Dear Editor,
Students for Justice in Palestine at NYU proudly commends Students Allied for Freedom and Equality at the University of Michigan for its courage and resilience in the face of repression. Last week, SAFE proposed a resolution to divest university assets from companies profiting from Israel’s systematic oppression of Palestinians. The resolution was co-signed by a broad base of 36 student organizations, including the Michigan Student Union, the Black Student Union, Amnesty International and United Students Against Sweatshops. Still, the Central Student Government moved to indefinitely postpone discussion of divestment. Despite mass student support, advocates of postponement claimed that the resolution was too “divisive” to merit a vote.
In response, students launched a sit-in to demand accountability from the Central Student Government. We fully support SAFE and their allies at University of Michigan in demanding that their student representatives respond to the ongoing violence committed by the state of Israel and its corporate collaborators abroad. The United States fails to acknowledge Israel’s crimes against humanity by employing a strategy of postponement. By defying the United Nations’ repeated condemnation of Israel’s violations of international law and continuing with the charade of the “peace process,” the United States postpones real justice for Palestinians. We admire the students who launched the sit-in for taking a stand against the United States’ profoundly unethical support for Israel, which is still endorsed by most of our major universities. We urge all students to stand with SAFE: to support the divestment campaign at your university, to take up SAFE’s demand that our representatives fulfill our moral responsibility to reject postponement and to join the Palestinian people in their struggle for liberation and justice.
— The Students for Justice in Palestine at NYU
