To the Editors:

The Filipinx American Students Association at Oberlin College joins Oberlin Students for a Free Palestine and other organizations in colleges and universities around the world in the sustained action to free Palestine and to end the siege on Gaza. We condemn in the strongest terms the Zionist government of Israel, U.S. imperialists and all other imperialists.

These oppressors transgress national borders, and this summer the world was reminded that the violence against Palestinians parallels the violence against Black Americans, as in the case of Michael Brown, Renisha McBride, Trayvon Martin and many violently unnamed and unrecorded persons. From Palestine to Ferguson, oppression everywhere must end.

As stated in the 2,133 Black Flags action in honor of the Palestinians murdered by the Israeli Defense Forces’ Operation Protective Edge, this is a call to action. We urge Oberlin College yet again to execute the demands stated in the Oberlin Divestment Resolution and to redress its complicity in the oppression of Palestinian people. Specifically, we amplify the demands to divest from the human rights violators including, but not limited to, Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard, Group 4 Securicor, SodaStream, Elbit Systems and Veolia.

As Filipinxs in the diaspora, we share the common imperialist oppressor — the United States of America — with the Palestinian people. Millions of U.S. tax and private dollars sustain the fascist Philippine military. The U.S. military itself backs Philippine President B.S. Aquino, only the latest in a long history of puppet regimes constructed through U.S. imperialism. Together these military, political and economic powers repress and violate countless human rights against our peoples in their struggle for freedom, democracy and justice from both the Philippine state and U.S. imperialism. We stand up against injustice in the Philippines, and we stand up against injustice in Palestine.

We call specifically on other colleges, universities and organizations within them to work actively to destroy injustice against Palestinians and other oppressed peoples.

End the complicity of universities in Israeli occupation.

End U.S. imperialism.

End the siege on Gaza.

Free Palestine.

–Filipinx American Students Association

Reference: Gian-Carlo T. Parel, Co-chair; Ella Isaguirre-Bersola, Co-chair; Natalie Villasana, Secretary; Miles Ginoza, Treasurer; Melissa Harris; [email protected]