To President Kaler,
Case Western Reserve University’s Students for Justice in Palestine writes to you in response to your email addressed to the university community on Oct. 13.
We feel betrayed by you and the CWRU administration, and find your recent email to the CWRU community to be insensitive, complicit and regressive. Your refusal to explicitly acknowledge Israel’s war crimes against Palestinian civilians (AP News) and failure to even mention the Palestinians by name in your most recent statement is extremely disappointing and harmful. While CWRU SJP has consistently advocated for freedom and peace, and called for productive dialogue within our community, this email only undermines this progress.
It is disappointing that you write about “terrorism” without mentioning the recent overwhelming violence the Israeli government has subjected Gazan civilians to. The unlawful and anti-humanitarian restriction of essential resources such as water, gas, food and electricity of Palestinians is in violation of the Geneva Convention, which explicitly identifies collective punishment against a group of people as a war crime. The Palestinian people are frequently dehumanized through the use of insensitive and dangerous language, being labeled as “human animals” by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant (NPR). This language coincides with the current war crimes being committed against Palestinians, including the forced evacuation of 1.1 million people in northern Gaza (New York Times), the targeting of civilians in Gaza (CNBC) and the use of white phosphorus in Gaza and Lebanon (Human Rights Watch), resulting in the deaths of over 2,000 Palestinians, including over 700 children (CNN). It is to our uttermost dismay that this reality is being ignored.
It is even more disheartening to read your email given the work SJP accomplished with you throughout the last year. We believed you were committed to fostering a safe environment for Palestinian students on campus, but your recent email proves otherwise. We demand an immediate condemnation of the numerous war crimes Israel has committed. As we stated in our last statement, we do not condone war crimes or violence against civilians, the elderly or children. Furthermore, CWRU SJP has been a frequent advocate for peace, and maintains that those unilaterally calling for the Palestinians to submit and stop resisting are not calling for peace. Emails such as the one you sent out on Oct. 13 are damaging not only to Palestinians, but also to the CWRU community and the surrounding Cleveland area. There is injustice in propagating misinformation. We demand, President Kaler, that you escape this destructive narrative.
CWRU SJP thanks the CWRU Office of Multicultural Affairs (OMA) for their statement and in taking the time to use 29 different sources to provide the necessary context for this issue. President Kaler, we encourage you to uphold the OMA’s statement as the standard when addressing the university community. The harmful rhetoric present in your email reinforces anti-Palestinian sentiments that dehumanizes Palestinians and creates an unsafe environment that deliberately fuels stereotypes against Palestinians, Arabs and other minorities that support peace in Palestine. It is of the utmost importance and imminence that CWRU condemns Israeli apartheid in order to move towards peace and understanding.
Signed,
CWRU SJP
This letter is co-signed by the following 98 supporters:
CWRU Clubs
CWRU African American Student Organization
CWRU African Students Association
CWRU App Innovators & Developers Club
CWRU Black Law Students Association
CWRU Black Student Union
CWRU Brotherhood
CWRU Class Officer Collective 2024
CWRU Flea Market
CWRU La Alianza
CWRU Letterboxing
CWRU Muslim Law Students Association
CWRU Muslim Students’ Association
CWRU Nigerian Student Association
CWRU Pakistani Students Association
CWRU Sisterhood
Refugee Outreach Collective CWRU School of Law
CWRU Western Reserve Abolition Project
CWRU Faculty
Professor Ananya Dasgupta
Dr. Hesham Elsharkawy CWRU School of Medicine
Professor Pete Moore
Professor Ted Steinberg
Professor Timothy Black CWRU School of Law
Nationwide University SJPs
CMC SJP
Miami University SJP
Colgate SJP
NYU SJP
CSU SJP
Oberlin SJP
Denison SJP
OSU SJP
Duke SJP
Rice SJP
GMU SJP
UAkron SJP
GWU SJP
UC Boulder SJP
IVC SJP
UCincinnati SJP
Louisville SJP
UGA SJP
JCU SJP
UIC SJP
Johns Hopkins SJP
UMN SJP
Kent State SJP
Wayne State SJP
UW-Madison SJP
OSU Moritz Law SJP
Stanford SJP
Nationwide University Clubs
Dartmouth University Palestine Solidarity Coalition
Eastern Michigan Muslim Students’ Association
MSU Students United for Palestinian Rights
NYU Bengali Students Association
OSU Art of Freedom Dabke
OSU Bengali Student Association
OSU Jordanian Student’s Organization
OSU Mu Delta Alpha
OSU Muslim Student Association
OSU Muslim Pharmacy Student Association
OSU Palestinian Women’s Association
OSU Pakistani American Students’ Association
OSU Somali Students Association
OU Divine Feline
Townson Muslim Student Association
UMN Somali Students Association
UToledo Alpha Lambda Mu
UToledo Lebanese Students Association
UToledo Muslim Students’ Association
University of St. Thomas Somali Students Association
UC Muslim Lawyer Association
Businesses & Organizations
Algebra Tea House
Al-Awda, the Palestine Right of Return Movement (PRRM)
Arab American Voter Project
Bravocoworldwide
CAIR Cleveland (Council on American-Islamic Relations)
Cleveland Peace Action
DSA Cleveland (Democratic Socialists of America)
Ellipsis Institute for Womxn of Color in the Academy
Fadi Kayali LLM
Highland Throwbacks Cleveland
Inter-religious Task Force for Human Rights in Central America and Colombia
Jannah Properties LLC
Jewish Voice for Peace Cleveland
Kenko Cleveland
Lhudphotos
Lanister Holdings LLC
National SJP
Nubian Markets
NVUS ENVY US Clothing
Ohio Student Association
OPAWL Ohio (Ohio Progressive Asian Women’s Leadership)
Palestinian American Heritage Society
Palestinian Youth Movement
Party for Socialism and Liberation NE Ohio
Pierced Poets’ Productions
Safer Heights
Salaam Jewelry
The 3rabishop
U.S. AutoSales