With 80 affiliate groups on campuses across the country, the Faculty for Justice in Palestine (FJP) national network announces its formation and its commitment to the cause of Palestinian liberation through education, advocacy and action.
After the genocidal war on Gaza began, groups of academic workers began to organize on campuses nationwide to support and protect students from the immediate onslaught of harassment, discrimination, and punishment. From these regional and national meetings, the idea for a national network evolved. Because they are speech havens protected by academic freedom, universities were quickly thrust into the frontline of the propaganda war against advocates of Palestinian freedom; a mix of Zionist and right- wing organizations began to amplify McCarthy-style attacks on higher education and learning. The FJP network is part of an effort to reclaim and protect colleges and universities from those who are overseeing and fueling the erosion of academic freedom and free speech.
The FJP network will work in close collaboration with our colleagues in Palestinian universities, all of which have been subject to attacks, closures, and destruction long before the recent ravaging of the educational sector and knowledge production in the Gaza Strip. FJP affiliates will also support public education and discussion about the ongoing Nakba of the last seventy-five years of Israeli settler colonialism, apartheid, and military occupation.
FJP endorses the principles of BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) and supports the fundamental right of Palestinians to self-determination and legal equality, and to return to their indigenous homes and lands.
More information can be found at www.fjp-network.org