Racial profiling, spying and surveillance, deportation and detention, attacks on human rights defenders and journalists. These tactics and policies are just a handful of those that are shared between the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) and US law enforcement agencies. For decades, especially post-9/11, organizations like the Anti-Defamation League in the U.S. have sponsored a number of police-military trainings between Israel and the U.S.—popularly known as the “Deadly Exchange”. These trainings allow American police, FBI, CIA, ICE, and even campus security, to learn from and share tactics and technology with the IDF and Israeli police, the very forces enforcing occupation and oppressing the Palestinian people.
Chief Kelly Nee of the Boston University Police Department went on one of these trips in December of 2017, as part of an ADL delegation including other campus police departments. The delegation traveled to Israel for a nine-day “National Counter-Terrorism Seminar.” There, they visited the Old City of Jerusalem, training facilities, and prisons to learn Israel intelligence and security tactics which are used to enforce a violent occupation.
These programs do not make us safer. They are not even actually about fighting "terrorism", but are centered around the military tactics of an occupying colonial army. They only contribute to the militarization, unaccountability, and violence of the U.S. police and other government agencies. They expand and reinforce racial profiling, surveillance, and train police in how to more effectively suppress protests.
Boston University has never disclosed to the public or the student body its participation in this seminar or any other similar training program. It is likely that BUPD has participated in similar programs in the past, and/or has plans to participate in these programs in the future. Not only is the lack of transparency and openness from campus police troubling, it is deeply disturbing that they would ever feel the need to learn such tactics as are regularly employed by the Israeli military and police against the Palestinian people, given that the Israeli military flagrantly disregards the lives of civilians in its numerous wars and massacres.
We know that during the George Floyd protests in Boston, BUPD worked with the Boston Police to surveil protesters. In the past, during the movement against apartheid in South Africa, BUPD was notorious for its suppression of student protests in support of Black freedom. In the present, they participate in a program which legitimizes police brutality and encourages its most repressive methods and maintain comfortable ties with the apartheid state of Israel.
Why would BUPD need to learn how to surveil and gather intelligence? Why would they need to learn crowd control and other so-called "security" tactics? Why would they need to learn from an army which in a single year killed over 250 unarmed protesters and injured over 29,000 just in the Gaza Strip?
Is this the type of campus security we want?
Let’s put an end to the deadly exchange and the militarization of BU’s campus security!
* Email:
bostonuniversitysjp@gmail.com* Instagram: @bu_sjp
WE DEMAND:
1. Boston University apologize for its participation in the 2017 trip, commit to ending its participation in military and police training in Israel, and pledge it will not send BUPD on any future military trainings.
2. Boston University disclose whether it has participated in any such trainings in the past, and if so, when and how often?
3. Boston University commits to transparency regarding BUPD's budgeting, training, and authority.
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- Boston University Students for Justice in Palestine
Sources:
https://tuftsdaily.com/news/2018/01/26/tufts-police-chief-travels-israel-counterterrorism-seminar/https://palestineishere.org/places/united-states/pennsylvania/philadelphia/police/boston-university-police-department/https://bcheights.com/2020/06/05/bc-criticized-for-sending-university-police-to-boston-protests/