On Oct. 10, our organization published a mourning statement recognizing the unarmed Palestinian and Israeli civilian lives lost in what the Palestinian envoy to the United Nations has called a Palestinian genocide. Now, we are calling on Emory University President Gregory Fenves to remember the promises he made on Aug. 13, 2020 to include a new General Education Requirement (GER): the Race and Ethnicity Requirement.
Do you view decolonization as an abstract theory in classrooms, or as an urgent imperative demanding real-world implementation? We want to emphasize to you, our president and University administration, the leadership that you originally aimed to showcase in the GER you defined:
The first learning objective asserts that students will “develop a critical awareness of how … inequality develop[ed] historically through individual, institutional, and cultural forces.”
This is one of the four goals set forth to enrich the minds of Emory students as we form our liberal arts foundation in pursuit of robust and ethical lives. We urge you, President Fenves, to guide our campus in what we demand as crucial: endorsing global justice in real life, real-time, outside the classroom. Not taking action signifies contributing to the very injustice you encourage us to fight against: remaining complicit in the oppression of marginalized people. Today, our learning objective is to develop a “critical awareness” of the structural exclusions, imprisonment and mass genocide of the Palestinian people.
Learning objective two: “Discern how racial and ethnic power dynamics shape and may be reflected in intellectual inquiry across disciplines.”
To genuinely consider yourself an advocate for justice and anti-colonialism, you cannot overlook the Palestinian struggle. It began with colonization by Britain in the ’20s and ’30s, and then the Nakba (catastrophe) of 1948, marked by the dispossession of 75% of the Palestinian population by Zionist militias. Today, two million Palestinians face being trapped in Gaza, which is widely recognized as an “open-air prison,” the demolition of Palestinian homes in the West Bank and the constant encroachment on Palestinian land by illegal Israeli settlers. It is of utmost importance to recognize this as structural racism and challenge these racist views seeking to paint multi-faith Palestinians as extremist terrorists who revel in violence. These views are rooted in purposeful misunderstandings of history, in culture and in the Palestinian struggle. To be an advocate for justice is to elevate Palestinian voices. Each year, more than 500 Palestinian children face detention and prosecution by the Israeli Occupation’s military court. Where is justice for them or the seven million Palestinian refugees unable to return home?
Learning objective three: “Recognize the ways in which race and ethnicity intersect with other group identifications”
Palestinian Muslims, Christians and Jews alike are forced to prove their humanity at the hands of a racist regime. This is not a battle of faith but a fundamental intersection of race and ethnic justice. The dehumanization of the colonized people is a result of land dispossession, forced resettlement, psychological torture, cultural erasure and countless killings that are associated with settler colonial occupation.
In the case of Palestinians, this dehumanization is glaring in language used by members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet, as well as members of the Israeli armed forces, politicians and military leaders in describing Palestinian resistance to their subjugation. Colonizers and their sympathizers have evoked racist, Islamophobic and ultimately genocidal rhetoric — labeling Palestinians as “barbarians,” “human animals” and delegitimizing their fight for freedom while dismissing their humanity.
We urge you also to remember that there are many Israeli activists, politicians and citizens actively preaching both peace and an end to Israeli occupation.
Learning objective four: “Adopt tools to communicate more effectively and respectfully with others from various racial and ethnic perspectives.”
Emory students deserve a university culture that reflects the anti-colonial ethics it preaches. Emory faculty deserve a university curriculum that is backed by real material and solidarity — not mere academic sloganeering. Emory staff deserve a workplace free of complicity in systemic oppression, racial bias and political discrimination.
President Fenves, we remind you of your promise, made to us three years ago, claiming, “It is crucial that university leadership not simply put the burden of responsibility on you … We all must work in partnership to make progress — year in and year out — together. That is something I commit to doing as president.”
Moral consistency is key. We are waiting for you to fulfill your promise.
Just as the University recognizes the forced resettlement of Muscogee natives from the land on which it was built and recognizes the enslaved laborers who assembled this campus brick-by-brick, it is high time that Emory officials recognize their complicity in the death of the Palestinians and that of their predecessors. It is high time you speak out on land dispossession and ethnic cleansing of all people — from the Muscogee to the Palestinian people — so that our institution may finally begin to move to the right side of history.
We invite the Emory community standing in solidarity with the people of Palestine, regardless of their background or beliefs, to come together with compassion and empathy for a vigil for Palestine on Friday, Oct. 13 at 7 p.m. in the Canon Chapel Sanctuary.
Sincerely,
Emory Students for Justice in Palestine
