We, a group of Howard University students, alumni, administration, faculty, staff, and community members, are calling for the end the complicity of our institution with the illegal occupation and genocide of the Palestinian people. Our university holds that its mission is to produce historically aware and compassionate graduates aimed at solving human problems globally, and we as the Howard community are compelled towards these demands as a result of this drive to make change and be a part of solving global problems through that change.
Our institutions holds several connections to companies, institutions, and individuals that support the Zionist entity “Israel” and contribute directly to the ongoing genocide and apartheid faced by the Palestinian people. These connections include the University Affiliated Research Center contract with the Department of Defense and the Department of Air Force, a partnership aimed at producing technology related to artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, tactical autonomy, and machine learning, systems and products used in the continuing genocide and apartheid conducted by the Zionist entity. Our university additionally holds several key partnerships with corporations that have contributed to the genocide and apartheid faced by Palestinians, including and namely with Microsoft, IBM, and Google, where these companies provide technology used by the Israel.
Along with these corporate partnerships, Howard University has allowed federal agents, such as those from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the National Guard, to recruit on our campus, along with allowing other law enforcement agencies such as the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department to conduct enforcement actions on students engaging in speech on campus.
Howard University continues to show its true colors as time and time again, it puts the interests of profits over the interests of its students and faculty.
As members of an institution with a social justice mission, we urge our fellow Howard community members to demand:
- An immediate end to support and aid to Israel from the President and congressional representatives;
- Unrestricted immediate provision of humanitarian aid in Gaza and in the West Bank. Not doing so will be a betrayal of the values of our university and its core mission.
- We call on alumni and faculty with positions of power in domestic and international governance to answer the moral call to center humanity by pressuring your offices and educating yourself and others on 75 years of occupation and ethnic cleansing in Palestine.
- We call upon scholars and activists to research and lead a targeted boycott of Howard’s academic and other partnerships with Israel, the U.S. military, and law enforcement agencies. We call on our community to mobilize against the funding of apartheid and genocide. In the spirit of Howard’s core value of striving for global change through truth and service to others, we make these demands to divest from Israel.
We make these demands alongside campaigns aimed at specified institutions, individuals, and partnerships at or affiliated with Howard University complicit in the genocide of and enforcement of apartheid on the Palestinian people.
“Board of Butchers” Campaign
“Rename Ralph J. Bunche International Affairs Center” Campaign
HOWARD UNIVERSITY STUDENTS FOR JUSTICE IN PALESTINE DEMANDS
We underscore our alliance with Howard University SJP and cosponsor the following demands:
- We demand immediate financial transparency and total divestment from all corporations contributing to Zionist colonialism and the ongoing genocide of Palestinians, including IBM, Google, and Microsoft.
- We demand a ban on all companies and individuals collaborating with the Zionist entity "Israel" from coming to Howard University campus to speak with or recruit students, as specified above.
- We demand that Howard University commits to its campus being a sanctuary campus, refusing to allow federal agents on University grounds including those from Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Patrol, and other federal agents.
- End the University Affiliated Research Center contract Howard currently holds with the Air Force and Department of Defense that conducts research contributing to the technology used by Israel in their genocide of the Palestinian people, along with their cybersecurity and A.I. initiatives with the National Security Agency (NSA).
- Howard University release a formal public statement in total solidarity with Palestinian students and the Palestinian resistance, along with demanding an end to Israel's crimes of blockade, apartheid, and occupation against the Palestinian people. We demand Howard University acknowledge and call for an end to Israel's illegal blockade of the Gaza strip and apartheid system.
- The Board of Trustees condemn companies and institutions complicit in genocide Howard University has maintained relationships with.