“The second way is the way of the fully engaged student, the student who refuses to let their regard for Notre Dame stop them from criticizing it to make it better — more loving, more inclusive, more just.”

…

Right now, our University is invested in the creation of weapons that are currently being used in the genocide of the Palestinian people. The profits from the destruction of others is the same money that helps construct our dorms and research centers. We at Occupation Free Notre Dame find this to be a moral affront. We believe that we cannot be free to learn when all the universities in Gaza have been destroyed. Right now, even as the Pope calls a Gazan parish daily to pray with them, even as he calls Israel’s attacks on Gaza “terrorism,” even as our own Catholic Social Teaching compels us to reject war and genocide at all costs, we remain invested in the mass destruction of Palestinian culture, infrastructure and people. Worse, in the spring when students gathered to non-violently protest this reality, the University decided to arrest 17 peaceful students instead of engaging in good-faith dialogue about bettering our communal values. This is the University community that you are joining.