Friday afternoon, a group of faculty and staff gathered under the shade of a large Oak tree in prayer, in remembrance, and in community as they shared how they’ve coped balancing work and personal life while watching the genocidal violence Israel is committing against the Palestinian people. While this ethnic cleansing has transpired over the last 76 years, the citizen journalists documenting the violence, and our ability to see it in real time, is relatively new.

Because many in the campus community have been bearing witness to these atrocities in abject horror, we’ve asked our President, Dr. Kristina Whalen, to formally make a statement recognizing the humanity of the Palestinian people and create a space to talk about what is happening. 

She refused, meekly saying she doesn’t think she should make statements on “geopolitical issues” despite precedent from previous Foothill College Presidents and Chancellors making such statements. She’s gone on to say she doubts there is “broad support” for a statement in recognition of Palestinian suffering. 

With the Administration’s clear reluctance to condemn the loss of Palestinian civilian life, the onus of educating the campus fell on faculty and staff. The same individuals who gathered for the healing circle, individually, and collectively, created educational opportunities for those interested in learning more about Palestine. These individuals led reading groups, paid for teach-ins, created art installations, organized Palestinian academics, artists, and authors to educate the campus on the history of Palestine. With decades of manufactured consent through our media, combined with the racialization of Muslims and Palestinians, many on campus did not have an understanding that Palestinians are living in an apartheid state. Thus, these events served a dual purpose of humanizing the Palestinian people.

The faculty and staff who organized events did so under the backdrop of outright hostility, repression, and silence of the President. The President’s silence was palpable enough that faculty, staff, and students alike felt silenced. Students were so afraid to speak about the genocidal war that Israel is waging on the people of Palestine that they wrote “Demands” to the President and the Executive Cabinet anonymously. They worried about the doxing they’ve seen friends experience. They didn’t want to jeopardize their transfer opportunities and careers before those careers had even begun.

Recently, notable scholar Raz Segal, an Israeli Jewish historian who was an Associate Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies and Endowed Professor in the Study of Modern Genocide at Stockton University, recently lost a job offer at the University of Minnesota for saying Israel is committing genocide. According to DemocracyNow!, “Segal was set to lead the university’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, but after two board members quit in opposition to Segal’s selection and a smear campaign led by the pro-Israel group Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas (JCRC), the school revoked the offer.” In the interview with Amy Goodman, Segal says he has been “targeted because of my identity as a Jew who refuses the narrowing down of Jewish identity to Zionism.” For this reason, I empathize with what I imagine are Dr. Whalen fears. She has, like we all have, seen the Zionists and the political right destroy the careers of college presidents and she’s been threatened herself by angry Zionists who attended the Academic Senate meeting winter quarter.

As scary as the consequences for speaking up can be, this is the time when we need strong and courageous leadership. This is the time to be brave and not cower to threats that undermine academic freedom, free speech, and opportunities for critical thinking. This is the time to “meet the moment” and be “unapologetically anti-racist,” motos we used after the murder of George Floyd. If we can’t make space to acknowledge and discuss the suffering of Palestinians, how are we creating a welcoming environment for them on our campus?

We need action from our President and the Administration, not more bureaucracy.