A woman holds up a sign that reads, “Stop the silencing of pro-Palestinians Voices” at Columbia University, where student protests demanding divestment from weapons companies were shut down with police enforcement.
Image credit: SWinxy on Wikimedia Commons

We rely on cultural and educational institutions to nourish our curiosity and expand our knowledge. One might also expect cultural and educational institutions to support each other. Since October 2023, Israel has destroyed universities throughout Gaza and nearly 200 cultural heritage sites. But solidarity from US educational and cultural leaders with their Gazan counterparts has been conspicuous in its absence.

There are multiple reasons for this silence—including fear of being labeled anti-Semitic for expressing public support for the people of Gaza—but there is another less acknowledged reason. Many of the nation’s leading cultural and education institutions have board members who represent leading arms manufacturers, who, in turn, profit from the sale of weapons to Israel.

Fifty-four museums, cultural organizations, and universities currently host arms industry executives on their boards or in other prominent roles.

This is a core finding of Genocide Gentry, a report released in September 2024 by the Adalah Justice Project, LittleSis, and Action Center on Race and the Economy. The report documents the weapons industry’s wide reach and influence in many of the nation’s cultural centers and universities—our modern-day gentry.

Research Design

The goal of the research was to help activists identify ways to leverage their collective power to move institutions to act in solidarity with the Palestinian liberation struggle.

To do this, the research team first identified the top weapons corporations by revenue that are arming Israel. This includes Lockheed Martin, which reported second quarter 2024 net sales of $18.1 billion, and Boeing, which reported second quarter 2024 revenue of $16.9 billion. These companies list board members and their affiliations on their websites.

The research team then did targeted web searches to further identify these board members’ past and present academic and cultural ties, corporate boards they sit on, and past associations with the government—as the revolving door between the public sector and the weapons industry is significant. In 2021, for instance, the Project on Government Oversight identified 36 individuals who left high-ranking Pentagon positions to accept defense industry jobs.

The research team found that 54 museums, cultural organizations, and universities currently host arms industry executives on their boards or in other prominent roles.

Having board members who profit from weapons sales to Israel will almost certainly impact how an organization responds.

Of course, many of these individuals and institutions may deny that Israel’s war, which has resulted in over 40,000 deaths of Palestinians to date, amounts to genocide. Yet leading experts in the field say otherwise.

For instance, in March 2024, United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese released a report on the conflict entitled Anatomy of a Genocide. Shortly after its release, Amnesty International issued a statement praising the report and indicating that “the time to act to prevent genocide is now.”

Silence and Suppression by US Cultural Institutions

In the year since the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas, and Israel’s genocidal response, we have witnessed universities repressing student protesters through suspensions, arrests, and enacting new draconian policies. We have witnessed cultural institutions firing or forcing out employees for showcasing solidarity with the Palestinian people, and some cultural centers that historically have taken a stance on social justice issues staying silent.

Boards in the nonprofit sector serve as donors and guide the mission and values of institutions. Having board members who profit from weapons sales to Israel will almost certainly impact how an organization responds to the atrocities Israel is committing with those weapons.

In March 2022, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts was lit up in blue and yellow, the colors of the Ukrainian flag, in support of the country amid the ongoing Russian invasion. No similar action was taken for Palestine. Businesswoman and philanthropist Catherine B. Reynolds sits on the board of trustees of the Kennedy Center (to which she once famously donated $100 million). She also sits on the board of General Dynamics, a defense company supplying arms to Israel.

Former Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson sits on the board of Lockheed Martin and is also a Columbia University trustee. Last spring, the university shut down student protests demanding divestment from weapons companies. In May, following the student occupation of Hamilton Hall, Johnson voiced support for President Minouche Shafik (who resigned from her office in August) for her handling of the protests, which included employing police violence.

Brian C. Rogers is a board member of defense technology company RTX, and sits on the board of Harvard Management Company, which oversees the school’s $50.7 billion endowment. In addition to shutting down student encampments demanding divestment from arms manufacturers, Harvard has banned multiple students from a campus library for wearing kaffiyehs and taping fliers to their laptops about Israel’s airstrikes on Lebanon.

LittleSis did further research and found that some of the top donors to AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) also have current and past ties to prominent cultural institutions and numerous universities. These relationships embed them within networks of elite power and put them in positions of influence over these institutions through board roles and as donors.

For example, Harriet Schleifer is a trustee of Cornell University, which is currently deporting a student over his participation in anti-genocide protests. She has given nearly $600,000 to AIPAC-tied groups this election cycle. Eric Mindich is a previous board member of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and chair emeritus of the Lincoln Center Theater. He has contributed $250,000 to AIPAC-tied groups this election cycle. In July 2022, the Lincoln Center announced that it was hosting the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra “in solidarity with the victims of the war in Ukraine.” No similar solidarity actions have been taken for Palestinians in Gaza.

Nonprofit Pinkwashing

The Genocide Gentry report also exposes the role of nonprofits in entrenching militarism. While many people view nonprofits as doing good in the world, the reality is more complex; the nonprofit industrial complex exists, and nonprofits themselves can be part of enforcing a status quo of oppression.

In 2023 the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation exemplified pinkwashing—the use of rhetoric supporting LGBTQ+ identity to obscure justifications for violence, war, militarism, or any oppression that materially harms others—by awarding two weapons companies, Northrop Grumman and Boeing, its highest Corporate Equality rating for their “treatment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer employees.”

HRC also listed Northrop Grumman as a platinum partner. An ongoing campaign led by Adalah Justice Project, ACT UP New York, No Pride in Genocide, and Writers Against the War on Gaza is demanding HRC align its policies and actions with its stated values of equality and dignity by ending all relationships with weapons companies.

Why Cultural Solidarity Matters

Millions of people across the globe have protested Israel’s current genocide. People have disrupted events of their elected officials, demanding they enact an arms embargo and stop sending weapons to Israel. Over 100 local governments across the United States have passed resolutions calling for a ceasefire, including such major cities as Akron, Atlanta, Chicago, Dayton, Detroit, Minneapolis, Providence, Seattle, St. Paul, St. Louis, San Francisco, and Toledo. Workers, students, and community groups are organizing around divestment demands to end relationships with Israel.

Cultural and academic boycotts have long been part of the Palestinian struggle. Artists have been asked not to perform in Israel. Professors and students have been asked not to collaborate with Israeli universities complicit in occupation and apartheid. The “genocide gentry” framing and research urges people to consider how they can also leverage these institutions in campaigns against weapons manufacturers.

Even innocuous-seeming cultural institutions have long been entangled with the US war machine, and through organizing campaigns, those ties can be cut.

Organizing a campaign against a secondary target like a university or museum can be more effective than targeting the weapons company head on. Cultural institutions often have diverse audiences, including students, families, and community members who may be more sympathetic to human rights than the decision makers and war profiteers at weapons companies. Many more Americans are also more likely to be consumers of the products these institutions offer, as opposed to weapons companies that primarily sell their wares to governments, not individuals.

Educational and cultural institutions are often perceived as spaces for learning and ethics. These institutions typically espouse values of education, peace, and cultural enrichment. An association with a weapons manufacturer violates this promise.

Highlighting the contradictions between these values and the influence of a weapons executive can create a compelling narrative. Institutions may be more sensitive to public perception and potential backlash, making them more likely to respond to campaigns aimed at maintaining their reputations.

A Small Victory

One inspiring example is a campaign earlier this year targeting SXSW (South by Southwest), an annual film, cultural, and technology festival in Austin, TX, that attracted over 345,000 attendees in 2023. Palestine solidarity activists have targeted this event several times over the years for its ties to US weapons manufacturers and its platforming of “Brand Israel,” a public relations campaign led by the state of Israel to gloss over Israel’s war crimes.

Following a pressure campaign led by 80 artists in June 2024, SXSW announced: “After careful consideration, we are revising our sponsorship model. As a result, the US Army, and companies who engage in weapons manufacturing, will not be sponsors of SXSW 2025.” This campaign showcases that even innocuous-seeming cultural institutions have long been entangled with the US war machine, and through organizing campaigns, those ties can be cut.

Lessons Learned and the Struggle Ahead

This past year has been important for cementing the need for solidarity in the Palestinian liberation struggle across borders, movements, and sectors.

Many of the board members of weapons companies also have significant ties to the fossil fuel industry, neoliberal think tanks, and philanthropy. For example, James S. Turley sits on the board of Northrop Grumman as well as Citibank, which finances both the sale of US weapons to Israel and fossil fuel companies. So, when we chant that Palestine is a climate justice issue, it isn’t only about principles of intersectionality but also about identifying the power structure that impacts these layered struggles.

It has also been a year of much-needed reenergizing in antiwar and antimilitarism organizing. The military industrial complex is thriving, as US elected officials are allowed to profit from the weapons sales they approve; and there is a revolving door between federal defense departments and weapons and tech companies.

This needs to end. We need to dismantle the structures that enable genocide. Our audacious hope is that Genocide Gentry provides people with secondary targets to pursue and disrupt business as usual.