Mission
The Duke University Divest Coalition is a student-led coalition of Duke University undergraduate, graduate, staff, faculty, and alumni groups devoted to a liberated Palestine and an end to Israeli apartheid. We demand that Duke University immediately address Israel’s ongoing human rights violations in Palestine by taking action to:
- disclose university-wide assets,
- divest financial assets from companies complicit in Israel’s genocide, occupation, and apartheid in Palestine,
- strengthen Duke’s ethical investment policies,
- boycott academic and institutional partnerships with institutions in Israel,
- publicly call for an immediate ceasefire in Palestine and protect free speech, and
- reinvest in Palestinian cultural institutions, displaced Gazan students, the city of Durham, and all university workers.
We seek an end to all interlocking systems of oppression through collective action and solidarity with oppressed people worldwide.
For more details, take a look at our demands.
Vision
We envision a free Palestine and a world without colonialism, imperialism, racism, white supremacy, cis- hetero-patriarchy, ableism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, or any form of hatred. We believe in collective liberation and are committed to ensuring equal access to clean air and water, housing, food, education, healthcare, freedom of movement, and dignity for everyone.
Values
The Palestinian people have a right to return to their homeland as outlined in the Thawabit and continually defined by Palestinians today. This is a fundamental value that challenges the colonial fragmentation of the Palestinian people. We recognize that the Palestinian liberation struggle is inseparable from other liberation movements worldwide, including Sudan, Congo, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Kashmir, East Turkestan, Taiwan, and Durham.
Our organizing and practice are pro-black, pro-queer, pro-transnational feminism, anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist, and anti-colonialist. We reject anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and racism — we will not tolerate hate or discrimination in our coalition.
We believe in indigenous land rights and self-determination. We recognize that Israel’s ongoing theft, destruction, and settlement of Palestinian land relies on colonial tactics used during the founding of the United States and other “Western” nations, reflecting a pattern of territorial expansion and dominance that favors “Western” hegemony.
We support the dismantling of the prison industrial complex. We reject mass incarceration and the militarization of police, border patrol, and other law enforcement personnel in the United States, recognizing that these institutions fail to ensure absolute community safety and disproportionately harm Black and Brown people. We know that the same tactics of violence and oppression are used against minoritized groups throughout the world, from Durham to Palestine.