Belgian Academics & Artists For Palestine
 

 
 
Belgian Academics For Palestine (BA4P)
Front Page
Academia Analyses & Comments Calls & Reports Israel Scholasticide Publications Solidarity Calls
Academic Bulletin N° 17 (March 2023): click here! ─── BACBI Culture, Newsletter N° 74 (Winter 2022): click here!

Solidarité avec la Palestine: Notre engagement
Nous, universitaires et autres intellectuels vivant en Belgique, sommes pleinement solidaires du peuple palestinien et de sa résistance courageuse contre les politiques colonialistes de dépossession, de remplacement et de destruction de la société, la culture et la nature de la Palestine par l’État d’Israël. La violence meurtrière quotidienne des soldats israéliens qui s'accroit de jour en jour contre une population civile, enfants compris, est un crime contre l'humanité insupportable. Avec l'arrivée au pouvoir de partis extrémistes, voire fascistes, en Israël, ces politiques dégénéreront davantage, si c’est encore possible.
Nous nous engageons à intervenir aupres des institutions académiques et culturelles et de faire pression sur les autorités belges et européennes pour qu'elles émettent des résolutions et prennent des sanctions à l’encontre de l'Etat d'Israël pour ses violations, depuis des décennies, des conventions internationales relatives aux droits de l'homme, et son refus de se conformer aux résolutions de l'ONU et aux arrêts de la Cour internationale de justice.
Il faut fustiger, ici, explicitement les scandaleuses stratégies israéliennes de " scholasticide ", telles que les démolitions d'écoles et le harcèlement des élèves et leurs enseignants, le vandalisme des archives et des bibliothèques des centres de recherche et d'étude, les intrusions dans les campus, ou l'enlèvement et l'emprisonnement de directeurs, de professeurs et d'étudiants. Enfin la "Procédure pour l'entrée et la résidence des étrangers en Judée et Samarie," imposée par l'armée d’occupation à partir d'octobre de l'année dernière, n’est pas la moindre à devoir être condamnée. Imposant une occupation académique sur les Palestiniens, elle restreint drastiquement l'entrée de professeurs, chercheurs et étudiants étrangers, isolant ainsi les universités palestiniennes de la recherche et la formation scientifiques internationales. Les développements futurs de la recherche et de l’enseignement sont délibérément compromis par ce régime d’apartheid ouvertement raciste et colonialiste, étouffant ainsi les opportunités des futures générations palestiniennes.
Solidariteit met Palestina: Ons Engagement
Wij, academici en andere intellectuelen die in België wonen, zijn ten volle solidair met het Palestijnse volk en zijn moedig verzet tegen Israëls kolonialistische politiek van verdrijving, vervanging en vernietiging van Palestina’ samenleving, cultuur en natuur. Het dagelijkse, zelfs toenemende, moorddadige geweld van Israëls soldateska tegen een weerloze burgerbevolking, met inbegrip van haar kinderen, vormt een barbaars regime van misdaden tegen de menselijkheid.
Wij verbinden ons ertoe te lobbyen bij academische en culturele instellingen en Belgische en Europese politieke gezagdragers en vertegenwoordigers ertoe aan te zetten resoluties en sancties uit te vaardigen tegen de staat Israël wegens decennialange schendingen van de internationale mensenrechtenverdragen en weigering om VN-resoluties en uitspraken van het Internationaal Gerechtshof na te leven.
Dient hier expliciet aan de kaak te worden gesteld: Israël's kwaadaardige politiek van "scholasticide", zoals: slopen van scholen en intimideren van leerlingen en leerkrachten, vandaliseren van kantoren en bibliotheken van onderzoeks- en studiecentra, binnendringen in campussen, en gevangenzetting van directeurs, professoren en studenten. 'Last but not least' werd in oktober vorig jaar door het bezettingsleger op de Westelijke Jordaanoever een uitgebreide (97p.) "Procedure voor binnenkomst en verblijf van buitenlanders in de regio Judea en Samaria" uitgevaardigd. Met het opleggen van een (ook) "academische bezetting" onderwerpt dit reglement toegang en verblijf van buitenlandse professoren, onderzoekers en studenten aan koloniale willekeur. De Palestijnse universiteiten en hun academici en studenten dreigen erdoor geïsoleerd te worden van de internationale wetenschappelijke ontwikkelingen en toepassingen. Met andere woorden, in Israëls door racisme en superioriteitswaan aangedreven vestigingskolonialisme wordt de beruchte "logic of elimination of the native" ook toegepast op het domein dat in beschaafde landen tot de academische vrijheid behoort. Toekomstige Palestijnse ontwikkelingen op het gebied van onderzoek en onderwijs worden moedwillig gedwarsboomd en de levensopportuniteiten die zij aan de toekomstige Palestijnse generaties zouden kunnen bieden, worden gesmoord.
Solidarity with Palestine: Our Engagement
We, academics and other intellectuals living in Belgium, stand in full solidarity with the Palestinian people and their courageous resistance against Israel's settler-colonialist policies of dispossession, replacement and destruction of Palestine's society, culture and nature. The daily murderous violence perpetrated by Israel's soldiers against a civilian population, children included, constitutes a barbaric regime of crimes against humanity.
We commit ourselves to lobbying academic and cultural institutions and inducing Belgian and European authorities and representatives to adopt resolutions and sanctions against the State of Israel for its decades-long violations of international human rights conventions and its refusal to comply with UN resolutions and rulings of the International Court of Justice.
Must be castigated, here, explicitly: Israel's nefarious policies of 'scholasticide', such as demolitions of schools and harrasment of pupils and teachers, vandalising archives and libraries of research and study centres, intrusion of campuses, abduction and imprisonment of scholars and students... Last but not least to be condemned, is the army's "Procedure for entry and residence of foreigners in the Judea and Samaria area," issued in October last year by Israel's ministry of Defense. With its imposition of what has been called an 'academic occupation,' this 'procedure' restricts the entry and stay of foreign professors, researchers and students in the West Bank. Palestine's universities and their academics and students, one understands, must be isolated from international scholarship and practices. In other words, in Israel's settler colonialist, racist-instituted apartheid regime the infamous 'logic of the elemination of the native' is being applied also to the domain that in civilised countries is governed by academic freedom. Future Palestinian developments in research and learning being compromised, that way, by the occupier, the life opportunities they would offer to Palestine's future generations, are being stifled.
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Front Page
« AfP Statement on Recent Protests in Israel »
Academics 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. The decision, according to Prof Daniel Haimovich of Ben Gurion University, was made because ‘we have only one nation, one state and one common future’. This demonstrates that the ‘democracy protests’ are about preserving the status quo of a Jewish state which purports to be a democratic state, but which in fact both discriminates against and excludes Palestinians generally with the approval of the Supreme Court and the judicial system.  Continue...

« Israeli forces shoot, kill 15-year-old Palestinian boy with expanding bullet in Jenin »
Defense for Children International-Palestine, March 10, 2023:
15-year-old Walid Saad Daoud Nassar died on March 9 from abdominal injuries sustained when an Israeli soldier shot him with an expanding bullet in Jenin two days earlier, according to documentation collected by Defense for Children International - Palestine. Continue...

« Why Israel Is No Longer Able to Control the Narrative on Palestine»
Ramzy Baroud (Days of Palestine, March 7, 2023):
The following sentence tells the whole story of what pro-Palestinian communities around the world are fighting against, and what pro-Israelis are fighting for: “We are delighted to report that Chelsea and Westminster Hospital has removed a display of artwork designed by children from Gaza.” Continue...

« 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. Continue...

« Huwara could open Israel to war crimes charges »
David Kretzmer (The Times of Israel, February 28, 2023):
"If the authorities don’t launch an investigation into Sunday night’s rampage, the International Court may do so instead.” Continue...

« Israel's Cabinet Just Advanced Full-fledged Apartheid in the West Bank »
Haaretz Editorial (February 26, 2023):
"Under the thunderous bombardment of the government coup, the cabinet last week advanced a regime-change measure in the West Bank that carries dramatic implications.” Continue...

« Derrière la réforme de la Cour suprême israélienne, l’engrenage d’une nouvelle Nakba »
Sylvain Cypel (orientxxi, 16 février 2023):
Pour la sixième semaine consécutive, plus de 80 000 Israéliens ont défilé le 11 février pour contester le projet de Benyamin Nétanyahou de « réforme » de la Cour suprême. Si cette réforme entend rogner l’État de droit pour les citoyens juifs, elle ouvre plus encore la voie à un renforcement drastique des mesures de ségrégation envers les Palestiniens.” Continue...

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Academia:
« Palestinians Urge Dan David Prize Recipients To Help Dismantle Israeli Apartheid by Rejecting Complicit Award »
PACBI (March 16, 2023):
Nine emerging scholars of history from around the world were announced Tuesday as winners of the prestigious Dan David Prize, with each awardee receiving $300,000 to advance their work. The Dan David Prize board said it is recognizing the historians for “changing our understanding of the past" by delving into under-researched topics (source: Huron Daily Tribune, Feb 28, 2023).
Letter sent by PACBI to the awardees (excerpt):

"We understand that you have been awarded Israel’s Dan David Prize. We wanted to reach out to provide you with additional background information on the prize and its context, and to urge you to reconsider accepting it.
As we write, Israel’s most racist, fundamentalist government to date is escalating the violent oppression that has dominated our lives for decades. We are facing pogroms by violent settler militias, supported by the Israeli military and incited by government ministers, burning down Palestinian towns, killing sprees by Israeli soldiers taking our young and elderly alike, and expanding illegal Israeli settlements forcing us into shrinking bantustans in our homeland." Continue... On Facebook: click here.

« 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.

« IDC court dismisses lawsuit targeting academics over BDS support »
Michael Arria (Mondoweiss, March 3, 2023): :
"I hope that the ruling will deter pro-Israel outfits with no means of winning a debate beyond harassment and defamation from trying to impoverish those of us committed to the wellbeing of the Palestinian people,” Dr. Steven Salaita said in a statement.

« International Academic Group Cancels Jerusalem Event Due to Israel's West Bank Policy »
Shira Kadari-Ovadia (Haaretz, March 2, 2023):
Pressure from some members of international linguistics organization GLOW against Israel’s policies concerning the Palestinians led to the cancellation – and the new government’s plans 'added fuel to the fire,’ according to one Israeli member.

« Another attempt to silence a Palestinian voice on campus »
BRICUP - British Committee for the Universities of Palestine:
Lara Sheehi, an Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychology at George Washington University, is the latest victim of the relentless campaign waged by StandWithUs against academics giving voice to the Palestinian experience.

« University of Edinburgh resists anti-Palestinian pressure »
BRICUP - British Committee for the Universities of Palestine, January 12, 2023 :
Dr Salman Abu Sitta is a Palestinian researcher based in London. The invitation to him to deliver a seminar at the University of Edinburgh in November 2022 to mark the centenary of the start of the British Mandate in Palestine provoked the usual attempts to get the seminar cancelled – from the usual sources deploying the usual claims of previous antisemitic comments. All too often these tactics work, and the Palestinian voice is closed down. But this time the University stood firm and Dr Abu Sitta delivered his seminar. The venue was highly appropriate – Lord Balfour whose Declaration was the starting gun for the mandate was for more than 30 years the Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh.
You can view Dr Abu Sitta’s seminar here: « A Palestinian Address to Balfour: In honor of truth, memory, and justice » (Mondoweiss, Nov 30, 2022): click here.

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Analyses, Papers :
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. Continue...
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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Calls, Reports, Statements, Submissions...:
« 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.

« 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
« 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.'
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“Scholasticide” – the systematic destruction by Israeli forces of centres of education"
(RIGHT2EDUCATION, Birzeit University, Jan 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.


  • « 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.

  • Continue (July 2022-2005): click here.

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Publications:
  • 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.
  • 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 Thomas Suárez, 'Palestine Hijacked,' and other writings': click on paldocs.net.
    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.
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Solidarity Calls:
« 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.
« ‘Refusing is the minimum’: Why these Israeli teens are objecting to army service. » Ahead of imprisonment, four conscientious objectors share their reasons for refusing conscription and their hopes of inspiring opposition to apartheid," by Oren Ziv (+972, September 2, 2022), click here!

Today, amidst a wave of refusal, during which thousands of Israeli soldiers issue statements of public refusal in protest of the Israeli government’s race to promote a cluster of anti-democratic laws, we are at a critical point for the refuser movement. Please make sure to share this link with everyone you know and to sign up for our updates so you can all become a part of our community.

* 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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Contact: click here.

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