Colby Action for Palestine - Statement of Purpose

April 29, 2024

As Israel’s assault on Gaza passes its six-month mark, we, Colby Action for Palestine,
demand that Colby College end its complicity in the present and long-term oppression and
genocide alike of the Palestinian people at the hands of the State of Israel. The College’s
continuous partnership with entities tied to the Israeli occupation and military, as well as its utter
silence regarding the current genocide in Gaza, are violations of Colby’s commitment to
upholding human rights (as embodied by initiatives such as the Oak Institute for Human Rights)
and to cultivating a campus of “thoughtful leaders, critical thinkers, and socially responsible
citizens” (life.colby.edu, “Civic Engagement”).

Our demands are as follows:

● That Colby College divest from its holdings in companies that profit from the Israeli
occupation of Palestinian land and the state’s apartheid practices that infringe upon the
rights of Palestinians living in the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel itself. Specifically, we
demand that Colby divest from:
○ AirBNB Inc. This US-based company lists rental properties in illegal Israeli
settlements in Syria and Palestine, normalizing Israel’s occupation of these lands
despite this practice being illegal and repeatedly condemned under international
law (see UN Security Council Resolution 2334, among others). These rental
properties drive tourism in occupied territories and create a source of revenue for
settlers, legitimizing their presence in these areas.
○ Amazon.com Inc. Amazon is the largest provider of cloud computing for the
Israeli government and military. The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions
Movement (BDS), a Palestinian-led movement that aims to secure the rights and
safety of the Palestinian people, lists Amazon as one of its “pressure targets” and
states the following on its website:

“In May 2021, as the Israeli military bombed homes, clinics, and schools in Gaza and
threatened to push Palestinian families from their homes in occupied Jerusalem, Amazon
Web Services and Google Cloud signed a $1.22 billion contract to provide cloud
technology to the Israeli government and military. By supporting Israeli apartheid with
vital technologies, Amazon and Google are directly implicated in its entire system of
oppression, including its unfolding genocide in Gaza.”

● That the College revoke its partnerships and sever ties with Israeli universities. This
demand aligns with the BDS Movement’s call for an academic boycott of Israeli
educational institutions, which are directly tied to its oppression of Palestinians and the
Israeli Defensive Forces’ (IDF) current violence in Gaza. On its website, the BDS
movement states:
 “Academic institutions are a key part of the ideological and institutional scaffolding of Israel’s
regime of occupation, colonialism and apartheid against the Palestinian people. Israeli
universities are profoundly complicit in developing weapon systems and military doctrines
deployed in Israel’s recent war crimes in Lebanon and Gaza; justifying the ongoing colonization
of Palestinian land, rationalizing the gradual ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Palestinians;
providing moral justification for extra-judicial killings and indiscriminate attacks against
civilians; systematically discriminating against “non-Jewish” students in admissions, dormitory
room eligibility, financial aid, etc.; and many other implicit and explicit violations of human
rights and international law. Some Israeli universities, such as Ariel and Hebrew University, are
built fully or partially as colonies in the occupied Palestinian territory in contravention of
international law.”

Currently, Colby maintains pre-approved study away programs at four Israeli universities,
which are:
○ Arava Institute for Environmental Studies (Ketura)
○ Hebrew University, Rothberg International School (Jerusalem)
○ New York University: Tel Aviv (Tel Aviv)
○ University of Haifa (Haifa)
● That the College cease running the Jan Plan course entitled “Arab Jews: Navigating
Oppositional Identities” in Israel. This is an extension of our demand for an academic
boycott of Israel. We take no issue with the content of this class and recognize the
importance of engaging in nuanced discourse about identity in Israel, but believe that
Colby students can learn about this course’s subject matter without traveling to Israel.
However, in operating this class in Israel, Colby is directly contributing to the Israeli
tourism economy, in addition to funding “a ‘positive experience’ of Israel, whitewashing
its occupation and denial of Palestinian rights” (bdsmovement.net, “Academic Boycott”).
● That the College halt purchase and sale of food either produced in Israel or by companies
complicit in the Israeli occupation of Palestine and its present genocide in Gaza.
Specifically, we ask that Colby discontinue:
○ The sale of Sabra products at the Joseph Family Spa. Sabra Dipping
Company, LLC is jointly owned by the Israeli food manufacturer Strauss Group
Ltd. This corporation has a “leading position in the Israeli food market”
(strauss-group.com, “About Us”) and is traded on the Tel Aviv 35 Index, which
includes Israel’s largest publicly-traded companies. As such, the sale of Sabra
products on Colby’s campus directly supports the Israeli economy. Additionally,
the Strauss Group has historically directly supplied food products and donated
resources to the Golani Brigade, an IDF unit heavily implicated in Israel’s assault
on Gaza.
○ Any purchase of Israeli produce. The purchase of fruits, vegetables, and other
foodstuffs from Israel support its economy, and by extension its discriminatory
 and oppressive policies against Palestinians as well as its military, which is
systematically targeting the civilian inhabitants and infrastructure of the Gaza
Strip in violation of international law. We demand that Colby buy produce only
from suppliers who can verify that their product is not of Israeli origin.
● That the College, as well as its institutes and labs (such as the Goldfarb Center, Oak
Institute for Human Rights, Colby Center for Arts and Humanities, etc.), commit to
representing Palestinian voices, including by bringing Palestinian perspectives to campus
in politics, the arts, and beyond.

Colby Action for Palestine condemns any and all acts of antisemitism, and emphasizes
that questions of religious affiliation are not tied to our opposition of human rights violations,
apartheid, violations of international law, and genocide by the State of Israel.
Inaction in regards to these demands ignores the College’s precedent in divesting from
oppressive apartheid regimes, as well as of student activism to initiate such action.
In 1985, student activists called “on Colby to divest the $7.5 million it held in corporations with
assets in South Africa” (colby.edu, “Rallying Against Apartheid”). On October 20, the Board of
Trustees unanimously voted to completely divest from companies with direct investments in
South Africa by May 1987.
We firmly believe that Colby College is capable of ending its complicity in these
horrifying acts through the steps we have outlined above. Divestment and boycott are tools at the
College’s disposal, and its refusal to make use of them will point to severe hypocrisy and a
betrayal of its purported mission to protect “every individual against discrimination” and its
mission that its students foster a “responsibility to contribute to the world beyond the campus”
(colby.edu, “COLBY PLAN: MISSION AND PRECEPTS”).

We welcome dialogue with the Administration, as well as with other students and
organizations on campus.

Sincerely,
Colby Action for Palestine