

with Palestinian oppression.

Which I suppose is Lessin’s point.

45. See The Guardian (

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023 /dec/07/widespread-

destruction-in-gaza-puts-concept-of-domicide-in-focus).

46. After Israel demanded that civilians evacuate, they dropped bombs (

https://www.cnn

.com/2023/10/16/middleeast/israel-pale stinian-evacuation-orders-invs/index.html) on

fleeing refugees.

47. Matt Ocko’s (

https://genocide.vc/matt-ocko-of-dcvc-believes-palestinians-are-sub-

human/) statements are quite something. I can’t believe someone would say that out loud,

never mind post it on Twitter.

48. Bessemer Ventures’ Adam Fisher was named as one of the leaders in the pro-Israeli

propaganda group uncovered by Lee Fang and Jack Poulson (

https://www.leefang.com

/p/inside-the-pro-israel-information.com).

49. Shaun Maguire

Page 50

50. AFAICT, First Round’s Josh Kopelman was instrumental in canceling (https://

twitter.com/joshk/status/17137579607263395 89) Paddy Cosgrave for saying “War

crimes are war crimes even when committed by allies, and should be called out for what

they are,” (

https://twitter.com/paddycosgrave/status/17127905398446 12553) and being

one of the few people in tech saying so. It took about a day for Cosgrave to be fired.

51. A selection of quotes by senior Israeli officials:

“Human animals must be treated as such. There will be no electricity and no water

[in Gaza], there will only be destruction. You wanted hell, you will get hell.” – Major

General Ghassan Alian (

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/cogatchief-add

resses-gazans-you-wanted-hell-you-will-get-hell/), Coordinator of Government Activities

in the Territories

“I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no

food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting

accordingly.” – Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog

_entry/defense-minister-announces-complete-siege-of-gaza-no-power-food-or-fuel/)

To be clear, when they say that Hamas needs to be eliminated, it also means those

who sing, those who support and those who distribute candy, all of these are terrorists.

[...] They should all be eliminated – Itamar Ben-Gvir (

https://www.aa.com.tr/en /middle-

east/anyone-who-supports-hamas-should-be-eliminated-israeli-minister/3051463 ),

Minister of National Security.

There will be no Palestinian state here. We will never allow another state to be

established between the Jordan and the sea. We will never go back to Oslo – Shlomo

Karhi, Minister of Communications, Likud Party (

https://twitter.com/shlomo_karhi

/status/1734631075043778670).

Right now, one goal: Nakba! A Nakba that will overshadow the Nakba of 48. Nakba

in Gaza and Nakba to anyone who dares to join! – Ariel Kallner (

https://www.pbs.org

/newshour /world/in-israels-call-for-mass-evacuation-palestinians-hear-echoes-of-their-

original-catastrophic-exodus), Likud Party [Tweet preserved here] (https://www.middle

eastmonitor.com/20231009-israel-mk-calls-for-a-second-nakba-in-gaza/).

https://blog.paulbiggar.com/i-cant-sleep/

** Paul Biggar is an Irish tech entrepreneur, software engineer and founder of at least two

tech startup companies. His advocacy for justice for Palestine led him to start Tech For

Palestine, a loose coalition of over 5,000 founders, engineers, product marketers,

community builders, investors, and other tech folks working toward Palestinian freedom.

See:

https://techforpalestine.org/.

Page 51

EDITORIAL STAFF

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Jay Hauben

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The opinions expressed in articles are those of their authors and not neces-

sarily the opinions of the Amateur Computerist newsletter. We welcome

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