Smith College fired adjunct dance professor Olive Demar on Wednesday, Nov. 1, for “not meeting an acceptable level of performance” and “veering off course-related topics in class and focusing on your personal life and political issues; ending class early; and refusing to meet with [her] Chair.” Since her firing, Demar has said the reason for her termination was for discussing the war in Israel and Palestine.
Posts tagged as “Palestine”
On Feb. 28, 2022, the Smith College Provost Office released a statement titled “Responding to the Invasion of Ukraine.” The letter unequivocally labeled the events of Feb. 24, 2022 an invasion, which was urgently condemned and its “humanitarian consequences” recognized. The statement was clear; there was no potential ambiguity, no room for doubt or misinterpretation. In this case, history didn’t seem complicated and the conversations weren’t difficult. The discourse was not a mere clash or the latest episode in the convoluted conflict between Russia and Ukraine; it was unmistakably an invasion.
As they marched down West St. from Smith’s College Hall to L3Harris Northampton Offices, Smith students and local activists chanted “Free Free Palestine” and “What do we want? Divestment! When do we want it? Now!” The Oct. 25 protest was against L3Harris, a weapons manufacturing company that has offices in Northampton and whose weapons are used by the Israeli military. Protestors called on Smith to divest from L3Harris, the city of Northampton to shut down the location and L3Harris employees themselves to stop manufacturing weapons and distributing them to the Israeli military.
Smith students and local community members marched in the streets of Northampton on Thursday, Oct 19 to protest in solidarity with Palestinians against Israel's attacks on the Gaza Strip, Israel’s apartheid state and Smith College’s response to the conflict.