The petition says Columbia should “divest from corporations that supply, perpetuate, and profit from a system that has subjugated the Palestinian people.”

Columbia Spectator reports.

40 faculty sign petition in solidarity with Columbia University Apartheid Divest

Forty faculty members have signed a petition calling upon the University to “divest from corporations that supply, perpetuate, and profit from a system that has subjugated the Palestinian people.”

The petition, released Monday morning on the first day of Israeli Apartheid Week, notes that the signatories are in solidarity with student groups Columbia University Apartheid Divest, Students for Justice in Palestine, and Jewish Voice for Peace. CUAD demanded in February that Columbia divest from eight specific corporations “that profit from the State of Israel’s ongoing system of settler colonialism, military occupation, and apartheid law” as part of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement.

“As both scholars and community members, we are professionally, intellectually, and morally invested in our University. We deem it our duty to hold our institution accountable for the ethical implications of its own actions, notably its financial investments and their implications around the world,” the petition said. “In particular, we take issue with our financial involvements in institutions associated with the State of Israel’s military occupation of Palestinian lands, continued violations of Palestinian human rights, systematic destruction of life and property, inhumane segregation and systemic forms of discrimination.”