We are a group of Georgetown professors (tenure-line, non-tenure-line, emeritus, and adjunct), staff, and graduate student instructors who educate and advocate in support of Palestinian rights to self-determination and full equality.
We view Palestinian liberation as allied with anti-colonial and other progressive movements, including indigenous land rights, Black liberation, and gender and sexual freedom. As members of the Georgetown community, we are mindful of our university’s role in past injustices and ongoing legacies of enslavement. We are mindful that our university resides on the occupied ancestral territory of the Anacostan, Piscataway, and other peoples. Our university’s history informs our sense of the moral imperative we feel today to speak and act in solidarity with Palestinians who are living under a system of settler-colonialism and apartheid, and subject to brutal attacks aimed at ethnic cleansing.
To that end, we support the nonviolent campaigns of boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) for Palestinian rights in response to calls from Palestinian civil society to bring an end to Israeli policies of settler-colonialism and apartheid, and work for the Palestinian right to self-determination, including these specific goals: 1) end Israel’s occupation of all Arab lands conquered in 1967 and dismantle the apartheid wall; 2) recognize the rights of Palestinians with Israeli citizenship to full equality; and 3) respect the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland per UN General Assembly Resolution 194.
As people affiliated with a US university and as US taxpayers, we oppose all forms of US support for Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people.
We oppose racism, discrimination, and hatred in all its forms, including, but not limited to, anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab racism, Islamophobia, and antisemitism. We repudiate the conflation of support for Palestinian liberation and criticism of the policies of the state of Israel with antisemitism. We are committed to defending freedom of expression within the academy by firmly opposing attacks from off-campus groups that support the Israeli state unconditionally and that seek to shut down free speech on Palestine by sanctioning and harassing faculty, staff, and students who publicly express solidarity with Palestinians.
As such, we organize and promote activities on campus that serve to educate the community about the history of Palestine/Israel, the ongoing struggle for Palestinian rights, and visions of a just future and human rights for all. We support our students in Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), and others on campus in their expressions of support for Palestinian liberation.
Organizational Statement
Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine (FSJP) was formed in Fall 2023 in response to the Israeli war on Gaza, which followed attacks by Gaza-based Hamas and Islamic Jihad on Israel, and to address the hostile climate toward Arab and Muslim students on US campuses and the repression of free speech in the US and Europe. We are a semi-formal grouping of faculty of all types at Georgetown, including tenure-line, non-tenure line, adjunct and graduate student employees, as well as staff members of the Georgetown community.
We have intentionally created only a small set of formal leadership positions at this time. These include:
- Chair: organizes and facilitates meetings of the group
- Secretary: takes minutes of meetings and organizes the Google drive where the group’s documents are maintained, as well as the Google group (email)
- Social Media Coordinator: manages social media accounts, including disseminating any statements and documents that are agreed to by the group
Other sub-committees have been formed and will continue to be formed on an ad hoc basis. At this time, there is an Events Committee, and others may be formed to address particular topics and activities.
Photo: Gaza City, 2020. Credit: Kalboz, Flickr.
Georgetown Faculty & Staff for Justice in Palestine 