Last week, three students, hereby dubbed the “Statler Three,” were arrested by the Cornell University Police Department following a protest for divestment from weapons manufacturers facilitating the genocide in Palestine. These arrests come after the non-academic suspension of more than a dozen other Cornell Students. Interim President Kotlikoff stated that Cornell has identified “nearly 20” individuals who participated at a career fair disruption on Wednesday, Sept. 18. Of the individuals contacted by Cornell administration, the vast majority have identified as Palestinian, Indigenous, Jewish, Black or an otherwise marginalized identity. For my column this week, I am sharing a statement from the Coalition for Mutual Liberation regarding the Statler Three:
Over these past two days Cornell Police have arrested three students for their alleged involvement in the pro-Palestinian movement. The University tries to silence their voices but we will be heard, for this movement is bigger than three individuals. These arrests are insignificant compared to the consequences that previous protesters, journalists and resistance fighters faced while fighting for Palestinian liberation. This movement will never die, for we the people are first and foremost scholars that bear the responsibility to act — and act we will. We are taught time and time again that we learn so that we may use that knowledge to better the world we live in. But how can we do so in a university that ignores their role in the active genocide and dispossession of Indigenous peoples across this country and around the world? We call on you to fulfill your roles as scholars and impart this knowledge to you all here.
We are now well over a year into the most documented genocide in history. As of June 2024, the Lancet Journal estimated that there may have been at least 186,000 deaths attributed to the current genocide in Gaza. The Gaza Health Ministry recently released the names of all the martyrs, the first 14 pages of which were children under one year old. The Israeli ethno-state continues its regime of settler-colonial expansion, now turning its eyes to Lebanon, where thousands have been killed already by incessant bombings and even more have been displaced. This is not some far-off conflict — members of our own Cornell community grieve and worry for their family and friends trapped in the endless nightmare the Israeli occupation inflicts upon Palestine and Lebanon. We also grieve the losses of members of our international scholastic community; students, professors and centuries-old universities, all lost to rubble.
And yet, the Cornell administration is spending considerable resources to repress opposition to their complicity in genocide. They have renovated buildings to install more cameras, fenced off the former encampment area and employed more cops for surveillance. Cornell’s harsh crackdown following the disruption of a career fair that involved weapon manufacturers shows their commitment to their moneyed interest. So much so that, despite the Cornell undergraduate body voting 70 percent in favor of divestment from 10 weapons manufacturers last semester, the previous Cornell President refused to call a vote for divestment at the following Board of Trustees meeting. Cornell administration clearly favors the interests of trustees like Kraig Kayser, the Chair of Cornell’s Board of Trustees and director and major shareholder at weapons company Moog, over the demands of over 5,000 undergraduates who voted to divest. Cornell is not only violating its own rules but doubling down on its depravity by arresting and suspending us out of fear of the precedent that the Statler Hall rally sets. The administration is responding so intensely because the masses have shifted their tactics. No longer are they demanding the University change, but rather taking matters into their own hands by refusing to welcome weapons manufacturers into a place of learning and nurturing. The students are asserting themselves as not only the majority voice, but the true decision making body of this university.
While some may try to paint the Statler Three as enemies of the student body, we would like those individuals to question their own administration’s integrities. These administrators are not simply cogs in a system, many of them have agency to push for change but instead choose to grease this death machine. Less than two months after Martha Pollack refused the call for divestment, the International Court of Justice concluded that Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip is “illegal” and must “immediately cease.” What is the purpose of an institution that willingly goes against international law? Whether in Lebanon, Gaza or the West Bank, there is no doubt in our minds that Israel will commit massacre after massacre in the weeks leading up to the student arrestees’ court dates. These massacres will be carried out using weapons from companies that Cornell invests in, collaborates with, and has helped research weapons for. By the time the three arrestees are arraigned, tens of thousands of Palestinians will most likely die at the hands of Israel.
Cornell claims to hold “an enduring commitment to affirming the value of diversity and by promoting an environment free from discrimination.” However, Cornell has created a system that privileges certain groups while demonizing others based solely on political beliefs. The methods that Cornell administration has used to identify individuals have systematically targeted the most marginalized communities. These targeted students are not permitted to be on Cornell’s campus except to attend classes. In actuality, the University is in fact enforcing what is effectively a protest ban. Limiting suspended students to only academic spaces inhibits us from the freedom of speech that we are all entitled to.
Ultimately, however, the repression and struggle our students face is a drop in the bucket compared to the suffering the Israeli ethno-state inflicts upon the people of Palestine and Lebanon, the suffering that Cornell actively funds. Any amount of discipline we face at the hands of Cornell’s administrators, we know we can handle; for if there is one thing we have learned from Palestine, it is that we must never give up on each other. Those of us in CML plan on living long, beautiful lives, within which the world will see a free Palestine: A world which finally grants the wretched of the earth the paradise they have long deserved; A world in which all life, human or otherwise, is given the love, kindness and nourishment we have long forgone. We call on all members of the Cornell community to reawaken your empathy and cut all ties this University has, financial or otherwise, with all weapons manufacturers and military defense contractors. We have armed you with knowledge. Will you act?
Nick Wilson is a third year student in the New York State School of Industrial & Labor Relations at Cornell. His biweekly column Interim Expressive Activity provides a perspective on goings-on on campus from those who believe that Cornell should act less like a hedge fund and more like a responsible stakeholder in the Ithaca and global communities. The column does not intend to facilitate, engage in, participate or assist in any violations of University policy. Nick can be reached at [email protected].