Endorsements
Founded in the spring of 1995, the Asian American Alliance (AAA) is a student political organization that strives to serve the Asian Pacific Islander American (APIA) community at Columbia University. AAA is a collaborative organization that seeks to work with APIA and all students of color groups at Columbia to reach out to members of the university and the outside community at large. We aim to promote understanding, foster dialogue, and create a sense of awareness within Columbia University. Our purpose is to educate ourselves and others, to organize, and to mobilize. We seek to cultivate a common understanding and a greater respect for the APIA community. We work with groups of all types and of all backgrounds including student of color organizations, progressive groups, student government, political organizations, community service organizations, off campus groups, student conferences, and the University administration.
As a community of Asian and Asian American students striving to mobilize our people against injustice and oppression, the Asian Political Collective supports and honors the call from Palestinian civil society to boycott Israel and all Israeli institutions. We recognize the inherently imperialist motives of the Israeli state, and condemn the unjust surveillance, harassment, torture, and incarceration of Arab Palestinian community members at home and abroad, in particular the censorship and detainment of those who have organized publicly for the Palestinian cause. We recognize and name the state of Israel as a white supremacist and anti-Black project in conception, and in practice a tool to wage war and inflict violence on Black and Brown communities for the sake of profit, domination, and the expansion of Euroamerican empire. While we recognize that the struggle is not religious in nature, we acknowledge the fact that the Israeli state, particularly Netanyahu's regime, relies on Islamophobia to justify and perpetuate its repressive policies. We condemn all forms of Islamophobia, including Israel’s complicity in the U.S.’s “War on Terror,” which disproportionately targets and kills Muslims. As we are committed to fighting all forms of imperialism and racism, ending all walls and borders, we join Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace, and Columbia University Apartheid Divest in demanding that Columbia University divest its holdings, both ideological and material, from the state of Israel, and align ourselves with the global boycott, divest, and sanctions (BDS) movement to end the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
As socialists, we are committed to fighting for a world free from oppression and for the self-determination of all people. We therefore stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people in their anti-colonial struggle for liberation and will fight until they can live in their homes without the everyday terror of military occupation; blockade and second-class citizenship in Israel; incessant waves of state-protected settler violence and execution by Israeli Defense Force soldiers; and separation from one another by Israel's colossal apartheid wall.
On our own campus, we fully support Students for Justice in Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace, and Columbia University Apartheid Divest in their struggle to divest our university's endowment from Israeli occupation. We believe that divesting from Israeli Apartheid is a necessary step towards building a just university community that supports its members' rights to free speech regardless of the political interests of its donors.
The battle for justice in Palestine is inextricably linked to struggles against all forms of oppression, including racism, sexism, imperialism, the destruction of the environment, the list goes on and on. As socialists, we believe in the unique power of the international working class and oppressed people to change society, and see BDS and justice for the Palestinian people as central components in today's fight for a better world.
The Barnard Organization of Soul & Solidarity (BOSS) was founded in 1968 as a student organization dedicated to celebrating black womanhood, highlighting important issues in the Afro-American community at Barnard and Columbia, and fostering fellowship in the form of sisterhood among women of color.
Our goal is to foster community and increase the representation of cis women, non-binary, and trans people from across the MENA region on campus.
The Black Reading Group at Columbia University.
The aim of the Caribbean Students' Association (CSA) is to enable Caribbean students to generate and foster a sense of unity and understanding among themselves, their fellow students at Columbia University, and the surrounding community. This aim is realized through the sponsoring of educational, cultural, and social events and activities that engage our community members in different aspects of Caribbean cultures. This aim is realized through the “There is Hope Campaign”: an annual service trip to a Caribbean island of the Executive Board’s choosing.
A student-run organization focused on those pursuing the medical field. Comprised of students from Columbia College, Fu Foundation School of Engineering, Barnard College, and School of General Studies.
We, Chicanx Caucus, stand in solidarity with and support Columbia University Apartheid Divest’s demands for the university to divest its stocks, funds, and endowments from companies that profit from, or directly finance, Israeli apartheid and human rights violations against Palestinians. We believe in justice and equality for all, and this includes Palestinians. The companies that CUAD demands the university divest from are complicit in human rights violations everywhere, especially against Palestinians, and the university is thus also complicit. One such company, Elbit Systems, is known to have entered into million dollar contracts with Customs and Border Patrol in order to institute systems that surveill and harass migrants, refugees, and Indigenous populations along the U.S.-Mexico border. We have seen how the U.S. and Israel exchange tactics of violence and oppression that are used against BIPOC, including members of our own Latinx, Chicanx, Indigenous, and Black communities, as well as against Palestinians. We thus recognize that the struggles of marginalized people everywhere must be interconnected, and our solidarity with each other must be strong. We also refuse, as students paying tuition to the university and as students working and living in the U.S., to be further complicit in acts of violence and oppression committed against Palestinians, and we align ourselves with the fight for justice and for a better world for everyone.
We, Columbia Divest for Climate Justice, support the group Columbia University Apartheid Divest in calling for Columbia to divest our endowment from the following corporations that profit from Israel's violation of Palestinian human rights, as stated in CUAD's petition: Caterpillar, Hyundai Heavy Industries, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Elbit Systems, Mekorot, Bank Hapoalim, Boeing, and Lockheed Martin.
The history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is long and complex, and a debate over the details often obscures the larger truth: Israel is taking the land of and abusing the human rights of Palestinians and Arabs; certain corporations profit from those endeavors; and institutions like our university profit from these unethical corporations.
We support divestment as a tactic for achieving equal, human rights for Palestinians and Arabs in Israel and in the region specifically because it has been called for by a coalition of hundreds of Palestinian civil society organizations since 2005. In the face of a great power differential of legal rights, financial resources, and military power with Israel, these organizations have found turning to the international community for support through the Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions (BDS) movement to be extremely powerful.
Divestment is a tactic that addresses the contemporary reality in the region. The companies represented include those that have supplied equipment to extralegally demolish Palestinian homes, erect Israeli settlements, build a wall that expropriates land and divides Palestinian communities, support asymmetric warfare, and more. Mekorot, an Israeli utility that controls water access in the area and already restricts access based on nationality, is only a suggestion of how climate change will exacerbate problems of equity in access to land and life-sustaining resources.
Let us repeat — this campaign is an affirmation of the equal rights of Palestinians and Arabs. This is not a campaign targeting Israelis or Jews as a people; divestment targets institutions that perpetuate the state's ability to commit documented human rights violations. Furthermore, we know that neither the broader Jewish community nor the citizenry of Israel, itself, is a monolith in consensus on Israel's practices. Israel does not speak for all Jews, or even all Israelis.
Anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and anti-Arab sentiment exist on this campus, in activism of all political tendencies, in our country, and our world. We acknowledge the traumas that have affected all sides of this debate, and we are dedicated to fighting racism in every form.
We make this statement after lengthy discussion, but also knowing that our understanding of the conflict is incomplete. We, CDCJ, ask people to support fossil fuel divestment with a good but incomplete knowledge of the complex phenomenon of climate change; instead of knowing every detail of the science, we ask them to understand our values. Through conversations with Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace, the coalition that forms Columbia University Apartheid Divest, we have come to see supporting divestment from the corporations named in the CUAD petition as being in line with our values. We stand for an end to racism and for a commitment to sharing resources equitably, both now and as we face the pressure cooker of climate change in the decades to come.
Founded in 2002 by undergraduate English majors, The Columbia Journal of Literary Criticism acts as an interdisciplinary forum centered around literature, culture and politics. The journal is published once a year and includes articles, reviews, interviews and original artwork. As an undergraduate publication, CJLC attempts to examine the world around us in a way that is informed by academia but not subsumed by it.
CJLC also hosts events, including panel discussions with academics and writers (past topics have included Taste, Geopolitics, Cosmopolitanism, and Occupy), and a seminar series where Columbia professors and graduate students talk about their research in a casual setting.
The MSA board unequivocally supports and stands in solidarity with Columbia University Apartheid Divest in its campaign to hold the university accountable to its institutional values of equality and human dignity. The MSA board further recognizes the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign as a powerful tool to pressure the University to divest from companies that further the apartheid system and the occupation of Palestinian lands, which is illegal according to UN Security Council Resolution 446. We endorse the call to respect Palestinian human rights in full compliance with international law, as communicated in the three points of BDS:Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the WallRecognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; andRespecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.The Quran and the Hadith, in many instances, stress the importance of upholding justice for humanity. Surat al Nisa', Ayah 135 says: "O you who believe! Stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to Allah, even though it be against yourselves, or your parents, or your kin, be he rich or poor, Allah is a Better Protector to both (than you). So follow not the lusts (of your hearts), lest you may avoid justice, and if you distort your witness or refuse to give it, verily, Allah is Ever Well-Acquainted with what you do." As Muslims, it is our duty to defend basic human rights, stand on the side of the oppressed, and to follow what is right above all else. It is within the call of our religion to stand with the oppressed, and to end all forms of oppression; those who remain silent in the face of truth are complicit in the oppressive occupation of Palestinian land.We stand in support of BDS specifically because it is a human rights-based strategy, and as such opposes all forms of discrimination — including anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. We encourage Columbia students and our general body to sign the petition and learn more about the necessity of BDS until Columbia begins investing responsibly and Israel complies with international law.
The Board of Columbia Queer Alliance is in solidarity with Columbia University Apartheid Divest. As an organization that has fought for the human rights of queer and trans students for almost 50 years, we align ourselves with the goals of the campaign as it is embedded in the larger Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement to fight for and protect the human rights of the Palestinian people.
As Black students at Columbia and Barnard, we have witnessed the many faces of oppression and we have heard it called by many names. We are aware that our own fight for humanity is not the only that occurs here. We acknowledge the many intersections that lie between the plight of indigenous people worldwide and that of Black communities within the Diaspora. Our struggle is one of many in the larger scheme of global systems of oppression.Today, The Black Students' Organization stands in firm solidarity with Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine, Columbia/Barnard Jewish Voice for Peace, and Columbia University Apartheid Divest during an active and ongoing struggle to end Columbia University's investment in Israeli Apartheid and, conversely, the mass mistreatment of Palestinians from Palestine to the United States and everywhere in between. We are all too familiar with the pain that accompanies living within an institution that invests in the demise of our own people.The BSO condemns any co-optation of the Black liberation movement to promote settler-colonialism and a state that perpetuates apartheid. The decision to relate the experiences, past and present, of Black people in the United States in order to further the Zionist movement is, both, misinformed and a blatant subversion of the work that continues to be done in the name of true equity.We reject the notion that peace may only come at the expense of justice. We refuse to be complicit in institutionalized violence against the people of Palestine. We urge the Columbia community to join us in this stand for justice.
Club Bangla, recognized in Spring of 2002, is a cultural group where both Non-Bengalis and Bengalis from Bangladesh and the state of West Bengal in India can come together to celebrate the common rich Bengali culture, heritage and language. Club Bangla aims to increase awareness of Bengali language and culture at Columbia as well as create a platform for issues affecting Bengalis and the South Asian community at large. The club strives to promote a more visible representation and better understanding of the Bengali community on campus while contributing to Columbia's myriad of student-led diversity initiatives. Recently, Club Bangla has had a renewed mission of facilitating cross-cultural, ethnic and religious dialogue by programming events with a varied range of student groups.
The Columbia Journal of History (CJH), formerly the Columbia Undergraduate Journal of History, is a publication of the Undergraduate History Council at Columbia University. The Journal was founded to provide opportunities for undergraduate students to contribute their research to the field of history. Our Executive Board reviews student submissions from history departments across the United States and abroad, and selects about 10% of submissions for inclusion in each biannual edition. Mission: The Columbia Journal of History is an independent, peer-reviewed undergraduate research publication that promotes intellectual inquiry and recognizes outstanding historical literature on diverse subjects.
The CU Historical Justice Initiative draws much of its historical information from the CU & Slavery Project. The Initiative offers a self-guided, interactive walking tour of CU's Morningside campus through an iOS app and eventually an Android one as well. Centering around the buildings of the lower half of the Morningside campus—owing to accessibility—the CU Historical Justice Initiative aims to present narratives of slavery, oppression, and violence, while preserving stories of resistance, perseverance, and social progress on-campus.
Mission: The Organization of Pakistani Students (OPS) was founded in 1992 with the hope of furthering diversity on the Columbia campus. OPS seeks to foster a sense of community amongst Pakistanis, and reach out to other students on campus through cultural, social, and political events. Description: We host various events throughout the year including poetry readings (Mushaira Nights), film screenings, panel discussions, and chai breaks. Our cultural events include Chamak, a fashion show that takes place in the fall semester, and Hungama, a mock wedding with NYU that takes place in the Spring. Additionally, we host an annual conference Soch, visit http://www.columbiasoch.com/ for more info.
The Board of CU Turath, the Arab Students' Association, stands in solidarity with Columbia University Apartheid Divest. We believe it is essential for us to support the call for divestment as it is our duty to respond to the calls of Palestinian civil society for the larger Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. The Israeli occupation of Palestine and the continuous violations of Palestinian human rights are issues that impact the Arab world and Arabs everywhere. In that sense, it is our duty to stand in solidarity with our Palestinian sisters and brothers in whatever capacity we can.
We condemn the continuous violations of Palestinian human rights by the Israeli government as well the occupation of Palestinian and some Arab territories, and we recognize the ways through which this violence directly impacts Palestinians and the larger Arab community both in Palestine and across the world, even here at Columbia. We also condemn the cultural cooptation and appropriation of Palestinian and Arab culture, history, and traditions by Israel and its supporters in their efforts to erase the Palestinian identity.
As Turath board members, we believe in the power of the BDS movement. This sentiment is shared among the Arab community here at Columbia as well as the Arab community around the world. We also recognize the privilege that comes with attending an institution like Columbia, and hence support the call for divestment, as outlined by CUAD's campaign, from companies that are involved in and profit off of the violation of Palestinian human rights.
Columbia University - Barnard College chapter of Young Democratic Socialists of America.
Environmental justice is defined as the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies.
Advocating for climate justice is an intersectional struggle that encompasses the pre-existing systems of oppression of marginalized identities along gendered, racial and class lines. Divest Barnard from Fossil Fuels recognizes the complexity and disparity of struggles against environmental exploitation based on race, class and gender. The oppression of Palestinians living in territories occupied by the Israeli state is manifested in unjust resource allocation, environmental degradation, and political disenfranchisement. For these reasons, Divest Barnard recognizes the intersectionality of environmental justice with the struggle of the Palestinian people, and stands in solidarity with the Columbia University Apartheid Divest campaign.
Columbia University is profiting from investments in companies that violate Palestinian human rights through the exploitation of natural resources. The Columbia University Apartheid Divest campaign targets specific companies that profit from Israel's violations of human rights and international law. A notable example is Mekorot, Israel's national water utility, which destroys Palestinian irrigation systems and diverts water resources from the Occupied Territories for use by illegal Israeli settlements. Because of practices like these, Palestinians are afforded only 70 liters of water per person per day, below the 100 recommended by the World Health Organization and dwarfed by the 300 provided to the Israelis.
The exploitation of the environment is both a mechanism for and outcome of oppression, and divestment can serve as an effective political tool to counter this. As a campaign founded on the principle of environmental justice, we must account for all systems of oppression that inhibit this pursuit as we strive for a productive exchange within the larger liberation movement.
Echoes is the only literary magazine of Barnard College. Based out of New York City, we are the voice of the women who make up our community and are dedicated to serving as a platform for students to share their work in literary and visual arts. Submissions of all forms of writing and art are considered and successful entries are compiled into a hard-copy magazine which is released bi-yearly.
The Ethiopian Eritrean Student Association is an organization committed to creating a support system for Columbia students with an interest in Ethiopian & Eritrean cultures. EESA fosters a community where Ethiopians and Eritreans can explore their cultures and traditions.
The Board of GendeRevolution is in solidarity with Columbia University Apartheid Divest. As an organization that fights for the human rights of queer and trans students, we align ourselves with the goals of the campaign as it is embedded in the larger Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement to fight for and protect the human rights of the Palestinian people.
The Housing Equity Project is a coalition of students aiming to mitigate the impacts of gentrification in Harlem perpetrated by Columbia University. We believe that as Columbia students we are required to give back to our local Morningside Heights community and serve our neighbors.
JAC is the first undergraduate journal in print devoted to art criticism. Founded in New York at Barnard College during the fall of 2015, the journal is published annually to include critical writing and art centered around a contemporary theme. Connecting the ideas of students across institutions, the journal is also a network of young and established critics. While students create, review, and edit work for JAC, a group of alumni and professionals support production.
LaMP stands for Lutherans, Methodists and Presbyterians and friends! We are a progressive, LGBTQIA+ inclusive Christian community of young adult college and graduate students in Manhattan's Morningside Heights neighborhood. LaMP students attend a variety of schools in our area. We invite all students to come and be part of our community.
MANSA endorses CUAD's campaign.
NSBE is dedicated to the academic and professional success of African-American engineering students and professionals. NSBE offers its members leadership training, professional development activities, mentoring opportunities, career placement services and more.
The Native American Council of Columbia University knows the devastating effects of ecocide and settler colonialism better than most. The occupation and colonization of Palestinian lands has led to the continued displacement of the Palestinian people as well as their disenfranchisement and lack of recognition from the state of Israel. We, as the largest Indigenous student organization at Columbia, support the Palestinian people in the reclamation of their lands and homes as well as all efforts to grant them full legal rights. In the same way that voices in the wake of Standing Rock cried out 'Indigenous Rights are Human Rights,' we must also say 'Palestinian Rights are Human Rights,' and support decolonial efforts across the globe. Native American Council recognizes that we must not support corporations which profit from human rights abuses. We call upon Columbia to support subaltern and Indigenous peoples across the world by divest from the groups and organizations which perpetuate and fund violence against them.
No Red Tape stands in solidarity with Columbia University Apartheid Divest. As an organization which fights to end rape culture, we recognize that sexual violence is intimately connected with colonialism, imperialism, and other forms of state violence. As shown by the stories of Rasmeah Odeh and countless Palestinian survivors, sexual violence has routinely been used as a tool of oppression against Palestinian women. It is unacceptable that women's bodies continue to be targeted as part of Israel's project of occupation. Because of these connections, our cause is intertwined with the Palestinian people's struggle for liberation. We support Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voices for Peace as they call on Columbia to divest from Israeli Apartheid and affirm the basic rights of Palestinian people.
Proud Colors is a group on Columbia University's campus for and about people. The overall objective of Proud Colors is to implement a comprehensive action program to promote an understanding of the past, present, and future experiences, problems, and needs of queer and trans- students of color as well as the queer and trans- community of color as a whole. Proud Colors intends to develop effective methods of dealing with these problems. Further, we know that neither we, nor the peoples we aim to serve are simple, fixed entities of colors and desires. We believe that the notion of queer includes, but extends past gender expression and sexual orientation. We understand queerness as the call to respect and affirm the complex intersections of one's ethnicities, gender expressions, religions, socioeconomic statuses and backgrounds, nationalities, abilities, and/or sexual orientations. It is in these critical points of collision that we situate ourselves and our activism, as it is in these intersections that we truly live: Queer and Proud.
The Board of South Asian Feminism(s) Alliance (SAFA) is in solidarity with Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), and with movements in solidarity with Palestine around the world. We align ourselves with the goals of the Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions (BDS) movement to fight for the rights of the Palestinian people and liberate their communities and land. As a group comprised of Brown colonized people, we rise with our siblings in this movement for justice and liberation.
As an organization that fights for racial, queer/trans, disability, immigrant, Muslim, and economic justice, SAFA rises against colonialist rhetoric and the illegal occupation of Palestinian land. We recognize that the occupation of Palestinian land is not a religious conflict, but systematic settler colonialism, racial apartheid, and a violation of Palestinian human rights.
Stop bombing our siblings in the Occupied Territories.
End settler colonialism.
Stop the genocide of the Palestinian people.
Give the Palestinian people back their land.
We call upon our fellow Columbia University organizations to sign in solidarity with CUAD. As students at this university, we have a say in who our school supports and what industries our university invests in. Demand that Columbia divest from Israeli apartheid and call upon your community members to support justice for Palestine.
Inquilab Zindabad.
Student-Worker Solidarity stands for the rights of workers everywhere, whether they be in West Harlem or in Ramallah. From the 1936 general strikes against early Zionist settlers and British occupiers to those of the First Intifada, the resilience of Palestinian workers has long taught us that decolonization and labor struggle cannot be separated.It is the same inhumane and relentless drive for profit which corporatizes our university and pays workers starvation wages that fuels the necessity for United States' and U.S.-backed imperial projects abroad. It is this profit-before-people system that drives the occupation of Palestine, and also makes our campus unlivable for working and low-income people. We therefore see our struggles as inextricably intertwined.In that vein we stand by our allies Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace as they launch their campaign calling for Columbia University to divest its stocks, funds, and endowment from companies that profit from the State of Israel's ongoing system of settler colonialism, military occupation, and apartheid law.
Students Helping Students CU is a student-run mutual aid fund created in order to help low-income undergraduate students at Columbia University and Barnard College receive necessary funds not provided by either institution. Low-income students know all too well the challenges that come with attending a school where the majority of students are not on financial aid. We are looking for people with the means to help provide low-income Columbia and Barnard undergrads with funds for housing, food, other basic necessities, and cost of attendance at Columbia and Barnard. Despite the fact that the University preaches equity and inclusion for all students, low-income students are often left behind by financial aid packages and University programs.
Students Organize for Syria exists to assist the Syrian people in their effort to build a self-determined, pluralistic society. The organization strives to stand in solidarity with Syrians, raise awareness of their cause and help to alleviate the current humanitarian crisis.
We are the first formal undocumented student group at Columbia University. We are committed to awareness and representation of undocumented bodies. We are also fully invested in the liberation trajectories of fellow marginalized communities and the marginalized communities that make our membership up.
