On Repression and Unjust Punishment at Pomona College

A statement of the JVP Academic Advisory Council

The Jewish Voice for Peace Academic Advisory Council fully endorses the Middle Eastern Studies Association’s letter of November 4, 2024 to “the leaders of the Claremont colleges regarding their repression of academic freedom and freedom of speech and assembly.” The Council also fully concurs with the October 31 designation by CAIR (the Council of American Islamic Relations) of Pomona College as an Institution of Particular Concern due to the Pomona administration’s flagrant “mistreatment of anti-genocide voices.”  And finally, the Council also fully endorses the November 13 letter to Pomona regarding “Unlawful Disciplining of Students Following October 7, 2024 Protests at Carnegie Hall,” sent jointly by the ACLU of Southern California, the Asian Law Caucus, the Center for Protest and Law & Litigation, the National Legal Guild, and Palestine Legal.

To these three careful and comprehensive responses to Pomona College’s administration, the AAC of Jewish Voice for Peace adds these points:

First: in defending their punishment, absent any due process, of anti-genocide students, the Pomona president and administration have again and again called attention to the property damage that occurred on October 7, 2024 to Carnegie Hall, recognized as a site of teaching and learning.  As scholars and faculty, we greatly value all sites of teaching and learning. Yet, no matter how often the Pomona administrators repeat the phrases “property damage” and ¨safety” their assertion is not credible, since we know of no expression of concern from these administrators about the destruction of every university—and all of their classrooms—in Gaza by the Israeli state (nor has Pomona acted to hire a refugee scholar from Gaza as a visiting faculty member, as several colleges and universities have done).  Absent evidence of moral constancy in response to these two cases of damage to sites of learning and teaching–with one being of such dramatically greater scale than the other–the Pomona administration’s emphasis of damage to Carnegie Hall and its classrooms, and its alarm about the safety of academic staff and faculty, are nothing more than shameful defenses of privilege.

Second: the Pomona administration has also, and again repeatedly, invoked a concern with Jewish safety in defense of its repressive actions and punishments (again, absent due process) of students who participated in the protest on October 7. In response,  Jewish Voice for Peace’s Academic Advisory Council rejects the disingenuous claim that support for Palestinian freedom and equality, and opposition to the Israeli state’s genocide in Gaza, is in any way either a threat to Jewish safety or an expression of hostility to Jews or Judaism.  Anti-Zionism is opposition to a project of ethno-supremacist state-making not opposition to a religion or a people: anti-Zionism is opposition to the supremacism of the Israeli state.  Using Jews to defend the repression of pro-Palestinian speech and assembly is itself a calumny against Jews and Judaism.  And of even more urgent concern, it is a baleful camouflage of anti-Palestinian hate.  

As Jews we say “not in our name”; as Jews we know that Jewish safety cannot be separated from Palestinian safety and liberation.  As Jews we know that none of us are securely free until all of us are free, no exceptions. Repressing anti-genocide students—as Pomona College’s administration repeatedly does—makes all of us less and not more safe.