Two sociology professors at the University of Alabama Huntsville have signed onto an open letter supporting Gaza and Palestinians while condemning Israel for fighting back after it was attacked by the terrorist group Hamas.
UAH’s department chair of sociology Daniel R. Morrison and associate professor Jennifer Sims were among the 1,921 names listed as signatories to the letter, which accuses Israel of racism, genocide, using collective punishment and general oppression of the Palestinians in Gaza.
“We are witnessing internationally supported genocide,” the letter stated. “This latest siege comes as a continuation and escalation of the daily violence Palestinians faced for decades from Israeli colonization; an apartheid regime whose occupation is in clear violation of international law, but persists with the support of powerful governments globally.”
According to UAH’s website, Morrison’s published works cover topics such as “empathy, care ethics, biomedical ethics, racism in medicine, interactionist social theory, and the sociology of ignorance,” and Sims focuses on “racial construction, perception, and identity in the US and UK as well as interrogates how knowledge about race is produced and disseminated by the scientific community.”
“We join people around the world who are raising their voices in protest of this assault on human life,” the letter continued. “As educators, it is our duty to stand by the principles of critical inquiry and learning, to hold the university as a space for conversation that foregrounds historical truths, and that contextualizes this past week’s violence in the context of 75 years of settler colonial occupation and European empire. We are also deeply troubled by the lack of concern and care for Palestinian and Muslim students at many of our universities, as well as efforts to clamp down on student organizing and free speech.
“We cannot sit back and witness the continuation of this genocidal war," it concluded. "We demand that our governments push for an immediate ceasefire. This stance follows in the tradition of the civil rights movement, anti-war and anti-apartheid protests of decades past. Aligning ourselves with these freedom struggles, we call on all of our colleagues to stand in solidarity with Palestinians and against settler colonialism, imperialism, and genocide.”
Read the full letter and list of signatories below:
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