About SFP

Students for a Free Palestine (SFP) is a Palestine solidarity group at Oberlin College. To read more about our specific goals and strategies, take a look at our Mission Statement. SFP is a nonhierarchical organization, and our members include students with many different backgrounds and points of view. What we all agree on, however, is that Israel must end its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, and that all sides must respect human rights.

SFP, in its current form, has been active since 2002. Before that, Oberlin had an active SFP from the 1980's until around 1998.* Our typical activities include organizing educational events - such as bringing speakers, screening movies, creating installations, and holding teach-ins. They also include fundraising for humanitarian and human rights groups working in Palestine. In addition, SFP has advocated for the divestment of college funds from companies that sell arms to Israel.

Each year SFP holds a student-led teach-in about the history and current issues in the conflict, called "Palestine 101". Among other notable past events, SFP has brought the play "An Olive on the Seder Plate", hosted a performance of hip hop and spoken word featuring acclaimed poet Suheir Hammad, hosted lectures by widely-read authors Ali Abunimah and Norman Finkelstein, and commemorated Al-Nakba (the anniversary of the Palestinians' mass expulsion in 1948) with installations in Wilder Bowl. Recently, SFP worked with Campus Dining Services to organize a "campus fast", in which students donated meals to raise money for the Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committee.

Mission Statement

Our mission as Students for a Free Palestine here at Oberlin is first and foremost to raise awareness of the oppression and vast suffering of the Palestinian people under the Israeli occupation both within historical as well as present contexts. We strive to create more complex dialogue on campus as well as in our greater communities. We recognize that we are not the voice of the Palestinian people and do not strive to be. However, we do make every effort to enable Palestinian voices and struggles to be heard and widely known.

We as a group do not support a specific solution to the present situation in Israel/Palestine; specifically, we do not stand behind a one or two state solution. However, we do insist that the Israeli government must comply with international law, and specifically international law pertaining to the state of Palestinian refugees. In addition, we demand that the Israeli government withdraw from the 1967 borders. We are also in support of a divestment plan and strongly support the co-existence of Jewish and Arab peoples in Israel/Palestine. We do not support and in no way encourage the use of violence as any form of solution. Overall, we stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people both in Israel/Palestine as well as any other ground Palestinian people may currently reside on and strive for a just treatment of Palestinians.