As graduates of Vassar College, we strongly condemn the administration’s response to the ongoing genocide in Gaza. The statements sent to the Vassar community on behalf of the President and the administration are disingenuous, revealing a clear lack of empathy for the millions affected by the ongoing settler-colonialist violence in Gaza and the West Bank. The refusal to divest from entities supporting Israel's military occupation implicates Vassar College in the war crimes committed against the Palestinian people. There is blood on the hands of President Bradley and the Board of Trustees.

The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor reports that nearly 36,000 Palestinians have been killed and almost 80,000 injured since October 7th, with a majority being children. Of these deaths, over 100 are journalists. Out of a population of 2.3 million, 1.92 million Palestinians are now internally displaced in Gaza. The violence, however, did not start on October 7th. What is happening now is a continuation and escalation of Israel's violent displacement of Palestinians, which began in 1948. The goal of the Israeli colonial project has been, from its inception, the eradication of the Palestinian people from their homeland.

We believe it is our moral imperative to unequivocally stand on the side of justice and speak out against the forced removal of Palestinians from their land. Birzeit University, in occupied Palestine, has released a statement calling on international academic institutions to meet the following demands:

Call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, guaranteed by the United Nations.
Urge immediate entry into Gaza of sufficient amounts of life-saving humanitarian needs (including water, food, fuel, and medicine), equitably distributed throughout the whole territory of the Gaza Strip.
Demand UN protection for the 2.3 million Palestinian civilians who are trapped under siege in Gaza.
Issue statements that clearly and unequivocally condemn ethnic cleansing.
Support dismantling the settler colonial and apartheid system and work to achieve a just, comprehensive, and lasting peace.
We will not stay silent as we watch Vassar choose to side with a genocidal and racist regime. Israel is committing war crimes, blatantly disregarding human rights and human life, and violating international law. Israel is acting with impunity because it has the full support of the United States.

We believe it is our moral obligation to use our collective power to withhold donations to Vassar until the administration meets the following demands.

Our demands:

1. D​​​​​​​ismiss pending student conduct charges, bias incident reports, and any other disciplinary actions that serve only to punish pro-Palestinian student activists for exercising their right to peacefully protest and voice dissent. Note that we include the Community Expectations process within our definition of "disciplinary action."
Actively support and affirm the right of Vassar students to protest the ongoing genocide of Palestinians. Put measures in place which protect rather than undermine, these students' freedoms of speech and assembly. See Vassar College 2023/24 First-Year Handbook, pg. 6 ("Vassar students, working closely with the faculty, enjoy the freedom to explore their intellectual and artistic passions, to develop their powers of reason and imagination through the process of analysis and synthesis, to effectively express their unique points of view, to challenge and rethink their own and others' assumptions, and to struggle with complex questions...")
Condemn the Hawley Resolution, which targets college students who openly voice their support for Palestinian resistance.

2. Release the names of Vassar’s current independent contractors and investments.
End all direct and indirect (including private equity) investments in companies that provide Israel with weapons and military equipment, and companies that profit off the genocide in Gaza.

3. Cease study abroad partnerships with institutions based in Israel that condone the genocide against Palestine.

4. Publicly condemn the ongoing genocide in Gaza and use Vassar's institutional influence to call for a ceasefire in the region, leveraging its ties with lawmakers to advocate for an end to U.S. military aid.

5. Publicly disavow the conflation of the terms "antisemitism" and "anti-zionism" and commit to educating the student body about the difference in the definitions of these terms.

Executive Order 157, which the college has referenced as one of the reasons that divestment from Israeli institutions would not be feasible, is patently unconstitutional. It constitutes content discrimination, which would clearly fail a strict scrutiny review by any federal court in the nation. The fact that only eleven unknown companies have been blacklisted since that executive order was issued confirms that, in any event, it was intended for show rather than serious enforcement.

As for the college's direct ties to Israel, Vassar currently approves two programs in Israel: one with Hebrew University Rothberg International School, and the other with Arava Institute for Environmental Studies. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem that houses the Rothberg International School makes no acknowledgement of the genocidal violence being waged against Palestine and has historically been a staunch supporter of Israel’s military. The university was founded as a Zionist initiative and boasts its contribution of “logistics equipment to several military units” since October 2023. Institutions that ally with the Israeli state and stand complacent towards the occupation of Palestine should not be partnered with Vassar. Israel's ongoing history of discriminatory immigration policies applied to Arab, Muslim, and African migrants is an explicit barrier to participation for many students considering study abroad. To effectively stand in opposition to genocide and underlying systemic discrimination, Vassar cannot approve study abroad opportunities hosted by institutions whose existence is contingent on and perpetuates violence against the Palestinian people.

Attempts to silence and censor student voices will not work. We know that divestment is possible. It has been done before and it will be done again. Vassar divested from the apartheid in South Africa and is in the process of divesting from fossil fuels. There has also been a push for Vassar to divest from the prison industrial complex. As administrators and trustees who play a role in shaping campus culture, it is your duty to listen to the voices of students, faculty, and alumni who are collectively calling for an end to Vassar’s complicity in the genocide in Palestine. We will not stop putting pressure on the college until it stands on the right side of history and takes action to end the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.