MISSION:
6. The Gaza Solidarity Encampment is dedicated to building
The Gaza Solidarity Encampment is a horizontally structured
action bringing together students and workers at the City University of
New York (CUNY) who stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people
and support their right to self-determination and national liberation,
from the river to the sea. We are committed to ending the zionist
entity's genocide as well as as the occupation and colonization of
Palestine and all surrounding lands, dismantling of the Apartheid Wall,
and the return of Palestinian refugees to their homes and properties.
We understand that US economic, military and political support for
“israel” stems from the need of the ruling class to maintain imperial
domination in an area of enormous geostrategic significance via a
colonial outpost. We recognize that CUNY, a public institution
imbricated in colonial, racial capitalist, and imperialist systems of
power, is not just a passive spectator to the US-backed zionist settler
colonization of Palestine. Through its investments in companies that
support the zionist state, as well as exchange programs with “israeli”
universities and other institutional ties, it is a material contributor to
“israel’s” settler colonial project. CUNY is complicit in “israel’s”
violent theft of the lives, livelihoods, land, and natural resources of the
Palestinian people. As members of the CUNY community, we demand
that CUNY immediately end our complicity in the settler colonial
violence and dispossession that the Palestinian people have been
subjected to for over 100 years.
POINTS OF UNITY:
1. The Gaza Solidarity Encampment rejects all forms of
settler colonialism, from Palestine to Turtle Island. We
connect our support for Palestinian liberation to the
Indigenous movement’s Land Back struggle on Turtle Island
for the return of unceded Indigenous lands.
2. The Gaza Solidarity Encampment categorically supports
the Palestinian liberation struggle. People subjected to a
violent colonial system have an inalienable right, recognized
by international law, to resist their colonization, including
through armed struggle. When people are colonized,
resistance is justified. We support Palestinian
self-determination and liberation of all the land of historic
Palestine, from the river to the sea.
3. The Gaza Solidarity Encampment rejects the
normalization and acceptance of “israeli” statehood. A settler
colonial entity that dispossesses, ethnically cleanses, and
attempts to exterminate an Indigenous population has no
inherent ‘right to exist’ or to ‘defend itself ’ against the people
it oppresses.
4. The Gaza Solidarity Encampment opposes the false
conflation of anti-semitism and anti-zionism across CUNY,
which is being used by the CUNY administration to suppress
those voicing support for Palestinian liberation. We believe
that Zionism, like other structures of institutionalized racism,
must be actively opposed and cannot be accepted or
normalized as just another point of view within our public
university.
5. The Gaza Solidarity Encampment works to realize the call
for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions across CUNY and
across the US more broadly, as called for by Palestinian civil
society and laid out in the CUNY-wide BDS statement.
coalitions and working together with other CUNY,
NYC-based, and international organizations and movements
to dismantle the structures of institutionalized violence that
uphold colonialism, racial capitalism, white supremacy,
hetero-patriarchy, imperialism, and all forms of oppression.
None of us are free until all of us are free.
COMMUNITY AGREEMENTS:
1. We all commit to remain grounded in why we enter this
space: as an act of solidarity with the Palestinian people
facing the deadliest year in a 100-year long imperialist backed
genocide of the Palestinian people, which CUNY as an
institution is complicit in.
2. No desecration of the land. No littering. Please pick up your
trash.
3. We recognize our role as visitors, and for many of us,
colonizers, on this land. We camp with an acute awareness
that we do so on land where racist colonizers violently
displaced and attempted to annihilate the Indigenous
Lenapehoking people, and where racist colonizer
institutions--including our university--have continued to
carry out systemic violence and displacement against Black
and Brown communities.
4. No drug use/alcohol consumption inside the camp. This
may make people uncomfortable, and increase risk of police
or administrative targeting and repression. Ultimately this
camp exists in service of Palestine, and “partying” in such a
space would be an offense to the cause that has brought us
here. If people would like to smoke, they can do so outside
of the tent area. We don’t want to police each other or each
other’s patterns of substance use, but want to ensure that
people feel comfortable in the space.
5. Respect personal boundaries- tight quarters are not an excuse
to cross physical boundaries without affirmative consent
6. We commit to never photographing or videotaping another
community member without their affirmative consent.
7. We commit to not share the names or details of any camp
participants or any other non-public information about the
camp with administrators, police, press, or on social media,
or with anyone outside of the camp, without the affirmative
consent of those involved, as we realize this could cause
great harm to our movement. We keep us safe, and that
includes refusing to comply with any requests for
information from NYPD, outside investigators, or members
of the university administration.
8. We commit to assuming best intentions, granting ourselves
and others grace when mistakes are made, and approaching
conflict with the goal of addressing and repairing.
9. Please think of community members when making decisions
about autonomous action. Not everyone has consented to
the same levels of risk, but everyone will be affected by
decisions that community members make.
10. We commit to not engaging with zionist counter-protestors.
They seek to distract us, and we must remain steadfast and
unified.
 OUR FIVE DEMANDS:
1. Disclose & Divest: CUNY’s immediate and total divestment from
companies which aid in zionist colonization and war crimes. Ensure
accountability by publishing annual reports of CUNY's investments
and contracts.
As of Fiscal Year 2021, CUNY had 13 contracts exceeding $8.5
million USD with companies that aid in, or profit from, zionist
colonization, occupation, and war crimes, including Dell, IBM, HP,
Lenovo, Cisco, and BMC Software; As the 2018 CUNY Apartheid
Divest Resolution outlines, these companies supply bombs and fighter
jets to the “israeli” military, help surveil Palestinian movement,
provide demolition equipment that is used against Palestinian homes,
and aid in constructing illegal zionist settlements. Every single CUNY
President and administration must publicly advocate for CUNY to
divest from all such companies. We refuse to allow our tuition money
to be invested in apartheid. We refuse to fund our education through
genocide. Furthermore, CUNY must commit to publishing an annual
report of its investments and contracts to ensure accountability.
2. Academic Boycott: Ban all academic trips to “israel” (occupied
Palestine) and relationships with “israeli” universities, encompassing
birthright, Fulbright, and prospective trips.
Throughout the years, each CUNY campus has consistently supported
academic and organizational trips to occupied Palestine and fostered
collaborations with “israeli” academic institutions, particularly in
conjunction with Hillel-sponsored birthright/perspectives trips,
study-abroad trips to “israel”, US-Israel Binational Foundations, and
Fulbright Israel applications at CUNY campuses. These academic
excursions directly contribute to and legitimize the apartheid system
and ongoing colonization of Palestine. Moreover, they serve as a
painful mockery to Palestinian students who are unjustly denied entry
into their own homeland. When students partake in these trips, they
often openly engage with the Israeli Occupation Forces, which are
actively involved in the oppression and killing of Palestinians,
systematically denying them their fundamental human rights. The
participation in these trips not only perpetuates an unjust status quo
and inculcates CUNY students with Zionism, but also reinforces the
Palestinian students’ exclusion from their own ancestral land,
compounding the injustice they face. We demand an end to this
complicity by instituting a ban on all academic and
university-affiliated/sponsored trips to “israel.”
3. Solidarity with the Palestine liberation struggle: Protect CUNY
Students & Workers for expressing solidarity with the Palestine
Liberation Struggle.
We demand the CUNY administration release a statement affirming
the right of the Palestinian people to national liberation and the right
of return. People subjected to a violent colonial system have an
inalienable right, recognized by international law (General Assembly
resolution A/RES/38/17 (22/11/1983), to resist their colonization,
including through armed struggle. When people are colonized,
resistance is justified. CUNY must protect from repression and
solidarity its students and workers who are attacked for speaking out
against the genocide in Gaza and in solidarity with Palestinian
liberation. We also demand CUNY reinstate professors who have been
fired for showing solidarity with Palestine.
4. Demilitarize CUNY, Demilitarize Harlem: Get IOF and NYPD
officers off all CUNY campuses and end all collaboration, training and
recruitment by imperialist institutions, including the CIA, Homeland
Security and ROTC. Remove all symbols of US imperialism from our
campuses: Rename the Colin Powell School of Global and Civic
Leadership at CCNY and reinstate The Guillermo Morales and Assata
Shakur Community and Student Center!
a) Ban “israeli” army officials from speaking at CUNY
events. In April 2018, a senior official in the Israeli army was
invited to speak about “israeli” military ethics at a John Jay
event cosponsored by John Jay’s psychology department.
Given the Israeli Occupation Forces’ central role in the Gaza
genocide and settler colonial violence/dispossession more
broadly, it is absolutely unacceptable for the Israeli army or
any of its members to be hired as faculty members or invited
to speak on campus. The presence of such individuals is
psychologically harmful and a safety threat to CUNY
students. As zionist forces massacre Palestinians before our
eyes, IOF members must not be allowed to perpetuate the lie
of being "the most moral army in the world.” CUNY must
terminate and henceforth ban invitations to or reservations
by the zionist military, its members, and affiliates.
b) Ban NYPD from CUNY campuses. The NYPD, like all
police forces in the US, is designed to protect private
property and uphold white supremacy. As a police force in a
settler colonial state, it is unsurprising that they train and
shared tactics and strategies with the IOF. As a majority
working class, Black and Brown public institution that claims
to be a “People’s University”, CUNY must end all ties with
the NYPD. Having the NYPD on our campuses also
contributes to militarizing the largely working class, Black
and Brown communities our campuses are located in.
5. A People’s CUNY
CUNY was free and fully funded for over 125 years. There is plenty
of wealth in New York that could be taxed and redirected to make
CUNY fully open and free for all. We demand that CUNY provide
comprehensive support for students including Metrocards, housing,
food, healthcare, and mental health counseling. CUNY was free while
its students were mostly of European descent. In 1969, a wave of
campus occupations led to Open Admissions, which allowed all
graduating NYC high school students to enter CUNY for free. CUNY
started charging tuition in 1976, after the student body became
majority Black, Latinx, and Asian. We stand firmly against all tuition
and fee increases, as well as against racist and classist standardized
admissions testing, which disproportionately harm low-income
working-class students of color. We also support and will use our
power to fight for the full funding of other city services including
K-12 education, public transportation, public housing, and public
health services. We demand that CUNY have its tuition free status
restored to make education accessible for everyone. We demand that
the CUNY admin meets all the demands for a fair contract made by
the Professional Staff Congress (PSC CUNY).