For weeks, the Biden Administration, along with most of the international community, has remained silent in the face of Israeli apartheid and ethnic cleansing, first while Israeli extremists paraded through Jerusalem chanting “death to Arabs,” and now as they violently evict dozens of Palestinians from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah - during a pandemic, nonetheless. Given Columbia SIPA’s position as a leading global policy school, the Palestine Working Group (PWG) calls on SIPA and the Columbia University community at large to take a stand on such morbid injustices when others will not and call out the unfolding situation in Jerusalem for what it is: state-sponsored ethnic cleansing.

The Palestinian residents of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of Jerusalem originally moved to the area after being expelled from their homes in Jaffa and Haifa during the Nakba of 1948. Faced with displacement and the prospect of joining the over 700,000 Palestinian refugees who were forced into exile with Israel’s establishment, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) struck a deal that offered Palestinian families a second chance at stability in Sheikh Jarrah. However, following Israel’s conquest of Jerusalem in 1967, settler groups have repeatedly attempted to seize the neighborhood. To this end, they have leveraged support from US-based donors to fund a protracted legal campaign that has already uprooted dozens of Palestinian families and is now returning for more. It is just the latest step towards Israel’s calculated goal of the total erasure of Palestinians from the land.

Over recent years, Israeli politics have been steadily shifting to the right, as evidenced by the escalating harassment of Palestinian citizens of Israel, the uptick in violent attacks by Israeli settlers in the West Bank, and the growing recognition of Israel’s apartheid reality. Just days ago, Israeli forces shot and killed Saeed Odeh, a 16-year-old boy from the town of Odala. Saeed is one of dozens of Palestinian children who have been injured or killed by Israeli forces this year alone. On Friday night, Israeli forces stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, attacking peaceful worshipers with tear gas and rubber bullets and injuring over 170 people. Although the past few days have already brought chilling violence, the worst is likely yet to come. Jewish Israeli extremists have announced plans for their annual Jerusalem Day provocation at Al-Aqsa this Sunday, which falls on Laylat al-Qadr – the holiest night of Ramadan. Thousands of marchers are expected to converge on the mosque, where large numbers of Palestinian Muslims typically gather to close out the holy month. What should be a peaceful day of prayer and celebration is likely to end in tragedy if nothing is done.

Only this past fall, Columbia College students voted to divest all stocks, funds, and endowment from companies complicit in Israel’s human rights abuses in Palestine - the bare minimum of what we should be doing to support those living under occupation and constant human rights violations. However, President Bollinger shot down their democratic process, and was quick to belittle student organizers by implying that the situation is somehow too “complex” to be decided through referenda. However, it wasn’t too “complex” when the University rightfully heeded student demands to divest from the fossil fuel industry. In 1978, Columbia University became one of the first US universities to commit to divesting from South African apartheid. What makes Israel’s apartheid, suffocating military occupation, and ongoing ethnic cleansing worthy of our continued investment and implicit support?

In truth, there is nothing complex or ambiguous about Israel’s crimes. Israel is an apartheid state, as has been meticulously proven in recent studies by Human Rights Watch and B’tselem (and by countless Palestinians who have repeated these arguments for years), and is engaging in an accelerating campaign of ethnic cleansing right before our eyes. Discourse on this issue is decisively shifting, across university campuses, the country, and around the world. History will remember where we stand today.

We, the undersigned, stand in solidarity with the Palestinian families who face violent eviction at the hands of extremist Israeli settlers, as well as all victims of settler colonialism. We call on Columbia University to respect the results of the Fall 2020 referendum and divest from Israel. If we continue to claim to represent an institution rooted in a responsibility to our global community, we cannot remain complicit in war crimes, military occupation, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid. Realistically, given the Columbia administration’s disappointing track record on supporting Palestinian human rights and their struggle for self-determination, we call on you not with the expectation that our administration will act with greater moral fortitude, but with the hope that our community can collectively recognize our ethical responsibility. In turn, our University will have to respond to the community it purports to lead. We hope that you, our university administration, and the Board of Governors fulfill your responsibility of holding our university to the ethical standards that proudly define us.

In solidarity,

The Palestine Working Group (PWG)

SIPA Students of Color (SSOC)

Conflict Resolution Collective (CRC)

MENA Forum

Working Group on Race, Inequality, Solidarity and Economics (RISE)

Migration Working Group