AU Faculty & Staff for Justice in Palestine
As educators and staff at American University, we stand against all forms of colonialism, racism, and apartheid. These hierarchical forms of power relations make free inquiry, equal access to all forms of knowledge production, and the collegial exchange of ideas impossible.The question of Palestine has become a fulcrum of these struggles on university campuses in the U.S., and students and faculty who are part of the Palestine solidarity movement are increasingly subject to surveillance, criminalization, and punishment.Thus, we view the movement for justice in Palestine as a crucial terrain for:
defending freedom of expression and political commitment within the academy;
preserving free inquiry, engaged pedagogy, and open scholarship;
defend and advocate for any individual (student, staff, faculty) or a group who has been/may be targeted through campaigns of harassment, intimidation, and racist hate speech,because of their advocacy for Palestinian rights and for Arab and Muslim students and their allies;
urging the University to protect students from racialized violence, in light of attacks on students in other states and university campuses;
urging the University to protect student/staff faculty from death threats or other forms of threats including threats to employment;
urging the University to cultivate egalitarian campus governance in the face of attacks by on or off-campus groups or individuals.
Events
| Event | Date & Time | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Come meet the AU FSJP and learn more! | Thursday, October 24th, 5:30pm - 7pm | Tenley-Friendship Neighborhood Library (4450 Wisconsin Ave NW, across from Tenleytown Metro Station) |
About our Logo
Our logo’s first inspiration was the University of Palestine logo. The University of Palestine was a private institution of higher education, established in 2003, in the Gaza Strip. Since October 7th, 2024, Israel has destroyed all schools and universities in the Gaza Strip and murdered thousands of Palestinian students, professors, and staff. AU FSJP’s logo incorporates elements of the University of Palestine logo as a symbol of our continued solidarity with Palestinian educators and students against genocide and scholasticide.The white kite at the center of the AU FSJP logo represents the words and wishes of writer and professor Dr. Refaat Alareer. In 2015, Dr. Alareer cofounded the writers’ collective, “We Are Not Numbers,” with students and journalists in order to narrate stories of Palestinians behind the numbers reported in the news. In his contribution to the volume Light in Gaza: Writing Born of Fire, Alareer wrote: “As Gaza keeps gasping for life, we struggle for it to pass, we have no choice but to fight back and tell her stories. For Palestine.” Tragically Dr. Alareer was martyred in a Dec 6th Israeli airstrike, along with his brother, his brother’s son, his sister, and her three children. In his last poem “If I must die”, Dr. Alareer urges us to continue his work by telling stories, centering Palestinian people, and speaking truth to power to bring forth a future where Palestine is free.
Contact
You can reach us at [email protected]