Wesleyan University students have now joined universities across the world in building an encampment in solidarity with Palestine. At 6pm today, Students for Justice in Palestine created a liberated zone behind North and South College, the location of the administration.
The settler colonial state of Israel has deprived Palestinians of their life and land for over 75 years, subjecting millions of Palestinians to choose between exile and extermination. In Gaza over the past six months, Israeli forces have killed over 40,000 Palestinians, with another 70,000+ people injured and maimed, and approximately 7,000 people trapped beneath Gaza’s rubble from bombardment.
Wesleyan students demand that the university take action by disclosing and divesting any and all of the $1.5 billion endowment from companies and institutions that profit from Israeli colonization, occupation, and apartheid feuling the genocide of Palestinians. The Board of Trustees refuses to provide the Wesleyan community with the full list of investments, concealing them through an opaque fund-manager system.
Wesleyan Students for Justice in Palestine call for immediate action from President Michael Roth and the Board of Trustees:
We demand that Wesleyan University disclose financial investments and divest from ALL companies and institutions that profit from Israeli settler colonial apartheid and occupation in Palestine – including weapons, tech and surveillance, and construction companies – with full transparency regarding those investments and a public commitment to divest.
We demand that Wesleyan University immediately terminate all programs and affiliations with Israeli academic institutions, including study abroad, and permanently shut down the Wes-at-Shimron Archaeological Field School – in keeping with the academic boycott of Israeli institutions called for by Palestinian civil society.
We demand that the Wesleyan University’s Gordon Career Center restrict companies targeted for divestment from recruiting on campus.
We demand that Wesleyan University protect student, faculty, and staff free speech, ensuring that there will be no penalties for protesting genocide.
