RIMPAC, the maritime war exercise that brings 29 nations to Hawaii, comes just two weeks after FestPAC (Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture), the cultural celebration of 27 Pacific nations. Despite accounts that both gatherings foster international cooperation, which subsequently bolster global security, the two events are diametrically opposed.
The former is an exercise that decimates cultures and lifeways of Pacific peoples, lands and waters. The latter is a Pasifika illustration of resistance and survival, an existence in spite of colonization and military exploitation. A consistent theme of FestPAC was a demand to collaborate in addressing climate change so that people and the planet — even on Tuvalu, where the highest point is 15 feet above sea level — can thrive.
One element that both events share, however, is support from the University of Hawaii. The endorsement of FestPAC was noticeable, and indeed celebrated by UH, with opening, ecumenical and closing ceremonies hosted at UH’s Stan Sheriff Center as well as hundreds of delegates staying in campus dorms. UH’s support of RIMPAC is perhaps less obvious, but much stronger and deeper.
As the percentage of government funds for education has significantly decreased since the 1980s, universities across the nation have found a benefactor in the Department of Defense’s (DoD) multimillion-dollar science and engineering grants, which align university research with national defense — a very questionable practice.
In 2008, UH’s controversial relationship with the DoD became more insidious via the establishment of the University Affiliated Research Center (UARC), a UH and U.S. Navy partnership that “serves as a center of excellence for critical Navy and national defense needs, conducting research, development, test and evaluation to address challenging and emerging problems.” This arrangement 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.
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.
We follow the footsteps of UH student, faculty and researcher resistance to UARC. With students rising up against universities’ complicity in the genocide of Palestinians via investments that support Israel, our call is a continuance to hold UH accountable in the production of knowledge towards death and destruction. Students and Faculty for Justice in Palestine (SFJP) at UH calls for UH to divest from support of Israel, including revoking its research partnership with Israel, and to terminate the contract with UARC.
The convergence of RIMPAC and FestPac in the occupied lands of Hawaii this year raises a poignant question: What is the purpose of the university in the time of death and destruction? Further, how can the university be the site for the celebration of the resilience of the Pacific in spite of the threat of extinction, and yet still be complicit in the very same forces that propel this extinction?
The fight against the entrenchment of militarization within the university is an ongoing one. In the same way that we do not forget how these deadly partnerships still exist, we must not allow them to press on without a fight. We invite students, faculty, staff and community members to join SFJP at UH in demanding that UH terminate the UARC contract and completely divest from support of Israel.
Ia Marañon is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Sociology at University of Hawaii-Manoa and a member of Students and Faculty for Justice in Palestine (SFJP) at UH; Colleen Rost-Banik is an instructor at the UH-Manoa sociology department and a SFJP member.
