K-State student groups on Monday joined a growing national movement in protest of Israel’s military action in Palestine.
In an open letter to university president Richard Linton, the K-State Young Democratic Socialists of America, along with seven other groups, said it was calling on students and alumni to demand an end to K-State’s investments and research in Israel.
The letter posted on K-State YDSA’s Instagram page included demands that the university disclose its investment portfolio since 2014, divest from Israel-supporting companies, boycott academic research with Israel and cut ties with athletics organizations supporting the Israeli military.
K-State YDSA — which is a part of the Democratic Socialists of a America, the largest socialist organization in the United States — asked the university to disclose its investment portfolio from the year 2014 and onward. The organization said it wants K-State to be transparent about its investments and to end investments in companies that support Israel.
“It is imperative that K-State divests in companies listed in the Boycott, Divestments, Sanctions (BDS) Movement, which are recognized for their role in human rights violations,” the students wrote. “We will not stand idly by while our institution profits from or contributes to the suffering of the Palestinian people.”
According to the BDS list, large companies including Google, Amazon and HP support Israel.
K-State YDSA also demanded Linton step down from his role as a board member for the Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund, which is a joint U.S.-Israeli program funding strategic and applied agricultural research.
“Your continued involvement with BARD contradicts our school’s values of agriculture, as Israel commits ecocide by destroying Palestinian crops and soil,” the group wrote.
The group also asked the university to cut all ties with Athletes for Israel, which sponsored the men’s basketball team’s trip to Jerusalem and Tel Aviv in August 2023.
The K-State men’s basketball team sent aid packages to Israel in October.
“By sending aid to Israel, and not to Gaza, the athletics department has chosen to side with the genocide of the Palestinians,” K-State YDSA wrote on Instagram.
K-State YDSA also urged an academic boycott from research conducted with Israel because the group said the war destroyed Palestinian schools and overall academic infrastructure.
K-State has research grants with Israel, including a $300,000 grant through BARD.
“We urge K-State to sever any academic collaborations that indirectly perpetuate the oppression faced by the Palestinian people,” K-State YDSA said.
K-State YDSA’s open letter came as students on college and university campuses across the country have made similar demands to their administrations.
The college protests began April 24 when Columbia University students in New York set up a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” on campus. Since then, several in-person demonstrations have popped up at institutions in various states. Police in some cities have arrested multiple protesters.
