Cornell University's Students for Justice in Palestine invited Hasan Piker to speak on campus tomorrow: Thursday, September 24. They have yet to respond to emails and comments urging them to rescind their invitation.
As feminists and advocates for a free Palestine, we are alarmed that Hasan Piker has been chosen to discuss the horrors that israel has inflicted upon the Palestinian people—including the systemic rape, sexual assault, and sexual images used as blackmail against countless Palestinian women. A man who is a proud john, who clearly does not understand how colonialism and imperialism is the backbone of prostitution and sex trafficking, who shows womens’ nudes to strangers, and who thinks rape should be leveraged against women he dislikes or disagrees with, is in no way equipped with the knowledge and understanding to discuss the plight of Palestinian women, let alone at a university that is currently in the news for its own failure to protect its female students from rape and revenge porn.
We ask you to think deeply about who should represent the Students Not Bombs Campaign, Students for Justice in Palestine, Young Democratic Socialists of America, Jewish Voice for Peace, and Cornell University, but most importantly, who should speak for the women of Palestine.
We know that Cornell can find a much better guest to speak on Palestine than a misogynist Twitch streamer. Cancel the event with Hasan Piker!