In Rep. Hillary Scholten’s most recent weekly newsletter, the Congresswoman states:
As many of you know, I took a trip down to the southern border recently to see the situation on the ground. We have a crisis at the border – it’s a humanitarian crisis, an economic crisis, and a national security crisis, and it demands immediate, bipartisan action. I sat down with WZZM 13 to talk about what I learned and how I’m working toward bipartisan, comprehensive immigration reform.
The WZZM 13 story that Scholten refers to can be found here, a story that I want to look at.
Early on in the channel 13 story the reporter states, “Under the Biden administration, expulsions and apprehensions of non-citizens have spiked amid a rise in illegal border crossings.”
This acknowledgement by the reporter is true, as many commentators are noted. In an article by Tina Vasquez, it states:
Biden is currently considering an executive action that would prevent migrants who enter the U.S. outside of ports of entry from claiming asylum, a devastating blow to longstanding legal procedures that require migrants to be on U.S. soil to request protections. The order is a key part of a failed bipartisan bill Biden championed that would have implemented Trump-era immigration policies and granted the president the unilateral power to shut down the Southern border.
That Democrats signed off on the bill signals they have taken a hard-right turn on immigration during an election year. The party’s wanton disregard for asylum law will almost certainly lead to further human rights violations against migrants, who are already brutalized all across the detention system where the number of people detained has nearly tripled since Biden took office in January 2021.
This analysis shows that the reality of the Biden Administration’s US immigration policy is that it has changed much since the Trump years. Even Rep. Scolten acknowledges that the current US immigration policy is flawed. She said, “The system that we have is not set up to meet just the insurmountable demands that are being presented every single day at our southern border,” she continued. “It is truly a national security, emergency humanitarian crisis and an economic disaster.”
Rep. Scholten then goes on to say:
“[Part of the solution] is addressing the root causes of migration that are happening in these sending countries,” Scholten said. “Right now, insurmountable numbers coming from Venezuela, as well as still out of the Northern Triangle in Central America – we have to be working with those countries, as well as our neighbor to the south, Mexico, to deal with the flow of these individuals.”
I agreement with Rep. Scholten that part of the root causes are people from various Latin American countries, but she does really address why they are fleeing. I would argue, that people from Mexico and Central American countries in particular, are fleeing primarily because of the political, economic and social conditions in those countries that the US has imposed on those countries for decades, such as direct US military interventions, the funding and training of militaries from many Latin American countries, adopting disastrous trade policies like NAFTA and CAFTA, the US support for corrupt Latin American governments, along with the role that Climate Change plays in displacing people, which is well documented in Todd Miller’s excellent book, Storming the Wall: Climate Change, Migration and Homeland Security.
Rep. Scholten also talked about having bipartisan support for the Dignity Act, specifically with Rep; Salas from Florida. However, the Dignity Act is not Comprehensive Immigration Reform, nor does it address more structural elements of root causes of immigration that we have already addressed. If Rep. Scholten wants to be serious about address the immigration & border crisis, then she needs to acknowledge the harm that the Biden Administration has done and their rightward shift on immigration policy.
For additional resources on US Immigration Policy and US Immigration History:
GRIID Popular Education Class on History of US Immigration Policy
In this edition of West Michigan Far Right Watch I want to take a look at three recent examples of far right ideology in Grand Rapids. The first is an Acton Institute podcast, where three Acton staff members disparage Aaron Bushnell for his decision to self-immolate as a protest against US complicity in the Israeli genocide against the Palestinians.
In the second example I will discuss the West Michigan CEO Council’s endorsement of welcoming immigrant business savvy as long as it fits within the current NeoLiberal Capitalist framework. Lastly, I will discuss a recent interview that Doug DeVos did on his show Believe!, where he talks with former Grand Rapids Public School Superintendent Teresa Weatherall Neal.
Acton Institute and character assassination of Aaron Bushnell
In the March 4th podcast of Acton Unwind, three Acton Institute staff spend about 28 minutes spouting all sorts of non-sense about Aaron Bushnell. In the narrative about the March 4 show they write, “This week, Eric, Anthony, and Dylan discuss the self-immolation of Aaron Bushnell and the ethics of using his suicide to advance the Palestinian cause.” Throughout the 28 minutes all three Acton staff refer to Bushnell as unstable, that taking his own life was a waste, and that they felt sorry for him for feeling complicit in the Israeli genocide. To be clear, the Acton staff disagreed with Bushnell’s analysis of what Israel is doing in Gaza, plus they kept wanting to frame his act of self-immolation as something that wasn’t Christ-like. The audacity of these 3 privileged men talking about Aaron Bushnell in such a disrespectful and demeaning way is hard to listen to, but here is the link. As an alternative and independent understanding from some people who knew Aaron, go to this link.
Immigrant Inclusion and the West Michigan CEO Council
There is an interesting post from February 27th on the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce site entitled, West Michigan CEO Council Explores Immigrant Inclusion with Global Detroit and Local Industry Leaders.
The post makes some interesting comments, such as: “By incorporating immigrants and their diverse talents into our community and economic development strategies, we ignite growth, revitalize communities, and ensure sustained prosperity throughout Michigan,” remarked Jones. The article also mentions this, “Michigan’s nearly 34,000 international students are an incredible talent pool.”
This assessment of immigrants was shared in September of last year after the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce came out with a report on the economic impact of immigrants, which GRIID reported on. While the GR Chamber of Commerce and the other West Michigan Business leaders talk a good game about US immigration policy, the need to fill the talent pool gap, and how much immigrants benefit the economy, what they really mean is that they are the ones who primarily benefit from immigrant labor in the current neoliberal capitalist economy. Just ask yourself if the Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce values migrant workers so much as to make sure they are guaranteed a living wage?
The GRPS Superintendent that was mentored by Betsy DeVos
In the final piece of far right thinking, I want to look at the Doug DeVos podcast, where former Grand Rapids Public School Superintendent, Teresa Weatherall Neal, was DeVos’ guest.
Neal talks about her history in the GRPS and how she made it a point to promote School Choice, despite being the Superintendent of the GRPS. None of this should be surprising to those who follow GRIID, since Teresa Weatherall Neal went to Washington, DC for the confirmation of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education.
In the GRIID article on Neal going to DC, we also document how Neal adopted many of the DeVos family priorities for education, which was charter schools, privatization of education and allowing religion to be inserted more aggressively in the Grand Rapids Public School system.
At one point in the interview, Neal was talking about getting additional funding for the Grand Rapids Public Schools, specifically through the Student Advancement Foundation, an entity that is really driven by the DeVos family and other members of the Grand Rapids Power Structure. Neal confirmed this when she said to Doug DeVos, “We came through you guys, the Student Advancement Foundation.”
In the later part of the interview DeVos and Neal talk about her leadership, which she bragged about, with little or no humility. At one point Neal said, “no one loves the children in Grand Rapids more than I do.”
Lastly, Teresa Weatherall Neal briefly talks about her work now with the group Thrive & Prosper, which has no information on it other than sending a message to the group. I submitted a message, so I will be curious to see if I get anything back.
Meijer family wealth increases by $1.5 Billion, putting their combined wealth at $16.5 Billion
In January of 2023, GRIID made a post about how the Meijer brothers – Hank, Doug and Mark, had split their family wealth into 3 separate accounts.
I noted that previously, Hank and Doug Meijer were always listed as having their wealth combined, such as in 2020, where their combined wealth was $10.2 Billion at the beginning of the pandemic. Eighteen months later, the combined wealth of Mark and Doug DeVos was $16.9 Billion, which means that during the first 18 months of the pandemic, their wealth had increased by $6.7 Billion. This is an astounding increase, considering that so many people could not work, while others had contracted the COVID virus and many had died.
In 2023, I also noted that the Meijer brothers had added another brother (Mike Meijer) and another account, where they each listed that they had $5 Billion, according to the Forbes Real Time Billionaires listing.
A little over one year later, and each of the Meijer brothers are now worth $5.5 Billion, for a combined total of $16.5 Billion. However, at the same time, the Meijer brothers used to be in the top 250 billionaire list on Forbes, but this year they are listed at as 541, 542 and 543rd on the Forbes Real Time Billionaires site.
To put the Meijer family wealth into perspective, the Grand Rapids City Budget is $643 Million. The Meijer family wealth increased by $1.5 Billion over the past year, which is nearly equivalent to 3 years of the Grand Rapids City budget.
Some other ways that the $1.5 Billion that the Meijer brother made over the past 12 months could be used to benefit the most vulnerable residents of Grand Rapids could be:
- For $1.5 Billion you could build 6000 homes that cost $250,000 each.
- For $1.5 Billion would provide 12 months of rent – at $1500 per month – for 83,333 people.
- For $1.5 Billion you could pay people at wage of $25 an hour for 40 hours a week, which would be $56,000 a year. The $1.5 Billion would cover the wages of 26,785 people for a year at $25 an hour. $25 an hour is what the Low Income Housing Coalition has stated that this is what people need to earn in order to afford the average rental costs for Grand Rapids.
These 3 points about what $1.5 Billion could do to transform people’s lives is astounding and it says something not only about the wealth gap that exists in the US and in Grand Rapids, but it also provides an opportunity for all of us to think deeper about the banality of wealth, especially when it benefits so few. Lastly, it is worth noting that if the $1.5 Billion of the Meijer family wealth were to be redistributed to the community, that would still leave them with $15 Billion. Somehow, I think they could manage.
Ever since the Hamas attack on October 7th and the ongoing and vicious Israeli retaliation, activists have been exposing US weapons manufacturers and then resisting their role in manufacturing military equipment and weapons being used in Israel’s genocidal campaign against the Palestinians.
GRIID has posted several articles about the Israeli company Plasan North America, which has a manufacturing facility in Walker. In late December I posted a pieced based on information from an American Friends Service Committee report, which documents how many US-based military contractors have been providing weapons and military vehicles for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).
Now, we have another resource that has been tracking US military contractors that are making weapons military equipment specifically for Israel, military equipment that is being used currently in Israel’s brutal assault on Gaza.
In a recent post on Truthout, we learned that there is a new activists map, a map which shows the location of military contractors across the US, even in Michigan. If you click on the map, you can see that the activist created map shows two locations of military contractors that are making weapons and military equipment for the Israeli Defense Forces. One factory is located in Novi, Michigan, while the other facility in near the Gerald R. Ford Airport, on Patterson Ave.
According to the map’s information:
GE Aviation Systems, a Boeing subcontractor is a part of a $927,492,124 contract to provide KC-46A Pegasus aircraft for the state of Israel and its military. The contract was announced on August 31, 2022 and the work associated with this contract is estimated to be completed by December 2026.
So, the GE Aviations Systems, located at 3290 Patterson Ave SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49512, has a current contract to manufacture KC-46A Pegasus aircraft for the Israeli military. The information from the activist map also includes two additional links. In the first link, it states in part: “The Boeing Co., Defense, Space & Security, Seattle, Washington, has been awarded a not-to-exceed $927,492,124 undefinitized contract action for four KC-46A aircraft for Israel. This contract is also issued for the non-recurring engineering design and test for the Remote Vision System 2.0 and the Air Refueling Operator Station 2.0 mission equipment and installation, pre-delivery integrated logistics support, and technical publications. Work will be performed in Seattle, Washington, and is expected to be completed by Dec. 31, 2026.”
The second link confirms the contract, but it primarily data-driven, with no narrative about the contract. However, I did find an additional bit of information about the KC-46A Pegasus, which states, “the KC-46A is delivering fuel, data, and multi-mission capability around the globe. It’s been proven in combat and provides millions of pounds of fuel each month to U.S. and allied receivers.”
The bottom line is that there is yet another military contractor in the Grand Rapids area that is assisting in the manufacturing of the KC-46A Pegasus planes, which provides in air refueling for Israeli military planes that have been carpet bombing Gaza since early October of 2023. And while the contract at the GE Aviations Systems plant on Patterson Ave. is for weapons, but it is for military equipment that is being used to support the Israeli military’s genocidal campaign be wage in Gaza at this very moment.
Palestine Solidarity Information, Analysis, Local Actions and Events for the week of March 10
It has become clear that the Israeli government will continue their assault on Gaza and the West Bank. The retaliation for the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel, has escalated, therefore, GRIID will be providing weekly links to information and analysis that we think can better inform us of what is happening, along with the role that the US government is playing. We will also provide information on local events and actions that people can get involved in. All of this information is to provide people with the capacity of what Noam Chomsky refers to as, intellectual self-defense.
Information
Demeaning airdrops over Gaza are humanitarian aid theater
Biden Admin Quietly Approves 100+ Arms Sales to Israel While Claiming Concern for Civilians in Gaza
DESPERATE TO ESCAPE GAZA CARNAGE, PALESTINIANS ARE FORCED TO PAY EXORBITANT FEES TO ENTER EGYPT
LEAKED U.S. CABLE: ISRAELI INVASION OF RAFAH WOULD HAVE “CATASTROPHIC HUMANITARIAN CONSEQUENCES”
History will record that Israel committed a holocaust
WOLF BLITZER CUT HIS TEETH DOING JOURNALISM FOR AIPAC-LINKED PROPAGANDA OUTLETS
Analysis & History
‘Israeli Violence Is Legitimized and Palestinian Counter-Violence Is Delegitimized’
A New Surge of Settler Outposts is Terrorizing Palestinians Off Their Land
How The ‘Fight Against Antisemitism’ Became A Shield For Israel’s Genocide
Local Events and Actions
For upcoming events/action also check the FB page for Palestine Solidarity Grand Rapids. https://www.facebook.com/PalestineSolidarityGR
Graphic used in this post is from https://visualizingpalestine.org/#visuals
The weather has been all over the map for some time now, but particularly this winter – if you can call it that – in West Michigan. 2023 was the warmest year in recorded history, as was the most recent months of December, January and February.
Over the past few weeks we have had some temperatures in the 70’s, and while having sunshine and warm in the later months of winter and often welcomed, we can no longer deny that the human manufactured Climate Crisis is the culprit. Of course it would be easy to blame the climate deniers – GOP politicians, think tanks, and far right pundits, but we are facing a Climate Crisis because the political and economic systems are both failing us miserably. Here are a few examples of the lack of Climate Justice within the Biden Administration:
- As the Center for Biological Diversity noted in January, the Biden Administration is on pace to approve more oil and gas drilling permits than what former President Donald Trump did in the previous 4 years.
- The Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) provides some of the best critiques of the COP28 conference that took place last year. The IEN writes, “The outcomes of the UNFCCC 28th Conference of Parties has left Indigenous Peoples and frontline communities across the world sitting in disappointment as world leaders put forward watered-down climate commitments and text that continue to compromise our future.”
- The Biden Administration approved the largest US military budget in history at $886 Billion, with over an additional $100 Billion in military aid to Ukraine, Israel and for so-called Border Security. US military spending and climate change are well documented in a recent report entitled, Climate Collateral: How military spending accelerates climate breakdown, published by the Transnational Institute.
- The Biden Administration has decided that invest billions into electric vehicles instead of a robust mass transit system in the US. Such a decision does not provide a long term solution and only perpetuates extractivist practices of removing precious metals from other countries to power electric vehicles.
Then there is the role of the commercial news media, which is also complicit in not making Climate Change a front and center issue. For example, WZZM 13 ran a story a few days ago talking about Michigan businesses can apply for federal relief funding because on the warmer winter weather, specifically businesses that rely on tourism. While the channel 13 story talks about the warmer winter weather, nowhere in the story are the words Climate Change mentioned.
A second example of local news coverage about the warmer winter was from MLive on March 5th, with the headline, We had a 2-week winter in Grand Rapids, Muskegon, West Michigan. The MLive article had some very nice graphics showing how few days of winter temperatures we actually had over the past several months, but refused to bring up the issue of Climate Change and the causes of such a warm winter.
Liberals and Democrats love to mock climate deniers, but many of these same people continue to vote for and defend politicians that ultimately do nothing to stop the planet from warming or burning. What we need is a Climate Justice movement that is also an anti-war movement and an anti-Capitalist movement that understand the systemic root causes of the current climate crisis.
Lastly, it is important that we come to terms with the fact that the Climate Crisis impacts BIPOC at a higher level that white/Europeans. However, one of the most important players in the Climate Justice movement are Indigenous people.
Throughout the history of the struggle for Indigenous Sovereignty, right relationship to the land (rather than property) and its people has been central. Multiple direct actions and campaigns led by Indigenous people to fight pipelines from Standing Rock to Line 5 have been effective in reducing the impact of climate change. According to a report put out by the Indigenous Environmental Network in 2021, Indigenous-led resistance campaigns against pipelines in the US and Canada have reduced greenhouse gas pollution by at least 25% annually since these campaigns began. We need to learn from and follow the examples of concrete ways to reduce Climate Change, especially if we care about leaving behind a planet for future generations.
It is quite understandable that the immediate work we can do in Grand Rapids is to demand a permanent ceasefire in the Israeli assault on Palestine, plus a push to end US military aid to Israel.
However, we should not and cannot be content with making those two outcomes the end goal. In 2005, the Palestinians began their Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, as a means of ending Israeli Apartheid and the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land.
For the entire month of March, the international BDS campaign has designated this month as Israeli Apartheid Week. Yes, I know it’s a month, but they historically have organized doing education and actions for one week to draw attention to Israeli Apartheid. Considering that more than 30,000 Palestinians have been killed since early October, which it the largest amount of Palestinians that Israel has killed in such a short period of time, they BDS campaign expanded Israeli Apartheid week to a month. They also recognize that the level of international solidarity has been incredible. Here is part of what the BDS campaign wrote for Israeli Apartheid Week:
While Palestinians remain steadfast in the face of this genocide and persist with our liberation struggle, we take hope and strength from global solidarity expressed in mass demonstrations from Jakarta to Washington, Cape Town to London, and Rabat to Baghdad; trade union actions to stop arms shipments to Israel in Belgium, Italy, Greece, Turkey and elsewhere; hundreds of creative civil disobedience actions (sit-ins, peaceful occupations, walk-outs, strikes, etc.) worldwide; fast-growing grassroots BDS campaigns and calls for military embargo; strong declarations of solidarity by racial, Indigenous, climate, gender and social justice movements; high-profile statements by prominent artists, writers, academics, international experts in genocide, as well as by progressive Jewish groups, human rights and civil rights organizations; and a million local, grassroots solidarity actions and creative initiatives worldwide.
Now, the BDS campaign consists of three areas that we can all take part in – the Academic Boycott, the Cultural Boycott and the Economic Boycott and Divestment. Divestment is a tactic that Calvin University faculty and staff are using, which we wrote about earlier this week.
The BDS campaign also focuses on targeted boycotts instead of un-targeted. Un-targeted boycotts are usually longer list of companies to boycott, as opposed to choosing few targets that can often have a larger impact. The targets that the BDS campaign has focused on are companies like Caterpillar, Hewlett Packard (HP), Chevron, RE/MAX, ect. In the graphic above you can see some of the targeted boycott campaigns, some of which are for institutions to divest from. If you are part of a faith community, a university, a corporation or even a labor union, you could chose to divest from companies that are profiting off of the Israeli occupation and Israeli Apartheid. However, there are other boycotts, such as consumer boycotts or pressure targets that people can organize campaigns against directly, both by not purchasing products, but also by doing larger public awareness campaigns or direct actions against companies complicit in the Israeli occupation and Israeli genocide.
The possibilities are endless and the BDS campaign website has an amazing amount of resources;
- An Intro into BDS.
- Israel’s new far-right government – an analysis.
- Israeli Settler Colonialism and Apartheid
- Regular posts and updates about success stories.
- Creating Apartheid Free Zones
- The importance of a Military Embargo.
It is imperative that we support the BDS campaign because it is a Palestinian movement, but also because this work addresses the long term and root causes of Israel’s occupation and Apartheid system of government. STOP GENOCIDE, DISMANTLE APARTHEID!
Interview with Calvin Professor on faculty divestment campaign targeting Israel and War Profiteers
Yesterday, GRIID made a post about the important action that Calvin University faculty and staff have taken, by crating a letter calling on their university to divest from Israel and Gaza war profiteers.
As a follow up to that story I conducted an interview with one of those professors who signed the letter, Elisha Marr. Included below are the questions that I asked, with the video containing the full interview.
GRIID – What motivated you and other Calvin faculty to craft a letter calling for Divestment from Israel and the companies profiting from their genocidal campaign?
GRIID – The letter itself has three main components, the Situation in Gaza, the International Condemnation and your Request and Call to Action. Can you talk a bit about what you are requesting specifically and why?
GRIID – The letter has been signed by 36 faculty and 5 staff, as of March 1st, have any new people signed on since then and will you invite Calvin students to sign on to the letter, or do you think it would be better if they did a separate campaign?
GRIID – What would you say to people who work inside of institutions that could follow your example in calling for divestment?
For more information on the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanction campaign go https://bdsmovement.net/.
The Matrix of Policing in Grand Rapids receives another $6.45 million for the GVSU Police Academy
Ever since the massive uprising in 2020, the public has been struggling to understand the function of policing in the US. As a response to the police repression of the millions of people taking the streets after the police murder of George Floyd, the Movement for Black Lives put out a call to Defund the Police.
There was push back on the idea of defunding policing in the US and in Grand Rapids, mostly coming from white people, elected officials and members of the Capitalist Class.
In the process of trying to understand the complexities of policing in Grand Rapids, I first wrote a piece in early 2022, entitled, The Matrix of Policing in Grand Rapids. In that article, and a subsequent post in June of 2022, I provided some analysis of all of the pieces of the policing matrix in Grand Rapids.
In those two GRIID posted I not only identified the GRPD itself, but all of the entities included in the graphic here above.
A year after the GRPD murder of Patrick Lyoya, I attempted to write a piece about the curriculum that was being used to train new recruits for the GRPD, especially since the lawyers defending the cop who shot and killed Patrick Lyoya claimed that he was merely following his training. However, when I contacted the Police Academy, they blocked me from sending any future inquiries about what training new recruits were receiving, which I then wrote about.
Now, the Matrix of policing in Grand Rapids is expanding, with last week’s announcement that the GVSU Police Academy will be spending $6.45 million to relocate the Police Academy.
According to an article on MLive:
The GVSU Board of Trustees recently approved a proposal to renovate Grand Valley’s Meijer Campus in Holland to make room for the GVSU Police Academy, which is currently housed on the Allendale campus.
Grand Valley leaders say the move will create more space for the Police Academy to “continue to meet the growing need for law enforcement officers (in) the region,” according to the agenda packet from the board’s Friday, Feb. 23 meeting.
In addition, the MLive article states:
The academy goes beyond the mandatory minimum training requirement of 594 hours set by the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards, requiring recruits to spend an additional 42 hours focusing on community policing which includes de-escalation and implicit bias training, according to the board packet.
Now, despite using buzzwords like community policing, de-escalation and implicit bias training, those components of the Police Academy curriculum have not translated into reducing the amount of harm that the GRPD inflicts on BIPOC communities, the unhoused and people involved in various social movements in Grand Rapids. Whenever there is a protest, no matter what the issue, those of us in the streets have seen nothing but increased surveillance, harassment and repression as standard practices of the GRPD.
Some quick examples come to mind, such as how the GRPD threatened to arrest people marching in the streets in the Cosecha-led May Day 2023 action, even though the Palestine Solidarity GR protests often take over the streets in downtown without consequences. Another example is a recent protest in the southeast part of GR, which included going to Rep. Scholten’s home. At this protests there were at least 10 GRPD cruisers, along with a white, unmarked cruiser, which just happened to be the Chief of Police. The GRPD stopped and ticketed the driver of a car that was following the march, for safety purposes to reduce the possibility of motorists driving into protesters.
Besides these examples, for GVSU to spend an additional $6.45 million on the Police Academy sends the message that they are ramping up their efforts to recruit more people into the GRPD and to further criminalize marginalized populations and repressive tactics against dissident groups. In the end, the GVSU funding will only further solidify the Matrix of policing in Grand Rapids.
Faculty and Staff at Calvin University call for divestment from the State of Israel and Gaza War Profiteers in recent letter
Last month I wrote about a presentation I did at Calvin University on my book, A People’s History of Grand Rapids. I hit on several themes in the presentation, but spent most of my time talking about the student and faculty movements at Calvin, specifically about the anti-Vietnam War and the South African Anti-Apartheid movement.
About a week after my presentation, I was told by one of the faculty members who had invited me to speak on campus, that they and other faculty members were crafting a letter to demand that Calvin University divest from businesses profiting off of Israeli Apartheid and weapons manufacturers who are making profits from the current Israeli assault on Gaza.
Earlier today, a former Calvin professor shared with me a link to the actual letter that has been signed so far by 36 faculty and 5 staff members from Calvin University. Here is a link to the letter and I am including the entirety of the letter in this post. This letter is an excellent example of how institutions and take action to not be complicit in Israeli Apartheid and Israel’s genocidal campaign against the Palestinians. Other campuses in West Michigan should do the same, along with labor associations, faith communities and local governments. What Calvin faculty and staff are doing is a model for action that we can all follow and demand that the institutions that represent us to the same! #CeasefireNOW #EndIsraeliApartheid
Faculty Letter Calling for Calvin University to Divest from the State of Israel and Gaza War Profiteers
Yesterday (Thursday, 29 February 2024), a group of faculty members from Calvin University submitted the following letter to the university’s Interim President and Board of Trustees, calling for the institution to divest from any financial or programmatic links that benefit from the State of Israel’s military actions in Gaza. I was one of the co-writers of the letter and am proud to stand by the statements herein:
Dear Interim President Elzinga and Members of the Board of Trustees,
We are a group of Calvin University faculty who are deeply concerned about the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza and the Palestinian territories. We are writing to urge you to take a moral and couragous stand by divesting from any financial investments and activities that benefit from the State of Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
As Reformed Christians, we believe that God calls us to seek justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with him. We also believe that God loves all people and commands us to love our neighbors as ourselves. We cannot remain silent or indifferent when our fellow image-bearers in Palestine are suffering from oppression, violence, and injustice.
The Situation in Gaza
The conditions in Gaza are dire and desperate. Since October 7, 2023, when Hamas carried out a horrendous attack that left well over a thousand innocents dead in Israel, the State of Israel responded with a siege and bombing campaign that is itself a catastrophe and that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians. Here are some of the shocking facts and figures that illustrate the magnitude of the crisis:
- As of February 22, 2024, over 29,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza with over 69,000 injured. Of these deaths, approximately 70% have been women and children. On December 25, 2023, the New York Times reported that a “conservative reading of the casualty figures reported from Gaza shows that the pace of death during Israel’s campaign has few precedents in this century.” At the time, the death rates were reported to be 1 out of 200 Gazans but that death rate has increased to 1 in 100 Gazans. It is estimated that 250 Palestinians are being killed per day.
- The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) estimates that over 75% of Gazans (1.7 million people) are internally displaced, many of whom have experienced multiple displacements since October of 2023. Rafah, which was the last safe city in the south of Gaza, is now under Israeli military assault despite dire warnings of a humanitarian tragedy if a military assault were to occur. Gazans have nowhere to find safety from Israel’s military assault.
- The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) analysis of Gaza in December of 2023 found that the entire population of Gaza is living with crisis or higher levels of hunger. One in four households—more than half a million people—face catastrophic conditions. Before October 7th, acute malnutrition in Gaza was almost non-existent. Today food insecurity is the norm.
- The Gazan health infrastructure has been systematically destroyed with only 12 of 36 hospitals running with marginal inpatient capacity. The OCHA estimates that over 370 attacks on the healthcare facilities have occurred in Gaza. The results have been devastating and catastrophic for Gazans.
International Condemnation
With few notable exceptions, the international community’s response to the State of Israel’s military actions in Gaza has been critical and condemnatory. Many countries, organizations, and individuals have called for an immediate ceasefire, humanitarian access, and respect for international law and human rights. Some have also advocated for sanctions, boycotts, or divestment from Israel. Here are just a few of these responses:
- The Republic of South Africa has initiated proceedings against the State of Israel in the International Court of Justice, charging that “Israel, since 7 October 2023 in particular, has failed to prevent genocide and has failed to prosecute the direct and public incitement to genocide,” and that “Israel has engaged in, is engaging in and risks further engaging in genocidal acts against the Palestinian people in Gaza.” This case is currently before the court.
- The United Nations, Human Rights Watch, and Oxfam have all warned that starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is being used in Gaza. Starving civilians is illegal under International Humanitarian Law and in direct breach of UNSC Resolution 2417.
- Amnesty International and the International Court of Justice have observed that Israel’s blocking of urgently needed humanitarian assistance into Gaza breach the obligations of an occupying country under International Humanitarian Law, constituting war crimes.
- Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP), an ecumenical coalition of more than 30 Church communions and organizations of which the Christian Reformed Church is a member, submitted a joint letter to US President Joe Biden on February 13, urging him to “immediately call for a comprehensive permanent ceasefire, an end to the occupation, and lasting peace,” further adding that “We call on all parties to abide by the Geneva Conventions and customary international law and for the collective punishment imposed upon the civilians in Gaza to be brought to an immediate end.”
- The World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC), of which the Christian Reformed Church is also a member, has issued a call for “our member churches to stand in solidarity with all those who are suffering the ravages of war and call on the international community to work for justice in the region so that there can be a real and long-lasting possibility for peace.”
Our Request and Call to Action
We, the undersigned Calvin University faculty, believe that as a Christian institution that values justice, compassion, and stewardship, Calvin University has a moral responsibility to respond to the crisis in Gaza and to stand in solidarity with the oppressed and suffering people of Palestine. We believe that one of the ways that Calvin University can do so is by divesting from any financial investments and activities that benefit from the State of Israel’s military actions in Gaza.
- We, therefore, call upon the Board of Trustees not to allow Calvin University to support or invest in corporations or other entities that directly profit from the ongoing Israeli military operations that are laying Gazan life and society to waste.
- We propose that the Board of Trustees adopt a policy of selective divestment from companies that are involved in the production or supply of weapons, equipment, or services that are used by Israel to maintain the occupation, the blockade, or the war in Gaza.
- We also propose that the Board of Trustees require that the University refrain from entering into any academic or institutional partnerships or agreements with Israeli universities or organizations that are complicit in or supportive of the violation of Palestinian rights.
We understand that the issue of Israel and Palestine is complex and controversial, and we acknowledge that there are legitimate security concerns and historical grievances on both sides. States have every right to maintain the safety of their citizens, but when military operations are utilized as part of those rights, the state must adhere to international humanitarian law and the constraints of a just war. The State of Israel’s response to the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas on Israeli citizens in October of 2023 has flagrantly violated such international humanitarian law, as well as the constraints of a just war.
We believe that divestment is a peaceful and nonviolent way of expressing our disapproval of the State of Israel’s actions, and of exerting economic and political pressure on the State of Israel to end its illegal and immoral policies and practices. We also believe that divestment is a way of showing our support and solidarity with the Palestinian people. We are inspired by the precedent set in October of 1985, when Calvin College divested from companies tied directly to South Africa in opposition to apartheid, and by the example of other universities and institutions that have divested from the State of Israel or from companies that support the State of Israel’s occupation and oppression of Palestine.
The undersigned have varied opinions on what the ultimate solution for the Israeli/Palestinian conflict should look like, but we stand united against the atrocities occurring in Gaza today and so call for divestment.
Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy 