USCPR Action’s Statement of Support for University Students

WASHINGTON, DC, MAY 3, 2024— The US Campaign for Palestinian Rights Action (USCPR Action) affirms our solidarity and support with the students across the world who are demanding an end to the genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza and an end to the ongoing Israeli military occupation of Palestine.

Students have always been at the forefront of social and political change, from the Civil Rights Movement and Vietnam War to South African apartheid and Israel's genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. As thousands of students rise up with Palestine, demanding that their universities divest from Israel, they've been met with police brutality, cruel punishments, and mass arrests of 2,200+ students and allies.

In his Thursday speech, President Biden smeared students and their rightful dissent once again, without saying a word about the police brutality he’s incited against them. Biden has lost support from young people, proving he is willing to jeopardize the future of the nation to appease Israel.

“These fierce students are leading the way and recapturing our imaginations in the fight for liberation,” said Ahmad Abuznaid, the Executive Director of USCPR Action. “They remain unafraid, and the repression they’ve experienced has only strengthened their resolve to resist.”

USCPR Action strongly supports these historic campus protests and their divestment demands. Divestment is a time-honored effective economic pressure tactic for human rights, which played an instrumental role in the end of apartheid in South Africa.

All university community members, including students, have the right to engage in protest on all university campuses. Any punitive measures taken to punish them are clearly ethnic, racial, and religious discrimination violating their First Amendment rights.

Since October 2023, we have watched a concerted, escalating effort to vilify and silence anyone who speaks up for Palestinian human rights, from the Biden administration to the media, and now university administrations across the country. This dangerous rhetoric is inciting the scenes of police brutality, anti-Black and anti-Palestinian racism, and violent Zionist attacks against students that we’ve seen playing out on campuses. 

All charges against student protesters should be immediately dropped, and all university disciplinary actions against them should be immediately revoked and expunged from student records. The students who were wrongfully suspended for exercising their constitutionally recognized right to speech and assembly must be reinstated and welcomed back to campus.

“Our movement grows stronger by the day,” Abuznaid said. “Collective liberation is at stake, and we believe that we will win.”