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Why Israel and not other countries with human rights violations?

We boycott Israel study abroad because the US funds the Israeli occupation through military funding and arms deals with an upwards of $3.8 billion annually. No other nation receives a comparable amount of military aid. Because of the strong economic connection and staunch diplomatic support between the US and Israel, we have a lot of power to shift Israeli policy towards Palestinians. As students in the US, we are in a particular position to influence that conversation, as well as being directly implicated by way of our taxes footing the bill for U.S. military spending. As Professor Dan Segal wrote in his article “Why Israel?“, “our colleges and universities have a special duty, in short, to respond to regimes that both commit abuses of human rights and depend heavily on American support. In these cases, our speech and actions as an institution contribute to public education about those regimes, thus fostering better informed and more democratic decision making about U.S. foreign policy”.

Why now?

Currently we are bearing witness to an ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people and the Israeli Offensive Forces have slaughtered over 13,300 Palestinians in Gaza since October. Meanwhile, the United States government has committed to funding this genocide with our tax dollars. Palestinian scholars and activists, such as Omar Barghoutti, are urgently calling on people living in the United States to take up BDS. It is time for faculty and students to take a stand. We cannot learn and teach about colonialism, systemic oppression, and apartheid in classes and look away when called on to dismantle it. The most effective and tangible way we, as members of the Pitzer community, can answer Palestinian civil society’s nonviolent call for BDS is to suspend our institutional relationship with the University of Haifa. Further, in March of 2022, the Middle Eastern Studies Association released a historic vote in support of BDS. The Pitzer academic community should follow direction from scholars of Middle Eastern Studies as well as Palestinians themselves in how to best stand in solidarity with Palestine.This is a historic moment to show our support for justice internationally. 

Why target study abroad? Isn’t this academic freedom?

“Academic freedom” at Israeli universities is never academic freedom for all. Haifa University historically has excluded students of Palestinian ancestry as well as those who speak out for Palestinian justice and freedom. Israel denies visas on the basis of ancestry and political speech and denies equal access to Palestinian universities. In the years of 1947 and 1948, more than 40,000 Palestinians were expelled from Haifa alone, and refugees still, to this day, cannot return home. Descendants of these refugees who study at the Claremont Colleges would likely be barred from this study abroad program. Further, Ilan Pappé quotes, “A report by Haaretz (5 July 2017) indicated that half of the Palestinian students at the University of Haifa suffered from racist policies by the universities and attitudes by their lectures. Even during the Ramadan, the university and the lectures did not allow any concessions as they would for Jewish students for their holidays. These are not marginal actions, but integral part of the university policy.” Of all the universities who uphold the occupation in Palestine, Haifa University is a unique military pillar of the Israeli government. It is the site of an academic training program that brings together 3 military colleges for the Israeli Offensive Forces. Further, many Palestinian students and faculty are denied visas that would allow them to attend or teach at universities in the West Bank and Gaza. It is an aberration of Pitzer College’s values of social justice to maintain a relationship with a university that denies full academic freedom to Palestinian students. Further, we understand the pinnacle of academic freedom to be prioritizing human rights, enacting ethical considerations, and standing in solidarity with the Palestinian people through the academic boycott.

Is supporting Boycott Divestment Sanctions Antisemitic?

No! The BDS movement fundamentally stands against any form of oppression and prejudice, including Antisemitism. BDS targets companies that operate out of and exploit the occupied territories of the West Bank and Gaza, which have been internationally recognized sites of human rights violations against Palestinians. BDS campaigns target the Israeli state because of its serious violations of international law and the companies and institutions that participate in and are complicit in these violations. The BDS movement does not boycott or campaign against any individual or group simply because they are Israeli. Suspending Pitzer’s study abroad program at Haifa would not pertain to any individual scholars or students at Israeli institutions, nor would it prevent the admission of Israeli students to Pitzer. It applies strictly to Pitzer establishing institutional relations with Israeli universities.

What else can I do?

• Call your representatives to demand a ceasefire in Gaza
• Sign our petition
• Start coming to SJP and JVP meetings to get involved in the campaign planning
• Engage in conversations about BDS and Suspend Pitzer Haifa on campus with your friends and professors
• Join other Leftist coalition organizations to build networks of solidarity across campuses