We, the undersigned Pratt Institute alumni, express our solidarity with the Palestinian people and their struggle for liberation. We write in support of both student (1) and faculty (2) groups working toward boycott (3), disclosure, and divestment. In alignment with those leading this struggle from within the institution's walls, we demand that Pratt Institute:
- commit to a cultural boycott of Israel as laid out by the PACBI guidelines (4, 5),
- disclose all investments in companies that profit from and/or support the Israeli occupation of Palestine, and
- provide a timeline for complete divestment from the above holdings.
As we bear witness to the on-going genocide in Gaza, we understand that these atrocities mark only the most recent escalation in a long campaign of ethnic cleansing and terror by the Israeli state. We understand Gaza to be an enclave of refugees, forced from their ancestral homes at the barrel of the Zionist's weapon. We understand Gaza to be an open-air prison, subject to attempted extermination by both siege and sanction. Flying in the face of all colonial intentions, we understand Gaza to be home to a resilient and steadfast people, a beacon of resistance against unrelenting aggression and oppression.
In a land acknowledgment (6) made public in November of 2021, Pratt Institute notes that the school rests atop unceded Lenape lands. The statement goes on to acknowledge the devastating effects of "genocide, theft of land and resources, forced migration, and systematic cultural oppression" on native peoples. Near its close, the document promises to "challenge the legacy of settler colonialism", a process that includes a commitment to "undo its extractive and exploitative land practices." Today, as we watch armed settlers seize land across the West Bank, settler colonialism challenges us to act against it. Today, as Israel massacres entire Gazan bloodlines, viral videos make clear the "land practices" of its colonial regime. Today, Pratt Institute has an opportunity to uphold its proclaimed commitments.
We demand that Pratt take a first step by discontinuing its exchange program with the Israeli state-funded Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem. In a recent blog post, the Academy wrote that their students were actively "producing new items for the IDF" (7). In a Times of Israel article from October 2023, Bezalel students were celebrated for workshops in which they produced and mended military equipment (8). We wonder where fresh fatigues go when they leave the Bezalel campus. Are they worn by the pilot en route to drop 2,000-pound bombs on refugee camps? When the unspecified innovations of the Academy's design studios reach the battlefield, what atrocities do they enable? How many families do they shred and discard? When Pratt Institute speaks of providing "the creative leaders of tomorrow" with "the professional knowledge and experience to make a better world", is this what they speak of? Studies derailed and redirected to engineer and outfit the terror agents of a nuclear apartheid power? As we see it, Pratt's continued engagement with Bezalel Academy serves to normalize and legitimate the genocidal Zionist project.
As alumni, we understand the credibility our work and association lend to the global standing of Pratt Institute. We refuse to support, actively or passively, an alma mater that apologizes for and collaborates with the Israeli state. As such, we pledge to withhold all donations from Pratt Institute until these demands are met in a manner deemed appropriate by students, faculty, and alumni alike. Furthermore, we encourage our fellow signees to limit their engagements with Pratt Institute — critiques, lectures, etc. — and to bring attention to Pratt's complicity in Israel's illegal occupation and genocide in Palestine.
Long live Gaza. Free Palestine.
Endorsements
Aligned organizations (student, faculty, and/or alumni) can email prattalumnipal@proton.me to endorse the letter.
Keep up with Pratt AJP on Instagram ↗
Add Your Name
Join fellow alumni in demanding boycott, disclosure, and divestment; sign the letter.
Note: names batch-uploaded and ordered at random.
Signatories
Amber Lim
Rebekah Cione, BA 2019
Devan Freedman, BFA2017
NC, BArch 2018
CL, BFA 2014
Atlas Thomas, BFA 2022
Nicholas C Zgraggen
Anon BFA 2024
Kelsey Kinnett, BFA 2020
G Connolly, BFA 2022
Andrew Diemer, BFA 2016
Kirin Diemont, BFA 2018
Enrique Garcia, BFA 2017
Lulu Johnson, BFA ComD 2019
Melissa Thompson, BFA 2023
PAL, b.arch 2023
Thor Kimmell
Maddy Price, BFA 2018
Dev Kamath, BFA 2022
Y.Wen
Brann Livesay
AA, BFA 2024
Anonymous, BFA 2018, COMD
Devika Sen, COMD 2018
Santi St. James
Miranda potter
Kayla Schroter, BFA
Alexis Svetlana Dorko, M.Arch 2024
Jacob Schuster, BFA 2021
Logan Heffernan, BFA 2020
Miranda Obic, BFA 2023
Jeremy Wood, BFA 2018
Dave Kopka, BFA 2014
Emma Stephens, BArch 2020
Ava Mayer BFA 2021
Azure Ray Leffeld, BFA 2020
Mikaela Torcello BFA 2024
Madeleine Franklin, BFA 2018
Joanne Wu
Joseph Regan, BFA 2014
Emily Young, M.Arch 2024
Polly Cancro, MA/MLIS 2018
Aidan
Reena Wu, BFA 2022
Noelle Dillman, BA History 2024
Sarah Hulton, BFA 2023
Courtney Dreher, BFA 2019
Anonymous, MS 2019
Aviel Follett
Marley Jaeger, BFA 2019
savannah jankosky
Noelle Dillman BA 2024
Rachel Quan
Emily H, BFA 2017
S.A.M, BFA 2024
Alexandra Bonfils, BFA 2020
Emma Moore, BFA 2020
Amira Hasib, BFA 2019
Michelle Singer, B. Arch 2022
Nicole Galuszka, BFA 2019
Christine Shon
Hamza Hamdeh
Edel Ferri
Joanne Lee, BFA 2019
Astrid BFA 2018
Kendall Odermatt BID 2023
Poorvaja Subramanian, BFA 2023
Ilana E Blady
BFA 2024
Miles Holland, BFA 2020
Asher Groh, BFA 2021
Sabrina Kaune
Chantal Galipeau, BFA 2015
Allison Martell, BFA 2017
Anonymous, BArch 2024
Jane Demarest, BFA 2020
Tierney Sadowski
Neosha Pendergraft
Jules Zuckerberg, BFA ComD - Illustration, 2017
Noelani Fishman BFA 2022
Caroline Lathrop, BFA 2023
Ian Griffin
Naomi Larson BFA Sculpture 2023
Isabelle Van Kleeck
Sydney Ellison, BFA 2022
Agata Naklicka MS 2023
Michael Quintanilla, BFA 2020
Victoria Cottrell, BFA 2020
Rosa Quimby
Molly Wasielewski, BFA 2021
Olioli Buika BFA 2020
Leigho McArthur, 2015
Rose Wong, BFA COMD 2014
Devon Canepa, BA 2020
Avery Slezak, BFA 2024
Axel Jenson, BFA 2020
Griffin Reynolds, BFA 2020
Nicolette Sloan BFA 2020
Frances Waite BFA 2015
Megan Plunkett, BFA 2008
Obadah Aljefri, MFA 2024
Ben Erickson, B.Arch 2021
Jonathan Sherwood BFA 2020
Emma W, BFA 2021
Emmet Sutton
Jack Vhay, BFA 2018
Deirdre Keough
Devon Beaver BFA 2018
Courtney Yargo BFA 2016
Isabel Faintych, BFA 2019
Catherine Chattergoon, B. Arch 2024
Sofia Pardillo, BFA 2019
Sarah Kanu, BFA 2021
Maika
Julia Feingold BFA 2020
SM, B.ARCH 24
S. B.ARCH2024
Hannah Salyer, BFA 2017
Hua Chen BFA 2019
Jarrad Ashman
Serafina Ariel, BFA Sculpture and Integrated Practices 2024
Brandon Foushee, BFA 2021
Jomana Baddad, MSAUD 2016
Imaan Sattar BID 2019
Jade Ammeen, BFA 2024
Eliza Park, BFA 2024
Liv Mains
Haley Wetmore, BFA 2021
Pramity Shah BID 2024
Kirsten Herman, BFA 2019
Sara Heymann BFA 2007
Kaitlyn Adams