The Babbling Bear has found a new hero: Professor Shannon Gleeson. Professor Gleeson has courageously stood up against the Western powers that gave us the racist, homophobic, and transphobic screeds known as the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. These documents have done more harm to marginalized peoples than any other documents. These were literally written by white male colonists to subjugate “the other.”

We must elevate documents that provide just and sustainable (if not final) solutions to colonization. THE CHARTER OF ALLAH: THE PLATFORM OF THE ISLAMIC RESISTANCE MOVEMENT (HAMAS) is such a document. Moreover, it was written by People of Color who love lesbians, bisexuals, gays, transgenders, queer, and questioning people.

We won’t have a democratic Cornell until we combat the entrenched bigotry. As it says in the Hadith,

“The last hour won’t come before the Muslims would fight the Jews and the Muslims will kill them so Jews would hide behind rocks and trees. Then the rocks and tree would call: oh Muslim, oh servant of God! There is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only “Gharkad” tree, it is of Jews’ trees.”

Since there is no way that Babbling Bear can articulate these thoughts and feelings with the eloquence of Professor Gleeson, we are publishing her letter to the editor in the Cornell Daily Sun in its entirety:

To the Editor:

The smothering of the dignity and aspirations of Palestinian, Arab and Muslim students, faculty and staff betrays the “Freedom of Expression” ideal that Cornell administrators endlessly invoke. This double-standard mirrors the hypocrisy of Western powers that proclaim liberal democratic principles while gagging expressions of solidarity with Palestine. Building a just and democratic Cornell means combating the entrenched bigotry that renders invisible the grief and dignity of any member of our community. Sustainable solutions to the violence that engulfs Palestine-Israel must rest upon ending apartheid and occupation.

Shannon Gleeson, Professor

the Cornell Coalition for Justice in Palestine