University of Hawaii instructor calls on institution to 'cut ties' with U.S. Navy and Israel
A University of Hawaii instructor is calling on the institution to cut ties with the U.S. Navy and Israel.
A University of Hawaii instructor is calling on the institution to cut ties with the U.S. Navy and Israel.
University of Hawaii at Manoa Instructor Colleen Rost-Banik and Ph.D. student Ia Maranon wrote a June 23 Op-Ed in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser which called on the institution to cut ties with both the U.S. Navy and Israel. The authors are both members of Students and Faculty for Justice in Palestine at the University of Hawaii.
Rost-Banik and Maranon wrote that the University of Hawaii partners with the U.S. Navy at the University Affiliated Research Center (UARC). According to its website, the UARC “serves as a center of excellence for critical Navy and national defense needs, conducting research, development, testing and evaluation (RDT&E) to address challenging and emerging problems.”
The authors describe this partnership as “insidious” as it “allows the U.S. Navy to determine the direction, scope, use and dissemination of research conducted within UARC.”
”Even though annual reports are released on the positive research developments produced, the future application and use of the technologies remain undisclosed,” Rost-Banik and Maranon wrote. “Limiting scholars’ research imagination to task orders of the military not only advances imperialism but also destroys life on land and in seas, as is evident in practice bombing (e.g. Kahoolawe, Makua Valley), toxic pollution (e.g. Pohaukuloa, Red Hill, Puuloa), profusion of undetonated munitions, and the development and testing of Agent Orange in Kauai.”
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Rost-Banik and Maranon also accuse the University of Hawaii of being complicit in the “genocide of Palestinians via investments that support Israel,” stating that the institution should “completely divest from Israel.”
