CAIR-Georgia holds press conference at Emory, calls for disclosure, divestment

The Georgia chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-Georgia) and the Atlanta Multifaith Coalition for Palestine held a press conference today in front of Emory University’s Peavine Visitor Parking Lot. The two organizations called for college administrations to denounce violence against student and faculty protestors, disclose and divest endowments from Israel and urge U.S. President Joe Biden not to speak at Morehouse College’s (Ga.) commencement ceremony on May 19 unless he calls for a permanent ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.

The press conference comes after protestors set up an “encampment for Gaza” on Emory’s Quadrangle Thursday morning. The demonstration came to an end after Emory Police Department, Atlanta Police Department and Georgia State Patrol officers arrested 28 protestors, 20 of whom were affiliated with Emory, which kicked off a series of protests that has continued to this week.

Speakers included a variety of Atlanta faith leaders and students both from Emory’s Candler School of Theology and Spelman College (Ga.). Among them was Rev. Keyanna Jones, co-pastor of Park Avenue Baptist Church in Atlanta, who said the administration’s original argument of “outside agitators” disrupting normal functions was untrue.

University President Gregory Fenves wrote in an April 25 email to the Emory community that the protestors at the encampment were “largely not affiliated” with the University. However, he later retracted that statement on April 29, writing in another email that his earlier communication was “not fully accurate.” He apologized for mischaracterizing the protestors.

“What’s happened right here at Emory University is happening all across the country,” Jones said. “What we see, Emory, is that you are a victim of your own success. You taught students to speak for themselves, to think for themselves, to stand for justice, but the moment that they do it, you’re upset simply because it’s against Israel.”

Rev. Sara Webb Phillips (79T), a retired United Methodist Church pastor, praised Candler’s leadership for standing with their students who have participated in protests. Candler administration tried to help graduate students who were occupying the theology school in protest of the arrests last week, according to an Instagram account providing updates on the Candler occupation. Instead of instructing the students to leave, the administration tried to “protect” the students from “aggressive police forces on campus,” the post states.

“I am delighted as a child of the protest of the Vietnam War and nuclear war,” Phillips said. “I am glad this next generation has taken up the mantle.”

However, Daniella Hobbs, a Candler Ph.D. student involved in the “Occupy Candler” sit-in that lasted for three days, said that students faced arrest when they occupied the building.

“While it is very positive that they did not force us out, there is a false narrative that they supported us more than they really did,” Hobbs said, speaking about Candler administration’s role in the demonstration. “We had to be willing to risk arrest to open our doors to our community members because our administration was too concerned about graffiti on the wall.”

A number of Emory’s buildings have been graffitied in recent days. During Sunday’s protests, unknown individuals spray painted buildings on the Quad, which University President Gregory Fenves condemned in a University-wide statement.

Mozn Shora, a Spelman College senior, urged Biden not to speak at Morehouse College’s commencement ceremony unless he calls for a permanent ceasefire. She also said that the Atlanta University Center Consortium of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) has a responsibility to speak out.

“Apartheid, segregation, oppression, violence, systemic violence, systemic poverty — these are the reasons why we needed HBCUs,” Shorasaid. “These are the reasons HBCUs were necessary, and now our institutions are backing the same type of oppression in Palestine.”

Rev. Fahed Abu-Akel, the founder and executive director of the Atlanta Ministry with International Students Peachtree Presbyterian Church, called for peace before recounting his story of being expelled from his home at 4 years old during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war..

“God Almighty wants us to respect one another as equals, in his name, as Christians, as Jews, as human beings,” Abu-Akel said. “The God of the universe wants us to be loving, caring and to protect one another.”