To all TESC Staff and Students,
Our Ethical Statement
Members of the Master of Environmental Studies Student Association (MESA) proclaim our deep grief and outrage in response to the ongoing siege and genocide in Gaza. We recognize the inextricable linkages between colonialism, white supremacy, war, and ecological destruction. Settler colonial practices threaten Indigenous sovereignty and environmental health, and the complicity in and support of these activities by the United States continues to endanger biodiversity globally. American militarism directly pollutes the atmosphere, decimates local ecosystems, and further entrenches the global economy in fossil fuel infrastructures that we desperately need to divest from and deconstruct. According to the Costs of War project at Brown and Boston Universities, the U.S. Department of Defense is the single largest user of petroleum, and in turn, the world’s single largest institutional producer of greenhouse gasses (Crawford, 2019). Additionally, the Carbon Literacy Project estimated carbon emissions from current wars (both of which the U.S. is involved in to some degree), and made the astute observation, “War serves no purpose to anyone apart from those profiting from it” (see The Climate Impact of War). The causes of war are many, but the outcomes are always the same – destruction of people, land, and planet. The first 60 days of the U.S.-Israeli assault on Gaza produced 250,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions, a figure on par with the annual fossil fuel emissions of the Central African Republic–a country of some 5.5 million people. What’s more, rebuilding the more than 100,000 damaged buildings is estimated to generate over 30 million metric tonnes of CO2 emissions, on a level with the annual carbon footprint of New Zealand and higher than 135 countries’ annual carbon budgets. Environmentalists must acknowledge this connection and actively work to dismantle these systems of oppression if we hope to build generative systems, especially where our tax dollars are concerned. To quote Albert Einstein, “Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.”
We desire decisive action from The Evergreen State College as an institution in solidarity with the more than 30,000 Gazan civilians–primarily women and children–who have been murdered, the more than 70,000 Gazan civilians who have been injured and disabled, and all 2 million+ Gazan civilians who have been displaced by the atrocious war waged against them for over five months. We firmly condemn the Israeli government’s use of collective punishment in Gaza as a response to the October 7th attack, the apartheid inflicted upon all Palestinians since 1947, the unlawful and inhumane imprisonment of thousands of Palestinian children, and the intentional or negligent murder of innocent Palestinian and Israeli civilians throughout the region–all of which are crimes under international law. We are disgusted and heartbroken at the Israeli military’s systematic targeting of academics with precision air raids, its murder of hundreds of teachers and thousands of students, and its complete demolition of all Gazan universities. We also assert particular condemnation for the ongoing ecocide of the Palestinian land itself, including not just annihilation by carpet bombing but also the sealing of natural springs and wells, the mass salinization of groundwater and cropland, and the destruction of ancient and culturally significant Olive trees. We deeply protest the Zionist attempts to equate their settler colonial project with Judaism or Jewish identity. We detest the continued financial, political, and military support of Israel’s actions in Gaza using American tax dollars without our consent. We wish to see (1) an immediate permanent ceasefire in Gaza, (2) the removal of all Israeli military forces from Palestinian territories, (3) the end of the Israeli occupation of Palestine, (4) the end to all US military aid to the internationally-illegal apartheid settlements of Israel, and (5) the immediate and safe return of the dozens of Israeli and thousands of Palestinian hostages.
Our Initiatory Action
In January, the Masters of Environmental Studies Student Association (MESA) turned in a letter to our degree program faculty to ask for specific shows of solidarity with the occupied and under-siege territories of Palestine. This letter attempted to call in faculty and ask them to either participate in a class strike or to reorient our learning and in-class activities to the land and people of Palestine. We received a quick response from our faculty who have carried on discussions about how they can meet our requests throughout the rest of the quarter and year while also honoring the environmental focus of our academic space.
Moving Forward as a Student Body
Like our faculty, fellow students and campus organizations have been responsive to this call. In an attempt to do more than create discussion, students have suggested a united front amongst TESC as an institution to demand a state-wide boycott of, divestment from, and sanctions on Israel and any businesses providing funds, tech, personnel, or supplies to Israel. To reach this end, in tandem with the actions occurring at other Washington universities, TESC students are forming coalitions amongst those who will not allow their investment in Evergreen to pay for genocide. Some of the asks we intend to make of President Carmichael, Vice President Gordon, and the Board of Trustees will likely include issuing a schoolwide statement on the conflict, investigating and divesting from university donors who are involved in the ongoing siege in Gaza (including corporations like Boeing, whose products continue to kill Gazans), creating institutional solidarity with occupied Palestine, and pressuring WA state universities and legislators to do their part to block military resources going to Israel, to send humanitarian aid to Gaza, and to demand a ceasefire.
Our Ask
Our small cohort in MES cannot speak for all Geoducks, so we are calling on you to join us. Please go to your classes, groups, organizations, and offices and spread the word: Evergreen students are organizing to initiate university-wide action standing against the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people and the ecocide of Palestinian lands. We ask that any students who wish to join us in solidarity
(a) begin organizing pro-Palestinian action amongst their own circles on and off campus,
(b) follow the lead of Beldaan Solidarity Network and other Palestinian-led groups,
(c) participate in–and help TESC participate institutionally in–the BDS movement,
(d) attend the April 8th GSU town hall at 4pm in CAB 301 to see how else you can help, and
(e) contact MESA (messtudentassociation@gmail.com) to help us with relevant research needs (see below).
Finally, we would like to echo the words published by the Beldaan Solidarity Network in the Cooper Point Journal on February 21st: “It is of utmost urgency for people in the United States to respond to the demands of Palestinians and work collectively to pressure for consumer boycotts, institutional divestment, and sanctions against ‘Israel’. We seek to follow the leadership of Palestinians in their fight for liberation by amplifying their demands, perspectives, and words. We strongly believe non-Palestinians must use extreme caution when attempting to write their own informative pieces in support of Palestine, in order to mitigate the spread of misinformation or counterproductive rhetoric.” We hope our words here have honored this call.
Sincerely,
Graduate Students of the Master of Environmental Studies Student Association (MESA)
Palestinian Solidarity at TESC Research Needs:
(All information should be cited and backed by reputable or otherwise verifiable sources.)
- Does Washington have any subtle anti-BDS legislation?
- What zionist or Israel-supporting entities are TESC currently engaging with?
- What zionist or Israel-supporting entities are donating funds to WA state schools (especially TESC)?
- What zionist or Israel-supporting entities are receiving investment funds from WA state schools (especially TESC)?
- How do Washington’s combined university funds operate?
