We are compelled to express our disappointment at the letter sent by the UT Austin President, Mr. Hartzell, on October 17th regarding the current situation in the Mideast. It was a one-sided message that failed to acknowledge the current and historical suffering of the Palestinians under a brutal occupation. Such a unilateral message can harm not only the unity and well-being of students, but also the reputation of the university.

We appreciate President Hartzell for his commitment to a violence-free campus and his assurance of protection for all students including Palestinians and Muslim students. We totally understand how Hamas attack created fear in the Jewish American community and brought back the historical trauma of the Holocaust. We just question the selective condemnation. 

Unfortunately, Israel reacted to Hamas attack by a retaliation bombing campaign that has killed at least 1,350 and injured 6,000 people. Among the recently killed Palestinians in Gaza, 724 were children and 458 were women according to ABC News. In addition, Israel imposed a collective punishment on the Gaza strip captive population of 2.3 million which half of them are children under 14. The imposed punishment cut the necessities such as food, clean water, electricity, and medicines and forced displacement on 330,000 people which is an unequivocal violation of the international law according to the UN Press.  

Historically, over the past 75 years, the Palestinian people have experienced atrocities, displacement, and a 15-years of siege and blockade in Gaza, a small city that was described as the largest open-air prison in the world by Norwegian Refugees Council and other human rights organizations. However, Gaza and Palestine have never earned the support that is shown now for Israel despite the well-documented war crimes against Palestinians of all faiths according to Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights, B’Tselem. The unbalanced power resulted in a significant disproportionality in death toll over the years between both sides according to the UN Data.

We ask President Hartzell to reconsider his messages to the students knowing that many of them have experienced loss of family or ancestral property due to the current and past Israeli attacks. Many UTA students have loved ones in Palestine that they cannot visit due to travel restrictions. And even if they were to visit, they would experience difficulties in the Israeli abusive checkpoints which is a daily routine of Palestinians. We ask President Hartzell to acknowledge the ongoing challenges of prejudice and Islamophobia that Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, and Brown students face on and off campus. We ask President Hartzell to meet with the local Muslim community leader at UT Mosque, Nueces Mosque and get to know about his Muslim students and their contributions.