Pitzer College Council Votes for Full Institutional Boycott of Complicit Israeli Universities
Pitzer became the first US higher education institution whose highest governance body voted by an overwhelming majority for a full academic boycott of all complicit Israeli universities. Shamefully, the Pitzer president undemocratically vetoed the motion.
Pitzer College makes history once again, as the College Council votes by 71% for full institutional boycott of Israeli universities over their complicity in Israel's regime of military occupation, apartheid and now genocide, against millions of Palestinians.
Pitzer became the first US higher education institution whose highest governance body voted by an overwhelming majority for a full academic boycott of all complicit Israeli universities.
Shamefully, the Pitzer president undemocratically vetoed the motion, circumventing the will of Pitzer's highest governance body during a genocide. The veto has only been used three times in Pitzer history, each time to shield Israel from accountability.
The College Council vote follows Pitzer’s historic decision in early April to close its study abroad program with Haifa University after years of campaigning and a recommendation by the study abroad committee that found the program did not align with Pitzer’s core values.
The tireless work of students and faculty led to this morally unimpeachable stand in support of Palestinian rights and the rule of law. We have no doubt that mobilizations will continue until the Pitzer administration respects its own democratic structures and stops siding with genocide.
In light of the International Court of Justice ruling that Israel is plausibly committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and Israel's scholasticide that has destroyed or damaged all Palestinian universities in Gaza, Pitzer is obliged to take all measures to prevent genocide.
Israeli universities, long complicit in Israeli apartheid, are now boasting about having provided technologies, soldiers or equipment to the Israeli military and “care” packages and other benefits to Israeli soldiers carrying out the #GazaGenocide.
The Pitzer community has shown exemplary moral clarity. The shameful Pitzer administration needs to urgently catch up.
We urge all international academic institutions, associations and unions to cut ties with complicit Israeli universities, as called for by Palestinian civil society and the heads of 15 Palestinian universities. If not now, when?
