Twisted irony. Germany now sees itself as the arbitrator of antisemitism. The proposed legislation allows them to decide that Jewish artists and academics are antisemites because they are critical of 🇮🇱, while those Jews supporting Netanyahu and his genocidal violence are not.
#AcademicFreedom
| We have written to representatives of four parliamentary groups to express profound concern over a draft joint parliamentary resolution that claims to aim to protect, preserve and strengthen Jewish life in
#Germany
.
Read our letter: 1/4
BREAKING: We have learned that
@QMUL
management is considering using external staff from Curio, an Australian Higher Education consultancy
@curio_group
, to try to break our marking boycott and grade student essays. A 🧵 on
#TheCuriosCase
: 1/13
Israel student union has launched a campaign against academic staff who express sympathy with Palestinians. In this case against Dr Anat Matar from TAU who mourned her friend Walid Daqqa.
BRISMES campaigns has sent letter to all VCs in UK asking them, inter alia, to "Review all partnerships... with Israeli educational institutions, and end any relation that might be connected to ‘plausibly genocidal acts’ within the terms of the ICJ ruling.👇
While the famine in Gaza is unfolding, it is important to remember that Israel's use of food as a weapon has a history. Check out Muna Haddad my piece
@nybooks
👇
Israel is investigating its killing of 7 aid workers in
#Gaza
(who were from the UK, Australia, Poland, and Palestine, and included a U.S.-Canadian citizen).
But what do Israel's past investigations of similar killings tell us?
1/11
#Palestine
We define “medicide” as the destruction of a healthcare system in whole or in part with the aim of obliterating or damaging the conditions needed for saving and sustaining the lives of the sick and the wounded.
Policy paper with
@nevegordon
for
@PalStudies
on "medicide" and Israel's destruction of Gaza's healthcare with the aim of obliterating or damaging the conditions needed for saving and sustaining the lives of the sick and the wounded.
1/3
In a letter responding to a High Court Petition, Ben Gvir responds:
I would like to update that although there is no starvation and all the claims raised in the petition are false, at the same time, indeed, my policy is to reduce the conditions of the security prisoners
Israel is weaponizing food not only against Palestinians in Gaza, but also against political prisoners. Ha'aretz reports that since Oct 7, the Israeli Prison Authorities have put Palestinian prisoners on a diet, with many losing scores of kilos. Ben Gvir: it is deterrence.
The affective bond between indiv Jews, the ‘collective Jew’ and Israel is produced to incite Jewish students to experience the utterance ‘Israel is an apartheid regime’ as if it were directed against them and they are victims of antisemitic hate speech. 👇
New Decision! The AAUP maintains that academic boycotts are not in themselves violations of academic freedom and can instead be legitimate tactical responses to conditions that are fundamentally incompatible with the mission of higher education. 1/3
Meanwhile, in the West Bank, settlers have built 40 new outposts on Palestinian land in 2023-24. Another indication of ethnic cleansing in Gaza's shadow.
@peacenowisrael
BREAKING: As we speak, the community of Khirbet Zanuta (South Hebron Hills) is packing up their village and leaving their lands as a result of settler terrorism.
Forcible transfer is taking place in front of our eyes and yet we remain silent.
THREAD
1/7
Thread: Muna Haddad and I trace in this long piece how Israel has used food to control the Palestinians in Gaza from 1967 until today. Below is a thread of just one paragraph so as to provide a sense of the kind of machinations that were put to work.
A doctor in a facility for Gazan detainees describes the deviations from the law that regulates its operation. "Just this week, two prisoners had their legs amputated as a result of shackle injuries - and this is a routine incident," he wrote
Yinon Magal, one of Israel's major influencers, says on Channel 14 that when Israel assassinated a Hamas operative in Gaza yesterday, 42 civilians were killed, and in response the audience starts clapping.
Thrilled to be hosting Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Stephen Sheehi, Joy James, and Abeer Otman for a conversation on Abolition, Settler Colonialism and State Crime. The event is this Thursday at 18:00
@QMSchoolofLaw
and we would be delighted if you joined.
A translation of Professor Yuri Pines's letter to the leaders of Hebrew U following their decision to suspend Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian.
"You have really disgraced the institution. I have never felt so betrayed and humiliated."
I got an email last night from a friend in the Palestinian village of Susya in the South Hebron Hills. The settlers, he writes, ‘have issued a menacing ultimatum: if the villagers do not vacate within 24 hours, they vow to return and perpetrate murder.’
After 30000 tons of bombs, 6000 dead children, 200 schools and 40 medical facilities damaged or destroyed, Israel blames Palestinians for the destruction because they use human shields. This political sophistry is forgetful of Israel’s own history.👇
Event without the plethora of utterances by officials and officers, the widescale destruction of the education system in Gaza is in itself testimony to genocidal intent. via
@timeshighered
We, colleagues, students, and activists who have stood alongside
@AnatMatar
in struggles for justice and equality, stand with her now against a well-orchestrated attack led by right-wing organizations who demand that she be fired because she is mourning the death of
#WalidDaqqa
.
X Users: I am collecting evidence of the use of risk (as in safe and health risk, etc.) to silence pro-Palestinian voices and clampdown on Pro-Palestine activism such as encampments, events, teaching, etc. Please email or DM if you have evidence to share.
Israel is weaponizing food not only against Palestinians in Gaza, but also against political prisoners. Ha'aretz reports that since Oct 7, the Israeli Prison Authorities have put Palestinian prisoners on a diet, with many losing scores of kilos. Ben Gvir: it is deterrence.
Discussing the unfolding famine in Gaza with Amy and Nermeen
@democracynow
. For years, Israel allowed only the "humanitarian minimum" to enter Gaza, counting the population's calory intake. After Oct 7, it destroyed food production and restricted aid, manufacturing the famine.
Amid a looming famine in the Gaza Strip, human rights expert
@nevegordon
says Israel's use of hunger against Palestinians is nothing new. “Israel has been controlling the food basket and using it as a weapon since the beginning of the occupation until today."
The (il)legality of Colin Bailey’s 100% punitive deductions for ASOS discussed at Garden Court Chambers teach out. LLM students outraged by the threat while precedent suggests Bailey’s policy cannot survive legal injunction.
@qm_ucu
Nadera Hearing: The judge to police: I can understand that you wanted the arrest to conduct searches, but so far you have not found anything that justifies the arrest and I have not received any other explanation. The pages you found are an expression of opinion....
2/3 my policy is to reduce the conditions of the security prisoners - to the minimum required by law, including food and calories. There is nothing wrong with that - on the contrary, the security prisoners receive and should receive less than the criminal prisoners...
the current menu includes about 200 calories above the caloric average required by some of the male population, and accordingly I instructed the Prison Authority to present to me within 15 days an updated menu with the exact amount of calories without any caloric addition.
In an Ha'aretz oped, Benny Morris calls on Israel to nuke Iran:
"If Israel does not have the capability to eradicate the Iranian nuclear plant by conventional means, then it must use its unconventional capabilities for this purpose." 1/2
On Friday, through collective action by members, HR REMOVED THE THREAT of punitive deductions for ASOS from their strike declaration form. This is a victory for us. We still have a fight ahead but there is strength in unity. Thank you!
100 participants
@OfficialBrismes
discussion on what academics can do to support colleagues, students and higher education infrastructures in Gaza as they face scholasticide.
@PeruginiNic
and I have studied the history of human shields and this is UNIQUE. The fact that the Israeli military dresses the Palestinians in IDF garb, means that the Palestinians, some of whom are youth, are used not as human shields, but simply as shields. 1/2
Israeli sergeants walking through the now blown up & destroyed Al-Azhar University mock
#scholasticide
, suggesting that a new academic semester in Gaza is never to start again.
From the ruins of Azhar their genocidal intent is yet again live-streamed
Data mining has become the tool of choice of the proponents of the new antisemitism. Excavate social media accounts, pull phrases made years ago, present them out of context, and charge the person of antisemitism.
@FranceskAlbs
is just the latest victim of such attacks.
I have signed this important statement of scholars in defence of UN human rights rapporteur on Palestine
@FranceskAlbs
, who is being targeted in a politically motivated smear campaign “based on disingenuous allegations of antisemitism” – please read & share widely 🧵 1/7
Palestinian doctors in Israeli hospitals work among warmongering staff who have called on the gov to bomb Gaza's hospitals. We must be vigilant about everything we say, while putting up with comments that spark a mixture of rage, fear and impotence.
All eyes are on Rafah, and the rest of the devastated Gaza Strip, yet Israel is undeterred, carrying out its crimes under the limelight, while the US, the United Kingdom, France and Germany continue to supply it with weapons.
@PeruginiNic
via
@AJEnglish
In 2020
@PeruginiNic
and I described in
#EJIL
the history of hospital bombing, while claiming that IHL actually enables warring parties to bomb medical units. We called for a legal ban on bombing hospitals, but most IHL experts disagreed. Time to rethink👇
The
#ICJ
concludes:
Israel must IMMEDIATELY HALT its military invasion.
Israel must take measures to ensure ACCESS to Investigative Commissions.
Israel must ensure UNHINDERED HUMANITARIAN AID, including the opening of the Rafah Crossing.
Over 200 people
@QMUL
Except Palestine event.
@SelmaDabbagh
: “Anyone
can find Gaza in public discourses.” It is part of the “more land with no Palestinians” of the Zionist project.
Bad news. Political prisoner Maher al-Akhras who has been on
#hungerstrike
for three months has been taken by
#securityservices
from hospital to prison clinic and his administrative detention renewed... Unclear how long he will be able to survive.
#SaveMaher
Thrilled to be the runner up for the
@IntlEthics_ISA
book prize for our
@ucpress
book Human Shields. A History of People in the Line of Fire. Congratulations to the winner Sinja Graf
@sinja_graf
for her amazing book the humanity of universal crime!
It is mindboggling that universities in the UK and elsewhere are limiting staff and students from talking about genocide while also silencing basic demands to end violence. Looking forward to sharing thoughts on how to pushback.
Honoured to featured again on
@democracynow
to discuss Israel's mass surveillance in Gaza, the atmosphere and protests inside Israel, and what a just future might look like.
While humanities at
@UniKent
are slashed, the UK government is spending 5 mil to better implement the IHRA def of antisemitism in universities and schools -- a def
@OfficialBrismes
and
@elsclegal
have shown is not fit for purpose! 👉
Our department is under threat of being cut entirely. All of us would lose our jobs and there would be no more linguistics (or modern languages, and others) at Kent. Please help us out by signing this petition:
One of the allegations made by Israel's Ministry of Justice Deputy State Attorney's Office against Nadera was that she calls for the abolition of Zionism. 1/3
Prof. Yinon Cohen from
@columbiasoc
was asked by
@QMUL
to rank it in
@worlduniranking
. Read his response.👇 Colin Bailey, he claims, is damaging the reputation that has taken years for academic and professional staff to build.
Every day our campaign for the academic boycott of Queen Mary grows stronger!
Read Dr Yinon Cohen's letter to Principal Bailey where he explains why he wont be participating in university ranking surveys that are used to boost QMUL's reputation.
Thank you for your solidarity!
@UssamaMakdisi
Here is an image of a contraption -- with two Palestinian human shields -- connected to the front of an armoured train in order to protect it from Palestinian attacks.
"Up to 20 Palestinian patients lay virtually naked, blindfolded, with hands and feet shackled to their beds and wearing diapers."
Wondering about the doctors who participate in this torture and humiliation.
@CNN
Sometimes the obvious needs to be said. Criticism of Israel and anti-Zionist positions voiced by students in the encampments across the UK are not antisemitic. Take a look at this thread of staff, including Jewish Staff, supporting the encampments.
Students across the UK have set up encampments in solidarity with
#Palestinians
.
A growing number of university faculty (many of whom are Jewish and Israeli) have publicly supported these encampments.
A thread with links 🧵
1/15
#Palestine
#Gaza
@NationalSJP
When Israel regularly targets medical units and staff in Gaza is it really surprising that security forces target doctors providing first aid to protesters inside Israel. They have been taught that medical professionals are free game.
רופא מתנדב ממגישי העזרה ראשונה של המחאה מטפל במפגינה על הרצפה מופל על-ידי שוטרים שסגרו עליו, הוא נפגע ונגרר מהמקום בכוח. מדובר ברופא שנושא אפוד זיהוי ומזדהה ככזה במפגשים עם שוטרים. במערך העצורים של המחאה אומרים שישנה רופאה נוספת בין העצורים
Several years ago
@PeruginiNic
and I wrote how
@oritstrock
established a settler human rights NGO aimed at dispossessing Palestinians. Now she is a Minister in the Israeli government and these are her genocidal utterances at the Knesset from Feb 19 2024. The ICJ is watching👇
The Israeli Minister of Settlements and National Missions and founder of Yesha for Human Rights (an NGO for the “human rights of the settlers”), Orit Strock, speaking at the Knesset: “there is no such a thing as the Palestinian people”
Oct. 17
@OfficialBrismes
is holding roundtable responding to the recent uprisings taking place in Iran, asking how we can engage in meaningful forms of solidarity through transnational, feminist, and queer movements and perspectives. register in link
#OnlineEvent
| 'The Gaza War and Academic Freedom' Join us next week for this webinar with Hassan Jabareen, Laurie Brand, Giovanni Fassina, Andrea Teti, Lewis Turner and Neve Gordon.
🗓️14 November, 17:00-18:30 (UK time)
More info and registration:
📢BRISMES and
@elsclegal
have published a joint report demonstrating the harmful impacts of the IHRA definition of antisemitism on
#academicfreedom
& the rights to lawful speech in relation to Israel-Palestine in UK universities.
#NOIHRA
Report: (1/9)
In this piece
@PeruginiNic
and I describe how Israel uses the Geneva Conventions to provide a legal justification for genocide. The very architecture of the international legal order is at stake.
"When Israel invokes international law to frame everything above ground in Gaza as a potential human shield, it operationalizes the law itself as a tool of genocide"
@PeruginiNic
@nevegordon
on Israel's unprecedented expansion of the "human shield" charge
The British Society for Middle Eastern Studies
@OfficialBrismes
is raising money to support the rebuilding of higher education in Gaza. A committee led by
@ncpratt
&
@MalakaShwaikh
will decide where to donate, led by the priorities of institutions in Gaza
The Israeli military takes Palestinian youth and adults as hostages, dresses them in Israeli military garb and then uses them as human shields in both the tunnels and elsewhere.
The first ever history of human shields is finally out today!
@nevegordon
and I chronicle how the human body is weaponized to justify or resist violence in both international and domestic conflicts. You can read the introduction here
@ucpress
:
The twisted irony is that Netanyahu's government might fall not because it is carrying out genocide in Gaza and not because it is corrupt through and through, but because it is not conscripting ultra orthodox Jews into the military.
When faculty choose to support academic boycotts, they can legitimately seek to protect and advance the academic freedom and fundamental rights of colleagues and students who are living and working under circumstances that violate freedom and one or more of those rights. 2/3
Legal intervention is crucial, but so is collective action. Colin Bailey will now have to decide whether to uphold the threat of 100% punitive deductions for ASOS and face a massive marking boycott, or bow down and admit he made a mistake in the way he has been treating staff.
Queen Mary University lecturers, represented by Ryan Bradshaw, are challenging a threat to cut 100 per cent of their pay for days affected by industrial action short of a strike
Jewish artists and writers living in Germany, express their deep concerns about the Bundestag resolution “Nie wieder ist jetzt...” claiming it endangers Jewish life, chills free expression, and further imperil sethnic and religious minorities, particularly Arab and Muslims
- here is the full letter. Please read. It’s hard to explain the political climate and discourse in Germany right now but this does as good a job as any.
UK academics who specialise in the Middle East have claimed debate about the situation in Israel and Gaza is being stifled because of an “atmosphere of fear” fostered by cancellations, threats and government rhetoric
Nadera hearing: The state decided to appeal the release. The whole timing is intentional to leave Nadera in prison over the weekend. They arrested her on a Thursday, brought her to court late on Friday, and r appealing Friday afternoon, before the courts close until Sunday.
The violent clampdown on encampments in Germany has been supported by the Minister of Education, which has cast the students and their supporters as antisemitic and violent.
@OfficialBrismes
wrote the minister asking her to to safeguard the student's constitutional rights.
#AcademicFreedom
| We have written the German Federal Minister of Education and Research to express our profound concern over remarks made in the Bild-Zeitung and the ensuing defamation campaign against academic staff in Berlin.
Read our letter: 1/3
#Gaza
is proof that the laws protecting medical units in times of war are not fit for purpose. Its time to reject Israel's justifications for targeting them and introduce a complete ban on bombing hospitals.
In "Was Einstein an Anti-Semite?" Mark LeVine
@culturejamming
and I try to explain why the
#IHRA
definition of
#antisemitism
has been adopted by so many actors, providing a series of reasons for its relative success.
@insidehighered
@OfficialBrismes
gathered a number of settler colonialism experts to discuss the post-Oct 7 accusation that calls for decolonisation of Israel/Palestine are antisemitic. Below is a thread about the document we produced, while the actual document is 👉
📢BRISMES has published a statement in response to a worrying new trend of attacks on
#decolonial
and
#anticolonial
scholarship and perspectives in relation to analyses of the situation in
#Israel
-
#Palestine
.
Read the statement: 1/7