Dear Mount Holyoke community,
Over the past several months, the world has watched as Palestinian homes and lives have been systematically and violently displaced by Israeli military forces. While these demolitions have been occurring for the entirety of Israel’s statehood, international protests were sparked specifically by Israeli judicial approval of home demolitions in the neighborhoods of Sheikh Jarrah and Lifta — despite international law not recognizing occupying forces as having the capacity to engage in such decisions.
Despite these historic global and localized protests, this arm of Israel’s settler-colonial project has only expanded since the first forced displacements were announced in May. Today, Palestinians in Silwan face new waves of evictions and demolitions — all for the sake of the construction of a park open to Israel’s public.
This violent colonial expansion is not new. In fact, citizens of Sheikh Jarrah, Lifta and Silwan have all been engaged in decade-long legal and social battles for the right to remain on their own land. It is imperative to note that these legal procedures were largely funded with U.S. money. With the majority of these Israeli settler organizations receiving support from United States donors, it is clear that U.S. citizens cannot and should not separate themselves from the ongoing settler-colonial ethnic cleansing occurring in East Jerusalem and Palestine as a whole.
This expansion is also not unique to these cities. 2020 saw record-breaking rates of colonial displacement in East Jerusalem; approximately 4,500 units of Israeli settlements were constructed, with 170 Palestinian structures demolished and 385 people displaced. As individuals across Palestine experience dehumanizing brutality from Israel’s occupation forces in addition to an ongoing theft of land and loss of property ownership, these numbers will only continue to grow.
As tragedy after tragedy occurs in Palestine, it is important to call on the victories that Palestinian activists have won. Recently, Ghadanfar Abu Atwan, a Palestinian who was imprisoned by Israel with no charges, ended his 65-day hunger strike and four-day water strike. This strike was a protest of his arrest and was able to grant him liberation from the occupation’s prison. Abu Atwan’s strength and the persistence of the ever-growing Palestine solidarity movement overcame the apartheid state’s joke of a justice system.
For many in the Mount Holyoke Community, online calls to “Save Sheikh Jarrah” represented their first time actively engaging in anti-Zionist conversations regarding Palestinian liberation. As a campus group committed to advocating for Palestinian Solidarity, this newfound attention brought about some new hopes for tangible actions on behalf of our campus community. While news cycles and attention shift, we are calling for continued solidarity and resistance from those at Mount Holyoke College who do not want to remain complicit in one of the largest settler colonial projects we have seen in history. For inspiration, we should look to our MHC student comrades from the ’80s who protested for an end to the College’s investment in aparthied South Africa. Students advocated for divestment from the settler-colonial stronghold and the school listened. Unfortunately, the school reneged on their commitment to hold the African aparthied state accountable and secretly reinvested in the calculating colonial project once the students graduated.
We ask that the Mount Holyoke News take accountability for inconsistent and sparse representation of the atrocities occurring in Palestine. With only two articles covering Zionist violence in the past year, it is no wonder that the broader Mount Holyoke community feels comfortable remaining silent as the settler project continues. As an independent student newspaper, it is your responsibility to represent the opinions held by community members rather than administration or others who see pro-Palestinian advocacy as uncomfortable or not profitable.
We demand that Mount Holyoke College students and administration alike take a more active role in the anti-apartheid movement of our time. We demand accountability from the College regarding their own investments in or ties with the settler state of Israel.
We have seen the revolutionary results of pro-Palestine student activism within our own Five College Community. Hampshire College’s own Students for Justice in Palestine group was able to achieve full divestment from its campus, and continues to engage in liberatory education and actions. We have seen that divestment — and more — is possible, and it is our responsibility as a community to take up this fight in our own College.
In solidarity,
Mount Holyoke Palestinian Solidarity Group