Rachel Corrie's college commits to divesting from 'Israel', dad proud
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Evergreen State College in Washington administrators promise to publicly call for a ceasefire and look into divestment from companies that benefit from “gross human rights violations” by "Israel" and the occupation of Palestine.
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Palestinian children hold candles during a rally at a refugee camp in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, in 2012, in memory of Rachel Corrie (AFP)
In a historic move amid a wave of rising encampments across US universities, Evergreen State College administrators in Olympia, Washington, have signed a deal with pro-Palestine protestors to commit to divestment from "Israel".
How is this historic? Not only is this the first US university to commit to divestment, but this college is the institution that 23-year-old slain activist Rachel Corrie attended.
In exchange for removing the encampment, administrators promised to publicly call for a ceasefire and look into divestment from companies that benefit from “gross human rights violations” by "Israel" and the occupation of Palestine, according to The Cooper Point Journal.
The signed memorandum was the result of a five-hour negotiation process as it joins Brown University and Northwestern University being some of the first schools to strike a deal with protesters.
Not only so, but the college agreed to stop study-abroad trips to "Israel" and it called for the creation of several groups including “Grant Acceptance Policy” and “Civilian Oversight of the Police Department” task forces.
Read more: UN rights chief 'troubled' by US handling of student protests
“Criteria would include such considerations as whether grants facilitate illegal occupations abroad, limit free speech, or support oppression of minorities,” the MOU states.
'Proud of Evergreen', says Rachel's father
In response, Corrie’s father, Craig Corrie, said in a statement: “I’m proud of the students at Evergreen (for) the action that they took and the way they managed to get those concerns across,” adding: “I’m proud of the faculty that worked with them and the administration they negotiated with that those concerns could be acknowledged.”
Craig Corrie recalled witnessing the 1968 protests as a result of young men being drafted to fight in the US' war on Vietnam.
“These students now, it’s not about self-preservation for them,” Craig Corrie said. “It’s about seeing the other and understanding that could be them and understanding the connection to the other so many thousands of miles away. That’s really inspiring to me. I’m incredibly sorry that it’s necessary, but I’m glad they’re there.”
Over 2,000 people have been arrested on US university campuses in the past three weeks as they took part in the pro-Palestine protests urging their universities to divest from all investments linked to the Israeli occupation.
This comes as a New York police officer fired his gun inside Columbia University's Hamilton Hall on the night of April 30 as officers moved onto pro-Palestine protesters.
On May 2, Northwestern and Brown universities were joined by student organizers at Rutgers University in New Jersey and the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis in coming into agreements with the administrators to stop encampments amid student demands of divestment.
However, the night of May 2 still witnessed scenes of police rushing into campuses attempting to stop pro-Palestine protesters in universities.
Read next: Police take down Gaza encampment at University of Utah
