After the Bailey 17 appeared in court April 9,
defendants and a lawyer addressed a crowd of supporters and members of the press:
DL said:
"For the last 18th months, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been murdered, today, Palestinians have been murdered, and we will fight constantly so that tomorrow no more Palestinians will be bombed, murdered, and cut off from medical aid and food using the money from our tuition and tax dollars.
"The reason the current administration tries to crack down so hard on us is because WE KNOW that we have a history, we KNOW that Palestinian strength has a history, and we KNOW that solidarity with Palestine has a history too. And what does that history teach us?
"It teaches us the only real division, which is the division between those that humanize others and those that DEHUMANIZE others. And what really is that division? It's the capitalist , the zionist , the imperialist and the colonialist system versus those things that are real, those things that are made with hope, and community care, and those people who show up for each other and will not stop until all of Palestine is free.
"And when we learn this history we learn, we practice, and we remember that: They can bar us from campus or throw us in the courtrooms and they can try their very hardest to make us afraid but as its been for the last 18 months, for every moment of the Israeli occupation, it will NEVER WORK because you can never strip away the strength and will of those who stand in solidarity with Palestine, who fight for Palestine
"You can never strip the strength and will away from the Palestinian people
'And you certainly can NEVER STRIP AWAY the will and strength of the Palestinian movement which will bring capitalist, colonialist, and imperialist violence, exploitation, and genocide to ITS BREAKING POINT
"Free Palestine"
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Timo Isreb said:
"Good morning.
"Today marks the 550th day of Israel’s siege on Gaza.
"Over the weekend, we learned of the harrowing killings of members of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society and other emergency first responders at the hands of Israeli military forces.
"These medics were attempting to rescue victims of airstrikes in Rafah. Israeli soldiers shot the medics until they were dead.
"After they were killed, the Red Crescent sent in more aid workers to check on their colleagues. This second crew included marked ambulances with their emergency lights on. But Israeli forces shot and killed those first responders too.
"I’ll repeat: Israeli forces shot at ambulances with lights on. Then they ripped out a chunk of earth to bury 15 aid workers and their ambulances in an unmarked mass grave.
"This is an abject atrocity.
"And it is far from the first one. We have witnessed countless atrocities perpetrated by Israeli forces in 18 months of genocide, over 75 years of military occupation.
"Trump and Netanyahu want to build the “Riveria of the Middle East” literally atop the rotting corpses of Palestinians, of Palestinian civil society, that are buried in mass graves littered all across Gaza.
"As educated students tasked with leading the future, we refuse to accept that this is any way of building a society. We refuse to believe that this is a “pathway to peace.”
"If we allow the Israeli government to act with impunity, if we normalize what is happening to the Palestinians, then it can and will happen to us.
"1. Cornell knows that its students DISSENT from every part of this genocide. Cornell knows that a supermajority of us voted to OPT OUT of investing our tuition money in weapons and war manufacturing all around the world.
"2. Cornell knows, and yet they invited an Israeli politician accused of war crimes to an event that had the audacity to invoke the word “Peace.”
"3. Cornell knows, and yet they have arrested and charged and allowed ICE to single out dozens of my friends who have spent countless hours urging Cornell to be an institution that PAVES the Pathway to Peace.
"4. Cornell says it wants to foster dialogue? Do they not hear us speaking, begging for peace and justice? Do they not hear us saying that if you can divest from oil companies in Darfur, if you can divest from fossil fuels, then surely you can divest from weapons of war?
"But of course, I got in trouble asking a question during Q&A, so I guess we’ll never know.
"We will not stop holding this institution to its word, to prove all the ways the University is an OBSTACLE to peace, because we know that Cornell can do better.
"The University believes that the more they single us out and repress us, the more they’ll satisfy their donors and Congress and the Trump administration. But as we saw yesterday, no amount of capitulation can fund a University that is morally bankrupt.
"And no amount of institutional violence or repression will stop us.
"They’d do well to learn that.
"Thank you."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LT said:
"I’m a defendant and Cornell alum. I’m outraged that Cornell is always asking me for money, but wants to silence me.
"But I’m so much more outraged by what Cornell is doing to students and young people who speak up for Palestine, who question Israel, and who ask Cornell to divest from weapons manufacturers.
"In the past year Cornell suspended dozens of students, upended their education, betrayed international grad student worker Momodou Taal and allowed ICE on campus to look for him, all because these students are speaking up.
"And then during the event President Kotlikoff staged in Bailey Hall last month, he had leaflets removed from chairs, during Q&A he had the microphone turned off during hard questions, and he unleashed police to arrest 17 people who pointed to the war crimes of the panelists.
"When I was in Gaza in 1977, in a refugee camp in Rafah, I saw Palestinian homes that the Israeli military marked for demolition with a big red X. We’ve been seeing massacres there for 550 days. We are speaking out against the genocide that our institutions and government are funding and enabling. We won’t be silenced."
