If you want to get involved with Columbia Palestine Forum’s campaign, please come to the organizing meeting this week!
- Tuesday March 10th
- 8:00 pm
- Hamilton 303
Members of the group will give a recap of the organizing we’ve been doing over the last few weeks, discuss our demands and plans, and then we’ll all plan the next steps together. If you can’t make it and still want to be involved, email us at columbiapalestineforum (at) gmail (dot) com and let us know.
A few photos from the teach-in and rally last week:
Here’s some coverage of Columbia Palestine Forum’s launch and events this past week.
- Aaron Winslow’s 3/3 op-ed in the Spectator: Divestment from the Israeli Occupation of Palestine
- Socialist Worker article, 3/3: Columbia Demands Justice for Palestine
- Spectator article, 3/4: Israel, Gaza Student Groups Clash on Issues of Divestment, Apartheid
- Spectator article, 3/4: Panelists Push Divestment, Support Gaza
- Spectator article, 3/5: Pro-Gaza Groups Protest on Low, Present Demands to Administration
- BWOG, 3/5: LectureHop: Columbia Palestine Forum (on the teach-in)
- CubPub, 3/5: A Burgeoning Divestment Movement
Thanks to all the speakers and audience who made tonight’s teach-in so successful–especially all the people who stayed standing in the hallway to listen. We’ll try to get a bigger room next time, and we’re glad to see the Columbia community is so eager to engage with the issues we’re raising in this campaign.
In the meantime, come raise your voice with us at tomorrow–Thursday March 5th–as we deliver our demands to the administration. The Speak Out rally will take place from noon to 1pm on Low Plaza.
TEACH-IN ON WEDNESDAY:
COLUMBIA & PALESTINE: A Campus Forum
Why Academic Freedom? Why Divestment?
Wednesday, March 4th
7pm, Hamilton Hall 516
Speakers and moderators will include:
- Mahmood Mamdani, Herbert Lehman Professor of Government and Professor of Anthropology
- Bruce Robbins, Old Dominion Foundation Professor in the Humanities
- Gil Anidjar, Associate Professor, MEALAC
- Brinkley Messick, Professor of Anthropology
- Columbia student Olivia Roseane, and community members and Columbia alums Lubna Hammad and Ethan Heitner, active in the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign.
Come to a forum discussing Columbia University’s relationship to Palestinian rights. Does the university have a responsibility to defend academic freedom in Gaza and the West Bank in the face of Israeli attacks on Palestinian schools and travel restrictions on Palestinian scholars? Does the university have a responsibility to divest from companies who profit from the the continued occupation of Palestinian lands, the maintenance of illegal Israeli settlements and the walls being built around Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem?
Recently, a growing group of faculty, supported by students and community members have requested that University President Lee Bollinger issue a statement supporting academic freedom for Palestinian schools and scholars, especially given the numerous facilities, from elementary schools to colleges, destroyed by the recent bombing of Gaza: see Academic Freedom Columbia. Columbia faculty will be speaking about why they have issued this call.
Additionally, students and community members from the New York City Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) campaign will speak about the important role that the university and students can play in making sure that Columbia funds – including our tuition – do not go toward the maintenance of the Israeli occupation and human rights abuses in Gaza and the West Bank. If you’re interested in finding out more about the campaign, please attend!
Click here to RSVP at our facebook event page.
