Please click here to access 104 statements of
solidarity with Palestine from Scripps alumni.
Published: October 20th, 2023*
We, Scripps alumni, write to the College and the broader community to express our devastation, fear, and rage as the Israeli-led and US-backed genocide of Palestinians continues to unfold. More than 3,500 Palestinians have been murdered by Israeli airstrikes and attacks by armed settlers. Most recently, Israel bombed Gaza’s oldest church, where Palestinian families were taking refuge. This comes after hundreds of Palestinians seeking medical treatment at Al-Ahli Hospital were killed, despite strict laws prohibiting the targeting of hospitals under the Geneva Convention. These war crimes are funded by the US government, which provided $247 billion dollars to Israel between 1951-2022 (adjusted for inflation). We, like so many across the world, are sickened by Israel’s impunity and US sponsorship of this unconscionable violence. We mourn all Palestinian and Israeli lives lost and call for an end to mass killings and displacement.
The violence did not begin on October 7th. This violence stems from imperialism, white supremacy, and Zionism. Zionism is a European settler-colonial ideology that displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in 1948 during al-Nakba. This ideology does not represent the Jewish people, nor is it integral to Judaism. As James Baldwin wrote, “Israel was not created for the salvation of the Jews, it was created for the salvation of Western interests,” namely financial dominance and political control. Countless Jewish community members have risen up against Zionism historically and in the present day.
Scripps promotes an education that fosters critical thinking and analytical skills in its students. At a time like this, utilizing these skills is a moral imperative. We urge the College to condemn disinformation that manufactures consent for the genocide of Palestinians. As a historically women’s college, Scripps prides itself in being a feminist institution. Supporting Palestinian freedom is a feminist issue, yet Scripps remains silent in the midst of the gender-based violence caused by the Israeli occupation and genocide. Pregnant women in Gaza are preparing to give birth in a war zone and are suffering miscarriages due to the conditions of indiscriminate air strikes. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib writes, “the failure to recognize the violent reality of living under siege, occupation, and apartheid makes no one safer. No person, no child anywhere should have to suffer or live in fear of violence. We cannot ignore the humanity in each other.”
In 1986, only two Claremont institutions divested from companies that did business in apartheid South Africa. Scripps was not one of those institutions. Now is the chance for Scripps to stand on the right side of history and refuse to profit from genocide. The time to divest from the apartheid state of Israel is now. The time to demand a ceasefire is now. The time to act in accordance with our feminist values is now. The time to demand an end to the occupation and genocide against the Palestinian people is now.
We demand that the College heed the call from Palestinian civil society to comply with the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, including an academic boycott of study abroad programs in Israel. Offering study abroad programs in Israel normalizes the violence of occupation, and contradicts Scripps’ values of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
We demand that the Scripps administration ensures a safe environment for Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim students, given the rise in Islamophobic hate crimes caused by disinformation and harmful rhetoric casting these communities as “terrorists.” As former student organizers on Scripps’ campus, we have witnessed the repression faced by Palestinian and pro-Palestine activists, and will not accept an environment of surveillance and harassment at our alma mater.
We urge community members to demand an immediate ceasefire, an end to the Israeli siege and occupation in Gaza, and a halt to US military funding to Israel.
We honor the steadfast resistance of the Palestinian people, both in their occupied homeland and within the diaspora. Join us in the struggle for Palestinian liberation. Please utilize resources from the United States Campaign for Palestinian Rights and Jewish Voice for Peace to take action to stop genocide now.
In Solidarity,
366 Alumni of Scripps College
(Classes of '70, '72, '02, '03, '08, '09, '10, '11, '12, '13, '14, '15, '16, '17, '18, '19, '20, '21, '22, '23)
*As of 11/19/23, 15,271 Palestinians have been martyred and 32,310 Palestinians have been wounded by the Israeli bombardment of Gaza, with an estimated 4,100 Palestinians still missing and under the rubble. More than 200 Palestinians have been murdered by armed settlers and the Israeli Defense Forces in the West Bank.
For further questions or comments, please contact scrippsalumpalestine@proton.me.