On the eve of the new academic year we are looking forward to a renewal of pro-Palestinian expression on our campuses. With the arrival of a fresh class of students who are invested in freedom in Palestine and beyond, the work to educate and organize will continue and grow in new ways.  As the mechanisms for suppressing speech, criminalizing protest, and weaponizing fragility also grow and intensify, faculty, academic workers, and staff must rise again to the challenge of supporting and standing with students, while defending their own freedoms in this new era of unprecedented McCarthyism. Lawsuits and legislation aimed at shutting down any criticism of Israel and its genocidal war are ubiquitous. At the same time, Israel, its enablers, allies, and apologists have never been so exposed, as the genocidal assault on Gaza and the brazen land grabs on the West Bank demonstrate, day after day, the depth of settler colonial depravity.

FJP chapters have played an important role during the last ten months. There are now almost 120 campuses in the national network, and several groups are in a state of formation. Of the three major campaigns promoted by NFJP this year, one of the largest achievements was retraction of the national AAUP’s ban on boycotts. University administrators can no longer portray pro-Palestinian advocacy as out of alignment with AAUP principles. Moreover, in a recent statement, strenuously titled, “Professors Are Not the Enemy. Fascists Are,” the new AAUP leadership has come out fighting against right-wing attacks on university professors.

Our second campaign, for Divestment, has seen mixed results. Along with some solid gains, there has been some predictable backsliding from administrators who were willing to make hollow promises to students to get them to leave the encampments in late Spring. Our students won’t be fooled again.

The third campaign, to dismantle Study Abroad in Israel programs, has enormous potential. Israeli universities have been fully complicit in the Gazan scholasticide; not a single one is on record as opposing the genocide, let alone calling for a ceasefire. Our administrations cannot justify their continued relationship with Israel institutions. Their study abroad programs have never been more vulnerable, while restrictions on entry into Israel are in clear violation of the same campus antidiscrimination codes that have been weaponized this past year against pro-Palestinian speech and action. We call on chapters to respond to the decision of the BDS leadership in Palestine to prioritize the study abroad campaigns; almost every campus has a program, and their operation is an infringement of institutional rules. Now is the time to shut them down.