AISA Stands in Solidarity with the Gaza Solidarity Encampments by Students, Faculty and Staff Across US Universities
None of us are free, until all of us are free!
Resist Israeli Apartheid! End the Genocide in Gaza! Free Palestine!
To,
Comrades,
Gaza Solidarity Encampments in the US universities.
The All India Students’ Association (AISA) is a revolutionary students’ movement which stands firmly in the campuses throughout the country with a vision of “A New India and A New World.” We have stood for declaring education and employment as basic rights and have opposed the attack on campus democracy and student rights. AISA has steadfastly led movements in India against neoliberal onslaught, occupation and imperialism, and for the rights of the oppressed nationalities.
We write this letter of solidarity to express our unwavering support to thousands of students across the United States who have been organising the Gaza Solidarity Encampment (sit-in protests) at their universities. As we write this letter, from coast to coast, students, staff and faculty members across several universities are braving unprecedented police crackdowns, demanding an end to the complicity of the US government and the US universities in Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza and Palestine.
The encampments at Yale University, New York University, Harvard University, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Michigan University, Boston University, American University, Columbia University and numerous other universities have given a clear message – None of us are free, until all of us are free!
Today, the word witnesses one of the worst genocides in recent history, with more than 34,000 Palestinians massacred in besieged Gaza and another hundred killed in the occupied West Bank by Israeli forces. In Gaza, Universities, schools, and libraries — all avenues of education have been destroyed and burned down to ashes by the Israeli forces. As mass graves, famines, and humanitarian catastrophe have become an everyday reality in Gaza, the US government continues to provide more military aid to Israel and the US universities reap blood money from companies that profiteer from the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
As the US supported Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza and the settler-colonial occupation of Palestine continues unabated, the rising tide of Gaza solidarity encampments in the US and the global Palestine solidarity movements is an inspiration in smashing the global web of complicity that drives and benefit from the Israel’s war on Palestinians.
The ongoing students’ encampments in the universities and the growing chorus of movements against apartheid Israel in the US, we are reminded of the history of student struggle and the anti-war movements of 1960-70s against Vietnam War that challenged US imperialism and ensured withdrawal of US forces from Saigon.
In India, the fascist Modi regime has also unleashed a wave of repression against any voices that stand with Palestine. Our organisation, along with several students and civil society groups, have been vocal against the ongoing war on Palestine despite police crackdown. Furthermore, the Indian government has signed an agreement with Israel for export of Indian youth to work in Israel’s construction sector. We demand that the Indian government must immediately terminate all agreements — political, military and economic — with Israel. We also demand that the Indian government must end its complicity with Israel’s crimes and ensure an international arms embargo against the apartheid state.
AISA stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the students, faculty members and staff of all the universities, in their struggle and rallying cry for divestment from Israel and an end to the Gaza war. We join them in their call for the liberation of Palestine and echo the slogan: From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free!
More power to the Gaza Solidarity Encampments!
More power to the people of Palestine!
Prasenjeet Kumar, General Secretary
Nilasis Bose, National President
