The American University of Beirut's (AUB) faculty released a statement expressing their "full and unconditional support for and solidarity with the Palestinian people" amid the ongoing Israeli aggression on Gaza, following Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. 

The statement described the attempts to discuss the ongoing situation as a "battle between two equally belligerent nations" inaccurate, misleading, and morally vacuous," adding that "such framing completely erases the history of settler colonials in Palestine, as the Zionist state was built on the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and their forces expulsion from their land and homes."

In defense of the Palestinian resistance movement, the statement stressed that the resistance has "tried all possible peaceful means to fight for their rights for over a century." 

Palestinians have a right to self-defense 

AUB's statement called out world leaders for standing with the Israeli government's genocidal attack on Gaza, adding that "the right of Palestinians to self-defense against their occupier, as per international law, has long been ignored and vilified." 

Palestinians are "human animals" 

"Colonial logic normalizes violence against the colonized by dehumanizing Palestinians to legitimize their killing."

The statement suggested that Israeli violence enables "violence", adding that the declaration of the Israeli Security Minister Yoav Gallant that  Palestinians are "human animals," and that Israelis should treat them accordingly is a blatant call for genocide."

Faculty calls out 'blatant misrepresentation of history'

A super the statement, "Western media propaganda employs orientalist and Islamophobic stereotypes while disseminating false information to justify the actions of the Israeli state."

In this context, the statement considered the Israeli order for all Palestinians to leave Gaza "is no less than a continuation to the Nakba, and forms yet another expulsion of Palestinians from their land."

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Faculty members condemned the "blatant misrepresentation of history, the spreading of misinformation, and the dehumanization of Palestinians; and we condemn the US President's decision to aid and abet "Israel's" attempted genocide of the Palestinians and the complicity of Arab states in the normalization of their dispossession."

A struggle against colonialism 

The statement considers that the Palestinian resistance "is a fight against Zionist settler colonialism and apartheid," describing it as anti-Jewish tactics to conflate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism, aimed at suppressing Palestinian voices and whoever stands in solidarity with them. 

"In alignment with our peers at Birzeit University, we believe that as academics and scholars, "We must employ our words, however seemingly futile they may be in these crucial moments." Our message is unequivocal today: We offer unwavering and unconditional support to the Palestinian people until their liberation."

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