STATEMENT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April, 26, 2024

CONTACT:
James Woo, Advancing Justice-Atlanta, jwoo@advancingjustice-atlanta.org

On Thursday, April 25th, Emory University and Atlanta University Center (AUC) students joined more than a dozen campuses across the country in organizing a peaceful sit-in on Emory’s campus, calling for the University to divest from both Israel and the companies that support its military operations in Gaza. 

We are appalled by Emory University’s response to this student activism. Historically, there is a rich tradition of protest and engagement on university campuses. Rather than violently suppressing speech, our institutions should be proactively holding space for students, faculty, and community members to safely express their views, engage in dialogue, and participate in the democratic process. 

As organizations dedicated to protecting civil rights, advocating for justice, and building power for immigrants, refugees, and working-class people of color in Georgia and the Southeast— Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta,  Council on American-Islamic Relations Georgia, Project South, and the undersigned organizations stand with the brave students at Emory and at campuses across the country.

Student protestors and allies are actively asserting their right to protest against authoritarianism and the Israeli military operations causing a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Ironically, these protests against authoritarianism abroad are being met with rising authoritarianism in Georgia—evident in the actions of the State of Georgia, the City of Atlanta, and Emory University—where attempts to disband peaceful protests have resulted in violence and detentions. Protestors’ calls to end the genocide in Gaza were met with excessive force, including pepper spray, rubber bullets, and tasing. 

We at Advancing Justice-Atlanta, CAIR-Georgia, Project South, and the undersigned organizations are outraged at the State and City of Atlanta’s assault on student protestors calling for peace in Gaza. We demand more from the institutions that were built to support, protect, and educate our communities in Georgia. 

We echo campus student organizations’ demands and enjoin Emory University leadership to immediately refrain from interrupting further protests, to release all protestors being held and refuse to press charges, and desist from taking punitive action against any protestors–including security of housing, course enrollment, financial aid and scholarship, and permission to graduate. We ask for the immediate withdrawal of all police and enforcement agencies from campus for the safety and protection of students. We demand that Emory University President Gregory Fenves immediately resign after failing to protect students’ and protestors’ physical safety and right to free speech and demonstration.

We urge DeKalb County DA Sherry Boston to immediately release any detained protestors and drop any potential charges against them.

We call for the Atlanta Police Department to withdraw from the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange, which continues to perpetuate militarized policing. 

We stand with student protestors in Georgia and across the country in their demands for ending the occupation of Palestine and instituting a permanent ceasefire. We will continue to support the right to protest and exercise free speech, to call out authoritarianism from Georgia to Gaza.

AIRC

American Friends Service Committee - South Region

Arab Americans 4Ward 

Asian American Advocacy Fund

Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta

Atlanta Democratic Socialists of America

Atlanta Justice Alliance

Beyond the Streets Social Justice Task Force

Council on American Islamic Relations – Georgia

Community EsTr(El/La)

Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine - Georgia

Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights (GLAHR)

Georgia Muslim Action Committee

Georgia Muslim Voter Project

Georgia Youth Justice Coalition

Indivisible Lumpkin

Malaya Georgia

Migrant Equity Southeast 

New Disabled South

Project South

Peach State Muslim Coalition

Sur Legal Collaborative

The Rainbow Collective

Voices of Muslims

Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the civil rights of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders (AANHPI), and other marginalized communities in Georgia and the Southeast