To the ASSU Undergraduate Senate:

The Stanford bill in support of selective divestment is a powerful example of the critical role that students play in efforts to build a more humane world.

The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network strongly supports the efforts of Stanford’s student body to hold companies accountable for their complicity in violence committed against the Palestinian people. Israel’s ongoing occupation not only violates international law, but is immoral. We join the call for the Stanford Student Senate to pass the divestment resolution.

As Jews, we have learned from a history of oppression that safety and liberation only comes from working together for the collective liberation of all people. Standing against the violation of the rights and freedom of the Palestinian people is not an act against Jews; on the contrary, it is an act that supports the freedom and well-being of all of us. To imagine that all Jews are united with Israel, even as Israel blatantly and flagrantly continues to violate decency and human rights, flies in the face of Jewish histories of resisting oppression and disregards the growing movement of Jewish people who stand for justice for Palestine

We cannot fail to act because some people will be upset.  The injustice of the status quo forces each of us to make a decision about where we stand and about which side of history we will be on. Efforts to end segregation in the U.S. South and efforts to put an end to the Vietnam War were seen as divisive, but there is no question about their necessity. Remaining complicit in the face of injustice does not create unity, it fails humanity.

Some portray the histories of Israel and Palestine as so complicated, that moral clarity is impossible to discern.

This is simply an attempt to obscure the bottom line: collective punishment, discrimination, illegally annexing and settling land, and building the separation wall violate international law, and are clearly immoral. There is no justification possible for such injustice and violence.

Stanford has an opportunity to lead with moral courage, and we hope that the Student Senate will take this opportunity.

Signed,

The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network

March 5, 2013

IJAN is an international network of Jews who are uncompromisingly committed to struggles for human emancipation, of which the liberation of the Palestinian people and land is an indispensable part.