Last year, 73% of students voted in favor of a resolution supporting the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Despite this overwhelming mandate, the University administration has failed to take meaningful steps toward divestment. This inaction ignores the findings of the International Court of Justice, which has recognized Israel’s responsibility for the crime of apartheid, as well as reports from the United Nations, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch, which have documented Israel’s actions in Gaza as constituting genocide. As Israel intensifies its military operations in the West Bank and repeatedly violates ceasefires, we join the global call for accountability and sanctions.
This resolution designates the so-called Israeli Defense Forces (henceforth referred to as the Israeli Occupation Forces, or IOF) as a terrorist entity. The IOF poses a direct threat to our campus community. IOF soldiers have doxxed Stanford students, and at Columbia University, they used chemical weapons (skunk spray) against pro-Palestine protesters, resulting in hospitalizations. Additionally, former IOF soldiers at Columbia have actively campaigned for the deportation of student Mahmoud Khalil. This violence is not new; the IOF emerged from Zionist militias such as the Haganah, Irgun, and Lehi, which terrorized Palestinian and other Arab communities long before 1948. After 1948, the IOF conducted covert operations in Arab nations to intimidate local Jewish populations into supporting the Zionist settler-colonial project. Today, we witness the IOF perpetrating a livestreamed genocide and intentionally starving the people of Gaza.
This resolution amplifies the call for political bodies to sanction Israel, as is already being done to varying degrees by nations worldwide. It also urges campus affiliates in decision-making roles to protect our community from individuals implicated in war crimes. For example, applicants or speakers who served in the IOF beyond the legally mandated conscription period should undergo additional scrutiny to ensure they are not complicit in atrocities. These measures can be modeled, in part, on the Hind Rajab Foundation, which seeks justice for Hind Rajab and all victims of Israel’s genocidal campaign by holding IOF perpetrators accountable in international and domestic courts.
We call on the University to honor the student mandate, uphold its commitment to people's rights, and take immediate action to sanction those complicit in these atrocities. The time for accountability is now.
This resolution designates the so-called Israeli Defense Forces (henceforth referred to as the Israeli Occupation Forces, or IOF) as a terrorist entity. The IOF poses a direct threat to our campus community. IOF soldiers have doxxed Stanford students, and at Columbia University, they used chemical weapons (skunk spray) against pro-Palestine protesters, resulting in hospitalizations. Additionally, former IOF soldiers at Columbia have actively campaigned for the deportation of student Mahmoud Khalil. This violence is not new; the IOF emerged from Zionist militias such as the Haganah, Irgun, and Lehi, which terrorized Palestinian and other Arab communities long before 1948. After 1948, the IOF conducted covert operations in Arab nations to intimidate local Jewish populations into supporting the Zionist settler-colonial project. Today, we witness the IOF perpetrating a livestreamed genocide and intentionally starving the people of Gaza.
This resolution amplifies the call for political bodies to sanction Israel, as is already being done to varying degrees by nations worldwide. It also urges campus affiliates in decision-making roles to protect our community from individuals implicated in war crimes. For example, applicants or speakers who served in the IOF beyond the legally mandated conscription period should undergo additional scrutiny to ensure they are not complicit in atrocities. These measures can be modeled, in part, on the Hind Rajab Foundation, which seeks justice for Hind Rajab and all victims of Israel’s genocidal campaign by holding IOF perpetrators accountable in international and domestic courts.
We call on the University to honor the student mandate, uphold its commitment to people's rights, and take immediate action to sanction those complicit in these atrocities. The time for accountability is now.
