Atlanta faith leaders denounce police use of force against students, faculty on college campuses

Faith leaders from the Atlanta Multifaith Coalition for Palestine held a press conference on Tuesday on the campus of Emory University to denounce the use of force by police against student and faculty protesters on college campuses. The group also echoed the call of demonstrators for Georgia colleges and universities to divest from companies affiliated with the state of Israel and to end the construction of Atlanta’s controversial Public Safety Training Center that activists have called “Cop City.” 

The coalition of faith leaders are also urging President Joe Biden not to speak at Morehouse College’s commencement ceremony unless the president is calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza. 

“We’re here on this rainy Tuesday morning,” Rev. Leo Seyij Allen said, “because our faith compels us to be here to stand in solidarity with students, with activists with faculty, and the administrators who support these students in calling for an end to investment in Israel, an end to the war and genocide happening against Palestinians and an end to the construction of ‘Cop City.’”