In December of 2017, Boston University Police Department officials, namely, Police Chief Kelly Nee, went to Israel as part of an Anti-Defamation League delegation including other campus and local police departments. The delegation traveled to Israel for a nine-day “National Counter-Terrorism Seminar.” There, they visited the Old City of Jerusalem, training facilities, and prisons to learn Israel intelligence and security tactics from military personnel which are used to enforce a violent occupation against the Palestinian People. 

These trainings feature the worst of Israeli and American practices—in the name of "anti-terrorism" these trainings offer extensive training on suppression of protests and "crowd control", intelligence gathering and surveillance of activists, weapons training, "border security", racial profiling and more. Over 200 police departments have participated in such trainings since 2002, including other agencies like Border Patrol, ICE, FBI, CIA, SWAT teams, Marine Corps, and of course, university police.

These programs do not make us safer. They are not even actually about fighting "terrorism", but instead legitimize racial profiling, increase surveillance, and criminalize dissent. They contribute to the militarization, unaccountability, and violence of the U.S. police and other government agencies, and legitimize Israel's colonial occupation of Palestine. 

Boston University has never disclosed to the public or the student body its participation in this seminar or any other similar military training program. It is likely that BUPD has participated in similar programs in the past, and/or has plans to participate in these programs in the future. Not only is the lack of transparency and openness from campus police troubling, it is deeply disturbing that they would ever feel the need to learn such tactics as are regularly employed by the Israeli military and police against the Palestinian people, given that the Israeli military flagrantly disregards the lives of civilians in its numerous wars and massacres.

Why would BUPD need to learn how to surveil and gather intelligence? Why would they need to learn crowd control, and other so-called "security" tactics? Why would they need to learn from an army which in a single year killed over 250 unarmed protesters and injured over 29,000 just in the Gaza Strip?

Is this the type of campus security we want?

Let’s put an end to the deadly exchange and the militarization of BU’s campus security!

DEMANDS:

1. We demand Boston University apologize for its participation in the 2017 trip, commit to ending its participation in military and police training in Israel, and pledge it will not send BUPD on any future military trainings.
2. We demand Boston University disclose if it has participated in military trainings in the past, if so when and how often?
3. We demand transparency regarding BUPD's budgeting, training, and authority.