[The below petition was published in the Daily Princetonian.]
The following petition was begun by five faculty members in History and Near Eastern Studies and now has the following signatories. This ad serves both as an announcement of the petition to the community and as an invitation to the tenured faculty across the university for their support. If you would like to sign the petition, please send an email to: […]. The petition will be presented to the university administration before Thanksgiving.
Deeply concerned about the brutality of Israeli military rule over Palestinians in the occupied West Bank as well as the ongoing Israeli military and economic siege of Gaza, we are Princeton faculty who can no longer remain silent.
The State of Israel has occupied the West Bank for nearly half a century in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 242. Repeated Israeli military engagements in Gaza - in 2008-09, 2012 and 2014-have been condemned by many, including the United Nations, for Israel`s disproportionate use of violence against civilians. Moreover, settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem continue expanding. As of 2012 there were over half a million settlers and this August, just days after the conclusion of hostilities in Gaza, the Israeli government seized nearly 1000 acres of land near Bethlehem. This seizure was the largest since the 1980s and drew a sharp rebuke from the United States government.
It is time for Princeton University to join the Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Methodist Church, the Mennonite Church, the Quaker Friends Fiduciary Corporation, and Teachers Insurance and Annuity (TIAA-CREF), and divest from all companies that contribute to or profit from the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and continued siege of Gaza. The Presbyterian Church (USA) and the United Methodist Church have divested their holdings of Caterpillar because its equipment is used to demolish Palestinian homes in the West Bank; of Motorola because it provides the State of Israel with a communication network, a surveillance system, and electronic bomb fuses used in the occupation regime; and of Hewlett Packard which sells its products to the Israel Defense Forces and provides bio scanners that are used to profile Palestinians and track their movements.
We, the undersigned tenured faculty, therefore call on Princeton University to divest from all companies that contribute to or profit from the Israeli occupation of the West Bank until the State of Israel complies with UN Resolution 242, ends its military occupation of the West Bank and lifts its siege of Gaza.
We do so united by our conviction that moral pressure from the international community can help to bring about political transformation in the region as well as to support the legitimate aspirations of Palestinians and Israelis to live in lasting peace and security.
The five faculty members who started the initiative are:
1. Molly Greene
2. Michael Laffan
3. Gyan Prakash
4. Cyrus Schyegh
5. Max Weiss
The undersignatories of the published ad are:
6. Peter Andolfatto;
7. Benjamin Baer;
8. John Borneman;
9. Graham Burnett;
10. Eduardo Cadava;
11. Vera Candiani;
12. Miguel Centeno;
13. Zahid Chaudhary;
14. Isabelle Clark-Deces;
15. Andrew Cole;
16. Linda Colley;
17. Angela Creager;
18. Andrew Dobson;
19. Esther da Costa Meyer;
20. Benjamin Elman;
21. Richard Falk (Emeritus);
22. Hal Foster;
23. Eddie Glaude;
24. Josh Guild;
25. John Haldon;
26. Abdellah Hammoudi;
27. Thomas Hare;
28. Tera Hunter;
29. Amaney Jamal;
30. Kevin Kruse;
31. German Labrador Mendez;
32. Meredith Martin;
33. Douglas Massey;
34. Pedro Meira Monteiro;
35. Zia Mian;
36. Erika Milam;
37. Naomi Murakawa;
38. Nick Nesbitt;
39. Gabriela Nouzeilles;
40. Chika Okeke-Agulu;
41. Serguei Oushakine;
42. Elizabeth Paluck;
43. Imani Perry;
44. Gayle Salamon;
45. Kim Scheppele;
46. Robert Tignor (Emeritus);
47. John Waterbury (Emeritus)
48. Michael Wood (Emeritus)