Engineering Educators Call for ASEE to Divest in Sponsors Supporting Genocide
Engineering Educators Call for ASEE to Divest in Sponsors Supporting Genocide
The Issue
Call for Solidarity and Action
“When life is precious, life is precious.” - Ruth Wilson Gilmore
Dear ASEE Colleagues,
People around the world are mourning the lives of thousands of innocent civilians being killed since the launch of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood by Hamas on October 7th. As a division committed to social justice, radical thinking, anti-racism, and decolonization, we refuse to be silent about the US-backed, settler-colonial Zionist occupation, siege, and genocide of Palestinians and condemn both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. We refuse to be labeled as anti-Semites when we distinguish Judaism (a beautiful, wise, ancient religion and culture) from Zionism (a nationalistic settler-colonial project). We cannot turn our backs to the millions of Palestinians still holding onto life as the Israeli State continues to decimate Gaza. The disregard for life and shared humanity in targeting civilians cannot be normalized.
As engineers and engineering educators and researchers within the US settler state, we need to recognize how the professions we occupy, train, and aspire have always rested upon– and continue to maintain– gendered, anti-Black, racial-colonial, and capitalist violence. Since its inception, US engineering has long been leveraged to build the state’s capacity to enact global violence. The genocidal assault of over 30,000 tons of explosives on the Gaza Strip has killed thousands of Palestinian civilians and left tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians injured since October 7th. This destructive power is impossible without US engineers designing and manufacturing weapons and supporting warfare infrastructure. We have the power to interrupt this state capacity for violence when we act collectively.
Call for Solidarity
We call upon all members of ASEE to stand in solidarity with Palestine as we witness their genocide in real-time (resources included below and attached). Ways to show solidarity include
- Bearing witness to and acknowledging that the genocide is happening,
- Learning about the history of Zionist colonization of Palestine from multiple information sources,
- Engaging in discourse (listening or sharing) about what is happening to Palestine,
- Attending local protests, writing representatives, and organizing to demand ceasefire,
- Supporting student groups who are organizing or grieving, and
- Signing petitions that call for immediate ceasefire and solidarity for Palestinians.
Call to Action
Together we can make a difference. Join and support our efforts by signing our petition to take the following actions.
- We call upon the ASEE Board of Directors to write an unequivocal statement of solidarity with Palestine that includes a demand that the US government call for an immediate ceasefire and recognize the violence as genocide.
- We call upon all members of ASEE and other ASEE divisions to join in demanding an immediate ceasefire through whatever channels are available to you.
- We call upon all members of ASEE and other ASEE divisions to join in pressuring the leadership structure of ASEE to discontinue affiliation with its corporate sponsors who are profiting off of Israeli apartheid (Chevron, Siemens, and Boeing) and call for an ASEE-wide vote on an academic boycott against Israel (see academic boycott list).
Why are we making this call?
Generations of anti-Zionist Jews have voiced that it is immensely harmful to equate Judaism with the continuation of the late 19th century political ideology of Zionism. This ideology emerged from rising European nationalist and nation-state political forms, which incited violent antisemitism experienced by Jewish people in Europe (e.g., forced expulsions, pogroms, ghettos, the Holocaust). This anti-Semitic oppression led to legitimizing the Zionist political project and their claim to Palestinian land (Balfour Declaration, 1917). Waves of Zionist Jews left Europe to build settler colonies in Palestine decades prior to the establishment of the State of Israel on May 15, 1948 backed by British and US governments.
Throughout the Zionist project, Palestinians have faced displacement, dispossession, and settler colonial violence, the Nakba (catastrophe, disaster). Palestinians were forcibly removed by Zionists to establish the Zionist settler State of Israel and sent to the Gaza Strip or the West Bank with the hopes of one day returning to their homes. The Gaza Strip is an Israeli military-enforced concentration camp imprisoning over 2 million Palestinians who are constantly denied the right to return to their homes. Roughly half the population of Gaza is under the age of 18, children who have only lived life under military occupation. Since 2005, the blockade of Gaza has further restricted movement, separated families, blocked exports and limited imports, creating substantial economic and social hardship. Outside of Gaza and the West Bank areas, the Israeli state has displaced over seven million Palestinian as refugees worldwide.
The US continues to financially (since 1949) and militarily (since 1959) support Israel’s colonization efforts and oppression of Palestine with billions of dollars, munitions used to terrorize and murder Palestinians, and technological development. Why? US capitalism and imperialism rely on ongoing war and oppression, propping up the Israeli settler state as a means of advancing US interests in the Middle East (e.g., oil reserves worth millions of dollars). Additionally, US police forces regularly deploy strategies and tactics learned from the Israeli military’s occupation of Palestine on Black, Indigenous, and migrant communities and liberation movements. To propagate this modern Manifest Destiny in the Middle East, Western media dehumanizes Palestinians to justify continued oppression and support Israeli colonization.
Palestinians have resisted through nonviolent protest including the six-month-long March of Return in 2018, which was met with Israeli snipers that killed 266 and injured 30,000. They have worked through political processes, used grassroots organization to call for boycotts, and called on the international community to support them in addressing injustices for almost a century. Governments spanning across countries in Latin America to Africa to Asia and many Jewish people worldwide support the liberation of Palestine, but Western governments have largely failed to do so. Meanwhile, hundreds to thousands of civilians are killed in Palestine each year by Israeli airstrikes and police actions. Oppression feeds violence.
“In a colonial context, colonialism is the original crime, and colonizers the aggressors. When did invasion become self-defense? The only form of justice that matches this crime is decolonization.” - Nick Estes, The Red Nation
In solidarity,
Equity, Culture, and Social Justice in Education Division
Terms
- Judaism: religion
- Anti-Semitism: prejudice against Jewish people
- Zionism: Settler colonial ideology that calls for the establishment of a
- Jewish state, as a reaction to waves of anti-semitism in Europe
- Palestine: The land Zionists chose for their Jewish state
- Palestinians: Indigenous people of Palestine
- Israel: The name of the state the Zionists established
- Anti-Zionism: Resistance of Zionism, a specific settler colonial project (note: does NOT equate to anti-semitism)
ASEE Executive Committee
- President Doug Tougaw doug.tougaw@valpo.edu
- President-Elect Grant Crawford bobby.crawford@quinnipiac.edu
- Immediate Past President Jenna P. Carpenter carpenter@campbell.edu
- Vice President of PICs Elliott P. Douglas elliot.douglas@essie.ufl.edu
- Vice President of Finance Teri Kristine Reed teri.reed@ou.edu
- Vice President of Member Affairs Christi L. Patton Luks luksc@mst.edu
- Vice President of External Relations Martin E. Gordon megite@rit.edu
- Vice President of Scholarship Donna M. Riley riley1@unm.edu
- Vice President of Institutional Councils Carrie Berger carrieb@purdue.edu
- Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director Jacqueline A. El Sayed J.ElSayed@asee.org
Resources
Scholarship on Israel and Palestine
Nakba & occupation background:
- The Nakba did not start or end in 1948 | Features | Al Jazeera
- Decolonize Palestine
- Jewish Voice for Peace - Our Approach to Zionism
Red Nation Podcast episodes contextualizing:
- “A nightmare and a dream” Palestinians rise up w/ Ali Abunimah of the Electronic Intifada
- Red Power Hour Palestine Roundtable
Chevron, Siemens, and Boeing enabling genocide
- SIEMENS AND CHEVRON: STOP FUELING APARTHEID AND CLIMATE DISASTER | BDS Movement
- What to boycott NOW to help stop Israel’s unfolding genocide of Palestinians in Gaza
- Corporate Enablers of Israel’s War on Gaza – Eyes on the Ties
US Investment in Israel
160
The Issue
Call for Solidarity and Action
“When life is precious, life is precious.” - Ruth Wilson Gilmore
Dear ASEE Colleagues,
People around the world are mourning the lives of thousands of innocent civilians being killed since the launch of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood by Hamas on October 7th. As a division committed to social justice, radical thinking, anti-racism, and decolonization, we refuse to be silent about the US-backed, settler-colonial Zionist occupation, siege, and genocide of Palestinians and condemn both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. We refuse to be labeled as anti-Semites when we distinguish Judaism (a beautiful, wise, ancient religion and culture) from Zionism (a nationalistic settler-colonial project). We cannot turn our backs to the millions of Palestinians still holding onto life as the Israeli State continues to decimate Gaza. The disregard for life and shared humanity in targeting civilians cannot be normalized.
As engineers and engineering educators and researchers within the US settler state, we need to recognize how the professions we occupy, train, and aspire have always rested upon– and continue to maintain– gendered, anti-Black, racial-colonial, and capitalist violence. Since its inception, US engineering has long been leveraged to build the state’s capacity to enact global violence. The genocidal assault of over 30,000 tons of explosives on the Gaza Strip has killed thousands of Palestinian civilians and left tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians injured since October 7th. This destructive power is impossible without US engineers designing and manufacturing weapons and supporting warfare infrastructure. We have the power to interrupt this state capacity for violence when we act collectively.
Call for Solidarity
We call upon all members of ASEE to stand in solidarity with Palestine as we witness their genocide in real-time (resources included below and attached). Ways to show solidarity include
- Bearing witness to and acknowledging that the genocide is happening,
- Learning about the history of Zionist colonization of Palestine from multiple information sources,
- Engaging in discourse (listening or sharing) about what is happening to Palestine,
- Attending local protests, writing representatives, and organizing to demand ceasefire,
- Supporting student groups who are organizing or grieving, and
- Signing petitions that call for immediate ceasefire and solidarity for Palestinians.
Call to Action
Together we can make a difference. Join and support our efforts by signing our petition to take the following actions.
- We call upon the ASEE Board of Directors to write an unequivocal statement of solidarity with Palestine that includes a demand that the US government call for an immediate ceasefire and recognize the violence as genocide.
- We call upon all members of ASEE and other ASEE divisions to join in demanding an immediate ceasefire through whatever channels are available to you.
- We call upon all members of ASEE and other ASEE divisions to join in pressuring the leadership structure of ASEE to discontinue affiliation with its corporate sponsors who are profiting off of Israeli apartheid (Chevron, Siemens, and Boeing) and call for an ASEE-wide vote on an academic boycott against Israel (see academic boycott list).
Why are we making this call?
Generations of anti-Zionist Jews have voiced that it is immensely harmful to equate Judaism with the continuation of the late 19th century political ideology of Zionism. This ideology emerged from rising European nationalist and nation-state political forms, which incited violent antisemitism experienced by Jewish people in Europe (e.g., forced expulsions, pogroms, ghettos, the Holocaust). This anti-Semitic oppression led to legitimizing the Zionist political project and their claim to Palestinian land (Balfour Declaration, 1917). Waves of Zionist Jews left Europe to build settler colonies in Palestine decades prior to the establishment of the State of Israel on May 15, 1948 backed by British and US governments.
Throughout the Zionist project, Palestinians have faced displacement, dispossession, and settler colonial violence, the Nakba (catastrophe, disaster). Palestinians were forcibly removed by Zionists to establish the Zionist settler State of Israel and sent to the Gaza Strip or the West Bank with the hopes of one day returning to their homes. The Gaza Strip is an Israeli military-enforced concentration camp imprisoning over 2 million Palestinians who are constantly denied the right to return to their homes. Roughly half the population of Gaza is under the age of 18, children who have only lived life under military occupation. Since 2005, the blockade of Gaza has further restricted movement, separated families, blocked exports and limited imports, creating substantial economic and social hardship. Outside of Gaza and the West Bank areas, the Israeli state has displaced over seven million Palestinian as refugees worldwide.
The US continues to financially (since 1949) and militarily (since 1959) support Israel’s colonization efforts and oppression of Palestine with billions of dollars, munitions used to terrorize and murder Palestinians, and technological development. Why? US capitalism and imperialism rely on ongoing war and oppression, propping up the Israeli settler state as a means of advancing US interests in the Middle East (e.g., oil reserves worth millions of dollars). Additionally, US police forces regularly deploy strategies and tactics learned from the Israeli military’s occupation of Palestine on Black, Indigenous, and migrant communities and liberation movements. To propagate this modern Manifest Destiny in the Middle East, Western media dehumanizes Palestinians to justify continued oppression and support Israeli colonization.
Palestinians have resisted through nonviolent protest including the six-month-long March of Return in 2018, which was met with Israeli snipers that killed 266 and injured 30,000. They have worked through political processes, used grassroots organization to call for boycotts, and called on the international community to support them in addressing injustices for almost a century. Governments spanning across countries in Latin America to Africa to Asia and many Jewish people worldwide support the liberation of Palestine, but Western governments have largely failed to do so. Meanwhile, hundreds to thousands of civilians are killed in Palestine each year by Israeli airstrikes and police actions. Oppression feeds violence.
“In a colonial context, colonialism is the original crime, and colonizers the aggressors. When did invasion become self-defense? The only form of justice that matches this crime is decolonization.” - Nick Estes, The Red Nation
In solidarity,
Equity, Culture, and Social Justice in Education Division
Terms
- Judaism: religion
- Anti-Semitism: prejudice against Jewish people
- Zionism: Settler colonial ideology that calls for the establishment of a
- Jewish state, as a reaction to waves of anti-semitism in Europe
- Palestine: The land Zionists chose for their Jewish state
- Palestinians: Indigenous people of Palestine
- Israel: The name of the state the Zionists established
- Anti-Zionism: Resistance of Zionism, a specific settler colonial project (note: does NOT equate to anti-semitism)
ASEE Executive Committee
- President Doug Tougaw doug.tougaw@valpo.edu
- President-Elect Grant Crawford bobby.crawford@quinnipiac.edu
- Immediate Past President Jenna P. Carpenter carpenter@campbell.edu
- Vice President of PICs Elliott P. Douglas elliot.douglas@essie.ufl.edu
- Vice President of Finance Teri Kristine Reed teri.reed@ou.edu
- Vice President of Member Affairs Christi L. Patton Luks luksc@mst.edu
- Vice President of External Relations Martin E. Gordon megite@rit.edu
- Vice President of Scholarship Donna M. Riley riley1@unm.edu
- Vice President of Institutional Councils Carrie Berger carrieb@purdue.edu
- Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director Jacqueline A. El Sayed J.ElSayed@asee.org
Resources
Scholarship on Israel and Palestine
Nakba & occupation background:
- The Nakba did not start or end in 1948 | Features | Al Jazeera
- Decolonize Palestine
- Jewish Voice for Peace - Our Approach to Zionism
Red Nation Podcast episodes contextualizing:
- “A nightmare and a dream” Palestinians rise up w/ Ali Abunimah of the Electronic Intifada
- Red Power Hour Palestine Roundtable
Chevron, Siemens, and Boeing enabling genocide
- SIEMENS AND CHEVRON: STOP FUELING APARTHEID AND CLIMATE DISASTER | BDS Movement
- What to boycott NOW to help stop Israel’s unfolding genocide of Palestinians in Gaza
- Corporate Enablers of Israel’s War on Gaza – Eyes on the Ties
US Investment in Israel
160
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Petition created on November 6, 2023