To the editor:
We are a coalition of multiracial, multiethnic and multifaith alums across a range of class years who have been monitoring the College’s response to the U.S.-backed Zionist state’s ongoing genocide of Palestine. Since October 2023 we have watched hundreds of thousands of Palestinians be martyred, maimed and displaced by the IOF. We are dismayed by our alma mater’s silence, and even further by their direct complicity.
Not only is there a lack of transparency around the College’s endowment investments, but I-Change for Palestine has also claimed that Mount Holyoke is entered into a $18,900/year contract with Duo Mobile, whose parent company Cisco has operations in illegal settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and a long-standing partnership with the IOF.
According to the BDS Movement, “Cisco knowingly provides Israel with technology that is deployed in its grave human rights violations, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.”
Additionally, the College maintains funded study abroad partnerships with three universities in the OPT and last summer rented out the campus to the Tikvah Scholars Program, a conservative, Zionist organization. MHC Alums for Palestine urged the administration not to rent space to Tikvah in the future, and though we have been informed that Tikvah will not be invited to return, this decision was in response to the vandalism that Tikvah participants committed inside of academic buildings rather than the organization’s explicit Zionism.
As MHC Alums for Palestine, our objective is to hold the College responsible for its own anti-racism action plan to “better support our BIPOC students, faculty and staff, and to ensure that this is a just, safe and welcoming community.” Any tie to the Zionist apartheid state creates an unjust, unsafe and unwelcoming space, for our Palestinian community members and our community at large. We likewise seek to hold the College responsible for its global commitment, which pledges to “[create] and [foster] educational programming to cultivate knowledgeable leaders and responsible citizens of the global community.” Any tie to the Zionist apartheid state is a betrayal of global citizenship.
We endorse the students’ call to end relations with universities in the OPT and the faculty’s call for public institutional support for a permanent ceasefire and arms embargo. We demand the immediate disclosure of Mount Holyoke’s investment portfolio and full divestment from the Zionist state. We encourage our fellow alums interested in affirming their solidarity with Palestine to join us and welcome students and faculty to connect with us to further foster our partnership and work toward our shared goals.
Signed,
MHC Alums for Palestine