Dear President Holloway,
We, the undersigned members of the Rutgers community and beyond, are writing to demand you publicly repudiate New Jersey Representative Joshua Gottheimer’s disgraceful slander of Rutgers Palestinian rights supporters.

On December 13, 2021, Rep. Gottheimer's gave a speech at Rutgers Hillel in which he falsely accused the Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union (in reality, the union Executive Board, which released a statement in Solidarity with the Palestinian People), Students for Justice in Palestine, and the Center for Security, Race and Rights of antisemitism and having “sided with terrorists” (full transcript here).

Rep. Gottheimer not only smeared and mischaracterized; he openly threatened. “I feel it’s very important,” he said, “that when we see anyone acting outside the lines of living up to the ideals of Rutgers, they should not be allowed to brandish the Rutgers badge.” Unable to defend the apartheid Israeli regime on principle, he called for those who stand with Palestinians to be stripped of their Rutgers affiliation instead.

This speech was directly addressed to you, in your presence, and yet you said nothing. That is unacceptable.

The unfolding horror in the Ukraine has exposed the racist double standard embedded in Western political and media discourse. Ukrainians who take up arms against Russian oppression are lionized; Palestinians who take up arms against Israeli oppression are vilified. And U.S. crimes against humanity are, as usual, ignored.

Rep. Gottheimer embodies this hypocrisy. He recently applauded Ukraine’s “heroic and skillful resistance,” but, found 10 occasions in his speech to malign Palestinian “terrorism.” There was not a word about 74 years of Israeli land theft, ethnic cleansing, and racist discrimination, all abetted by U.S. political and material support.

Your non-response makes the university complicit in his hypocrisy, falsehoods, and intimidation tactics. Rutgers Students for Justice in Palestine has already called on the university to protect “against the targeted doxing of pro-Palestinian students and faculty members on blacklist sites such as Canary Mission.” Your office met that demand with silence, too.

Rep. Gottheimer’s smears were part of a well-documented campaign by Israel apologists to silence Palestine advocacy, from unconstitutional anti-BDS legislation to bogus definitions of antisemitism that falsely conflate anti-Zionism with hatred of Jewish people.

In the face of these attacks, we call on you to stand up for Rutgers faculty and students who promote what should be Rutgers’ highest values: freedom, justice, and equality. They, too belong to what you laud as Rutgers “beloved community.” It is not they who need to disassociate from Rutgers, but Rutgers that needs to disassociate from Rep. Gottheimer’s abhorrent slanders; immediately, clearly, and unconditionally.

Signed,

Al-Awda-NY/NJ: The Palestine Right to Return Coalition

American Muslims for Palestine - NJ

Black Lives Matter Palestine - Paterson

Council on American-Islamic Relations - NJ

Democratic Socialists of America Central New Jersey

Democratic Socialists of America North New Jersey

Democratic Socialists of America South New Jersey

Green Party NJ

Jews for Palestinian Right of Return

Jewish Voice for Peace-Central NJ

Jewish Voice for Peace-Northern NJ

NYU Chapter - American Association of University Professors

Palestinian American Community Center

People’s Organization for Progress

Students for Justice in Palestine NYU

Students for Justice in Palestine Rutgers - New Brunswick

Sunrise Movement Rutgers New Brunswick

U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel