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Today, we at NYU mourn the lives of those killed by Hamas in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 and the lives of those killed by Israeli forces in Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen and Syria in the intervening year. We stand with directly affected NYU community members, including some who have lost dozens of family members in this war.
As we reflect on a year of continuous heartbreak, NYU students and faculty join others in New York City and around the world to bear witness to Israel’s genocide of Palestinians. We protest not only because of the sheer scale of ongoing violence against Palestinians, but because the genocide is funded, armed and made possible by the complicity of the U.S. government, U.S.-based corporations and our own university. These protests are part of a long tradition of anti-colonial, anti-war and anti-racist dissent on U.S. campuses, which have in the past been about Black liberation, South African apartheid and U.S. wars in Vietnam and Iraq. We maintain that there must be room for collective rage, grief and resistance, even on a day of mourning like Oct. 7.
Here are some facts that are not in dispute about the past year:
- Israeli forces have killed at least 41,000 Palestinians in Gaza. This figure includes over 16,500 children and is likely a severe undercount, according to medical researchers.
- Israel and its leaders face charges from the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court for war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of genocide, including the use of starvation as a method of warfare.
- Thousands of Palestinians, including children, have been forced to amputate one or more limbs after traumatic injuries.
- The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports this week that Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip has damaged or destroyed at least 60% of all housing and over 80% of all commercial buildings. All schools are closed; 87% of all school buildings have been destroyed.
To understand that Israel is intentionally carrying out genocide, look at official statements: Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, on Oct. 9, 2023, ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip, stating, “There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals and we are acting accordingly.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a speech to Israeli troops on Oct. 28, 2023, compared the inhabitants of Gaza to the Biblical-era Amalekite tribe, which God orders Saul to annihilate in the Book of Samuel. This dehumanizing language calling for the elimination of Palestinians has been echoed in Israeli media and has been part of public discourse for decades.
Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, along with its raids on the West Bank and invasion of Lebanon, are crimes enabled by military, economic and diplomatic support from the United States. They are also a continuation of the Zionist movement’s ambitions prior to the establishment of the state of Israel, the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the 1948 Nakba and the 1967 occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Human rights advocates on both sides have labeled this a second Nakba.
Over the course of the 2023-24 academic year, students at NYU and across the country responded with peaceful protests, teach-ins and encampments. They were met with harassment, repression and police violence. Many students, including those at New York City colleges and universities, were doxxed, expelled, suspended, arrested, tear gassed, pepper sprayed and beaten.
This year, NYU has attempted to preempt student protests with repression and intimidation, as reported in detail in the Washington Square News, The Intercept and other outlets. A report this week from the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Rights and Freedoms of Peaceful Assembly and of Association highlights the systemic repression and violence that confronts pro-Palestinian student protestors. The U.N. report urges universities to “immediately cease the stigmatization and hostilities that directly or indirectly silence members of the academic community and discourage the exercise of their rights to freedom of expression.”
It is within this context that NYU students demonstrate on Oct. 7. We have no doubt that these demonstrations, which support the Palestinian right to existence and self-determination, will be labeled antisemitic by pro-Israeli apologists, some of whom have campaigned to discredit and harm community members, including many Jewish students, for their solidarity with Palestinians. We reject any suggestion that protest is incompatible with mourning for Israeli — or any — civilians.
While the NYU administration has imposed new interpretations of the Non-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment Policy declaring “code words, like ‘Zionist,’” a protected category of identity, NYU FSJP insists the contrary: Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism, Zionism is an ethno-nationalist political ideology, not a protected identity, and the Palestinian people deserve life and freedom on their lands. We support our students’ right to assemble in solidarity with Palestine and its people, and to oppose war, today and every day.
WSN’s Opinion section strives to publish ideas worth discussing. The views presented in the Opinion section are solely the views of the writer.
Contact NYU Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine at [email protected].
