Press Contacts: Sherif Ibrahim: sherif10@stanford.edu; EKela Autry eautry@stanford.edu
STANFORD, Calif – Within the past four days, over 25 Stanford professors have signed on to a faculty letter calling on Stanford University to “stop investing in companies that profit from the occupation of Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967.”
The letter has been released in solidarity with a petition and resolution organized by Stanford Out of Occupied Palestine (SOOP), a coalition of 19 campus organizations including the Black Student Union, MEChA, and Students for Justice in Palestine. The faculty statement comes at a time of unprecedented student support for divestment — over 1,600 students have signed the petition.
The faculty letter reads: “We believe it behooves us as educators to not only train our students to be world citizens and world leaders, but also to model ourselves actions that embody the best aspects of world citizenship, beginning with upholding international law and opposing those who do not.”
In formulating its campaign, the student-led grassroots movement, SOOP, has sought to understand implications of international law and intersections of human rights violations. Students within the group have engaged in extensive educational outreach within the campus community by hosting a town hall, canvassing student residences, and organizing several publicly open events.
The faculty signatories are asking “Stanford to uphold its proclaimed values. We reject the notion that divestment unfairly singles out one country for condemnation. The enormous amount of US aid to Israel (at least $3 billion annually, more than any other country in the world receives) already makes us in the United States complicit with Israel’s actions. We equally reject the claim that divestment is a form of anti-Semitism or in any way directed against Jewish students on campus. Divestment is directed against the policies of the state of Israel. By supporting divestment, we believe we are doing what we can locally, within the Stanford community.”
Students have asked the university to abide by the code of conduct outlined within its guiding practices and principles. A May 2014 SEC filing reveals that Stanford may not be fully upholding its code of ethics. The filing indicates Stanford has direct investments in Raytheon – a corporation that provides missiles and cluster bombs to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) that have been used in acts that Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the United Nations have described as collective punishment.
The campaign highlights three criteria: illegal infrastructure of the occupation, such as settlements and the wall; collective punishment in the form of home demolitions and military campaigns against civilian populations; and state sanctioned repression, such as mass incarceration and use of force against protesters. This last criteria also highlights state violence in the United States.
Stanford University’s faculty have a history of engaging in student-led divestment campaigns. Most recently, faculty members circulated a letter asking the university to divest from fossil fuel investments. In 1977, faculty also came together to urge the university to divest from companies enabling apartheid in South Africa. Students of SOOP come from a diversity of backgrounds and appreciate Stanford faculty members’ support of this particular campaign, especially considering the reprisal some faculty face by doing so. The campaign urges non-signatories to sign the petition.
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Follow Stanford Out of Occupied Palestine on Facebook, Twitter, and their website.
