Under normal circumstances, The Phoenix does not allow groups to publish as a collective and requires individual members to submit on their groups’ behalf. After careful consideration, The Phoenix has decided to make an exception to this policy due to credible concerns for the authors’ safety from doxxing and other harassment. We are a community newspaper and take our responsibility to protect community members very seriously. The Phoenix is not affiliated with the Swarthmore Palestine Coalition, the national organization Students for Justice in Palestine or its Swarthmore chapter.
The violence against the Palestinian people we see today is the result of the long history of violent, racist, and colonial measures taken by the Israeli occupation since its establishment in 1948. Palestinians suffer from displacement, ethnic cleansing, segregation, a land, air, and sea blockade on Gaza, and colonial policies that seek to force Palestine’s indigenous population out of their land. As of Dec. 4, the Israeli forces have killed more than 16,000 Palestinian men, women, and children, tens of thousands are injured, and thousands more are still under the rubble. In addition, almost two million have been forcibly displaced from their homes. Israel intentionally targets hospitals, schools, churches, and mosques. It is in part because Israel receives financial and political support from American institutions, such as Swarthmore College, that these war crimes are being committed.
Swarthmore’s role in the occupation is active — the College uses our tuition money to fund and profit off of the arms that are weaponized against the Palestinian people in Gaza. Swarthmore’s Students for Justice in Palestine has met with the administration twice. In both meetings, we asked the College to release a statement condemning anti-Palestinian racism and Islamophobia on campus, boycott products that fund the Israeli Occupation Forces, and divest from the Israeli settler-colonial state. The administration categorically refused to meet any of our demands.
As an institution that claims to champion Quaker values such as peace, equity, and social responsibility, Swarthmore has the moral obligation to stand against the genocide of the Palestinian people. Instead, Swarthmore College has chosen to target, harass, and repress Palestinian students and their allies on campus. The Swarthmore Palestine Coalition, a group made up of 29 student organizations, was formed because Swarthmore failed to address SJP’s demands. To show our solidarity and pressure Swarthmore’s administration, we are conducting a sit-in in Parrish Hall. We will not leave until the Swarthmore Palestine Coalition’s demands are met.
Swarthmore Palestine Coalition’s demands are as follows:
Our first demand is ACKNOWLEDGMENT. We call on President Valerie Smith to release an updated statement on Palestine that condemns Israeli aggression in Gaza and recognizes the ongoing Palestinian genocide. We urge President Valerie Smith to call for an immediate ceasefire and express solidarity with the Palestinian people and Arab, Muslim, and Brown students. We demand that President Valerie Smith condemns the attacks and attempts at doxxing that these students and their allies face on and off campus for supporting Palestine. We call on President Valerie Smith to mourn the thousands of Palestinians murdered in Gaza and the West Bank in the past months.
Our second demand is DIVESTMENT. We call on Swarthmore College to divest from companies that fund the settler-colonial state of Israel by first recognizing the SGO-approved BDS resolution of 2019. In this resolution, the student government called on Swarthmore College and its Board of Managers to divest from companies that aid and arm the Israeli occupation. Swarthmore’s administration and its Board of Managers have yet to acknowledge, let alone implement, this resolution.
Additionally, we call on Swarthmore College to divest from Vanguard. Swarthmore currently offers the Vanguard Group’s services as a faculty retirement plan. Vanguard is an investment company that currently is one of the largest shareholders in weapon manufacturing companies, like Woodward, which provides the missiles currently being dropped on Gaza. We call on Swarthmore College to stop providing Vanguard’s retirement plan to faculty.
Furthermore, we call on Swarthmore College to publicize its concealed investments. Unlike other liberal arts colleges, Swarthmore currently does not disclose where its $2.7 billion endowment is invested. We demand that Swarthmore College make this information public immediately for transparency and so that the student body knows the extent of the college’s funding of the Israeli occupation.
Our third demand is BOYCOTT. More specifically, we call on Swarthmore to boycott and stop purchasing from brands such as Sabra and HP that fund the Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people. Swarthmore’s SJP has been calling on Swarthmore to stop restocking Sabra hummus in campus cafes since 2012; as of December 2023, the college continues to sell Sabra. Sabra is a product of the Strauss Group, a company that sends financial support to the Golani Brigade of the Israeli Defense Forces. This infantry brigade systematically incarcerates Palestinian youth, invades homes and evicts families, commits daily deadly assaults on the Palestinian people, and martyrs thousands in Hebron and Gaza each year. Swarthmore College must publicly commit to a ban on the purchase and sale of Sabra hummus.
We also call on Swarthmore College to stop purchasing HP products. HP provides computer hardware to the IDF and maintains data centers through their servers for the Israeli police. They provide ‘Itanium’ servers to operate the Aviv System, the computerized database of Israel’s Population and Immigration Authority. This forms the backbone of Israel’s racial segregation and apartheid. We call on Swarthmore College to stop purchasing any HP computers and products in the future.
Our final demand is PROTECTION. Many of SJP’s core organizers have recently received official disciplinary warnings from Dean Nathan Miller. These warnings state that SJP core organizers have violated the Student Code of Conduct due to their alleged participation in peaceful protests, use of bullhorns, and flyering campaigns. The code of conduct was rewritten to restrict student protests after the 2019 Organizing For Survivors movement managed to disband campus fraternities via a successful sit-in. Since then, many political organizations have taken actions similar to the ones SJP received warnings for and were subject to no administrative discipline. SJP as an organization has been singularly targeted by Swarthmore’s administration.
We demand that our institution drop the warnings that blatantly target pro-Palestine student organizers and those affiliated with them, who are predominantly FLI students and students of color. Within SJP, our Black, Brown and Muslim members received these disciplinary warnings disproportionately. Many of us came to Swarthmore because it claimed to support the right to nonviolent protest. It is deeply hypocritical of Swarthmore to revoke that support when students demand accountability for Swarthmore’s funding of the Israeli occupation. Swarthmore College must drop all disciplinary actions against students for organizing in solidarity with Palestine and refrain from issuing similar disciplinary penalties going forward.
GET LIVE SPC SIT-IN UPDATES HERE
SIGN THE PETITION HERE (we will not be disclosing or releasing names of anyone who signs onto the petition).
SIGN ALUMNI AND PARENT PETITION HERE
Performative spoiled brats at an overpriced, overrated playground aka Swarthmore enjoying their LARPing.
Normal, sane, actual working people DEMAND upper class tools who go to Swarthmore get jobs and learn that nobody outside their little trustfund bubbles care about your stupid self-absorbed tantrums. NOBODY takes you seriously.