Statement from FIND, Inc. On the Student Intifada

Statement from FIND, Inc.
On the Student Intifada

As a student-led organization that is dedicated to cultivating cultural and educational growth among Filipino students across the East Coast, we at FIND, Inc. seek to recognize the student voice as an imperative vessel for change.

From colleges and universities across our seven affiliated districts, brave students, faculty, and community members have established rallies, marches, sit-ins, and more for the unconditional safety and liberation of the Palestinian people. However, many of these demonstrations have been met with violence and egregious punitive measures imposed by their respective institutions. This is a cruel and unacceptable response to a school’s community members exercising their right to protest.

As an organization that was not only established by students, but also founded upon a collective need to celebrate Filipino identity and history––both of which are recognized as inherently political forces––we at FIND, Inc. firmly stand with our fellow students and the nationwide Student Intifada at large in their calls for an immediate and permanent ceasefire.

To be Filipino is to inherit a history of resilience and resistance amidst imperialism, cultural erasure, and political corruption. We are intergenerationally tied to this struggle, and we are byproducts of our predecessors’ resistance to it. Thus, it is crucial that we recognize the interconnectedness of our own people’s history with those in Palestine and beyond.

In acknowledgement of the media’s attention placed on the students upholding the Intifada, we also urge all members of the FIND, Inc. community to keep eyes on Gaza, Rafah, and Palestine as a whole, whose fight for liberation has catalyzed these student movements in the first place. Whether your power is through social media, donations, or on-the-ground work, it is imperative that we as Filipino college students leverage our privilege and platforms to support a free Palestine and the human rights of all. Should you take anything away from the invaluable work that the districts of FIND, Inc. have accomplished for over three decades and counting, let it be that the collective power of students can affect significant change across generations. Let us carry forward the determination of our predecessors to do the work necessary to enact positive change.

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.