rich 1.0 Action Network https://actionnetwork.org <link href='https://actionnetwork.org/css/style-embed-v3.css' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' /><script src='https://actionnetwork.org/widgets/v6/petition/uga-students-for-justice-in-palestion-demands?format=js&source=widget'></script><div id='can-petition-area-uga-students-for-justice-in-palestion-demands' style='width: 100%'><!-- this div is the target for our HTML insertion --></div> YDSA at Georgia State University https://actionnetwork.org/groups/ydsaatgsu https://can2-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/petitions/photos/000/518/168/normal/signal-2024-04-23-172647.jpeg We stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine and student movements across the nation advocating for Palestinian liberation Our universities have chosen profit over the lives of the Palestinian people and the overwhelming force of student opinion. Our administrators are more concerned with maintaining their prestigious reputations than “Israel”’s ongoing slaughter of Palestinians. Their supposed power is nothing compared to the united strength of students, faculty, and staff committed to realizing justice and upholding Palestinian liberation on campus. In the footsteps of our comrades at Rutgers-New Brunswick SJP, Tufts SJP, Columbia SJP, and many more, we will take back our university and force our administration to stand in solidarity with the people of Gaza! We are committed to upholding a front of resistance at the University of Georgia and holding our institution responsible for its complicity in and unwavering support of genocide. UGA-SJP is initiating a divestment campaign in coordination with National SJP’s Popular University! It has been seven months. Seven months of genocide. Seven months of bombs dropping on Gaza. Seven months of egregious raids, murders, and unlawful mass imprisonment of Palestinians in the West Bank. Seven months of our university’s ignorance and contempt for Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim people in Athens and abroad. The time to move is now. We are increasing pressure on UGA to end its one-sided actions and rhetoric and to use its institutional clout to advocate for a free Palestine. Our Demands: Solidarity We call on UGA to issue an unwavering statement of solidarity with the Palestinian people and impacted Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian students, faculty, and staff of this campus. UGA administration has ignored, and thus actively facilitated,"Israel's" genocide in Palestine for seven months now while neglecting calls for support from the students this institution claims to serve. On October 12th, President Morehead wrote to the UGA community to address the outbreak of violence in Israel. Since then, Morehead has not uttered a word regarding "Israel's" ongoing genocide in Gaza or regarding the protection of Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim students, faculty, and staff. President Morehead and his office have ignored multiple attempts to schedule a meeting with pro-Palestinian students. The President's refusal to stand in solidarity with Palestine demonstrates the clear position of the Morehead administration: total and unconditional support for the U.S.-backed Zionist occupation. These are the very same occupation forces that have been deliberately slaughtering thousands of innocent Palestinians with the overt intent of genocide. Over 34,000 Palestinians have been murdered in this renewed period of Zionist aggression and terror bombing. Our community members are experiencing unimaginable suffering, fearing for the lives of our friends and relatives every day as we watch this university remain silent. We demand an immediate acknowledgment of the brutal occupation and genocide by the Zionist project and a statement of solidarity with the Palestinian people. How many more lives does the Israeli occupation have to take for our university to care? Protection We call on UGA to institute university policies enshrining protection for pro-Palestine speech, activism, lectures, and campaigns on campus, including the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Additionally, we call on UGA to institute policies that protect Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim students from racist violence, doxxing, and other threats to personal safety on campus. In light of the escalating genocide since October 7th in the occupied Palestinian territory, the lack of proactive measures taken by the University of Georgia has caused significant problems. This university has failed to create an atmosphere of inclusivity and safety for marginalized communities. Furthermore, the absence of decisive action has resulted in an intolerable increase in targeted and pervasive harassment on campus, depriving students of their fundamental right to education and impeding their full participation in academic and social life. It is disheartening to note that the University of Georgia has failed to respond to these concerns being raised by its own students, faculty, staff, and alumni. It has failed to respond to the concerns of civil liberties groups and campus organizations nationwide who are calling for increased protection of student rights. UGA has failed in its mission to protect its students and failed to adhere to the University System of Georgia's core value of academic freedom. This university's leadership has decidedly not "foster[ed] an environment where all people are free to share ideas and opinions." Therefore, we rise in solidarity to demand prompt action to resolve these issues. Disclosure and Divestment We call on UGA to disclose all of its investments and other financial relationships and demand an immediate divestment from all firms complicit in the genocide in Palestine. American and "Israeli" firms in industries as diverse as arms manufacturing, banking, construction, and agribusiness play critical roles in furthering the occupation and Zionist settler-colonialism. We demand the University disclose all of its investments and immediately end all financial ties with corporate/financial entities complicit in the ongoing occupation. NOT A CENT OF OUR TUITION DOLLARS FOR GENOCIDE! We also call on UGA to institute a full academic boycott of "Israeli" institutions, starting with the prompt termination of the UGA Terry StudyAway program in"Israel". The program's itinerary lists several visits to UN-recognized occupied Palestinian territory, including a trip to Ariel University, located in one of the largest illegal settlements in the West Bank. The program itself serves to whitewash "Israel's" history of ethnic cleansing and apartheid, totally erasing Palestinians' existence. "Israeli" universities play a key role in planning, implementing, and justifying Zionist policies of occupation and apartheid, while also repressing Palestinian professors' and students' freedom of expression. Thus. We demand UGA cut ALL ties with "Israeli" academic institutions as part of a wider pressure campaign to force the Zionist entity to end the occupation. Organizations in our Coalition: University of Georgia Students For Justice in Palestine University of Georgia Stop Cop City Athens Against Apartheid Athens Against Cop City University of Georgia Young Democratic Socialists of America Georgia State University Young Democratic Socialists of America https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/uga-students-for-justice-in-palestion-demands