On Thursday 15th May at 12pm staff, students and alumni from the University of Otago community are coming together to adopt a Declaration that supports Palestinian rights and adopts BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction). All staff, students and alumni are invited to join us as we come together to stand against genocide, apartheid and scholasticide. Staff, students, and graduates – former and current – are invited to attend and/or sign the Declaration.
BDS is a Palestinian-led movement that calls for non-violent pressure on Israel until it complies with international law and ends the occupation. This action is the culmination of months of action by the Otago community. Together with Dunedin for Justice in Palestine we have come together to protest, write letters to Parliament, celebrate Palestinian culture, fundraise, wave the Palestinian flag, and demand an end to the genocide.
In May 2024, almost one thousand students, graduates, and staff signed an open letter calling for Otago to endorse BDS, condemn universities violently repressing student protest, and support demands for ceasefire and an end to the illegal occupation. The Otago open letter was preceded by Otago staff, students, and graduates signing a November 2023 nationwide open letter to the Vice Chancellors of all eight Aotearoa New Zealand universities calling for solidarity with Palestine. Otago Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) began organising in May, joining similar student activist groups across Aotearoa New Zealand in protesting for Palestine (including a National Students’ Protest for Palestine on 23 May). Otago SJP continued to organise rallies and marches throughout 2024 on campus.
Otago academics have written and contributed to a variety of essays, statements of support, news pieces, and op-eds demanding an end to the genocide and more from our institutions. Otago Staff for Palestine has an active blog naming events and sharing arguments for why the University of Otago should support the BDS movement and work to disclose financial links. In February, Dr. Samah Sabawi shared her work, Palestine: Justice, Peace and Art, in an Otago seminar and a community book event. A few days later, members of the University community joined wider Ōtepoti in raising funds for UNWRA at an all-ages gig at Yours Café. In March, different programmes throughout the University hosted: a screening of Israelism for the university and wider community, a talk by Alison Phipps and Dr Tawona Ganyamatopé Sitholé on the enduring resilience of Palestinian universities in Gaza, and a seminar titled “Gaza – Yes, it is a genocide, and yes, it really matters.”
Of the many letters, statements, and solidarities from different collectives, activists, and organisations over the last nineteen months, the ones from universities and educators most mention “scholasticide.” Scholasticide was coined sixteen years ago by Professor Karma Nabulsi as she traced the “systematic destruction of Palestinian education by Israel” beginning with the Nakba of 1948.
In the last nineteen months in Palestine, scholasticide “has intensified on an unprecedented scale.” By January 2024, Israel had demolished every one of the twelve universities in Gaza. As of 1 April 2025, 95.2% of schools in Gaza have been badly or severely damaged. Schools and universities are being directly targeted for bombing. Thousands have been killed and injured. Such deliberate attempts to obliterate the education and culture of the Palestinian people by Israel are not new, but the genocide reaches incomprehensible levels of devastation and horror daily.
May 15 2025 is the 77th anniversary of the Nakba, the catastrophe of ethnic cleansing and violent dispossession of the Palestinian people by Zionist forces . On that day, we are holding a Congress to adopt the Otago Declaration on Palestine, which can be found in the group’s Instagram bio (@otagostaff4pal). Our institutions cannot and will not always represent us; we must take principled and ethical stands, together, in community.
We welcome our Otago community to join us on Thursday May 15 from 12-1pm on the Otago Museum lawn as we come together to stand against genocide, apartheid, and scholasticide.