Arizona State Representative Alma Hernandez has called out her alma mater, University of Arizona (UArizona) Law, for the endorsement of Hamas, a designated foreign terrorist organization, issued by a coalition of its groups.
Those students who endorsed the statement were part of National Lawyers Guild (NLG) of UArizona, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), the Latine Law Students Association, South Asian Law Students Association, Environmental Law Society, Justice Advocates Coalition, Arizona Journal for Environmental Law and Policy, and several current law students, some listed explicitly by name: Mylène Laughlin, Andrew Estes, Gabriel Madrid, Maya Braun Yoon, and Jackson Bednarczyk.
The Arizona State University (ASU) NLG also signed onto the letter.
Hernandez said she was “disgusted” by the UArizona NLG statement.
“There is so much to unpack in this disgusting statement it is disturbing,” said Hernandez. “How anyone can put their name on this is crazy and I sure hope the public sees and remembers who signed.”
https://twitter.com/almaforarizona/status/1722718802474144124
In their letter, the UArizona students said Israel was to blame for the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict, escalated last month by an overnight terrorist attack committed by Hamas — which the groups justified. They accused Israel of genocide, colonization, ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and added that the U.S. has been complicit.
The UArizona students criticized their president, Robert Robbins, for calling Hamas support on his campus “objectionable or hateful.” The students said the lack of support for Hamas’ effort amounted to support for discrimination and hate.
“They govern us, and attempt to govern the whale world, in a brutal, racist, and extractive manner while preaching about democracy and a ‘rules-based’ international order,” said the letter. “Statements condemning the violence that do not simultaneously call for the end of settler colonial occupation are not neutral; by equating the violence of the oppressed and the oppressor, they disregard the internationally recognized right to resistance by occupied people and disregard the ongoing violations of international law constituted by occupation and acts of genocide.”
The groups said that Israel was an illegitimate entity, a “Zionist, settler colonial project” unlawfully occupying land between the Mediterranean Sea and the borders of Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and Egypt.
“Every Palestinian living under occupation has a right to resistance,” said the letter. “We condemn the history of violence against Jewish communities while also refusing to accept that history as a justification for establishing an apartheid state.”
The students concluded their letter with a call for a boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement, a cease-fire, and the freeing of the Holy Land Foundation Five, who were imprisoned for providing material support to Hamas.
https://twitter.com/bullfrog35/status/1722725198057894162
NLG UArizona hosted a walkout and rally in support of Hamas on Thursday.