Petition to President Richard Brodhead to deny use of the Duke University Campus to Supporters of Terrorism

As concerned citizens, we urge you to deny the use of meeting space on the Duke University campus to the National Conference of the Palestine Solidarity Movement, a group that supports violence and suicide bombing.

Palestine Solidarity Movement, the American, student arm of the International Solidarity Movement, has announced its intention to hold its National Conference at Duke University on October 15, 16, and 17, 2004.

The avowed goal of the Solidarity Movement is the destruction of the State of Israel "by any means necessary." The means approved by this Movement include the suicide bombing of civilian targets. Suicide bombing is described by Movement leaders as a noble form of jihad.

Recruiting American students to die while working to destroy Israel is a tactic Movement strategists find useful. On July 14, the Director of the Solidarity Movement, George Rishmawi, explained to the San Francisco Chronicle that , "if some of these foreign volunteers get shot or even killed, then the international media will sit up and take notice."

When the Palestine Solidarity Movement held its National Conference at the University of Michigan in October, 2002, delegates chanted "Kill the Jews."

Last year, the Solidarity Movement scheduled its National Conference for Rutgers. University President Richard McCormick took a careful look at the goals and methods of this movement, which sends volunteers to Israel where they work in coordination with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, and, in the words of the New Jersey Star Ledger (Sept. 13, 2003) kicked the meeting off campus.

The Conference was held at the Ramada Inn, freedom of speech was upheld, and Rutgers did not lend its name and prestige to a Movement that condones terrorism as an appropriate method for resolving political conflicts.

We urge you to deny this violent, terrorism-supporting group the prestige of meeting space on the campus of Duke University.