May 13th, 2021

The Students for Justice in Palestine Club Statement

13th May, 2021

First and foremost, the Students for Justice in Palestine club at Georgetown University in Qatar stands in solidarity with our Palestinian comrades in Palestine who are currently uprising against colonial rule. We also stand by the Palestine Student Club’s statement addressed to the Northwestern University in Qatar community. 

From the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah to Jerusalem and Al Aqsa, to Gaza, to cities in the occupied territories of 1948 [Israel], and to the cities in the West Bank; Palestinians have been uprising against the Israeli settler-colonial rule. Israeli Jewish settlers have been attempting to invade and take over homes of Palestinians in Sheikh Jarrah in an effort to completely remove Palestinians from their land. The neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, where over 200 Palestinians have been resisting forced dispossession, as well as the rest of Palestine, has been under attack for the past few days. In reaction, Israel has been attacking protesters and Palestinian muslims praying in Al Aqsa Mosque with tear gas and rubber bullets. Gaza has also been under attack, with residential buildings being completely obliterated by Israeli bombs.   

For Palestinians, this is nothing new. The reality is that this attempt at genocide and ethnic cleansing has been ongoing for seven decades. In 1948, Zionist forces ethnically cleansed and uprooted over 700,000 Palestinians from their homes to establish a Zionist settler-colonial state. Since then, Palestinians have been facing a militant force that is backed by the United States financially and politically. Israel has been gradually stealing Palestinian land and ethnically cleansing Palestinian villages since the Nakba of 1948. In 2009, Hanoun and Al Ghawi families in Sheikh Jarrah were forcibly displaced from their homes by Israeli occupation forces. However, Sheikh Jarrah is not the only neighborhood that is in danger. This is why it is important now more than ever, to speak up against the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. 

The Students for Justice in Palestine club of Georgetown University in Qatar calls upon the GU-Q and Qatar Foundation community to stand in solidarity with Palestine. Dean Ahmad Dallal and GU-Q have been emailing us for the past year about surveys and initiatives to learn how to create a more inclusive community and a supportive environment. Yet, we are disappointed in the silence of the administration of Georgetown University in Qatar regarding the recent attacks on Palestinians. We have not received any kind support or statement by GU-Q - a recognition of the events is the bare minimum. We urge Georgetown University in Qatar to condemn the actions of Israel. Furthermore, we call for the implementation of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) at the Georgetown campus in Qatar, as well as the other universities in Qatar Foundation. 

We are also disappointed with the silence of our faculty members at Georgetown University in Qatar. The Students for Justice in Palestine urges faculty members to use their positions of privilege to speak up about the apartheid and the war crimes imposed by Israel, as well as to support their Palestinian students and create safer spaces in classes by not equating Palestinian and Zionist voices. Within our campus and our classes, we often discuss the destructive nature of colonization, the processes of decolonization and how to be anti-colonial. Yet, now that the opportunity to do so has arisen, our professors have been silent. Furthermore, we urge faculty members to call out other members who have been silent and misrepresenting the Palestinian cause. Lastly, we also urge faculty members to join the Students for Justice in Palestine club in calling upon GU-Q to condemn Israel’s actions and implement Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) at the Georgetown campus in Qatar.

Lastly, the Students for Justice in Palestine would like to also address the student body of Georgetown University in Qatar. We urge each one of you to speak up against the settler-colonial violence and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. Use your voices and whatever platform you have to amplify Palestinians voices on the ground. We also call upon our Qatari students to urge their government to take effective action against Israel’s colonial rule and to call out against normalization acts, including Qatar’s support of the two-state solution. Moreover, we urge you all to use the correct language when addressing the situation: like calling it settler-colonialism and apartheid instead of  “conflict” or “war'. Stop using terms like “Palestinian Lives Matter” (PLM), “clashes,” representing it as “two sides,” “beef,” “Israel v.s Palestine,” etc. Just like faculty, we also ask students to create safer spaces by not equating Palestinian and Zionist voices. 

To every member of the Georgetown community, it is very crucial to avoid performative actions or actions that replace political action. You can help and donate but Palestinians do not only need donations - they need political action to achieve a decolonized Palestine. If you still have not spoken out, know that your silence is deafening to Palestinians everywhere. 

In Solidarity

Students for Justice in Palestine, GU-Q