Posts Tagged ‘Gaza’

A SOAS student is among members of the humanitarian aid convoy, ‘Free Gaza’, which Israeli forces seized control of in international waters yesterday morning.

Anne de Jong, a PhD student from Holland who is also a graduate teaching assistant in the Department of Anthropology, is said to be safe and unharmed but currently detained by Israel authorities. At least 10 activists were killed by the Israeli navy in the early hours of May 31^st when the ships were 64 km out to sea, causing international outcry.

SOAS students have been angered by the refusal of the institution’s head to take a stance on the incident.

Director and Principal Professor Webley sent an email to all students this morning stating that the School was monitoring the situation and “making further enquiries via the Dutch Embassy” regarding de Jong’s welfare.

He also wrote that: “The events in Israel have once again turned the international spotlight on the Middle East, a region where SOAS has strong academic links.  As a home of political debate, I hope that SOAS can act as a place where people can come together freely to discuss these events, and contribute to finding a resolution, in a respectful and open manner. It is very important that as an academic institution that we do not appear to take sides as this would prejudice the very objective of a fair and open debate.”

But some students penned angry responses to the Principal – calling on him to explicitly condemn Israel’s actions – and are encouraging other students to do the same.

Elly Badcock, and undergraduate Politics student wrote: “Whilst I agree that intellectual and academic freedom, and the right to engage in open debate without intimidation, are of utmost importance, I am quite frankly appalled that you have framed the murder of at least ten humanitarian aid workers by a state army in these terms. Commitment to a fair debate does not preclude taking a firm stand when a state breaches international law by boarding a ship in international waters and killing civilians and aid workers.”

PhD student James Meadway argued: “Even our own Foreign Secretary, who can in no sense be described as an opponent of Israel, has issued a firm rebuke. Under these circumstances, and with a SOAS student directly affected, the School’s response beggars belief. It is simply not credible to claim that School cannot be seen to “take sides”. The safety of a member of its academic community is at stake; the School should not have any option but to take the same side as the rest of the international community in voicing its strongest disapproval of Israel’s behaviour.

“Silence is complicity. It is time to stand up”
- Anne de Jong, SOAS

He added: “A loud, international consensus demanding the detainees safe return will help secure their welfare. By failing to issue a statement condemning Israel’s actions, the School is risking placing Anne in greater danger.”

Students from SOAS, UCL, LSE, King’s, Goldsmiths and other University of London colleges took part in a spontaneous demonstration of around 2,000 people yesterday, which saw protestors march from Downing Street to the Israeli embassy. Protests outside the embassy continue today, with students calling for the UK government to follow Turkey in expelling the Israeli ambassador and for Israel to be isolated politically and economically.

A national demonstration for an end to the siege on Gaza has been scheduled by various organisations for Saturday June 5^th.

SOAS Students Union has called an Emergency General Meeting for Thursday to table a motion calling for de Jong’s immediate release and for students to support her “in whatever way she deems necessary”. A facebook group calling for Webley to “stop sitting on the fence” has also been formed.

Jamal Elshayyal, a former SOAS student now working for Al Jazeera news, was also reporting live from on board the flotilla. Nearly 700 people were on board the ships which hoped to carry 10,000 tons of aid to Gaza, breaking the siege imposed by Israel since 2007.

De Jong’s family say they expect her to be deported. Her academic research focuses on joint Palestinian and Israeli nonviolent activism and resistance, and as part of her fieldwork research she spent 16 months in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel.

In a letter sent hours before she left, she wrote: “The siege on Gaza is not self-defense, it is a collective punishments which denies 1.5 million people their basic human rights. In the past, crimes against humanity have happened with the International Community watching and claiming ignorance. This is happening now, and we can no longer claim ‘we haben das nicht gewusst’ (we didn’t know): Silence is Complicity! It is time to stand up.”

Her facebook group and twitter feed are being updated regularly by family and friends.

The British government have launched a new programme of Higher Education Scholarships for Palestine (HESPAL) which will see up to 10 academics from Palestinian universities complete a year’s postgraduate study in the UK each year.

Minister for Higher Education David Lammy said “In countries all over the world, the link between a burgeoning HE sector and a thriving economy is clear. Through training the next generation of academic leaders, HESPAL will make a real difference to local communities in Palestine, benefit the academic community and the wider society and re-energise the economy.”

The programme, which was initiated by the British Council, focuses on particular areas of study including: finance, business, education, IT, physics, chemistry, engineering, agriculture, water management, law and international development.

Michael Deas, UK Coordinator of the Palestine Solidarity Initiative which supports Palestinians applying to UK universities, said: “The news of this scheme is obviously welcome. It reflects the growing realisation about the ways in which Palestinians are routinely denied their right to education by Israel’s grave violations of international law. It is however important to remember that financial restraints aren’t the only factor preventing Palestinians from studying abroad. For example, offer holders from Gaza are often prevented from going overseas by Israel’s brutal siege. The UK government and UK universities have a woeful track record in answering calls such students make for assistance.”

UK universities taking part in the scheme include four from London; King’s College, City University, LSE and SOAS, as well as Essex, Exeter, Manchester, Newcastle, Oxford Brookes, and Sussex.

As we celebrate Black History Month, our reasons for BHM should be kept in mind. The purpose of BHM is not exclusively to celebrate the wealthy contribution made to British culture by African and Caribbean migrants. There is surely a dual central purpose: to remember the historic oppression suffered by black people at the hands of colonialist powers. Indeed, it is scarcely fifteen years since Apartheid was finally pulled apart by the South African people with invaluable assistance from the international community.

The Palestinian people have suffered a fate similar to the black South Africans under the Apartheid regime. Archbishop Desmond Tutu said in 2003 that visiting the Holy Land “reminded [him] so much of what happened to us black people in South Africa.” Like black South Africans, Palestinians are administrated by a racially graded identity system which prioritises those with Jewish-Israeli ID cards over ethnically non-Jewish residents of Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and Golan Heights); like black South Africans, Palestinians face humiliation at checkpoints and severe restriction on movement, even between neighbouring villages in the West Bank.

I need not list all the injustices and human rights abuses experienced by the Palestinians under Israeli occupation – if I were to list everything from house demolitions, the ongoing blockade on Gaza of foodstuffs and medicine, to torture in prison, I would doubtless be here all day. It is a simple fact that to lead a peaceful life in either Israel or the Occupied Territories you must be fortunate enough not to be deemed a threat to the ethnic balance of the region.

The source of this problem is the “demographic problem” perceived by Israeli elites. The idea is that, given time, a Jewish state would become over-run by a more populous Arab population – an idea grounded in racial prejudice proposed by Professors of Geography throughout Israeli universities, such as Arnon Sofer, whose ideas have provided the basis of the so-called ‘separation barrier’ which defies all variety of international laws.
The union of Israeli political elite and academia is manifest and by no means exclusive to the 60% complete 430 mile-long wall; it is research based in Israeli universities which facilitates and constructs the machines of war used against civilian populations in both the Occupied Territories, such as in Gaza 2008/9 – where the UN condemned Israel for war crimes in the Goldstone Report – and neighbouring countries, such as Lebanon in 2006.

Furthermore, Israel is unusual in that many of its university lecturers and researchers double-up as commanding officers of the Israeli Defence Force in times of conflict.

Opponents to taking action against Israel will claim it is anti-Semitic to single Israel out. There are of course a depressing number of other states who also perpetrate human rights abuses, breech international humanitarian law, and are also worthy of the strongest condemnation. But why should we not criticise Israel? We will not allow the debate to be cut dead by irresponsible accusations of anti-Semitism. It is nothing to do with Israel’s Jewish identity that we are disgusted by it, and everything to do with Israel having, for decades, persistently and flagrantly broken international law while our leaders have sat idly by. We can no longer stomach ‘business as usual’.
Neither are the brave Israeli dissenters anti-Semitic. Minds such as historian Ilan Pappé, journalist Gideon Levy, and most recently, politics lecturer Neve Gordon cannot be dismissed as ‘self-hating Jews’ but rather help to demonstrate the universality of moral outrage at Israel’s ongoing occupation of Palestine.

Those very cases of Pappé and Gordon serve as clear examples of the fact that a boycott is not a matter of losing academic freedom. Where was the academic freedom for Pappé when he became the target of a hate-campaign for his challenges of Israel’s officially accepted history – when the Minister of Education publically called for his sacking, when he was condemned in the Knesset, and when he received the death threats which in 2008 forced him into exile in the UK? Where is the academic freedom for Gordon whose recent article in the LA Times has sparked a similar reaction among the same circles?

Indeed, where is the academic freedom for the thousands upon thousands of Palestinian students who face humiliation at check-points, often with the intentional consequence of missing lectures and exams? And what about the lecturers at Palestinian universities who have found that regular academic life under occupation is impossible, sometimes returning from international conferences to find that they are refused re-entry to the Territories? These people are not criminals; their lives are turned upside-down due only to the systematic discrimination which rots at the ideological core of the Israeli state.

Academic freedom would be a fine thing. That is precisely why the academic boycott is necessary. It is necessary to provoke the enshrinement of academic freedom within both Israel and Palestine, but more than this: academic freedom must be high on the agenda, but it can never be above human rights.

It will be an academic boycott which keeps meaningful dialogue alive. To boycott is not to shun the debate – it is to at last take note of this discussion rather than prioritising it lower than joint-research funding.

It is for these reasons that I support the call of the Palestinian university professors’ union, along with the likes of Pappé and Gordon, to boycott Israeli academic institutions. As we remember that it was the boycott of South Africa that brought about the downfall of Apartheid, so too must we realise that an academic boycott of Israel will be the most effective way to lead a non-violent campaign against Israel’s criminal programme. It is our moral imperative as members of universities and colleges to stand up for the principles that our institutions stand for. We must act now.