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Belgian Academics for Palestine (BA4P)
Notre engagement ── Ons Engagement ── Our Engagement
« 350 Scholars Urge Flemish Interuniversity Council [VLIR] To Suspend Cooperation With Complicit Israeli Universities Over "Educide" » (BDS Movement, February 1, 2024, Scholars at Flanders Universities): click here!
Pro memorie: reeds tussen 2015 en 2019 hebben zo'n 700 Belgische academici en kunstenaars (FR en NL) zich in een "pledge" achter de richtlijnen geschaard van het Palestijnse PACBI om Israëls universitaire en culturele instellingen te boycotten. In België werd de campagne gevoerd onder het acroniem "BACBI," met ondertekenaars uit alle universiteiten van ons land. Voor verdere informatie (zoals de lijst van deelnemende internationale academische organisaties): klik hier!
BACBI.be Home
« Israel Gaza Genocide »
« How Israel has destroyed Gaza’s schools and universities » (AlJazeera, 24 January, 2024): « All schools in Gaza have been shut and no university has survived Israel military’s more than 100 days of onslaught. » Hundreds of schools, including those run by the UN, in the besieged Palestinian enclave have been bombed, and students and teachers killed, in more than 100 days of Israeli bombardment that has ravaged educational infrastructure and caused mental trauma to thousands of beleaguered students. It is not just schools that have borne the brunt of the Israeli onslaught. Centres of higher education, including universities, have been completely paralysed. Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that 12 higher education institutions in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, completely disrupting university education. Geneva-based independent Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that Israel systemically destroyed every university in Gaza in stages. The first stage included the bombing of the Islamic and Al-Azhar universities, the monitor said in a statement issued on Saturday.
Additionally, the Israeli army has killed 94 university professors, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said. The monitor deemed the Israeli destruction of schools an “intentional destruction of Palestinian cultural and historical properties”. “The targeted academics studied and taught across a variety of academic disciplines, and many of their ideas served as cornerstones of academic research in the Gaza Strip’s universities,” the monitor said in a statement. Euro-Med said that it would be very difficult to return to academics post-war in the wake of the shear scale of the destruction of life and properties. Palestinians have one of the highest literacy rates in the world, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics in 2018. Palestinian graduates have ended up performing high in fields such as mathematics, engineering and business.
How many students and teachers have been killed and injured in Gaza? Up to 4,327 students have been killed and 7,819 others have been injured as of January 16, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Education, which added that 231 teachers and administrators were also killed.
« Palestinian Organisations Welcome Landmark ICJ Provisional Measures Order Finding That Israel’s Actions in Gaza Are Plausibly Genocidal » (26 January 2024):
Al-Haq, Al Mezan, and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) welcome the provisional measures order issued today by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the case of South Africa v. Israel. In a historic landmark ruling, the ICJ determined the plausibility that Israel is carrying out genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza. By ordering Israel to take all measures within its power to halt with immediate effect the commission of genocidal acts, the ICJ recognised the need for immediate action to protect the Palestinian people in Gaza, and immediately stop the ongoing killing of Palestinians in Gaza as members of a group. Not only is Israel ordered to stop with immediate effect all genocidal acts in Gaza, it is also ordered to report back to the Court within a month on its implementation of the provisional measures. Drawing on the nature of Israel’s military action, and “dehumanising” statements by Israeli government officials, the Court found that Israel’s actions in Gaza are plausibly genocidal.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, between 7 October 2023 and 12 January 2024, Israel’s genocidal military campaign in Gaza killed 23,843 Palestinians and wounded 60,317 more. According to the Government Media Office in Gaza, among those killed are approximately
10,400 children, 7,100 women, 337 medical personnel, 45 civil defense personnel, and 117 journalists. Our teams on the ground emphasize that the actual number of fatalities is considerably higher than the figure announced by the Ministry of Health, as a substantial number of
individuals remain trapped under the rubble.
This chilling death and injury toll occurs amidst a deliberately imposed humanitarian crisis by the Israeli authorities upon the 2.3 million Palestinian residents of Gaza. Ninety percent of Palestinians have been displaced from their homes, with many experiencing displacement on multiple occasions, notwithstanding that there is not a single place in Gaza that can be called safe. Israel employs starvation as a method of warfare: 2.3 million residents of Gaza, including our staff, face significant daily challenges in accessing food and water. Reports of deaths from hunger, particularly among children, newborns and infants, are beginning to surface. The situation is particularly catastrophic in northern Gaza, where the presence of Israeli soldiers and troops on the ground has made the delivery of humanitarian aid to hundreds of thousands of civilians who are still located there virtually impossible.
Due to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, every facet of life there has faced utter destruction. The local healthcare system has crumbled as Israel has declared an "unrelenting war" on the health system in Gaza, rendering it incapable of delivering essential care to the injured, sick individuals, and everyday patients. Educational pursuits have been severely disrupted, with Israeli attacks causing complete destruction to 95 schools and universities, and partial damage to 295 others, as reported by the Government Media Office in Gaza. Israeli airstrikes destroyed 145 mosques, while another 243 were partially damaged. Three churches have been destroyed by Israeli attacks, along with numerous archaeological and historical sites, as well as significant cultural landmarks, contributing to the erasure of Palestinian history and life throughout Gaza.
Simultaneously with the genocide in Gaza, Israel escalated attacks against Palestinians all across historic Palestine. In the occupied West Bank, between 7 October 2023 and 12 January 2024, the Israeli military and settlers killed 336 Palestinians, including 84 children. Over the same period of time, Israel started a campaign of mass arrest: since 7 October, at least 5.875 Palestinians have been detained, as further punitive measures have been imposed on them and the existing 5,200 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, including administrative detainees. Palestinians in Israeli custody and detention are subjected to torture, ill-treatment, inhumane or degrading treatment, and enforced disappearances. The Israel Prison Service announced the ‘death’ of at least seven Palestinian detainees and prisoners. Palestinians holding Israeli citizenship have also experienced various forms of persecution, including arbitrary arrests, threats of citizenship revocation, and a severe crackdown on freedom of speech. Continue...
Al-Haq - Defending Human Rights ─ Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights ─ The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) |
« The War on Gaza : The assault on Palestinian higher education. » FOBZU Briefing N° 1, December 2023 (Friends of Birzeit University, pdf, 6p.):
Students,
academics, and universities in the firing line Israel’s war on the Gaza
Strip, its military operations in the West Bank, and its policing
inside the Green Line is having a devastating impact on Palestinian
students, staff, and university/college campuses. Education has been
interrupted, while in Gaza it has ceased completely. Many students and
staff are being killed, while hundreds are being arrested or censored.
University buildings are being destroyed. The impact on Palestinians’
access to higher education and the Palestinian research community is
enormous and will last far beyond any ceasefire. Continue... |
« Israël – Palestine : l'appel des universitaires et étudiants à s’engager pour le respect immédiat et intégral du droit international. » Carte blanche par un collectif de signataires (Le Soir, le 18/12/2023): cliquez-ici.
Universitaires
et représentants étudiants, nous appelons nos institutions et nos
représentants à agir pour un cessez-le-feu immédiat et permanent qui
permette la fin des massacres et la libération de toutes les personnes
retenues en otage ou illégalement détenues, et à peser sur le
gouvernement israélien pour assurer le respect intégral du droit
international, dont la fin de l’occupation et la colonisation. Des
mesures plus que jamais nécessaires pour assurer la liberté et la
sécurité des Palestiniens et des Israéliens.
PS: la version extensive de la carte blanche, avec la liste des 548 signataires (17p.) est à votre disposition sur le présent site.
Cette
carte blanche appelle notamment les universités à adopter les mêmes
principes face aux actes commis par le gouvernement israélien et le
Hamas que ce qu’elles avaient décidé suite à l’agression russe en
Ukraine : la suspension de toute collaboration institutionnelle nouée,
en ce compris au niveau européen, avec des entités qui participent à
et/ou soutiennent les violations du droit international et des droits
humains. Suite à cette initiative, cosignée par les cinq recteurs
francophones actuellement en fonction, le Conseil des recteurs
francophones s’est engagé à appliquer cette position. Vous pourrez
trouver leur motion inter-universitaire ici: http://www.cref.be/communication/20231218_Motion_du_CRef_situation_Proche-Orient.pdf.
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Juan Cole, Ann Arbor (Informed Comment, 28 December 2023): « Total War: Israeli Gov’t has Killed 4,037 students and 209 Teachers in Gaza, Demolished 92 Schools and Universities » : click here. |
Introduction & Mission Statement: 'Scholars
Against the War on Palestine' is a transnational cross-disciplinary
coalition which brings together faculty, researchers and graduate
students to end the war on Palestine. As scholars representing the
Social Sciences, Humanities, Medicine, Law and STEM, we recognize that
Israel's latest genocidal war on Gaza follows the longest siege in
history and is rooted in decades of settler colonialism, occupation and
apartheid across Palestine. The academic and health sectors are being
intentionally targeted and destroyed as Palestinian universities,
schools and healthcare facilities are carpetbombed and raided, resulting
in the destruction of Gaza's three universities and the death, injury
and arrest of thousands of faculty, students and healthcare workers. We
call for an immediate end to the century-old colonial war on Palestine
and its people, click here! [January 7, 2024: list of 3423 endorsers] CLICK & JOIN THE CAMPAIGN! |
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FRONT PAGE
« Amid Israeli attacks targeting three hospitals, child amputee receiving treatment, Dina Abu Mohsen, 12, was killed; egregious violations that warrant accountability » (Al-Haq, Al-Mezan, Palestinian Center for Human Rights (18 December, 2023): Our
organisations: the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Al Mezan Center
for Human Rights, and Al-Haq Defending Human Rights, condemn the
Israeli bombing of the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, which led
to the killing of Dina Iyad Abu Mohsen, a 12-year-old survivor of a
previous bombing that killed her parents and two of her siblings, and
resulted in the amputation of her leg. The attack on Nasser Hospital is
part of Israel’s wider military campaign targeting hospitals, aimed at
deliberately destroying the healthcare system in the Gaza Strip,
necessary for the survival of Palestinians therein, is part of Israel’s
ongoing genocide. Continue...
« Living through hell in Gaza’s largest hospital » Dima Ashour (The Electronic Intifada, 26 November, 2023): Israel’s
war on Gaza has actually been a war on Gaza’s hospitals. Just 10 of
Gaza’s 35 hospitals are still operational. One in particular has been in
the headlines. On 23 November, Israel announced that its military had
detained the head of al-Shifa hospital Dr. Muhammad Abu Salmiya. That
followed a week-long siege of the hospital during which the military
tried – and failed – to show that al-Shifa had been used as a Hamas
headquarters or a command and control center. What it did succeed in
doing was take offline yet another hospital in Gaza, and this, the
biggest and, by Gazan standards, best equipped. Continue...
« 305 Palestinian children killed in Gaza in 24 hours » Defense for Children International - Palestine (October 24, 2023): Israeli
forces have killed 2,360 Palestinian children in Gaza, according to the
Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, in just over two weeks since
the Israeli military unleashed a massive military offensive on the Gaza
Strip on October 7 after Palestinian armed groups fired rockets toward
Israel and breached the Israeli perimeter fence surrounding Gaza,
launching attacks inside Israel. Continue...
« De verklaring voor de nietsontziende aanval van Hamas » Lieven De Cauter (De Wereld Morgen, October 13, 2023): "We
hebben besloten een einde te maken aan de voortdurende misdaden tegen
ons volk, aan het niet respecteren van de internationale wetten en
resoluties. De vijand moet begrijpen dat de orgie van de bezetting niet
langer ongestraft kan voortduren." Continue...
« A psychological barrier has just been shattered in Israel-Palestine » Amjad Iraqi (+972, October 11, 2023): Hamas’
bloody assault and the ensuing Israeli onslaught on Gaza have been
described as a ‘game changer.’ This isn’t an overstatement. Continue...
« Israel commits widespread war crimes in Gaza, humanitarian catastrophe is imminent » EURO-MED HUMAN RIGHTS MONITOR, Geneva, 10 October 2023: , click here!The
Israeli forces destroyed at least 70 industrial facilities and 970
residential units in the Gaza Strip, documented Euro-Med Human Rights
Monitor. Israel is committing widespread crimes against Palestinian
civilians in the Gaza Strip, Euro-Med Monitor said; amidst four
consecutive days of its escalating war, Israel has cut off Gaza’s
electricity, water, food, and fuel supplies, creating a threat of
imminent humanitarian catastrophe. Euro-Med Monitor stated that the
Israeli attack has resulted in the deaths of 880 Palestinians, with
approximately 59% of them being civilians, including 185 children and
120 women. Around 5,000 others have been injured, with hundreds
remaining trapped under rubble and along border areas. Euro-Med Monitor
added that Israel’s army is expanding its military operations in Gaza,
targeting residential buildings without prior warning and causing the
deaths of entire families. “What is happening in Gaza represents a
comprehensive humanitarian disaster, especially with the lack of
electricity and water affecting more than 90% of residents, and the
disruption of various essential supplies,” the organisation said in a
statement... Continue...
« A hidden universe of suffering’: the Palestinian children sent to jail » Nathan Thrall (The Guardian, long read, September 21, 2023):
One night in 2005, Israeli soldiers came for Huda Dahbour’s teenage
son. He was gone for a year and a half. The damage done to their family –
and so many others like them – was incalculable. Continue...
« En Cisjordanie, l’apartheid israélien déstructure la vie des Palestiniens » Mehdi BELMECHERI-ROZENTAL (OrientXXI, Septembre 27, 2023):
S’il ne prend pas la même forme partout en Cisjordanie, le système de
ségrégation spatiale et temporelle mis en place par Israël de l’autre
côté de la Ligne verte permet d’assurer le maillage des territoires
occupés au profit de l’armée israélienne et des colons. Avec ce régime
d’apartheid, la population palestinienne, quant à elle, se voit reléguée
au second rang sur ses propres terres. Continue...
« The permit regime is Oslo’s enduring legacy. It must be abolished » Yael BERDA (+972, September 21, 2023):
The separation logic enshrined by the Oslo Accords birthed a cruel
system of Israeli control, whose security justifications collapsed into
openly racist ones. Continue...
« Comment les accords d’Oslo ont consolidé la mainmise d’Israël sur l’accès à l’eau en Palestine » Aziza NOFAL (Middle East Eye, Septembre 17, 2023):
Les accords signés en 1993 permettent à Israël d’exercer un contrôle
écrasant sur les aquifères de la Cisjordanie occupée, plongeant les
Palestiniens dans une pénurie d’eau persistante. Continue...
« DEADLY PATTERN. » 20 Journalists died by Israeli military fire in 22 years. No one has been held accountable. A special report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (May 9, 2023, 32p.), May 9, 2023. The
report, “Deadly Pattern”, documents 20 examples of the IDF killing
journalists since 2001. Eighteen were Palestinians, and Israel has never
put a soldier on trial for killing a journalist. Continue... « On anniversary of Shireen Abu Akleh’s death, new report details Israel’s history of killing reporters with impunity » Michael ARRIA (Mondoweiss, May 9, 2023), click here!
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ACADEMIA:
« Scientists4Palestine »
+++ 23 October 2023: Professor Imad Barghouti arrested once again by the Israeli military, click here! Early
in the morning of October 23nd, Professor Imad Barghouti was arrested
by the Israeli forces. Imad Barghouti is a professor of Physics at
Al-Quds University beloved by his students, a father of five, one of the
most internationally respected Palestinian astrophysicists and a very
charismatic person who is relentlessly outspoken about the Israeli
occupation. He belongs to no political party and has never engaged in
any violence...
+++ 26 October 2023: "An update on the imprisonment of our colleague Prof. Barghouti."
+++ 1 November 2023: Professor Barghouti sentenced to administrative detention. In
the past few weeks, more than a thousands Palestinians have been
arrested in the West Banks alone, most of them being put in the regime
of administrative detention. .. We call for the immediate release of
Prof. Barghouti and of the other Palestinians illegally detained, as
well as the end to the hostilities immediately in Gaza and a prosecution
of war crimes being committed. Please, sign the petition here!
« Israeli and Palestinian Academics: Judicial Coup and Occupation 'Directly Linked'. » Jonathan Shamir (Haaretz, August 7, 2023) : In
an open letter, Israeli, Jewish and Palestinian academics and public
figures called for protesters and North American Jewish groups to
acknowledge the connection between the judicial coup and Israel's
occupation of Palestine.
« The Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism » "The
Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism aims to support the
delinking of the study of Zionism from Jewish Studies, and to reclaim
academia and public discourse for the study of Zionism as a political,
ideological, and racial and gendered knowledge project, intersecting
with Palestine and decolonial studies, critical terrorism studies,
settler colonial studies, and related scholarship and activism." Founding Collective: click here. ─ Contact: info@criticalzionismstudies.org. ─ For regular updates join the email list: click here.
« Why we created the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism » Rabab Ibrahim Abdulhadi and Heike Schotten (Mondoweiss, 24 August, 2023): "The
Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism seeks to create an
intellectual and political community that is grounded in solidarity with
those most harmed by Zionism and in uplifting their voices."
« Israeli and Palestinian Academics: Judicial Coup and Occupation 'Directly Linked'. » Jonathan Shamir (Haaretz, August 7, 2023) : In
an open letter, Israeli, Jewish and Palestinian academics and public
figures called for protesters and North American Jewish groups to
acknowledge the connection between the judicial coup and Israel's
occupation of Palestine.
« Unpacking Israel’s Legal Fictions. » Noura Erakat discusses the Jenin invasion and Israel’s efforts to unilaterally change the laws of war. Alex Kane (Jewish Currents, July 14, 2023) : Noura Erakat
is a human rights attorney and assistant professor at George Mason
University. She has served as legal counsel to the U.S. House of
Representatives and as a legal advocate for Palestinian refugee rights
at the UN. She is the author of: "Justice for Some. Law and the Question of Palestine" (Stanford UP, 2019).
« Why Israel Is Attacking Germany's Top Middle East Expert » Amir Tibon (Haaretz, July 10, 2023) : Muriel
Asseburg says the Israeli embassy manipulated her quotes, while her
workplace, a prominent German think-tank, slammed the embassy's
'insinuations and personal defamations' against her.
« U.S. to Stop Funding Academic Institutions in the West Bank » Embracing traditional U.S. policy, the move reverses the new policy implemented by the Trump administration in its final days. Amir Tibon & Ben Samuels (Haaretz, June 25, 2023) : The
Biden administration has informed Israel on Sunday that the United
States will not transfer any funds to research institutes or scientific
and technological projects taking place in the West Bank.
« Horizon Europe: funding death, displacement and discrimination in Palestine » Posted in Corporate accountability, EU Research Programs, Our Work ─ ECCP, 13 April 2023: European
Union research subsidies have been a crucial source of funding for
Israeli academic institutions, businesses, and government agencies,
including many military companies, that are deeply involved in human
rights abuses and international law violations – including entities
operating in, and profiting from, illegal Israeli settlements... Israel
is not a member of the EU but, following the signing of the EU-Israel
Association Agreement, since 1995 Israeli applicants have had the same
access to the EU research grants as EU members.
« 'Israel practices apartheid,' say Israeli law professors » (Middle East Monitor, March 30, 2023): The 'Israeli Law Professors' Forum for Democracy'
has found that changes introduced by the current government led by
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "validate the claim that Israel
practices apartheid." The group represents 120 of Israel's most
prominent law professors. It reached the conclusion in a position paper
titled "Implications of the Agreement Subordinating the Civil Administration to the Additional Minister in the Ministry of Defence." Published March 5, 2023 (pdf, 5p.), click here. The forum is an ad hoc and voluntary group of experts on Israeli law and specifically Israeli public law.
« AfP statement on recent protests in Israel » Academia for Palestine (March 28, 2023): As
part of the widespread protests against the Israeli government’s plans
to reform the judicial system and move Israel’s regime further towards a
right-wing dictatorial system, and in specific response to the
dismissal of the Minister for Defence by Prime Minister Netanyahu, the
heads of Israel’s universities and research institutions decided to suspend classes indefinitely... This
response by Israel’s academic institutions joins mass protests by
senior army officers, high tech industry workers, economists, academics,
artists and many other middle class Israelis, and is likely to be
followed by a general strike declared by the country’s largest trade
union. However, the democracy these protesters are fighting for in
impressive rallies throughout Israel, is in fact democracy for Jews
only.
« Israel's 'right to exist' challenged in expert testimonies » Nasim Ahmed (Middle East Monitor, March 3, 2023): "Israel's right to exist" has been challenged in expert testimonies by leading scholars Professor John Dugard and Professor Avi Shlaim.
Dugard is an advocate of the High Court of South Africa. He has served
intermittently as Judge of the International Court of Justice. His other
high-profile appointment was at the United Nations where he served as
Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Occupied
Palestinian Territories from 2001 to 2008. Shlaim, who is an author of
several books on Israel and Palestine, is an Emeritus Fellow of St
Antony's College and an Emeritus Professor in International Relations at
the University of Oxford.
« Supporting Professor Nathan Thrall’s Academic Freedom » Academia for Equality (via AURDIP, March 15, 2023): The Executive Board of Academia for Equality
wrote to Leon Botstein President of Bard College to commend him for
standing firm in support of Professor Nathan Thrall, who is teaching the
course “Apartheid in Israel-Palestine” at his college. Professor Thrall
has come under attack by the Ulster Jewish Federation and several
right-wing media outlets, who advanced the outrageous claim that the
very title and existence of the course is antisemitic.
« Mental health professionals must end business as usual following the Huwwara pogrom » Palestine-Global Mental Health Network (Mondoweiss, March 10, 2023) : The
International Neuropsychoanalysis Association must call off its
upcoming conference in Israel in light of human rights abuses and their
impact on psychological well-being.
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ANALYSES
David KATTENBURG: « Bad faith, duplicity and cynicism: Britain’s Palestine Mandate, 100 years ago » (Modoweiss, Sept 29, 2023): click here! September
29 marks 100 years since Britain was assigned the role of Mandatory
Power in Palestine. Despite a hundred years of bloody conflict and
grief, the international community's obligation to decolonize Palestine
continues today.
Peter BEINART & George BISHARAT: « On Addressing Jews » (Jewish Currents, Sept 18, 2023): click here! The
death of the two-state paradigm provides an opportunity for the
Palestinian national movement to once again speak explicitly to Jews.
Amira HASS: « This Is poetic revenge on Israelis silent about the Occupation » (Haaretz, Aug 1, 2023, republ. in: JVL, 3 August): click here! The
gods are taking poetic revenge on Israelis who continue living in peace
and harmony, or mere indifference, with the dispossession and
oppression of the Palestinians – Israelis who have eagerly embraced the
security-related excuses for this state of events. The rug has been
pulled from under their feet.
Ilan PAPPÉ: « Judea vs ‘Fantasy Israel': Ilan Pappe on the Collapse of Israeli Pillars, and the Opportunities for Palestine » (The Palestine Chronicle, July 31, 2023): click here! The
future liberated and de-Zionised Palestine may look now as a fantasy,
but unlike Fantasy Israel, it has the best chance to galvanize locally,
regionally and globally every person with a modicum of decency.
Joel BEININ: « A century after its founding, the Israeli Communist Party is at a crossroads » (+972, July 28, 2023): click here! For
100 years, Maki has been the leading force for Jewish-Palestinian
equality in Israeli politics, yet it has failed to unite Arab and Jewish
workers into a viable movement. Was it doomed from the start?
Tareq S. HAJJAJ: « What it means to be a government and a resistance movement » (Mondoweiss, July 25, 2023): click here! As
the ruling power in Gaza, Hamas has had to balance its governmental
responsibilities with its commitment to resistance. It has done so by
delegating resistance to other factions and adopting the "unity of
fields" strategy.
Orly NOY: « The narcissism that blinds Israelis to Jenin’s oppression » (+972, July 7, 2023): click here! Not
only did the anti-government protests not condemn the assault on Jenin,
its leaders even praised the “brave men” who took part in the invasion.
Amira HASS: « Israel's Sci-fi Assault on Jenin Paves the Way for New Settlements » (Haaretz, July 5, 2023): click here! Israel's
master plan is to ensure that most of the West Bank is annexed de facto
to Israel and 'cleansed' of Palestinians, who will be crowded into
bounded reservations.
Lubna MASARWA & Nadda OSMAN: « What’s behind Israel’s latest offensive in Jenin and what does the future look like? » (Middle East Eye, July 3, 2023): click here! MEE
looks at the underlying reasons behind the large-scale Israeli
operation in Jenin and how it differs from previous operations.
Amjad IRAQI: « In Jenin, Israel is unveiling the next phase of apartheid » (+972, June 30, 2023): click here! Palestinians
in West Bank cities are fast discovering that if their expulsion won’t
be possible, Gazafication will be their future.
Lawrence DAVIDSON: « How stable is Zionist Israel? » (Redress Information & Analysis, June 18, 2023): click here! It
is time to ask the question: just how stable is Zionist Israel? Is it
possible that the Jewish population of Israel constitutes an inherently
unstable society by virtue of deeply rooted divisions? Are these
divisions so deeply rooted that they are irreconcilable? As Lloyd Green
put it in a recent article in the Daily Beast, “Decades-old grudges have
now morphed into pitched political battles. Antipathies of the old
world are now playing out in what was thought to be a high-tech
Hebrew-speaking Mecca.”
Odeh BISHARAT: « The Seed Was Planted in June 1967 » (Haaretz, June 5, 2023): click here! Do
the stunning pictures of the victory after the June 1967 war mean
anything to the younger generation? Does anyone still get excited about
the picture of the three generals, Yitzhak Rabin, Moshe Dayan and Uzi
Narkis, as they entered East Jerusalem?
Kathryn SHIHADAH: « Khader Adnan’s death & Israel’s decades of despotic military orders » (If Americans Knew, May 8, 2023): click here! The
death of hunger striker Khader Adnan underscores Israel’s totalitarian
laws regarding Palestinians, the massive overuse of administrative
detention, the criminalization of peaceful resistance, and the cruelty
of the prison system… Nearly 56 years ago Israel issued Military Order
101 – still in effect today – that forbids Palestinians from normal
activities, like gathering in a group of more than ten people, if that
gathering “could be construed as political,” or displaying a Palestinian
flag, without a permit.
Amira HASS: « Adnan’s Lone Strike Exposed the Difficulties of Collective Palestinian Struggle » (Haaretz, May 4, 2023): click here! Khader
Adnan’s mission to expose the basic injustice in Israel’s military
justice system and its casual denial of basic freedoms was logical,
called for, and nothing short of courageous – but once again, he was
forced to take the individual path, sending a message about the lack of a
Palestinian collective struggle. (Archive)
Richard SILVERSTEIN: « Palestinian Armed Resistance: Terror or Legitimate? Israel and global media's troubling definition of Palestinian resistance as terrorism » (Tikun Olam, May 2, 2023): click here! Eitay
Mack is one of Israel’s foremost human rights lawyers. He’s done
extraordinary research into Israel’s government archives to document its
long history of military aid and corrupt dealings with dictators around
the world. I have immense respect for him and his legal work, research
and the journalism which documents these terrible deeds. But I read
with disappointment his latest op ed on international law regarding
Israel & the Palestinians...
Euro-Med Monitor: « Escalation of Israeli violations in Occupied Palestinian Territory » Euro-Med Monitor, Webinar on April 29, 2023: click here!Five
experts were invited to speak at the webinar, which was part of the
organisation’s undertaking to document the rights violations,
exploitation, and escalation of violence perpetrated by Israel against
Palestinians in the oPt. The webinar featured expert opinions on the
psychological effects of the blockade on Gaza, Israel’s systematic use
of violence, the legal questions surrounding Palestine’s ability to
achieve justice, foreign policy, the two-state solution, and the power
dynamics behind planned attacks. The discussion shed light on the severe
lack of human rights accountability in the oPt, as well as on the
scrupulous construction of an apartheid government in Israel...
Peter BEINART: « Could Israel Carry Out Another Nakba? » Expulsionist sentiment is common in Israeli society and politics. To ignore the warning signs is to abdicate responsibility.” (Jewish Current, April 19, 2023): click here! When
officials in Benjamin Netanyahu’s government explain why they’re so
eager to weaken Israel’s Supreme Court, they often cite the limitations
it places on their ability to punish Palestinians. “If I want to
demolish terrorists’ houses, who is in my way?” thundered Likud Knesset
member Tali Gottlieb at a March 27th pro-government rally...
Alice SPERI: « Labs Of Oppression » As Israelis Protest Mounting Authoritarianism, Apartheid Regime Over Palestinians Goes Unchallenged” (The Intercept, April 1, 2023): click here! On
very clear days, you can follow the rolling hills surrounding the
Palestinian city of Yatta all the way to the Dead Sea on one side, the
Negev desert on the other. The windswept landscape offers idyllic views,
with clusters of olive trees alternating with narrow rows of cultivated
land, patches of shrubs, and the occasional grazing sheep. This is also
a unique observation point to watch the reality of Israeli apartheid
take hold of the land...
Smadar BEN-NATAN: « The One Carceral State: Mass Incarceration and Carceral Citizenship in Israel/Palestine » (SSRN, 11p., 3 Jan 2023 ): Presentation/Abstract. Paper: click here! Abstract:
The discussion about the one state condition in Israel/Palestine can
greatly benefit by looking at Israel’s carceral state. This paper shows
that underneath the formal separation of Israel and the Occupied
Palestinian Territories (OPT), lies one carceral state. Following the
1967 occupation, Israel initially designed the legal and carceral
systems of the OPT as separate, in accordance with international law,
and created a military prison system in the OPT. However, this situation
has changed dramatically after the failure of the Oslo Accords and the
second intifada in 2000. Through an analysis of legal and administrative
documents and statistics of the Israeli Prison Service (IPS), the
military, the Knesset, and Supreme Court decisions, this paper traces
how gradually more prisons and Palestinian prisoners have been
transferred into the 1948 Israeli territory. Ultimately, by 2006, all
prisons (but one) were physically transferred into Israel and the
military prison system has been dissolved. The IPS was rebranded as the
Israeli “National Prison Authority”, assuming responsibility to all
Palestinian prisoners.
Ilan PAPPÉ: « Using the Right Language: The ‘Incremental Genocide’ of the Palestinians Continues » (The Palestine Chronicle, March 16, 2023): click here! I
am writing this op-ed on March 10, 2023. Seventy-five years ago, on
this date, the military command of the Zionist leadership publicized
Plan Dalet, or Plan D, which, among other guidelines, instructed the
Zionist forces on their way to occupy hundreds of Palestinian villages
and several towns and neighborhoods in historical Palestine, to carry
out: ─ “Destruction of villages (setting fire to, blowing up, and
planting mines in the debris), especially those population centers which
are difficult to control continuously...
Alain GRESH: « Emmanuel Macron couvre les fascistes en Israël” » (OrientXXI, 6 mars 2023): click here! Que
faut-il de plus ? En Israël s’est installée au pouvoir une coalition
qui comporte des ministres que dans n’importe quel autre pays on
qualifierait de fascistes. Certains d’entre eux ont été définis comme
néonazis par Daniel Blatman, professeur à l’Institut des études juives
contemporaines à l’Université hébraïque et spécialiste de la Shoah. Tous
professent une idéologie suprémaciste juive, convaincus que les droits
d’un Israélien juif autorisent à enterrer ceux des Palestiniens...
"‘Total Fascism’: Israeli Parliament Passes Death Penalty Bill Targeting Palestinians" (The Palestine Chronicle, March 1, 2023): click here! Israeli
lawmakers have voted in favor of a bill that would impose the death
penalty on so-called “terrorists” accused of killing Israelis. The bill
was proposed by extreme far-right National Security Minister Itamar
Ben-Gvir.
Yousef MUNAYYER: « "The settler-colonial origins of Israel’s constitutional crisis » (+972, 24 February 2023): click here! The
government’s assault on the judiciary is driven by the same urge as the
state’s founders: to protect their power to privilege Jews over
Palestinians.
Amjad IRAQI: "The myth of the ‘cycle of violence’" (+972, January 31, 2023): click here!Palestinians
spotlight Israeli brutality to demand an end to their oppression;
Israelis spotlight Palestinian violence to justify that oppression.
Ramzy BAROUD: "It Has Always Been a 'Religious War': On Ben Gvir and the Adaptability of Zionism" (The Palestine Chronicle, January 18, 2023): click here! The
Zionists, whether ‘political Zionists’ like Theodore Hertzl or
‘Spiritual Zionists’ like Ahad Ha’am’ - and now Netanyahu and Ben Gvir -
have all used the Jewish religion to achieve the same end, colonizing
all historic Palestine and ethnically cleansing its native population.
Sadly, major part of this sinister mission has been achieved, though
Palestinians continue to resist with the same ferocity of their
ancestors.
Ilan PAPPÉ: "Ilan Pappe on the Socio-Political Formations behind Israel’s Neo-Zionist Government” (The Palestine Chronicle, January 6, 2023): click here! Two
months after the election of the new government of Israel, the blurred
picture is becoming more transparent, and it seems one can offer some
more informed insights about its composition, personalities, and
possible future policies and reaction to them. It would not be an
exaggeration to define Benjamin Netanyahu as the least extreme member of
this government, which tells you about the personalities and policies
of all the others. There are three major groups in the
government, and I am not referring here to various political parties,
but rather to socio-political formations.
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APPEALS, RESOLUTIONS:
« Lastercampagne tegen The Rights Forum blijft zonder gevolgen » (The Rights Forum, 21 september 2023): De
beschuldigingen van antisemitisme en nazi-praktijken die The Rights
Forum naar aanleiding van een Wob-verzoek over zich kreeg uitgestort,
zijn niet strafbaar. Dat oordeelde het Gerechtshof Amsterdam tot onze
verbijstering.
« After Israel’s Jenin Attack, It’s Time to Strengthen the BDS Movement » Samir Eskanda (Jacobin, 20 July 2023): Israel’s
rulers use culture as a propaganda tool while waging war on the
cultural life of Palestinian society. The best way to challenge the
normalization of Israeli apartheid on every front, including the
cultural one, is through boycotts, divestment, and sanctions.
« ALL EYES ON JENIN! Jenin, Urgent need to act! » European Coordination of Committees & Associations for Palestine (ECCP), 4 July 2023: In
the night of July 2nd the Israeli army launched a large-scale offensive
against the town of Jenin and its refugee camp – with a thousand
soldiers and hundreds of military vehicles – accompanied by helicopter
and drone attacks. The current toll is 10 killed and hundred injured.
About 3000 people were evacuated but without any shelter. This is the
largest operation in the West Bank in the last 20 years. At the same
time, the soldiers are preventing medical aid. Journalists are directly
targeted and denied access from entering the camp. Other massive war
crimes are perpetrated in front of the world’s eyes...
« New government takes politicization of heritage sites to a new level » Emek Shaveh's Newsletter March 2023: This
newsletter outlines the changes brought about by the new government in
the area of heritage governance, and its implications for sites,
particularly in the West Bank. Years of sacrificing professional
standards and democratic norms in favor of policies shaped by political
partisanship and nationalist agendas have given us a government which
has abandoned even the pretense of maintaining professional standards or
an inclusive approach to the country's multicultural heritage.
« Terrorizing Huwara: A Town Under Attack » State of Palestine - Negotiations Affairs Department, Media Briefs, March 1, 2013: The
following brief outlines the series of terror attacks and violations
that have occurred since the killing of two Israeli settlers on the main
Huwara road on 26 February 2023, perpetrated by Israeli occupation
forces (IOF) and settlers. These actions cannot be considered
"retaliatory," as some may suggest. Rather, they are part of a
systematic policy employed by the occupying Power and its settlers to
instill fear and harm the Palestinian population, who have endured its
colonial occupation for 56 years.
« Israel’s Dismantling of Palestinian Civil Society and Systematic Persecution of the Palestinian People under Arbitrary Counter-Terrorism Measures » Submitted
by: Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Al-Haq,
Defense for Children – Palestine (DCI-P), Palestinian Non Governmental
Organizations Network (PNGO), Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees
(UPWC), 28 February 2023, 8p.: I.
Introduction, 1. In response to a call for input issued by the United
Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human
rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, our
organisations prepared the following submission for the benefit of her
upcoming global study on the impact of counter-terrorism measures on
civil society and civic space...
«
Joint Urgent Appeal to the UN Special Procedures to Safeguard
Palestinian Political Prisoners' Rights against Collective Punishment
and Arbitrary Measures Implemented by the Israeli Prison Services at the
behest of the Israeli Occupying Authorities » AL-HAQ - Law in the Service of Man, February 23, 2023: Submitted by: Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs ── Palestinian
Human Rights Organizations Council, comprising of: Addameer Prisoner
Support and Human Rights Association - Al-Haq - Al Mezan Center for Human Rights - Aldameer Association for Human Rights - Defense for Children International-Palestine - Center for Defense of Liberties and Civil Rights - Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center - Palestinian Centre for Human Rights - Muwatin
Institute for Democracy and Human Rights (Observer Member) & The
Independent Commission for Human Rights (Observer Member) ── Palestinian Prisoners' Society.
« Action by UN System and Intergovernmental Organizations Relevant to the Question of Palestine » (January 2023, Volume XLVI, Bulletin No. 1): I. OIC condemns incursion by Israeli minister into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, p. 1; II. ASG Khiari briefs Security Council, calls on all parties to maintain status quo of Jerusalem’s holy sites, p. 2; III. OIC issues communiqué after emergency meeting on Al-Aqsa Mosque, p. 3; IV. UN Secretary-General meets with the extended Troika of the Arab Group, p.5; V. "39 UN Member States reject Israeli government’s punitive measures following ICJ request, p. 5...
« Palestinian Rights Committee Bureau Rejects Israeli Retaliation in Response to UN’s Decision Seeking ICJ Advisory Opinion ─ Statement (GA/PAL/1448) » General Assembly’s Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (February 3, 2023): The
Bureau of the United Nations General Assembly’s Committee on the
Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People rejects the
punitive measures adopted by Israel, against the Palestinian Authority,
for seeking the resolution of international disputes through legitimate
and peaceful means, via the International Court of Justice, which is
one of the principal organs of the United Nations, following the
requests for an advisory opinion by the General Assembly on 30 December.
« Israel is back at the International Court of Justice» David Kattenburg (Mondoweiss, December 31, 2022): Eighteen
years after the ICJ's 2004 Advisory Opinion on the legality of the
separation wall, the ICJ is now weighing in on the legality of the
occupation itself, despite Israel's attempts to stall the vote. It was a
vote Israel and the US moved heaven and earth to stall, but that took
place anyway, with timing that couldn’t have been more apt. On the
evening of December 30, two days after a declaration by the incoming
government of Benjamin Netanyahu that “the Jewish people have an
exclusive and inalienable right to all parts of the Land of Israel,”
including the illegally annexed Syrian Golan Heights and “Judea and
Samaria,” the UN General Assembly passed a resolution asking the
International Court of Justice (ICJ) to render an Advisory Opinion on
the legality of Israel’s 55-year occupation of the Palestinian West
Bank.
« Joint Statement: 86 Human Rights and Civil Society Organisations,
and Academic Institutions Condemn Israel’s Targeted Smear Campaign Against Respected UN Special Rapporteur, Francesca Albanese » Al-Haq - Defending Human Rights (December 24, 2022, pdf, 220p.) : On
14 December 2022, Israel’s mission to the United Nations in Geneva
smeared the respected and eminent UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation
of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territory Occupied since 1967,
Francesca Albanese, in a direct attempt to attack and undermine the
mandate she has been entrusted with and thwart her expert human rights
work on Palestine. The statement which contains baseless accusations of
antisemitism, raises concerns about the “impunity that exists today
regarding antisemitism and antisemitic comments made by UN officials”.
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CALLS-TO-ACTION:
« The Elephant in the Room » > August 10, 2023: We,
academics and other public figures from Israel/Palestine and abroad,
call attention to the direct link between Israel’s recent attack on the
judiciary and its illegal occupation of millions of Palestinians in the
Occupied Palestinian Territories. Palestinian people lack almost all
basic rights, including the right to vote and protest. They face
constant violence: this year alone, Israeli forces have killed over 190
Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza and demolished over 590
structures. Settler vigilantes burn, loot, and kill with impunity...
Accompanied with (provisional) list of signatories (August 10, 10:08 h:
963). Sign Now!
« On Nelson Mandela Day, 250 civil society organizations worldwide call on UN to investigate Israeli apartheid » BNC Statement, 18 July 2023: On
the United Nations declared Nelson Mandela day, 250 civil society
organizations, movement and networks worldwide, including the
Palestinian-led BDS movement, marked the occasion by launching a new
campaign with a statement calling on the UN to “investigate Israel’s
regime of apartheid” as a necessary step to “dismantle apartheid.”
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DISCUSSIONS:
« Sanctioning Israel: Feasibility and Ethical Considerations » Khaled Elgindy & Nada Elia (Al-Shabaka ─ The Palestinian Policy Network, August 8, 2023):Over
recent years, Israel’s impunity has fueled intensifying violence
against Palestinians. Israelis killed more Palestinians in 2022 than in
any year prior since 2006, and the election of a far-right Israeli
governing coalition has led to open and intensifying calls for ethnic
cleansing. Meanwhile, the unprecedented expansion of illegal Israeli
settlements, skyrocketing attacks by settlers, suffocating blockade of
Gaza, and ongoing displacement of Palestinians have continued unabated.
As the Israeli regime escalates its apartheid and settler colonial
practices in Palestine, calls for accountability are mounting. Among
these demands are growing calls for sanctions. Still, questions around
this tactic remain - both in terms of their ethics and efficacy...
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PUBLICATIONS 2023:
- Salah HAMMOURI: « Prisonnier de Jérusalem. Un détenu politique en Palestine occupée » . Libertalia,
coll. Orient XXI, 31 août 2023, 144 p., 10 euros. Préface d’Armelle
Laborie-Sivan: « Salah Hammouri, prisonnier de Jérusalem, coupable de
résister &raqip; (Orient XXI, le 1 septembre, 2023): click here!
"Dans
un récit de vie publié par Libertalia dans la collection Orient XXI, le
franco-palestinien Salah Hammouri raconte dix ans passés dans les
prisons israéliennes. Le livre est dans les librairies depuis le 31
août. Nous publions la préface d’Armelle Laborie-Sivan, qui a recueilli
et rédigé les fortes paroles de Salah Hammouri."
- Mitri RAHEB: « Decolonizing Palestine: The Land, The People, The Bible » . Orbis Books, September 2023; ISBN:9781626985490, 184p., click here!
"Decolonizing
Palestine" powerfully examines the inseparability of the liberation of
Palestinians and the decolonizing of theological discourses. Raheb
interrogates the interpretations of biblical stories as a warrant to
practice violence in all its forms while illuminating decolonial
theological pathways. The book scrutinizes obvious manifestations of
violent Jewish and Christian theological justifications authorizing the
dispossession of Palestinians. It also focuses on liberal forms of
Christian Zionism and their likewise harmful insidious legacies.
- Peter SHAMBROOK: « Policy of Deceit. Britain and Palestine, 1914-1939 » . OneWorld Academic, August 3, 2023, ISBN: 9780861546329; RRP: £35.00, 416p., click here!
In
this eye-opening book, Peter Shambrook delves into the secret
correspondence between the British High Commissioner in Egypt, Sir Henry
McMahon, and the Sharif of Mecca during the First World War. McMahon
promised the Sharif an independent Arab state, including Palestine,
after the war, in exchange for his alliance with Britain against the
Ottomans. But what happened next changed the course of history.
- Malaka SHWAIKH and Rebecca Ruth GOULD: « Prison Hunger Strikes in Palestine: A Strategic Perspective. » International Center on Nonviolent Conflict Press, 2023, pb, 116 pp., $20.00. To order: click here! Review by Yousef M. Aljamal: click here!
This publication is the first major transnational examination of prison
hunger strikes. While focusing on Palestine, the research is enriched
by extensive interviews and conversations with South African, Kurdish,
Irish, and British ex-prisoners and hunger strikers. This study reveals
in unprecedented detail how prison hunger strikes achieve monumental
feats of resistance through the weaponization of lives.
- Rebecca Ruth GOULD: « Erasing Palestine: Free Speech and Palestinian Freedom » . Verso, July 2023, 9781839769023, pb £14.99, 176 p.
The widespread adoption of the IHRA definition of anti-semitism and
the internalisation of its norms has set in motion a simplistic
definitional logic for dealing with social problems that has
impoverished discussions of racism and prejudice more generally, across
Britain and beyond. It has encouraged a focus on words over substance...
click here!
- Nick RIEMER: « Boycott Theory and the Struggle for Palestine. Universities, Intellectualism and Liberation » . Rowman & Littlefield Publ., January 2023, 224p., pb $35.00.
The academic boycott of Israel, a branch of the pro-Palestinian
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, is one of the richest
and most divisive topics in the politics of knowledge today. click here!
- James FERGUSSON: « IN SEARCH OF THE RIVER JORDAN. A Story of Palestine, Israel and the Struggle for Water » . Yale University Press, New Haven/London (2023), $30, 293 pp.
Review: Nancy MURRAY: "A tour through Palestine’s water apartheid" (Mondoweiss, July 23, 2023): click here!
- Avi SHLAIM: « Three Worlds. Memoirs of an Arab-Jew » . Oneworld Publications, July 11, 2023; 336 p.
A
unique coming-of-age story from the lost world of Arab-Jews. In July
1950, Avi Shlaim, only five, and his family were forced into exile,
fleeing from their beloved Iraq into the new state of Israel. click here!
- Hil AKED: « Friends of Israel: The Backlash Against Palestine Solidarity » . Verso, April 2023, 304 p., pb ISBN 9781786637659, £13.29; eBook ISBN: 9781786637673, £2.00: click here!
"Friends
of Israel" provides a forensically researched account of the activities
of Israel's advocates in Britain, showing how they contribute to
maintaining Israeli apartheid. The book traces the history and changing
fortunes of key actors within the British Zionist movement in the
context of the Israeli government's contemporary efforts to repress a
rising tide of solidarity with Palestinians expressed through the
Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Edited excerpt: click here!
- Ghada KARMI: « One State. The Only Democratic Future for Palestine-Israel » . Pluto Press, April 2023, pb ISBN: 9780745348315; eBook ISBN: 9780745348339, 208p., £14.99.
Ch.
1, "The Problem of Zionism", (p. 8): "It is important to frame the
situation in Israel/Palestine within its proper context. Israel is not a
natural phenomenon in the Middle East, did not arise as a normal result
of circumstance, and had no historical antecedents in the region,
despite the biblical mythology employed to suggest the contrary. It is a
settler colonial state, set up denovo, aiming to provide a home for the
Jews of the world, or as many of them as would come, with the aim of
maintaining a permanent Jewish majority presence in that state..." click here!
- Oren KESSLER: « Palestine 1936: The Great Revolt and the Roots of the Middle East Conflict » . Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2023, ISBN 978-1-5381-4880-8 • Hardback • February 2023 • $26.95 • (£20.99). click here!
In
spring 1936, the Holy Land erupted in a rebellion that targeted both
the local Jewish community and the British Mandate authorities that for
two decades had midwifed the Zionist project. The Great Arab Revolt
would last three years, cost thousands of lives—Jewish, British, and
Arab—and cast the trajectory for the Middle East conflict ever since.
Yet incredibly, no history of this seminal, formative first “Intifada”
has ever been published for a general audience… Zack Rothbart, "A Journey to the Roots of Today’s Israeli-Palestinian Conflict" (Haaretz, April 5, 2023), click here! ‘Palestine
1936,’ a new history of the Great Revolt in the British Mandate of
Palestine, argues that the seeds for the Mideast conflict were
cultivated, if not sown, nearly a century ago.
- Thomas SUÀREZ: « PALESTINE HIJACKED. How Zionism Forged an Apartheid State from River to Sea » . Olive Branch Press, 2023, ISBN 978-1-62371-819-0, 470p., $ 25.00. click here!
For a 'Selection of Source Documents cited in this book, 'Palestine
Hijacked,' and in other writings' of the author: click on paldocs.net. Presentation the back cover: click here!
The
Israel-Palestine so-called “conflict” is typically understood to be a
clash between two ethnic groups—Arabs and Jews—inhabiting the same land.
Thomas Suárez digs deep below these preconceptions and their supporting
“narratives” to expose something starkly different: The violent
take-over of Palestine by a European racial-nationalist settler
movement, Zionism, using terror to assert by force a claim to the land
that has no legal or moral basis. About
this book: How terror was used by Zionist militias to transform
Palestine into an apartheid settler state. The Israel-Palestine
“conflict” is typically understood to be a clash between two ethnic
groups—Arabs and Jews—inhabiting the same land. Thomas Suárez digs deep
below these preconceptions and their supporting “narratives” to expose
something starkly different: The violent take-over of Palestine by a
European racial-nationalist settler movement, Zionism, using terror to
assert by force a claim to the land that has no legal or moral basis...
- Nada KISWANSON & Susan POWER (edd.): « Prolonged Occupation and International Law. Israel and Palestine . » Series: International Humanitarian Law Series, Volume: 66 (Brill, 2023, 408pp.) Info: click here.
This
volume arose from a desire to advance academic discourse and reflection
on the broader subject of prolonged occupation. Presentation: by
Al-Haq, 30 March 2023, click here. "This
collection is the best and most comprehensive scholarly work to date on
International Law and the longest illegal occupation in modern world; a
monumental achievement and a must read for anyone interested in human
rights and ensuring accountability and justice for all violations of
International Law in Occupied Palestine." Nur Masalha, Historian and
Professor, SOAS University of London.
- Francesca P ALBANESE & Lex TAKKENBERG: « UNRWA and the
Palestinian refugees: Protecting refugee rights while structurally
addressing the agency’s financially unsustainable modus operandi. » Refugees Study Centre, Working Paper, Series 138, 27/02/2023, 18p. download here.
The
73-year-long failure to resolve the Palestinian refugee question, and
the discourse around it, especially since Madrid and Oslo, combined with
the unsustainability of UNRWA’s current modus operandi – essentially a
means to manage the humanitarian dimension of the unresolved
Israeli-Palestinian conflict – prompt a critical re-examination of the
way the Palestinian refugee question has been approached and how UNRWA
has interpreted and implemented its mandate over the past decades. This
paper calls for a fundamental paradigm shift in the approach to
protection of and solutions for the Palestinian refugees...
- John DUGARD, Michael LYNK & Richard FALK: « OCCUPIED
PALESTINE: Working Through the United Nations. » Foreword by Francesca
Albanese. Clarity Press, 2023, ISBN 978-1-949762-54-9; eBook ISBN 978-1-949762-55-6, 398p., 2023; $32.95 - $22.00. click here!
This
book is the first comprehensive examination of UN efforts to protect
Palestinian human rights in the territories occupied by Israel more than
50 years ago in the 1967 War. Working through the UN Human Rights
Council in Geneva, three top international legal experts – Richard Falk,
John Dugard and Michael Lynk – served for six consecutive years as
unpaid Special Rapporteurs with a UN mandate to report on Israeli
violations of international humanitarian law and human rights standards.
Being outside the discipline that controls UN bureaucrats, they enjoyed
a high measure of political independence in carrying out their
factfinding and reporting missions. Strikingly, despite their
differences in background and political outlook, they came to a
unanimous consensus confirming the routine and various Israeli
violations of Palestinian basic rights.
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REPORTS, SUBMISSIONS,...
« INJUSTICE ─ Palestinian children’s experience of the Israeli military detention system » Save the Children (July 2023, pdf, 25p.) : According
to a just-released report by the international rights organization,
Save the Children, four out of five Palestinian children in the Israeli
military detention system are beaten and 69 per cent are strip-searched. Presentation: The
Palestine Chronicle (July 10, 2023): "Caged, Stripped, Beaten: Latest
‘Save the Children’ Report on Palestine Makes Chilling Read."
BREAKING: New Report Reveals Human Rights Violations Resulting from IHRA Definition of Antisemitism:
« Suppressing Palestinian Rights Advocacy through the IHRA Working
Definition of Antisemitism – Violating the Rights to Freedom of
Expression and Assembly in the European Union and the UK » European Legal Support Center (ELSC, June 6, 2023, pdf, 48p.) : The
report is the first case-based account of human rights violations
resulting from the application and institutionalisation of the
controversial IHRA definition by the EU and the UK. The growing concerns
about the negative human rights impact of the IHRA definition have
so far been ignored by the EU. The report is based on 53
recorded incidents between 2017 and 2022 in Germany, Austria and the UK,
in which individuals, groups and organisations were accused of
antisemitism based on the IHRA definition. All of the
accused were targeted for advocating for Palestinian rights, denouncing
Israel’s practices and policies and/or criticising Zionism as a
political ideology. When legally challenged, most of these allegations
of antisemitism were dismissed as unsubstantiated.
« Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territories: Automated Apartheid: How facial recognition fragments, segregates and controls Palestinians in the OPT » AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, May 2, 2023 : In
this report, Amnesty International explores how facial recognition
technology is used extensively by the Israeli authorities to support
their continued domination and oppression of Palestinians in the OPT.
With a record of discriminatory and inhuman acts that maintain a system
of apartheid, the Israeli authorities are able to use facial recognition
software – in particular at checkpoints – to consolidate existing
practices of discriminatory policing, segregation, and curbing freedom
of movement, violating Palestinians’ basic rights.
« One Year Report on Demolitions and Seizures in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Reporting Period: 1 January – 31 December 2022 . » Office of the European Union Representative (West Bank and Gaza Strip, UNRWA), 28 March 2023 (pdf, 12p.): Summary:
In 2022, a total of 953 structures were demolished or seized throughout
the West Bank, including East Jerusalem - the highest number recorded
since 2016. Of structures demolished, more than 80% (781) were located
in Area C. In total, 1,031 individuals have been displaced and 28,446
affected as a result of demolitions. All but 35 of the structures were
targeted for lacking building permits, which are nearly impossible for
Palestinians to obtain in Area C and East Jerusalem Of the structures
targeted in the twelve-month reporting period, 101 structures were
funded by the EU or EU Member States (valued at EUR €337,019),
representing the third highest financial injury since 2016....
« New government takes politicization of heritage sites to a new level » Emek Shaveh's Newsletter March 2023: This
newsletter outlines the changes brought about by the new government in
the area of heritage governance, and its implications for sites,
particularly in the West Bank. Years of sacrificing professional
standards and democratic norms in favor of policies shaped by political
partisanship and nationalist agendas have given us a government which
has abandoned even the pretense of maintaining professional standards or
an inclusive approach to the country's multicultural heritage.
« Terrorizing Huwara: A Town Under Attack » State of Palestine - Negotiations Affairs Department, Media Briefs, March 1, 2013: The
following brief outlines the series of terror attacks and violations
that have occurred since the killing of two Israeli settlers on the main
Huwara road on 26 February 2023, perpetrated by Israeli occupation
forces (IOF) and settlers. These actions cannot be considered
"retaliatory," as some may suggest. Rather, they are part of a
systematic policy employed by the occupying Power and its settlers to
instill fear and harm the Palestinian population, who have endured its
colonial occupation for 56 years.
« Israel’s Dismantling of Palestinian Civil Society and Systematic Persecution of the Palestinian People under Arbitrary Counter-Terrorism Measures » Submitted
by: Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Al-Haq,
Defense for Children – Palestine (DCI-P), Palestinian Non Governmental
Organizations Network (PNGO), Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees
(UPWC), 28 February 2023, 8p.: I.
Introduction, 1. In response to a call for input issued by the United
Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human
rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, our
organisations prepared the following submission for the benefit of her
upcoming global study on the impact of counter-terrorism measures on
civil society and civic space...
«
Joint Urgent Appeal to the UN Special Procedures to Safeguard
Palestinian Political Prisoners' Rights against Collective Punishment
and Arbitrary Measures Implemented by the Israeli Prison Services at the
behest of the Israeli Occupying Authorities » AL-HAQ - Law in the Service of Man, February 23, 2023: Submitted by: Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs ── Palestinian
Human Rights Organizations Council, comprising of: Addameer Prisoner
Support and Human Rights Association - Al-Haq - Al Mezan Center for Human Rights - Aldameer Association for Human Rights - Defense for Children International-Palestine - Center for Defense of Liberties and Civil Rights - Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center - Palestinian Centre for Human Rights - Muwatin
Institute for Democracy and Human Rights (Observer Member) & The
Independent Commission for Human Rights (Observer Member) ── Palestinian Prisoners' Society. Continue...
« The Impact of Israel’s New Ultranationalist Government on the Palestinian Prisoners’ Movement » ADDAMEER, January 31, 2023; for report (pdf, 5p.): click here! By
the end of 2022, the Israeli occupation forces arrested in total around
7,000 Palestinians across the occupied Palestinian territories, with
April 2022 recording the highest number of arrests reaching 1,228 cases,
followed by May and October 2022, with 690 cases.
« Pulling The Trigger Is The First Resort. Palestinians killed by Israeli Army and Settlers in 2022 » EURO-MED HUMAN RIGHTS MONITOR, January 8, 2023 (pdf, 45p.): Executive
Summary. In 2022, the world saw a dramatic surge in killings of
Palestinians, with fatalities in the West Bank climbing 82% from the
previous year and nearly quintupling (491%) from 2020...
« On Flimsey Grounds: Israel's Pervasive Night Arrests of Children » HAMOKED - Center for the Defense of Individuals, January 2023 (pdf, 11p.): Each
year, hundreds of Palestinian boys ages 13-17 are arrested from their
homes in the middle of the night by the Israeli security forces. Such
arrests begin when a large group of soldiers arrives at the home without
warning. Sometimes they pound on the door to wake the family, but
often, they burst in after blowing open the door.
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ISRAEL SCHOLASTICIDE:
RE: "Procedure for Entry and Residence of Foreigners in the Judea and Samaria Area" Published by the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT): Update January 30, 2023. 'For
requests regarding the entry and exit of foreign visitors to the
territories of Judea and Samaria only, as well as requests for the
return of foreign guarantee funds, please use the following contact
methods:... With 6 files to download.'
─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─
“Scholasticide” – the systematic destruction by Israeli forces of centres of education" (RIGHT2EDUCATION, Birzeit University, January 10, 2009): click here. A
new word emerged from the carnage in Gaza this week: “scholasticide” –
the systematic destruction by Israeli forces of centres of education
dear to Palestinian society, as the ministry of education was bombed,
the infrastructure of teaching destroyed, and schools across the Gaza
strip targeted for attack by the air, sea and ground offensives. “Learn,
baby, learn” was a slogan of the black rights movement in America’s
ghettoes a generation ago, but it also epitomises the idea of education
as the central pillar of Palestinian identity – a traditional premium on
schooling steeled by occupation, and something the Israelis “cannot
abide… and seek to destroy”, according to Dr Karma Nabulsi, who teaches
politics at St Edmund Hall, Oxford.
Nick Riemer: “Scholasticide: The Relentless Attack on Palestinian Universities" (The Wire, January 1, 2019): click here. Israel’s
efforts to cripple higher education in occupied
Palestine continued relentlessly in 2018, with Israeli universities
acting as key tools of the occupation. The systematic punishment
inflicted on Palestinian academics and students didn’t attract anything
like the global attention of Gazans’ March of Return, but it deserves to
be documented and organised against for what it is: a slow, sadistic
crushing of learning, and a stifling of the life opportunities it
provides. A selection of the manifestations of this “scholasticide,” all
drawn from local reports, is catalogued in this article, along with
some brief indications of Israeli universities’ collaboration in it.
This suggests the full violence of Israel’s siege on higher education in
Palestine – and the urgent necessity of an effective
response on the part of people of good conscience around the world,
including those who work in universities.
─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─
- Fayha Shahash, « Palestinians decry Israel army's 'barbaric'
university raid and student arrests. » Eight members of Birzeit
University student council detained in the latest crackdown on student
politics » (Middle East Eye, Sept 25, 2023): click here!
Palestinians
have condemned the Israeli army's storming of a leading West Bank
university and the arrest of student activists. Around 10 military
vehicles violently raided Birzeit University's campus at dawn on Sunday
before dozens of special forces disembarked and surrounded the student
council building, according to student Basil Barghouti. Troops assaulted
university guards, vandalised the council's office and arrested eight
of its members. The detained students, including the council's elected
president, Abdul Majeed Hassan, had been barricading themselves inside
the building for two weeks fearing arrest by the Palestinian security
services. "The soldiers destroyed the contents of the building and broke
equipment that was to be used in activities during next week,"
Barghouti told Middle East Eye. "They also confiscated many items
belonging to the student council."
- « Diplomatic missions across Europe call on Israel to stop West Bank demolitions" » (Times of Israel, May 27, 2023): click here.
Consortium
led by EU office to West Bank and Gaza says Israel should ‘return or
compensate’ about 10 countries for humanitarian items, after razing
EU-funded school near Bethlehem. In a press statement Friday, the
consulates general of Belgium, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the
United Kingdom, and the representative offices of Denmark, Finland,
Germany and Ireland, as well as the EU office to the West Bank and Gaza,
slammed Israel for the recent demolition earlier this month of an
EU-funded school in the Palestinian village of Jubbet al-Dhib near
Bethlehem, and the “threatened demolition of another 57 schools in the
West Bank.”
- Rafaël Rutten: « Isolation and Control. Israel’s denial of
foreign nationals to the oPt », The Center for Defense of Liberties and
Civil Rights “Hurryyat” (May 23, 2023): click here.<
In
December 2022, Israel implemented a series of new guidelines for
foreigners applying for a visa for the occupied Palestinian territory
(oPt). The 62 page document titled ‘Procedure for Entry and Residence of
Foreigners in the Judea and Samaria Area’, published by the
Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT),
outlines extensive requirements for obtaining a long term visa for the
oPt. These requirements severely limit the possibility for foreign
nationals to visit, work or study in the oPt...
- Human Rights Watch, « West Bank: New Entry Rules Further Isolate Palestinians » (HRW, January, 23, 2023): click here.
Israel's Guidelines Impede Visiting, Studying, Working.
- Yuval Abraham: « Palestinian school razed after campaign by gov’t-linked settler group » (+972, May 8, 2023): click here.
The
residents of Jib al-Dib lost their years-long fight to save their
elementary school, leaving dozens of children without proper access to
education.
- Canaan Lidor: « Israel razes EU-funded Palestinian school near Bethlehem » (The Times of Israel, May 7, 2023): click here.
Demolition,
which follows a court ruling from March, prompts protests from the
European Union and Palestinian Authority... The Palestinian Education
Ministry called the demolition “a heinous crime,” adding: “These
practices fall within the framework of the occupying regime’s ongoing
crimes against the Palestinian educational sector, targeting students,
teachers and educational institutions in complete disregard of international conventions and principles" (m.u.).
- « Israeli Court Approves Palestinian School Demolition near Bethlehem » (The Palestine Chronicle, March 6, 2023): click here.
An
Israeli occupation court ruled on Monday in favor of the demolition of a
school in the Jub Al-Dhib community, near Bethlehem, the official
Palestinian news agency WAFA reported. The coordinator of the Wall and
Settlement Resistance Commission, Hassan Brijiyeh, said that the Central
Israeli Court issued a ruling in favor of the demolition of the
al-Tahadi 5 School in the southern occupied West Bank village,
effectively accepting a petition submitted by the Regavim settler group
to demolish the structure.
- « Palestinian Students under Suspended Detention » (AURDIP, Feb 25, 2023): click here.
The
Israeli occupation authorities systematically and persistently target
Palestinian university students for arbitrary arrest and detention. This
practice, amounting to a form of collective punishment, violates
Palestinian students’ rights both to education and to freedom of
association, assembly, and expression, all protected under international
legal standards. Each year, the Israeli occupation authorities
viciously arrest and detain dozens of Palestinian students, often under
the pretext of involvement with student groups deemed “illegal” under
Israeli military orders. Though the Israeli occupation authorities
target students and student groups across Palestine, students at Birzeit
University have been subjected to the most consistent, systematic
attacks, raids on campus, arbitrary detention orders, and torture and
ill-treatment.
- HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: « West Bank: New Entry Rules Further Isolate Palestinians. » Israel's Guidelines Impede Visiting, Studying, Working (HRW, January 23, 2023): click here.
Israel's Guidelines Impede Visiting, Studying, Working.
Jerusalem – New Israeli guidelines on access to the West Bank for
foreigners threaten to further isolate Palestinians from loved ones and
global civil society, Human Rights Watch said today. Israeli
authorities have long made it difficult for foreigners to teach, study,
volunteer, work, or live in the West Bank. The new guidelines codify and
tighten longstanding restrictions, threatening to make it even harder
for Palestinians in the West Bank, who already face severe
Israeli-imposed movement restrictions, to be with family members who
lack a West Bank ID and to engage with foreign students, academics,
experts, and others. “By making it harder for people to spend time in
the West Bank, Israel is taking yet another step toward turning the West
Bank into another Gaza, where two million Palestinians have lived
virtually sealed off from the outside world for over 15 years,” said
Eric Goldstein, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “This
policy is designed to weaken the social, cultural, and intellectual
ties that Palestinians have tried to maintain with the outside world.”
- Shahd Safi: « In Gaza, Students’ Heavy Endeavors are Going in Vain » (The Palestine Chronicle, November 25, 2022): click here.>
From
the 1948 Nakba, the Naksa of 1967 to now, many Palestinians have been
forced to live as refugees, facing dire social and financial
difficulties. Education is their only hope for survival. But so many
families can’t afford the expenses associated with college and
university.
- Kadoorie University Denounces Israeli Occupation’s Violation Inside its Campus in Tulkarem (AURDIP, November 20, 2022): click here.
The
administration of Palestine Technical University – Kadoorie (PTUK)
denounces and strongly condemns the Israeli Occupation forces’
desecrating actions, disrespecting its sanctity and forcing the
university staff to open the main gates and the cameras control room to
drag out certain records and photocopied clips.
- Committee on Academic Freedom: « COGAT regulations’ impact on international scholar selection » (MESA, October 20, 2022): click here.
Letter
sent on 20 October 2022 to: Israel PM Yair Lapid, Minister of
Education Yifat Shasha-Biton, Minister of Justice Gideon Sa'ar,
Brigadier-General Ghasan Alyan, Coordination of Government Activities in
the Territories (COGAT), Chief Clerk Idit Malul, Supreme Court of the
State of Israel.
- Yumna Patel & Michael Arria: « Israeli restrictions on
foreign travel into occupied West Bank take effect despite criticisms » (Mondoweiss, October 20, 2022): click here.
A
draconian set of Israeli restrictions on foreign travel into the
occupied West Bank take effect today, despite months of condemnations by
rights groups and legal efforts to stop them.
- Awdah Hathaleen: "In Masafer Yatta, teachers like me can’t guarantee our students an education" (+972, November 15, 2022): click here.
With
schools facing demolition orders and soldiers detaining students and
teachers for hours, obstacles to education are becoming insurmountable.
- Hamoked Center for the Defence of the Individual: "New Israeli Procedure on Entry of Foreigners to the West Bank" (Briefing paper Sept 2022): click here.
Interference
with Palestinian Civil Society and Academic Freedom:
In the new procedure, the Israeli Defense Ministry gives itself the
prerogative to set academic qualifications for lecturers. Faculty and
student visas can only be renewed for a maximum of 27 months, and then a
person would have to leave the West Bank before applying for a new
visa. There is no possibility to offer tenure to foreign faculty, as
after a cumulative stay of five years, a foreign lecturer must remain
abroad for nine months before they can re-enter the West Bank... It
should also be noted that this procedure would not apply to foreigners
who wish to travel to Israeli settlements in the West Bank. For example,
foreign lecturers and students at Ariel University in the Ariel
settlement will continue to be governed by the much more lenient
regulations set by Israel’s Ministry of Interior.
- Maureen Clare Murphy: "“Racial engineering” behind Israel’s new West Bank entry restrictions" (The Electronic Intifada, 26 Sept, 2022): click here.
The
97-page procedure serves Israel’s “racial engineering” of the
population in the West Bank “within the framework of its apartheid
regime, which constitutes a crime against humanity,” according to a
coalition of Palestinian human rights groups... Those seeking to work or
study in the West Bank “must apply for an entry visa 45, 60, or even up
to 153 days before arrival as well as provide an extensive
questionnaire on their CV [resume], and any familial or spousal
connections in the West Bank,” according to the coalition of rights
groups.
- Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council (PHROC): "International
Community Must Take Prompt and Concrete Measures to Halt Israel’s New
Procedure for Entry and Residence of Foreigners in the West Bank" (Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, 8 Sept, 2022): click here.
The
Israeli occupying authorities have imposed further restrictions on the
entry of foreign nationals and Palestinians who hold foreign passports
and wish to work, volunteer, join their Palestinian family members or
act in solidarity with the Palestinian people in the oPt. The
constraints of the new procedure, which was published on 4 September
2022 and will enter into force on 20 October 2022, also apply to foreign
nationals whose work requires that they stay for any length of time in
the West Bank (excluding occupied Jerusalem).
- Neve Gordon: « Palestinian universities are once again under attack » (AlJazeera, July 15, 2022): click here!
And
as they fight for their survival under apartheid rule, they are
receiving no real solidarity from their Israeli counterparts. Later this month, the Israeli authorities are expected to put into effect a 97-page ordinance, called "Procedure for Entry and Residence for Foreigners in Judea and Samaria Area",
which would grant the Israeli Ministry of Defence and thus, the
military, absolute power to determine how many and which foreign
academics and students can visit, study or work at all 15 Palestinian
universities and colleges in the West Bank... In an arguably
unprecedented move, the General Assembly of the Hebrew University sent
an official letter to the Israeli military commander of the West Bank,
emphasising the problematic restrictions set out in the procedure...
- « Academic Freedom & Palestinian Universities in the Occupied West Bank. » Letter to the Israeli authorities by Adalah: The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel (English translation, Adalah's News, 30 June 2022, pdf, 10p.): click here!
Over
the past two months, Adalah's team has worked to protect Palestinians
on both sides of the Green Line against Israel's growing attempts to
restrict and control their education systems, in violation of their
rights to education, freedom of expression and self-determination.
Adalah sent a letter on behalf of Birzeit University to the Attorney
General and the Israeli army on 26 May 2022 demanding that the
procedures be amended and that many of the restrictions be lifted, and
to allow Palestinian universities to submit applications for residence
permits for foreign lecturers and students rather than requiring
individuals to make requests. Israeli universities enjoy wide
institutional autonomy and decision-making power in recruiting foreign
academic staff and in accepting foreign students, and facilitating their
entry and stay.
- BZU CALL TO ACTION: “BIRZEIT UNIVERSITY REJECTS ISRAELI MEASURES AGAINST ACADEMIC FREEDOM” (March 12, 2022): click here! Version in pdf: click here!
Birzeit University rejects Israel’s most recent attempt to constrict
the fundamental right of Palestinians to education and to undermine the
academic freedom and autonomy of Palestinian universities. Scheduled to
take effect in May, 2022, the “Procedure for Entry and Residency of Foreigners in Judea and Samaria Region”
grants Israeli military immense powers to isolate Palestinian
universities from the outside world, and to determine the future course
of Palestinian higher education. The new directive invests the Israeli
military the absolute right to select which international faculty,
academic researchers and students may be present at Palestinian
universities, as well as impose their own arbitrary criteria on which
fields of study are permissible and what qualifications are acceptable.
- "Atteintes graves à la liberté académique en Palestine" (Le Soir, le 6 avril, 2022): click here!
L’Université
palestinienne Birzeit, en Cisjordanie, s’inquiète d’une nouvelle
procédure du ministère israélien de la défense qui entrera en vigueur à
partir du mois de mai. Cette procédure permettra à l’armée israélienne
de décider quels professeurs et étudiants, et en quel nombre, pourront
venir chaque année enseigner ou étudier dans les universités
palestiniennes. « Il s’agit d’une violation du droit à l’éducation »,
selon l’appel lancé par l’Université de Birzeit.
- Committee on Academic Freedom: “Letter protesting new Israel
Government directive regarding selection of international scholars and
students to teach and study in Palestinian Universities ” (MESA, April 5, 2022): click here!
"Dear
Prime Minister, Ministers, Brigadier-General, and Chief Clerk, We write
to you on behalf of the Committee on Academic Freedom of the Middle
East Studies Association of North America (MESA) to protest Israel’s
recently released directive, “Procedure for Entry and Residency of
Foreigners in Judea and Samaria Region,” scheduled to take effect as
policy in May 2022. Released by COGAT (Coordination of Government
Activities in the Territories), the policy vests the Israeli military
with the unilateral power to select and exclude international faculty,
academic researchers, and students who wish to teach, study, and conduct
research at Palestinian universities. We regard this as both an attempt
to isolate Palestinian scholars and students from the international
scholarly community and a form of censorship aimed at constraining the
freedom of speech and association of international academics and
students by denying them access to and engagement with Palestinian
scholars and students, as well as professional and educational
opportunities at Palestinian universities. We condemn this proposed
policy in the strongest terms as a clear escalation of the persistent
efforts of your government to deny Palestinians the right to education."
- “Stop de Israëlische belegering van Palestijnse universiteiten” (MO*, 31 maart 2022): click here!
De
Palestijnse Birzeit Universiteit op de Westelijke Jordaanoever is
bezorgd om een nieuwe procedure van het Israëlische ministerie van
Defensie (COGAT) die vanaf mei ingaat. Die zou strenger gaan beoordelen
welke en hoeveel docenten en studenten jaarlijks aan Palestijnse
universiteiten mogen komen lesgeven of studeren. ‘Een inbreuk op het
recht op onderwijs is dit’, klinkt het. Belgische academici ondersteunen
de oproep.
- “Statement on Israel’s Latest Repression of Palestinian Universities” (USACBI, March, 2022): click here!
We
express our strong opposition to Israel’s most recent attempt to
restrict Palestinian rights to education and to undermine the freedom
and autonomy of Palestinian academic institutions. Scheduled to take
effect in May 2022, the “Procedure for Entry and Residency of Foreigners
in Judea and Samaria Region” grants the Israeli military absolute
powers to select which international faculty, academic researchers and
students can be admitted to teach or study at Palestinian universities.
Under this law, Israeli authorities will be in the position of
determining which fields of study are permissible and what
qualifications are acceptable. Further, it requires applicants to submit
to Israeli investigation at diplomatic missions in countries of origin.
Finally, it sets a limit on the number of foreign teachers and students
(100 and 150 per year, respectively) and limits the duration of
employment to five non-consecutive years, effectively denying the hiring
and promotion of faculty, and with immediate effects for current
faculty and students who do not hold residency permits. This includes
many Palestinians, who will lose their jobs, their access to education,
and their rights to live in their homeland. The new directive also would
effectively end all student exchanges. In short, it is an all-out
assault on Palestinian academic freedom and collaborative intellectual
exchange. In the words of Birzeit University, it “puts Palestinian
Universities under siege and divests them of basic control over their
academic decisions."
- Haaretz Editorial: "Resist Israel's Academic Occupation of the Palestinians" (Haaretz, March 10, 2022): click here!
An
officer in the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities
in the Territories will soon rule that a certain college instructor, a
U.S. citizen, cannot enter the West Bank to teach at a university in
Jenin because her area of expertise is not an “essential field” for
Palestinians. The field will be determined in accordance with a COGAT
ruling.
- Nasim AHMED: "Israel deciding who can teach at Palestinian universities is another nail on the apartheid regime" (MEMo, March 10, 2022): click here!
- Amira HASS: "À Israël de décider pour les Palestiniens quels enseignants étrangers peuvent enseigner dans les universités de Cisjordanie" (Haaretz, trad. AURDIP, 10 mars 2022): cliquez-ici!
Un
ensemble de procédures publié par le ministère de la Défense impose de
nouvelles restrictions sur la sélection de qui peut entrer, travailler
et rester en Cisjordanie. Israël permettra aux institutions
palestiniennes d’enseignement supérieur d’employer des enseignants venus
de l’étranger seulement s’ils enseignent dans des domaines qui ont été
désignés comme essentiels par Israël et seulement si ces enseignants et
chercheurs sont accomplis et possèdent au moins un doctorat, selon un
nouvel ensemble de procédures du ministre de la Défense.
- Mohammed NAJIB: "Palestinian students, professors report harm of Israeli restrictions on campus" (Arab News, March 9, 2022): click here!
Birzeit University hosts between 10 to 15 visiting professors, and all of them face the problem of visa renewals.
- Amira HASS: " Israel to Decide for Palestinians Which
Foreign Lecturers Can Teach at West Bank Universities. A set of
procedures published by the Defense Ministry puts further restrictions
on who can enter, work and stay in the West Bank" (Haaretz, March 8, 2022): click here!
Israel
will permit Palestinian institutions of higher education to employ
lecturers from overseas only if they teach in fields that have been
designated as essential by Israel, and only if the lecturers and
researchers are accomplished and possess at least a doctorate, according
to a new set of procedures by the Defense Ministry.
Further back (July 2022-2005): click here.
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SOLIDARITY CALLS:
« ‘Youth Against Dictatorship’: Meet Israel’s new class of conscientious objectors » Eight
new draft refusers speak about the occupation, the anti-judicial reform
protests, and conscientious objection as a tool of protest. Oren ZIV (+972, September 5, 2023): On
Sunday afternoon, hundreds of Israelis gathered outside the Herzliya
Hebrew Gymnasium high school in central Tel Aviv for the launch of a new
letter by young conscientious objectors under the banner of “Youth
Against Dictatorship.” Despite pressure from the far right and the
Education Ministry, and despite the decision of the high school’s board
to cancel the event, hundreds came to hear the students read out the
letter, participate in workshops, and to support the 230 young people
who signed the letter and who plan to refuse enlistment into the Israeli
army. As opposed to previous so-called “refusenik letters,” the current
letter connects opposition to the government’s judicial overhaul to
conscientious objection due to the occupation.
« A lesson on Israeli ‘democracy’ from an 18-year-old draft refuser » Yahli AGAI (+972, September 5, 2023): Previous
generations of Israelis closed their eyes to the oppression of
Palestinians, Mizrahim, and asylum seekers. Our generation can be
different.
« Refuser Solidarity Network provides an international base of support for those who refuse to serve the Israeli occupation » Refuser Solidarity Network ─ Mesarvot*: Since
2004, Refuser Solidarity Network provides crucial support to Israel's
military refusers in the toughest of political circumstances. We provide
funds for for demonstrations outside prison, for legal fees, for media
campaigns that tell conscientious objector’s stories to the general
public, for education programs for Israeli and American audiences about
their important resistance to the occupation. Refusers work to end the
Israeli occupation and create a just peace for Palestinians and
Israelis, and Refuser Solidarity Network is here for them.
* Mesarvot
is an Israeli network supporting those who refuse to be soldiers of the
Israeli Occupation. Refuser Solidarity Network is an international
network supporting the refusers. Get Involved! Contribute to the
RSN today to help us bring the story of Israel refusers to Jewish
communities and other crucial constituencies around the world: donate now! _________________________
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Current Affairs (2023- ):
- * "Why Do Children in Gaza Write Their Names on Their Hands?" (The Palestine Chronicle, Oct 19, 2023).
- DCI-P: "Israeli airstrikes kill at least 140 Palestinian children in Gaza" (DCI-P, Oct 12, 2023).
- Maureen Clare MURPHY: "Israel kills six Palestinians in West Bank and Gaza" (EI, 20 Sept, 2023).
- Maureen Clare MURPHY: "Israeli forces kill two in Aqbat Jabr camp" (EI, 15 August, 2023).
- DCI-P: "Israeli forces kill, withhold body of 15-year-old Palestinian boy" (DCI-P, August 2, 2023).
- "Israeli Forces Kill Two Palestinian Teenagers" (teleSUR, 21 July 2023).
- DCI-P: "Israeli forces blind 3 Palestinian children with live ammunition, stun grenade" (DCI-P, 20 July, 2023).
- Ali ABUNIMAH: "Israel seeks revenge with Jenin invasion" (EI, 3 July, 2023).
- Amira HASS: "Adam, Fuad, Abdullah, Omar: The 28 Palestinian Kids Killed by Israeli Forces This Year" (Haaretz, 12 June 2023).
- Tamara NASSAR: "Israel kills municipal worker, resistance fighters in Balata refugee camp" (The Electronic Intifada, 22 May 2023).
- "Invading Israeli forces kill 4 Palestinians including young woman in Nablus" (Israel-Palestine News, May 4, 2023).
- "Israeli Soldiers Kill A Palestinian Child, Injure Two Young Men, In Refugee Camp In Jericho" (IMEMC, April 10, 2023).
- Maureen Clare MURPHY: "Israeli death squad kills four in Jenin" (The Electronic Intifada, 16 March, 2023).
- "Teen among four Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in West Bank raids" (Middle East Eye, 9 March, 2023).
- "2023 Huwara rampage" (Wikipedia, 3 March, 2023).
- Maureen Clare MURPHY: "Israel kills 11 in daytime raid on Nablus" (The Electronic Intifada, 22 Feb 2023).
- Tamara NASSAR: "Israel kills another child in the West Bank" (The Electronic Intifada, 9 Feb 2023).
- "Un assassinat par jour : c’est ça le colonialisme israélien que nous devons combattre!" (CAPJPO-Europalestine, 17 janvier, 2023).
- Tamara NASSAR: "Israel kills three children as 2023 dawns" (The Electronic Intifada, 5 January, 2023).
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