An Open Letter to the UVA Community from Concerned Faculty on the Crisis in Israel- Palestine
October 27, 2023
We write as faculty deeply committed to President Ryan’s vision of being a university that is “both great and good.” It is because of this that we find ourselves unsettled by President Ryan’s letter of Oct 11, 2023, the one public statement our university has released on the violence in Gaza and Israel to date. While the statement rightly recognizes that we have community members with connections across the region who are hurting due to the outbreak of conflict there, by mentioning Israeli suffering but leaving out any mention of Palestine or Palestinians, the letter participates in a troubling erasure of a people, thus intellectually contributing to the kinds of politics playing out on the ground in the region. It is our contention that we can be neither good nor great if we don’t recognize the suffering of Palestinians as Palestinians and the brutality of their systematic dispossession, displacement, and destruction. If we want to live up to the ideal we have set for ourselves as an institution to exhibit the good, it is unconscionable only to recognize the Israeli lives tragically lost as grievable, while remaining silent on Palestinian casualties. Neither can we live up to our ideal of being great by presenting political positions (the absence of Palestine and Palestinians) as neutral declarations, behavior bereft of the requisite rigor we must show as scholars.
We greatly appreciated the tone of sympathy that the president’s letter conveyed to all of our students, faculty, and staff who are suffering right now and we affirm with him the value of all human life. We mourn the lives of Israelis tragically lost on October 7, as we mourn the many lives lost in the days that have succeeded it. However, the administration must also recognize that among our students, faculty and staff are Palestinians and those with professional, family, ethical, and religious connections to Palestine who are waiting to see their pain and basic humanity recognized. It is our hope that this letter from concerned faculty offers at least a small portion of that.
Following a whole-hearted embrace of one side in this struggle by the U.S government, large scale intimidation on many campuses of those who choose to speak out for the rights of Palestinians, and harassment and even violence towards visibly Muslim individuals in our cities, we feel it is absolutely essential that at UVA we offer a reasoned alternative, an intellectual community that insists on fair-mindedness, on inclusivity, and on our own duty as scholars to hold power accountable for its excesses. This cannot be done when we discuss the current conflict and ignore the atrocities that indiscriminate Israeli bombardment and its siege have wrought and the unimaginable adversity that Palestinians now face. Without this, we fall short on our shared charge to be a university that is both great and good.
Beyond advocating that we more fully realize our ideals here at UVA, we feel it is important to make plain why we are so alarmed by approaches to this conflict that do not mention the context in which Oct 7 occurred: in which the Palestinian people have been subject to military occupation, forced into smaller and smaller territories, suffered daily indignities and near continuous losses of basic rights, land, and life. Attacks by Palestinian militant groups upon Israelis have been met with disproportionate violence, destruction, and killings, and the Israeli state is currently imposing collective punishment on all Palestinians in Gaza by refusing to allow water, fuel, and electricity flows into the territory.
The dehumanizing rhetoric towards Palestinians and the threats of extermination that continue to be circulated in Israeli and even US media only serves to justify the retaliatory siege in Gaza and continued bombing campaigns of terror in the West Bank. Moreover, grief over the deaths of Israelis is sadly being politicized and weaponized to kill more people. Bereaved Israeli citizen Noi Katsman, whose brother, Hayim, was killed in the Hamas attack offered the following profound reflection on CNN:
Most important for me and I think also for my brother is that his death won’t be used to kill innocent people. And sadly, my government, our government, is using cynically the death of people to just kill. They promised it’s going to bring us security, but of course it’s not security because they always tell us: oh but if we’re going to kill enough Palestinians, it’s going to be better for us. But of course it never brings us peace and it never brings us better lives. It just brings more and more terror and more and more people killed, like my brother. And I don’t want anything to happen to people in Gaza like it happened to my brother, and I’m sure he wouldn’t have either. So that’s my call to my government: stop killing innocent people. That’s not the way to bring peace and security…
We hope and pray for peace in the region and condemn the use of violence as a political strategy, whether in Hamas’ horrific Oct 7 attacks or in Israel’s vicious campaigns in Gaza. Yet, it seems clear to us that the continued occupation and brutal assault on Palestinian lives and dignity, bankrolled by U.S military aid makes not only Palestinians, but also Israelis less safe and secure. We celebrate President Ryan’s call to promote civil discourse at UVA and, in this spirit, call on our university community to live up to its ideals of being a beacon of intellectual and ethical rigor. Approaches to the conflict that fail to mention the violences to which the Palestinian people are being subjected fall short of that.
Sincerely
Hanadi Al-Samman, Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures
Sam Amago, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese
Jessica Andruss, Religious Studies
Stephen Arata, English
Dorothe Bach, Center for Teaching Excellence
Allison Bigelow, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese
Fahad Bishara, History
Rose Buckelew, Sociology
Emily Burrill, History
A.D. Carson, Music
Mrinalini Chakravorty, English
Indrani Chatterjee, History
G.A. Chaussée, Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures
Sylvia Chong, American Studies and English
Ashon Crawley, Religious Studies, African American & African Studies
Cristian Danna, Biology
Eve Danziger, Anthropology
Nomi Dave, Music
Fred Diehl, Emeritus Professor Biology
Dudley Doane, International Studies
Paul Dobryden, Germanic Languages and Literatures
Kandioura Dramé, French
Kevin Duong, Politics
David Edmunds, Global Development Studies
Tessa Farmer, Anthropology and Global Studies
Robert Fatton, Politics
Lorena Albert Ferrando, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese
Joao Pedro Ferreira, Weldon Cooper Center and Frank Batten School for Public Policy
Corinne Field, Women, Gender, and Sexuality
Nichole M. Flores, Religious Studies
Susan Fraiman, English
Reginald H Garrett, Biology (Professor Emeritus)
Lisa Goff, American Studies
Laura Goldblatt, Engagements and Global Studies
Grace Elizabeth Hale, History and American Studies
Richard Handler, Anthropology and Global Studies
Walt Heinecke, School of Education
Natasha Heller, Religious Studies
Nizar F. Hermes, Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures
Cynthia Hoehler-Fatton, Religious Studies
Jim Igoe, Anthropology
Masashi Kawasaki, Biology
Tiffany King, Department of Women, Gender and Sexuality
Gabrielle Kruks-Wisner, Politics and Global Studies
Kyrill Kunakhovich, History
Kathryn Laughon, School of Nursing
Dan Lefkowitz, Anthropology and Interim Chair of MESALC
Melissa Levy, School of Education & Human Development
Erik Linstrum, History
John Mason, History
Cliff Maxwell, Global Studies
Deborah E. McDowell, English
Jerome McGann, Emeritus University Professor
George Mentore, Anthropology
Sarah Milov, History
Armik Mirzayan, Linguistics Program and Anthropology
S. Mohamed, Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures
Kelly Moore, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese
Esther Poveda Moreno, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese
Neeti Nair, History
Shankar Nair, Religious Studies
Eyleen O’Rourke, Biology
Oludamini Ogunnaike, Religious Studies
Ricardo Padron, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese
Geeta Patel, Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures
Kristina Richardson, History and Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures
Christa Robbins, Art History Program
Kevin Stewart Rose, Religious Studies
Jorge Secada, Philosophy
Noah Salomon, Religious Studies
Mohammed Sawaie, Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures
Kathryn Schetlick, Drama and Dance
Sandy Seidel, Biology
Mark Sicoli, Anthropology
Samhita Sunya, Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures
Lean Sweeney, History
Herbert Tucker, English
Steven Villereal, University Library
Levi Vonk, Global Studies
Denise M. Walsh, Politics and Women, Gender & Sexuality
Nathan Wendte, Linguistics Program and Anthropology
Kath Weston, Anthropology
Caitlin D. Wylie, Engineering and Society
Anonymous – Assistant Professor at UVA School of Architecture
Anonymous – General Faculty in the School of Medicine
Anonymous – Professor, Arts and Sciences
Anonymous – Assistant Professor, Arts & Science
Anonymous-History
Anonymous-History
Further expressions of support:
Elizabeth Attick, Bridge to the Doctorate Psychology
Scott T Erich, Howell Postdoctoral Research Associate in Arabian Peninsula and Gulf Studies, History
Marwa El Shaarawy, Law Student
Najwa Labban, MD-PhD Student, Biomedical Engineering Department
Lucas Martínez, MFA Student, English
Emmy Monaghan, Art History PhD Student
*We want to recognize here that we spoke with several tenured faculty who supported this open letter but due to the present climate of intimidation in our country, were nonetheless uncomfortable signing this letter. We simply cannot achieve the kind of community of civil discourse for which President Ryan rightly calls in such an environment. Let us work here at UVA to embody an alternative.
If you would like to show support by adding your name:
Please email your name and affiliation (for verification purposes) to openletteroct2023 at gmail dot com.
Faculty for Justice in Palestine UVA Chapter 