Email Blast Sample:
Subject Line:
We Demand War Profiteers Off Our Campus
Body:
Dear Dean Hellman and the Georgetown Administration,
I am writing as a concerned member of the Georgetown community to urge Georgetown University to cease hosting war profiteers such as Palantir and Lockheed Martin. On September 19th, Georgetown hosted these two companies at a “defense” industry networking event called Project Maverick. Less than a week later, the School of Foreign Service is again promoting Palantir through an “SFS Coffee Chat.” Although Georgetown claims to prioritize “faith that does justice” and shaping us into “people for others,” it seems they are funneling students into the war machine with these recruitment and networking events. We refuse to be part of this pipeline and reject Georgetown’s material and ideological support of these companies as they participate in the genocide of the Palestinian people.
The private setting of the September 25th coffee chat with Christoph Markson, Palantir’s head of security and defense operations in Europe and Asia, is especially insidious, as it normalizes war criminals as friendly professionals and makes complicity in mass murder seem acceptable for career advancement. This sets a dangerous precedent for Georgetown, prioritizing the interests of the military-industrial complex over the safety and values of its students. A movement calling for an end to settler colonialism and genocide should not be met with administrative repression while war criminals are given exclusive networking opportunities. Instead, students demand support from their university, which claims to be an institution that upholds Jesuit values centered on social justice and goodwill toward humanity.
Palantir is more than just a tech company; it acts as a central system for surveillance and targeting, enabling the mass killing of Palestinians. Amidst this genocide, Palantir has expanded its Zionist military contract and collaborated with the IOF to develop an AI program called Lavender, which extensively surveils Palestinians and creates kill lists that direct the killing of thousands in Gaza.
The tactics tested by Palantir abroad have also been used against our people here, with the company providing the technological infrastructure that helps ICE kidnap and deport vulnerable immigrant populations, directly threatening Georgetown’s own students and their families while the university platforms the company that endangers them. Palantir supports ICE and fuels the genocide in Gaza — and Georgetown University hosted them twice in one week.
Georgetown University has a well-documented history of heeding student calls for divestment from complicit institutions– from apartheid South Africa to fossil fuel companies. The student movement has consistently been on the right side of history, and Palestine will be no exception. We are outraged by the decision to host Palantir and Lockheed Martin, and echo the demands for Georgetown to disclose its endowment, divest from corporations complicit in the Zionist colonial project, and end all academic and recruitment partnerships with institutions and companies facilitating genocide.
The Georgetown Community demands,
The student movement to end Georgetown's involvement in genocide will not be discouraged by administrative repression or the University’s efforts to normalize war criminals through networking events. We urge all members of the Georgetown community to reject this path of complicity and insist that our institution adhere to its declared principles of justice and service to humanity, as Georgetown’s role in facilitating genocide recruitment remains a moral stain that cannot be erased.
Emails to Send to:
presidentsoffice@georgetown.edu (Robert Groves, Interim President of Georgetown University)
vicepresident@georgetown.edu (Joseph Ferrara, Vice President of Georgetown University)
soyica.colbert@georgetown.edu (Soyica Colbert, Interim Provost of Georgetown University)
ed855@georgetown.edu (Eleanor Daugherty, Vice President of Student Affairs)
jhellman@georgetown.edu (Joel Hellman, Dean of the School of Foreign Service)
