For Immediate Release
Contact: austinacademicsfjp@gmail.com
Racist Attack near UT Austin’s West Campus, UT Administrators Remain Silent
Austin, TX – February 7, 2024
On Sunday night, February 4th, a young man was stabbed in a vile act of hatred just west of the University of Texas at Austin’s campus. According to reports, the assailant attacked a group of Muslim American men following a pro-Palestine rally downtown. As academic workers in Austin, Texas, we are horrified and angered to learn of this attack. We are also unsurprised. In a safety alert about the attack UT Austin claimed that it “appears to be an isolated incident.” This is misleading: in fact, it is part of a clear pattern stretching back months. On October 12th, three men disrupted a teach-in on Palestine on UT Austin’s campus calling students “terrorists” and threatening to kill “f—ing Arabs.” Since then, students and community members have been warning about rising incidents of anti-Arab, anti-Palestinian, and anti-Muslim hatred and violence on campus and in the city.
Unfortunately the administration at the University of Texas at Austin has done little to counter this animus and has even fostered a climate of hostility against Muslim, Arab, and Palestinian students and their allies. President Jay Hartzell has still not publicly addressed the harassment students experienced on October 12th, despite widespread calls for him to do so. Since then, students affiliated with the Palestine Solidarity Committee have described experiencing other acts of discrimination and harassment. These events have occurred in the context of growing anti-Palestinian hatred across the country. In October, a six-year-old Palestinian boy, Wadea Al-Fayoume, was killed in Illinois, and in November three Palestinian college students were shot in Vermont. This violence follows doxxing, harassment, and attacks on pro-Palestinian college students across the country.
Rather than supporting vulnerable members of our community and speaking out publicly against the hatred Palestinian and allied college and university students are experiencing UT Austin’s leaders have tried to silence them. On November 22nd, the Dean of Social Work at UT Austin relieved two graduate teaching assistants from their teaching duties after they sent a message to the class acknowledging the mental health needs of Palestinian students in a course on mental health. When students drafted a letter in support of the TAs to the Dean of Social Work and delivered the letter to him in a peaceful demonstration on campus on December 8th, the University doubled-down on its repression and initiated disciplinary and criminal investigations of four students involved.
Most recently, on January 25th, UT Austin’s Athenaeum moved Palestinian Professor Noura Erakat’s planned talk against racism and genocide from campus to Zoom, citing security concerns. Yet, on January 26th, UT Austin’s Salem Center hosted public intellectual and former Israeli military member Yaron Brook on campus ignoring opposition from students and community members who warned that his anti-Palestinian vitriol would inflame hatred against Palestinians including those on UT’s campus. Indeed, Brooks fostered discrimination against Palestinian people by arguing that Israel is morally right to see all Palestinians as enemies. He voiced racist stereotypes about Palestinians, calling them “barbaric” and “murderers.” He claimed that Palestinians had created an “anti-life society” that “relishes death” and “teaches its children hatred.” Shockingly, he argued that Israel has done “too much” to prevent the deaths of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. The Salem Center has now removed the recording of Brook’s talk from their website.
As academic workers at UT Austin we call on the leaders of the University to publicly address Sunday night’s attack and to do everything in their power to prevent similar acts of violence, including providing supportive resources to Palestinian and allied students. We also call on our leaders to immediately cease all disciplinary procedures against those who have demonstrated support for Palestinians. College and university campuses have long been spaces in which students, faculty, staff, and community members can voice politically controversial opinions and exercise their free speech rights. Protecting those who are experiencing political repression and racial and religious hatred at this moment is vital not only to the democratic mission of higher education, but to the safety and wellbeing of our campus communities.
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UT Austin Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine 