We write today to express our support for the Carleton Student Association’s Resolution for Divestment from the State of Israel, in Solidarity with the People of Palestine in Support of a Full Ceasefire. We are proud to stand in solidarity with our students and with their efforts to live up to Carleton’s mission. We stand in agreement with the call for an immediate and lasting ceasefire to protect all human lives, and we agree with the students, based on historical precedent, that divestment is an effective tactic for pressuring states that violate human rights. Our students, led by Students for Justice in Palestine, are continuing a long tradition of student activism on college campuses that provides moral clarity during times of upheaval.

The International Court of Justice has called the killings in Gaza a plausible genocide, and yet Israel continues its invasion. As a result of the Israeli response to the Hamas attack on October 7, the death toll among Gazans has reached more than 30,000, with 42% being children. As parents, our hearts are broken into pieces every ten minutes when another child in Gaza is killed. As educators, we are appalled by the destruction of schools and universities in Gaza and by the targeted killings of teachers and academics, such as poet Refaat Alareer. A UN report in January 2024 noted that over 76% of schools in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed; 4,510 students and 231 teachers have been killed. Universities in Gaza have been systematically targeted and turned to rubble. As we teach and engage in discussions in our classrooms at Carleton, as we read and research at the Gould library, we must acknowledge that there are no places to study or read left in Gaza. No university classrooms, offices, or libraries are left standing.

Reports emerging from Palestine suggest that a staggering 90% of Gazans are now facing hunger on a daily basis. During a webinar hosted by Warwick University’s Center for the Study of Women and Gender on February 26, 2024, that some of us attended, academics from Birzeit University in the West Bank shared harrowing accounts. They told of Gazan mothers giving birth to stillborn children and finding solace in the fact that the child was born dead. A dead child does not have to face the ongoing horrors; she does not have to face the “no future” that is the future intended for Gazans. The head of Doctors Without Borders, Christopher Lockyear, told the UN Security Council that the psychological injuries have led children as young as five to tell his team that they would prefer to die. Meanwhile, academics globally report fearing potential backlash for speaking out on this topic on their campuses, for advocating for a ceasefire, and for showing solidarity with Palestinians enduring this massacre. And yet, speak we must.

Like our students, we are distressed by the events unfolding in front of our eyes, by the rising number of Palestinians being killed and injured in Gaza and the West Bank, and by the growing crisis of famine and disease. We are furious about the ongoing support, especially via military aid, that the U.S. government is providing for this ongoing genocide. This must stop now.

In sorrow and solidarity,

Eric Alexander, Palmar Álvarez-Blanco, Jay Beck, Laura Caviani, Arnab Chakladar, Anita Chikkatur, Vera Coleman, Fernando Contreras Flamand, Cecilia Cornejo Sotelo, Amy Csizmar Dalal, Adriana Estill, Claudio Gómez-Gonzáles, Zaki Haidar, Bereket Haileab, Humberto Huergo Cardoso, Laska Jimsen, Joseph Johnson, Iveta Jusová, Adeeb Khalid, Claudia Lange, Héctor A. Melo Ruiz, Anna Moltchanova, Sneha Narayan, Natalia Piland Chicchon, Sandra Rousseau, Noah Schamus, Juliane Schicker, Melissa Scott, Meera Sehgal, Chloe Vaughn, Daniel Williams, John Thabiti Willis, Seungjoo Yoon

(Carleton Faculty for Justice in Palestine includes faculty named above, along with other faculty who support the CSA resolution and this letter but do not wish to be named due to concerns about potential repercussions)

This article was updated on April 3, 2024 to add additional signatures.