We stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine. We unequivocally answer and amplify the call from the Palestinian Feminist Collective for “feminists everywhere to speak up, organize, and join the struggle for Palestinian liberation.”  We condemn the forced removal of Palestinians from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah, the raiding of the al-Aqsa mosque, the indiscriminate bombing of Gaza, one of the world’s most densely populated areas, and the de facto annexation of East Jerusalem, which by international law is illegally occupied territory. Israeli settlers, with the support of Israeli police and military forces, are taking over streets, invading homes, and brutalizing Palestinians. This right wing, ethnonationalist violence is often accompanied with the vile chant "Death to Arabs." We do not subscribe to a “both sides” rhetoric that erases the military, economic, media, and global power that Israel has over Palestine. This is not a  “conflict” that is too “controversial and complex” to assess. Israel is using violent force, punitive bureaucracy, and the legal system to expel Palestinians from their rightful homes and to remove Palestinian people from their land. Israeli law systematically discriminates against Palestinian citizens of Israel. Illegal Israeli settlements choke and police Palestinian communities, and Palestinians are cut off from each other by a network of checkpoints, laws, settler-only highways, and a separation wall that swallows illegally occupied Palestinian land.  Both Human Rights Watch and B’Tselem have concluded that Israeli policies and practices towards Palestinians amount to apartheid.
 
As gender studies departments in the United States, we are the proud benefactors of decades of feminist anti-racist, and anti-colonial activism that informs the foundation of our interdiscipline. In 2015 the National Women’s Studies Association wrote that our work is  “committed to an inclusive feminist vision that is in solidarity with Indigenous peoples and sovereignty rights globally, that challenges settler colonial practices, and that contests violations of civil rights and international human rights law, military occupation and militarization, including the criminalization of the U.S. borders, and myriad forms of dispossession.” We center global social justice in our intersectional teaching, scholarship, and organizing.  From Angela Davis we understand that justice is indivisible; we learn this lesson time and again from Black, Indigenous, Arab, and most crucially, Palestinian feminists, who know that “Palestine is a Feminist Issue.” In solidarity, we call for the end of Israel's military occupation of Palestine and for the Palestinian right to return to their homes. As residents, educators, and feminists who are also against the settler colonialism of the U.S., we refuse to normalize or accept the United States’ financial, military, diplomatic and political role in Palestinian dispossession. Furthermore, we will not tolerate any censorship of nor retribution against Palestinian scholars, activists, and those openly critical of the Israeli state. We join a vibrant, vast, and growing international solidarity community, composed of those raising their voices in support of Palestinian's right to freedom, return, safety, flourishing, and self-determination. 
 
May 15th marked the 73rd anniversary of the Nakba, an ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestine that drove over 750,000 Palestinians out of their homes, villages, and cities between the years 1947-1949. Today the vast majority of these Palestinians and their descendants are refugees in bordering countries and in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem. Palestinians have been resisting settler colonialism for more than one hundred years.  We hail the fortitude and determination of the Palestinian people, who remain, despite the fragmentation of their populations, united in their demands to end their oppression.
 
Endorsed By:
Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Rutgers University New Brunswick
Department of Women’s and Gender Studies, Rutgers University Newark
Department of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
Department of Feminist Studies, University of California Santa Cruz
Department of Gender and Women's Studies, University of California Berkeley
Department of Feminist Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Stony Brook University
Gender and Women’s Studies Program, University of Illinois Chicago
​Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies, University of California, Irvine
Program in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Winona State University
Program in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, University of Connecticut
Department of Gender Studies, University of California, Los Angeles
Women's, Gender, & Sexuality Studies Program, Yale University
Women's and Gender Studies Program, Mount Royal University (Calgary, Treaty 7, Canada)
Department of Gender and Women's Studies, University of Arizona
Program of Women's Gender and Sexuality Studies,  Colby College
Women's and Gender Studies, University of Regina, Canada
The Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, University of Maryland 
The Center and Program in Gender, Sexuality & Women’s Studies, University of Pennsylvania
Program in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Stanford University
Department of Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Department of Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Scripps College
Women's and Gender Studies Program, University of Toronto/Mississauga
Program in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Washington State University
Department of Gender, Women, and Sexuality Studies, University of Washington Seattle
Department of Gender Studies, Queens University. Kingston, ON Canada (Traditional Lands of the Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe peoples)
Gender Studies Program, University of Notre Dame
Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program, Wesleyan University
Women's Studies Program, Langara College, Musqueam Territory / Vancouver
Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Barnard College, Columbia University
Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Oregon State University
​Women's & Gender Studies Program, Southern Connecticut State University
Program in Gender and Women’s studies at Pomona College
Colorado College Feminist and Gender Studies Program
Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Program in Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies, Williams College
Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, University of Cincinnati
Women and Gender Studies Program at Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Canada
Susan B Anthony Institute of Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies, University of Rochester
African Feminist Initiative, Penn State University 
Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Ohio State University
Institute for Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Georgia State University
Study of Women and Gender Studies Program, Dominican University
​Women’s and Gender Studies Department at SUNY Oneonta
University of California San Diego Critical Gender Studies Program
Women's and Gender Studies Program, Northern Arizona University 
Women's and Gender Studies Program, Wheaton College, Massachusetts
Women's and Gender Studies program, University of Michigan - Dearborn
Hamilton College Department of Women's and Gender Studies
Critical Theory & Social Justice Department, Occidental College
Women and Gender Studies Institute, University of Toronto 
Gender Studies and Feminist Research Graduate Program, McMaster University, Canada
Gender and Political Violence Faculty Working Group at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA
Gender & Women's Studies Program, Le Moyne College
Department of Women's Studies at San Diego State University
The Department of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, University of California, Davis
Department of Women's and Gender Studies, Santa Clara University
Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies, University of Southern California 
Women’s and Gender Studies, Sul Ross State University
Women’s and Gender Studies Program, St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia, Canada
School of Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies, York University, Canada
Race, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program, Butler University
Program in Gender and Intersectional Analysis Program at the Fletcher School, Tufts University USA 
Georgetown University Gender+ Justice Initiative
Pauline Jewett Institute of Women’s and Gender Studies, Carleton University
Women's and Gender Studies Program at William Paterson University of NJ
Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department at California State University, Long Beach
Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program at Mills College
Department of Gender & Women's Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Feminist Media Studio, Concordia University
Department of Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)
Department of Women’s and Gender Studies, Loyola Marymount University
Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies at College of the Holy Cross 
Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies, University of Ottawa
Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program, University of North Carolina Greensboro
Department of Women’s and Gender Studies, Syracuse University
Gender & Social Justice Program, University of Waterloo, Canada
Department of Race, Gender, Sexuality and Social Justice, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Institute for Research on Women, Gender, and Sexuality, Columbia University
Department of Gender & Women’s Studies, University of Wisconsin—Madison
Department of Ethnic & Gender Studies, Westfield State University
Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies, University of Ottawa, Ottawa Canada
Department of Women's and Gender Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The New School Gender and Sexualities Studies
The Program in Gender, Sexuality & Feminist Studies, Middlebury College
Women and Gender Studies, Hunter College/CUNY
The Gender Studies Program at the John Jay College-City University of New York
Women’s Studies, California State University, Dominguez Hills
Texas Christian University Women and Gender Studies Department 
Women's, Gender & Queer Studies Department, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies at Bates College
Department of Women & Gender Studies, University of Lethbridge, Canada
Gender, Race, and Sexuality Studies program of Lesley University
Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality, University of Virginia
Department of Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies at University of Massachusetts Boston
Women's and Gender Studies Department, Sonoma State University
Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program, University of New Mexico
Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, University of Kansas
Women's and Gender Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee 
Georgetown University Women's and Gender Studies Program
Gender and Sexuality Studies Program, Bryn Mawr College
Department of Women's and Gender Studies at California State University, Sacramento
Boston University Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program
Gender, Women, & Sexuality Studies, Occidental College
Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies, Duke University
Department of Women's and Gender Studies, Merrimack College
Gender Studies, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada
Gender Studies Program, Skidmore College, New York
Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality at the University of Chicago
Simone de Beauvoir Institute, Concordia University
​Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department at The College of New Jersey
Program for the Study of Women and Gender (SWG) at Smith College
University of Nebraska at Omaha Women’s and Gender Studies Program
Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Washington University in St. Louis
Institute for Gender and Women’s Studies, American University in Cairo
Women's, Gender & Sexuality Studies Program, Lafayette College
The Gender Studies Program, Whitman College
Amherst College's Sexuality, Women's and Gender Studies Department 
Department of Gender and Sexuality Studies at the University of California, Riverside
Consortium on Gender, Security and Human Rights, University of Massachusetts Boston
​Women’s and Ethnic Studies Program at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs

Associations and Chapters:
National Women's Studies Association 
Feminist Geographies Specialty Group of the American Association of Geographers
Feminists for Justice in/for Palestine Interest Section, National Women's Studies Association

Centers: 
Center for Race and Gender, University of California Berkeley
Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality, New York University
Center for the Study of Women, University of California, Los Angeles
Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality at Rice University
Pembroke Center for Teaching and Research on Women at Brown University
Feminist Autonomous Centre for Research
Gender and Sexuality Equity Center, College of Charleston 
Centre for Interdisciplinary Gender Studies (CIGS) in Leeds, UK
BiGS/Birkbeck Gender and Sexuality
Centre for Gender Studies, University of Stavanger, Norway

International Endorsements:
Centre for Gender Studies at SOAS, University of London
Instituto de Investigaciones de Estudios de Género, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
Gender Studies Programme, University of Iceland
Centre for Feminist Research, Goldsmiths, University of London
Institute for Gender and Women’s Studies, American University in Cairo
Gender, Sexuality and Diversity Studies Program, La Trobe University
MA Program in Gender Studies, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Greece