We, the undersigned students, faculty and concerned members of the community, in accordance with our moral sentiment, as well as our ethical and legal responsibilities, call upon the University of Cincinnati to divest from the state of Israel, all Israeli institutions, as well as from any private actors who have participated in the Gaza genocide since 2023.

We are issuing this petition because the University of Cincinnati, a public institution ostensibly dedicated to its students and the Cincinnati community, has failed its obligations not only to Palestinian students and community members, but to all people of conscience in Cincinnati. For more than two years, the university has blithely sustained its academic ties to Israeli institutions complicit in the genocide, and through its investment office and the interests of the university’s board of trustees knowingly maintains financial ties to companies directly implicated in the genocide of the Palestinian people. These actions do not just offend our moral sensibilities: they are criminal acts, prosecutable under international human rights law.

Because the university will not hold itself accountable and will not willingly adhere to the moral, legal and ethical principles established by the international community at Nuremberg, it falls to us, the undersigned, to demand it do so.

How we got here

History did not begin on October 7th, 2023: the people of Palestine have suffered tremendously under occupation and apartheid since Israel began its campaign of ethnic cleansing in 1948 by violently expelling three quarters of a million Palestinians from their homes. The current genocide is only the latest escalation, but the Palestinian death toll is higher than the combined total for the entire history of the conflict before October 7th.

The Gaza Ministry of Health reports that more than 70,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7th 2023, with thousands more buried under rubble, yet a study conducted at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in October 2025 used statistical analysis to arrive at a total of 79,789 in 2023 and 2024 alone, and updated analysis by the same team, produced after the publication of their report, revealed the violent death toll likely exceeds 100,000. Virtually every credible estimate places the civilian share of violent deaths over 80%, around 50% of which are children, and research carried out by the Gaza Mortality Survey estimates 16,300 nonviolent deaths from disease, starvation, or exposure.

Israel has violated the current ceasefire, which was declared on October 10th, 2025, at least 1,300 times, killing more than 477, and has failed to live up to its agreement to allow full humanitarian aid into the Gaza strip. The ceasefire has mostly served to deflect public attention from the genocide, as well as the mounting settler violence against Palestinians in the illegally occupied West Bank, and to create a justification for an ongoing military occupation of Gaza.

Without immediate, coordinated, international pressure, the situation is only continuing to deteriorate. 60% of the West Bank has remained under Israeli control since 1990, and according to Human Rights Watch, nearly 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces since October 2023, while rising settler violence is ignored or encouraged by the state.

It is unconscionable that the University of Cincinnati tacitly supports state-sponsored terrorism with its partnerships and investments. It falls on us, the students, staff, and faculty of the university, to hold it accountable to our shared human values and international law.

The University of Cincinnati can no longer be party to the callous disregard for human life the state of Israel has exhibited every day since 2023, and has exhibited towards the Palestinian people since 1948. The University of Cincinnati’s Board of Trustees and administrators, in defiance of most of the student body and faculty’s wishes, as well as the wishes of people of conscience in the city of Cincinnati, quietly supports ongoing atrocities in Gaza and occupied Palestine.

If the state of Israel’s actions do not constitute a sound basis for divestment, then no state’s actions do. We, the undersigned, therefore call upon the University of Cincinnati to recognize its moral and ethical obligations to the people of Palestine as well as the community it serves and immediately comply with our demands:

1. The University of Cincinnati (hereafter referred to as UC) must immediately and indefinitely divest from any and all actors involved in the genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank.

   1. This includes but is not limited to the state of Israel, all Israeli institutions, private Israeli companies involved in the genocide in any capacity, and any and all private actors involved in the perpetration of the genocide.

   2. UC must divest from all other entities credibly involved in genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and violations of human rights anywhere in the world.

2. UC must refrain from any form of academic or cultural association with Israeli institutions and businesses, in line with the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel.
   1. Sever UC’s association with all Israeli institutions, including but not limited to the University of Haifa, Oranim Academic College, and Technion.
   2. Immediately end all university-sponsored engagement with Israeli institutions or the state of Israel, such as its promotion of travel to Israel, partnerships with kibbutzes, etc.
   3. Sever academic ties with all companies and institutions that are complicit in the genocide, apartheid, occupation, and ethnic cleansing against the Palestinian people by:
      1. Removing these entities from career recruitment events.
      2. Removing them from co-op, internships, and partnerships with UC.
      3. Prohibiting their presence on campus in any form.
3. UC must commit to full financial transparency on all university finances and investments.
   1. Make all endowments accepted and managed by the UC Investment Office a matter of public record.
   2. Disclose where UC’s $2.3B endowment is invested (including but not limited to stocks, bonds, private equity funds, and index funds) to the public.
   3. Provide full public disclosure of all university finances and investments, in a manner easily accessible to the public, in order to keep the university accountable to its student body and the people of Cincinnati.
4. UC must adopt, in perpetuity, a new investment policy which forbids the university from accepting any financial ties with any entity involved in the perpetration of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity or violations of human rights.
   1. UC’s investment office must audit active contracts, agreements, partnerships, MOUs, and incumbent purchases to enact alternative investment and resource expenditure practices in line with UN purchasing and procurement guidelines.
5. UC must give amnesty to any and all UC students subjected to disciplinary action for Palestine activism.
   1. UC must properly implement and uphold its own anti-discrimination policies, especially for Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim students.
6. UC must publicly declare a commitment to all of the demands outlined above.
   1. UC must issue a condemnation of the genocide in Gaza, solidarity with the Palestinian people, and demand an end to the apartheid regime in the state of Israel in this statement.
   2. This statement must be issued through a press conference as well as an email to all students and employees.