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• "Why boycott Israel? What is BDS?" (BDS Movement): click here!

  BDS is now a vibrant global movement made up of unions, academic associations, churches and grassroots movements across the world.
  Since its launch in 2005, BDS is having a major impact and is effectively challenging international support for Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism.
  Israel is occupying and colonising Palestinian land, discriminating against Palestinian citizens of Israel and denying Palestinian refugees the right to return to their homes.
  Inspired by the South African anti-apartheid movement, the BDS call urges action to pressure Israel to comply with international law.

• Emad MOUSSA, « When it comes to BDS, Israel's worst fear is the South African boycott scenario » (The New Arab, November 15, 2021): click here!

  "BDS’ strength is in its ability to adapt, penetrate, and garner support, and it has triggered Israel's greatest fear of a shift in global public opinion regarding the state's history and legitimacy," writes Emad Moussa.>

• Omar BARGHOUTI, “Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions. Globalized Palestinian Resistance to Israel's Settler Colonialism and Apartheid” (Institute for Palestine Studies-USA, Current Issues, December 2020, pdf, 42p.): click here!

  IN AN ERA when the cause of Palestine has suffered multiple setbacks, and when the Palestinian national movement is at a low point of disunity and strategic incoherence, it is heartening that an initiative launched by Palestinian civil society has achieved resounding global success in the face of fierce opposition by the Israeli state and its supporters.

• Andreina DE LEO, "Baldassi and Others v. France: Criminal Convictions of BDS Activists Violate Freedom of Expression under the European Convention on Human Rights" (OpinioJuris, June 16, 2020): click here!

  On June 11, 2020, the European Court of Human Rights (ECt.HR) delivered the much-awaited judgement Baldassi and Others v. France (application no. 15271/16). The Court found by a majority that there was no violation of Article 7 (no punishment without law) and unanimously that there was a violation of Article 10 (freedom of expression) of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). The present analysis will focus on its findings regarding Article 10.
  For the judgement: click here! [Andreina De Leo is a Legal Researcher at the European Legal Support Center (ELSC)]

• "Victory for freedom of expression : call to boycott recognized as a civil right" (Association France Palestine Solidarité, 11 juin 2020): click here!

  AFPS President Bertrand Heilbronn remarked : "This is a just victory for freedom of expression and civic action. We call on our fellow citizens to come together in greater numbers to fight for the rights of the Palestinian people, and for the universal values of freedom, equality, and dignity that this fight represents. The BDS campaign is part of that fight, and we will continue to pursue it so long as Israel refuses to comply with international and human rights law."

• Michiel BOT: "The right to boycott: BDS, law, and politics in a global context" (Transnational Legal Theory, 21 Sept 2019, pdf, 26p.): click here!
  

  Abstract: This article discusses the global campaigns for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel, which frame their objectives primarily in legal terms, as well as the transnational strategy to suppress BDS campaigns by means of the law. After arguing that the strategy to suppress BDS campaigns by means of the law exemplifies an instrumentalisation of law that is fundamentally at odds with the rule of law, I discuss two landmark judgments that recognised a right to boycott, and demonstrate that what is ultimately at stake in these judgments is the right to participate in politics. I then analyse the various concepts of politics exemplified by the campaigns for BDS. Reflecting on the relationship between BDS, law, and politics in a global context, I pose the question how law might facilitate emancipatory and transformative politics across the boundaries of the nation-state.

• Yousef AL-HELOU: "Why Is The Rise Of BDS Worldwide Worrying Israel?" (International Middle East Media Center, July 10, 2019): click here!

  The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement is gaining momentum. There is no doubt about this. The Palestinian-led campaign for an educational, cultural and business boycott of Israel aims to get justice, freedom and equality. Inspired by the South African anti-Apartheid movement, BDS started in 2005 by civil society and governments to take action to put pressure on Israel to comply with international law, mainly by ending its prolonged military occupation and colonisation of Palestinian land. BDS is, by its nature, a non-violent form of resistance. Nevertheless, Israelis believe it to be an existential threat which wants to delegitimise their state’s existence.

• Nathan THRALL: "BDS: how a controversial non-violent movement has transformed the Israeli-Palestinian debate" (The Guardian, The Long Read, Aug 14, 2018): click here!

  Israel sees the international boycott campaign as an existential threat to the Jewish state. Palestinians regard it as their last resort.

• "Call for an Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (Original call 2004)" (BDS Movement, 6 July 2004): click here!

  Endorsed by: Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees; Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions; Palestinian NGO Network, West Bank; Teachers' Federation; Palestinian Writers' Federation; Palestinian League of Artists; Palestinian Journalists' Federation; General Union of Palestinian Women; Palestinian Lawyers' Association; and tens of other Palestinian federations, associations, and civil society organizations.

• Academics for Palestine (AfP, Ireland): click here!
• Anthropologists for the Boycott of Israeli Academic Institutions: click here!
• Association des Universitaires pour le Respect du Droit International en Palestine (AURDIP): click here!
• BDS Académico en Argentina: click here!
• Belgian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (BACBI): click here!
• British Committee for the Universities of Palestine (BRICUP): click here!
• Faculty for Palestine (F4P, Canada): click here!
• Indian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (InCACBI): click here!
• Moroccan Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (MACBI): click here!
• Norwegian Committee for Academic and Cultural Boycott of the state of Israel (AKULBI): click here!
• PACBI - Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel: click here!
• Sidney Staff for BDS: click here!
• Tunisian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (TACBI): click here!
• US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI): click here!
• -Carta de boicot académico a Israel: Hasta febrero del 2022 más de 220 investigadorxs y docentes universitarixs de 14 países latinoamericanos se han adherido a la carta latinoamericana de boicot académico a Israel: click here!

• Basil AL-ADRAA: "Hamas’ landslide student election win marks major shift in Palestinian politics"" (+972, May 31, 2022): click here!

  The Islamist movement's stunning victory in Birzeit University’s student union vote reflects growing discontent with the West Bank's ruling Fatah party. - The annual elections at Birzeit are widely regarded as a reflection of the broader political mood in the Palestinian street in the occupied West Bank. The university did not hold elections for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, making this the first round since 2019. Out of around 12,500 students at the university, four out of five voted in the latest elections, held on May 18, with the voter turnout similar to the rounds in previous years.

• Petition: "Academics: Israel must allow Gaza students to travel abroad" (Gisha petition, action closed): click here!

  To the Government of Israel, According to information received from the human rights organization Gisha, it has come to our attention that since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020, Israel has blocked Palestinian students from Gaza from exiting the Strip via Erez Crossing to reach academic studies abroad. As faculty members at academic institutions around the world, we strongly oppose this infringement on students’ fundamental rights. We call on the Government of Israel to take immediate action to allow students to exit Gaza via Erez Crossing. Access to education is a fundamental human right. Access to higher education, in all academic fields, is a prerequisite for young people to develop personal and professional skills, expand their horizons, and realize their personal ambitions.

• "Call for Action: Protect Ras Al'uja School from Demolition!" Palestinian Grassroots Anti-apartheid Wall Campaign (Sept 28, 2020): click here!

  As across the world schools are slowly opening again after COVID19 lockdowns, we call on you to ensure in Palestine schools are not demolished. Palestinians are sounding the alarm over the potential demolition of a newly built school in Ras Al'uja Bedouin community, the Jordan Valley, by the Israeli occupation authorities.

• "Bundestag 3 for Palestine (BT3P): Our Principles" (Bundestag 3 für Palästina, 2 Oct, 2020): click here!

  "Who we are. We, the Bundestag 3 for Palestine (#BT3P), have sued the Bundestag of the Federal Republic of Germany. In this policy paper, we would like to explain how this came about, why this step was necessary and what you can do to support our initiative."

• "Letter from European researchers and academics concerning Israel's participation in Horizon Europe" (ECCP, June 16, 2020): click here!

  "As both professionals directly involved in research and members of civil society, we appeal to the EU to mobilize all diplomatic means to pressure Israel to comply with International Law. The move to unilateral annexation is the decisive act of defiance that should be met with sanctions, not with words. In the face of the imminent threat of annexation that would formally establish Israeli sovereignty over stolen territories, we reiterate that the EU should exclude Israel from EU Research Programmes, suspend the EU-Israel Association Agreement and implement a comprehensive arms embargo against Israel. Exclusion of Israel and Israeli companies accused of war crimes from the research programmes is the absolute minimum needed as a first measure against Israel’s’ violations of international law. As the exclusion of a country from EU Research Programmes does not require a unanimous decision of the European Council and falls under the responsibility of the European Commission and the Parliament, we urgently appeal to you to uphold justice by implementing this first step which is within your power."

• "Deelname van de Stad Gent aan de VOKA-handelsmissie naar Israël. Aan Schepen Sofie Bracke, Gentse schepen bevoegd voor Economie en Handel, en het Gentse Schepencollege" (Gent, 21 januari 2020, 5 blz.): click here!

  "Mevrouw de Schepen, via De Standaard van 15 januari vernamen wij dat u in februari wilt deelnemen, in naam van de Stad Gent, aan een VOKA-handelsmissie naar Israël. Als academici, auteurs en kunstenaars die de Israëlische politiek ten aanzien van de Palestijnse bevolking in de Bezette Gebieden reeds lang kritisch volgen, voelen wij ons genoopt uw participatie aan de VOKA -missie in vraag te stellen..."

• "Palestinian student activists among 23 seized by Israeli occupation forces" (Samidoun, Aug 27, 2019): click here!

  Israeli occupation forces seized at least 23 people from their homes on Monday morning, 26 August, including several Palestinian student leaders and activists at Bir Zeit University. They join approximately 60 fellow students at Bir Zeit and over 300 Palestinian students overall held in Israeli prisons. Student activists involved in the elected council or other organizations are particularly targeted for arrest, interrogation and imprisonment; nearly every year, the Bir Zeit student body president is seized by occupation forces and prevented from carrying out his or her term on campus.

• "BDS veroordeelt antisemitische, fascistische krachten in Duitsland en de rest van de wereld" (Palestijns Nationaal BDS Comité, 28 aug 2019): click here!

  De BDS-beweging voor Palestijnse rechten veroordeelt in de meest krachtige bewoordingen de opkomende racistische en fascistische groeperingen in Duitsland en in heel Europa. Onze geweldloze beweging verzet zich principieel tegen alle vormen van racisme en rassendiscriminatie, waaronder antisemitisme en islamofobie.

• "Guarantee full freedom of movement for international academics working at Palestinian academic institutions!" (petition, googleform, Academia for Equality): click here!
• "European researchers and academics protest involvement of Israeli arms companies in EU research programs" (ECCP, June 5, 2019): click here!
• "240 Israel and Jewish professors urge Germany not to enforce anti-BDS law" (Middle East Monitor, June 12, 2019): click here!

• B'TSELEM, "Supreme Court rules: Israel above the law" (B'Tselem, May 29, 2022): click here!

  On 4 May 2022, the eve of Israel’s 74th Independence Day, the Supreme Court delivered its judgment on the state’s plan to expel some 1,000 Palestinians from their homes in the South Hebron Hills in the West Bank.

• Abe SILBERSTEIN, "A Logic of Elimination" (Jewish Currents, January 11, 2022): click here!

  Historian Lorenzo Veracini discusses settler colonialism, Zionism, and decolonial futures.

• Mohammed NAJIB, "Palestine runs dry: ‘Our water they steal and sell to us’" (Al Jazeera, July 15, 2021): click here!

  Israeli authorities refuse to grant licenses to Palestinian water authorities to operate freely in areas under complete Israeli security control.

• Daniel BEAUMONT, "The Twilight of Zionism" (CounterPunch+, July 4, 2021): click here!

  The price was high but the Palestinians had the attention of the world press again in May. It took an eleven-day bombardment of Gaza and assaults of various forms on Palestinians in the West Bank and even within Israel itself. The daily violence visited on Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza is not news. Otherwise, Israel’s historical mission to be “a light unto the nations”—that is to say, its theft of Palestinian land and its violation of Palestinian rights—proceeds mostly unremarked.

• Jehad HARB, "Thirteen Years After the West Bank-Gaza Strip Split: Phased Policy Alternatives Between Reunification and Separation" (PSR, Critical Policy Brief, Number 4/2020, July 2020): click here!

  On July 2, 2020, Jibril Rajoub, member of the Fatah Central Committee, and Saleh Al-Arouri, deputy head of the Hamas political bureau, held a joint press conference to announce joint plans to confront the Israeli annexation plan. The joint statement issued by the two men comes after a rift of more than two years. The statement did not refer to a vision of how to end the split and restore unity after thirteen years of internal Palestinian division. The ability of this meeting and subsequent dialogue to bridge differences between the two sides is unclear. The solutions proposed since the 2011 Cairo Agreement to restore unity have failed to reach the intended goal, in part because of their ambitious goal of restoring full reunification.

• Halah AHMAD, "Tourism in Service of Occupation and Annexation" (Al-Shabaka, Oct 13, 2020): click here!

  Tourism has been critical to the Zionist enterprise since the first Zionists settled Palestine. Al-Shabaka policy analyst Halah Ahmad explores the role of tourism, and especially religious tourism, in propagating the Zionist and Israeli-state narratives, focusing on the damaging impacts of Israeli settlement tourism in illegally occupied Palestinian land. She offers recommendations for ethical tourism that promotes Palestinian rights to self-determination.

• Éric PICHET, "Boycott des produits israéliens : la CEDH rebat les cartes des échanges commerciaux avec l'Europe" (The Conversation, June 15, 2020): click here!

  Dans un arrêt historique rendu à l’unanimité de ses juges le 11 juin 2020, la Cour européenne des droits de l’homme (CEDH) administre un cinglant désaveu aux autorités françaises. La Cour déclare que les condamnations précédentes des militants de la campagne BDS (pour boycott, désinvestissement, sanctions) ayant appelé au boycott de produits israéliens dans des supermarchés alsaciens en 2010, constituent une violation de leur liberté d’expression.

• Haidar EID, "Edward Said's spectre and the end of Oslo" (Al-Jazeera, 6 June 2020): click here!

  What Edward Said predicted in the 1990s came to be. The PLO's two-state project has failed... At the end of one of these essays, he asked: "Is the current Palestinian leadership listening? Can it suggest anything better than this, given its abysmal record in a "peace process" that has led to the present horrors?" It could not back then and it cannot now. It is high time that the Palestinian people move away from the illusion of the two-state solution and try a democratic approach, one that can guarantee their basic rights - freedom, equality, and justice.

• François DUBUISSON, "Trump 'Plan' would create a fictitious Palestinian state devoid of rights under international law" (Mondoweiss, Jan 31): click here!

  After being announced shortly after Donald Trump took office in 2017, the "Plan" (modestly called "the Vision") supposed to put an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was made public on January 28th. It is therefore now possible to analyse its substance in detail, deepening the reflections that have already been made on the basis of the leaks of some of its aspects... In the preamble of the "Plan", a position is taken which results in the exclusion of the whole of international law, as derived from UN resolutions and a range of other texts, as the essential basis for establishing the parameters of the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

• Awad ABDELFATTAH & Jeff HALPER: "A just future demands the decolonization of Palestine – and a democratic state for all" (+972, Dec 10, 2019): click here!

  Understanding the 'conflict' as a settler colonial struggle allows us to build a holistic path toward a liberated society for Palestinians and Israelis.

• BACBI: "Beste Belgische regering, stop iedere samenwerking met Israël!" (De Wereld Morgen, 4 april 2018): click here!

  Na het bloedbad van 30 maart 2018 in Gaza door scherpschutters van het Israëlische leger, richten academici, kunstenaars en vertegenwoordigers van de culturele sectoren, verenigd in de Belgische Campagne voor de Academische en Culturele Boycot van Israël (BACBI), een oproep tot de Belgische regering en de EU tot krachtig protest en tot de bevolking om de BDS-boycotcampagne te versterken.

• Press Release: "On the third day of its offensive against Gaza, Israel intensifies attacks and destroys houses without warning" (Al Mezan, 7 Aug , 2022): click here!

  Al Mezan’s documentation shows that Israel’s attacks against the Gaza Strip have so far resulted in the death of 31 Palestinians—including six children and four women—and the injury of 228 others—including 90 children and 33 women. Meanwhile, Gaza crossings remained closed for the sixth consecutive day, leading Gaza’s only power plant to shut down due to the lack of fuel, significant shortages in food and medicine, and increased deterioration of humanitarian conditions.

• "Al-Haq Condemns Israel’s Provocation of Hostilities in the Gaza Strip, Killing 10 Palestinians, including Alaa Qaddoum, aged five, and Injuring 75 Palestinians" (Al-Haq, 5 Aug , 2022): click here!

  Today, Friday 5 August 2022, Israel launched a military offensive on the Gaza Strip, killing 10 Palestinians, amongst which were civilians, including a five-year-old girl and a woman. According to the Ministry of Health 75 were injured, some of which are critical injuries. This is the gravest escalation since Israel’s full scale military offensive on the Gaza Strip in May 2021, killing 240 Palestinians, including 151 civilians. Israel’s 2014 military offensive on the Gaza Strip killed 2,192 Palestinians, including 524 children, in acts amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity under investigation by the International Criminal Court.

• "Increase in Israeli navy attacks on Gaza fishermen, including children" (GISHA, July 7, 2022): click here!

  Between January and May 2022, 167 incidents of Israeli shooting towards fishermen were recorded and 10 fishing boats were seized; the same number confiscated over the past two years combined .

• Ramzy BAROUD, « 15 years of failed experiments: Myths and facts about the Israeli siege on Gaza » (Middle East Monitor, July 2022, pdf, 17p.): click here!

  Fifteen years have passed since Israel imposed a total siege on the Gaza Strip, subjecting nearly two million Palestinians to one of the longest and most cruel politically-motivated blockades in history. Back then, the Israeli government justified its siege as the only way to protect Israel from Palestinian "terrorism and rocket attacks."

• Tareq S. HAJJAJ, « For cancer patients in Gaza travel permits become a matter of life or death » (Mondoweiss, July 19, 2022, pdf, 17p.): click here!

  The crowded hall is packed full with tired bodies standing in front of the Director’s office, as people clutch their papers and medical reports and attempt to get the attention of the officials. Crying is not entirely uncommon, as people wail of the consequences of delaying their treatment while they wait for Israeli approval for a medical permit.

• MAP & Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, « DELAYED, DENIED AND DEPRIVED. » The collective punishment of Palestinian patients in Gaza in the context of Israel’s 15-year blockade (June 2022, pdf, 17p.): click here!

  Israel’s collective punishment of Gaza through its 15-year-long closure and blockade has created a humanitarian and health crisis that continues to deteriorate year-on-year, warn Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) and Al Mezan Center for Human Rights.

• HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH, "Gaza: Israel’s ‘Open-Air Prison’ at 15" (Report, June 14, 2022): click here!

  (Gaza) – Israel’s sweeping restrictions on leaving Gaza deprive its more than two million residents of opportunities to better their lives, Human Rights Watch said today on the fifteenth anniversary of the 2007 closure. The closure has devastated the economy in Gaza, contributed to fragmentation of the Palestinian people, and forms part of Israeli authorities’ crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution against millions of Palestinians.

• Amjad Ayman YAGHI: "Death without warning" (The Electronic Intifada, 15 June 2021): click here!

  One of the lies told by Israel’s military during the recent bombardment of Gaza was that it aimed to minimize harm inflicted on civilians. The claim was made, for example, in a tweet issued on 17 May. Yet on that date and the two previous days, Israel carried out no-warning attacks in which numerous civilians were killed. Muhammad al-Hadidi lost his wife and all bar one of his children on 15 May. His wife had gone to see her brother and his family in Beach refugee camp one day earlier and was staying overnight, along with their children. Muhammad remained alone in his own home. Early in the morning, he was awoken by a loud explosion. Shortly afterwards, he received a phone call from a neighbor.His neighbor broke some terrible news to him. The home of his brother-in-law had been bombed without warning... “Israel says that it reached all of its goals [during the attack],” said Kamel. “Since when can killing innocent people and leaving children without parents be considered an achievement?”

• Ramzy BAROUD: « Say This, Don't Say That: Time to Confront the Misleading Language on Palestine, Israel » (The Palestine Chronicle, 14 June 2021): click here!

  The besiegement and utter isolation of over 2 million Palestinians in Gaza since 2006-07, which has resulted in numerous tragedies, is an act of collective punishment that also deserves the designation of genocide. But one doesn’t need to be a legal expert to locate the many elements of genocide in Israel’s violent behavior, let alone language, against Palestinians. There is a clear, undeniable relationship between Israel’s violent political discourse and equally violent action on the ground. One of the rising stars of Israeli politics, Naftali Bennett, who has served the role of the defense minister, had, in July 2013, stated: “I’ve killed lots of Arabs in my life – and there’s no problem with that.”

• Al Mezan CHR: "Press Release, Nov 29, 2020: "Unprecedented surge in COVID-19 cases in the Gaza Strip" (Nov, 2020): click here!

  Al Mezan warns of humanitarian catastrophe due to scarce medical resources. In its latest update on Saturday, 28 November 2020, the Palestinian Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza noted that the last round of COVID-19 testing brought the total to 19,160 confirmed cases, including 90 deaths. The number of COVID-19 hospitalizations rose to 334 cases, occupying 78% of the hospital beds designated for COVID-19 in-patients.

• Al Mezan CHR: "The Torture and Abuse of Children Fleeing Gaza's Humanitarian Catastrophe" (Oct 26, 2020): click here!

  The deterioration of the socioeconomic conditions in the Gaza Strip due to Israel’s unilateral imposition of 13 years of closure and blockade has led an alarming number of child residents to undertake dangerous emigration routes out of the Strip in search of better living conditions and the chance at a dignified life. Al Mezan’s reporting shows that a sense of desperation is leading children to risk their lives by attempting to cross the Israeli-implemented and enforced buffer zone. This report focuses on the arrest and abuse of those children, in particular 91 child victims who tried to cross the perimeter fence into Israel between 2015-2019. Read full report (pdf, 30p.): click here!

• "Palestinian and regional human rights organizations submit joint urgent appeal to UN Special Procedures on the escalating water and sanitation crisis in the Gaza Strip, oPt" (press release: Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, Al-Haq – Law in the Service of Man, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, Habitat International Coalition – Housing and Land Rights Network, Nov 10, 2020): click here!

  Four Palestinian and regional human rights organizations submitted a joint urgent appeal to the United Nations (UN) Special Procedures on the escalating water and sanitation crisis in the Gaza Strip, occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). Notably, this appeal highlights the sharp deterioration of the water and sanitation conditions in Gaza resulting from the increased punitive measures imposed by Israel against the civilian population in August 2020. Insufficient access to clean and safe drinking water and sanitation facilities in the oPt has been a hallmark of Palestinian life for decades, with resources overexploited and water quality steadily deteriorating in parallel and as a result of Israel’s illegal occupation and apartheid regime. Israel, the Occupying Power, has prohibited Palestinians in the whole oPt from drawing any of its water since 1967 and currently controls more than 85 percent of the oPt’s water sources.

• Yara M. ASI: "Endless warnings of Gaza’s collapse are why we’re failing to prevent it" (+972, Oct 14, 2020): click here!

  The strip's rehabilitation already demanded ‘herculean efforts.’ With the spread of COVID-19, action is imperative.

• "Explosive Remnants of War risk civilian lives in Gaza amid funding crisis" (UNRWA, 24 Sept 2020): click here!
• David KLEIN: "Palestine and the Climate Crisis” Mondoweiss, Feb 4, 2019): click here!

  Gaza, in particular, faces environmental perils not only from changing atmospheric conditions but also from ocean acidification and ocean deoxygenation both of which threaten ocean ecology and therefore endanger a major food source for Gazans. In addition sea level is projected to rise by as much as several meters by leading climate scientist James Hansen and fellow researchers, possibly as soon as 50 years from now. These climactic changes will have devastating effects on Israel and many other countries as well, but since Gaza is essentially an open air prison whose inhabitants are confined to the coast, a single major storm could all but end life there.

• "Water in Gaza: Scarce, polluted and mostly unfit for use” (B'Tselem, Aug 17, 2020): click here!

  Some two million Gazans suffer from a constant shortage of water, which gets worse in summer. The tap water is salty and polluted and is not fit for drinking. In the absence of other alternatives, residents are forced to use this water for bathing and washing, yet the supply is irregular and unpredictable. For drinking and cooking, they no choice to buy water privately – despite severe financial hardship – and even then it is usually substandard.

• Maha HUSSAINI: "À Gaza, l’aggravation des conditions de vie pousse de plus en plus de Palestiniens au suicide” (Middle East Eye, 13 août, 2020): click here!

  La hausse des suicides au premier semestre 2020 illustre le terrible impact psychologique du siège israélien sur les habitants de Gaza. - Vingt-trois ans après sa libération d’une prison israélienne, Jamal Wadi se débattait toujours avec les conséquences de sa terrible expérience. Souffrant de graves traumatismes psychologiques et de problèmes de santé mentale, le Palestinien s’est suicidé le 21 juin dernier à l’âge de 54 ans. La bande de Gaza connaît une flambée des taux de suicide alors qu’elle est entrée dans sa 14e année sous blocus. Selon le Centre al-Mezan pour les droits de l’homme, basé à Gaza, au moins seize personnes se sont suicidées et des centaines d’autres ont tenté de le faire à Gaza au premier semestre 2020.

• Report: “Gaza, The Dead-Zone. How life in the Gaza Strip changed over 14 years of Israel's strangling blockade” (Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, January 2020, pdf, 46p.): click here!

  The Report presents overwhelming evidence of the prolonged and unlawful victimization of the civilian population of the Gaza Strip, which has intensified greatly since Israel imposed a land, sea, and air blockade in 2007. This unlawful and comprehensive block-ade has entrapped the Gazan people ever since it was established is a particularly severe and cruel form of collective punishment, which is a flagrant and continuing criminal wrong. Introduction by Richard Falk.

• Haidar EID: “Israel's Policies in Gaza are Genocidal” (Mondoweiss, Aug 3, 2018): click here!

  The practice of willful killing of civilian protesters at the Gaza fence is part and parcel of an ongoing Israeli policy targeting the civilian Palestinians of the Gaza strip and systematically denying them their rights to movement, work, medical care, study, livelihood and increasingly life itself.

• *PALESTINIAN REFUGEES IN (19) WEST BANK & (8) GAZA STRIP CAMPS (pdf, 2p.): click here!
• *List of (164) Solidarity with Palestine Organisations: click here!
• *List of (34) Jewish Solidarity Movements: click here!
• *List of (116) Palestinian Centers & NGOs: click here!
• *List of (41) Israeli NGOs (31/1/22): click here!
• *List of (150) Human Rights Associations (Palestinian & Israeli, 12/5/2022, pdf): click here!

• SETTLER COLONIALISM RESOURCES (pdf): click here!

• "Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel" (UNGA, May 9, 2022, pdf, 18p.), click here!

  Human Rights Council. Fiftieth session, 13 June–8 July 2022, Agenda item 2. Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the High Commissioner and the Secretary-General. In this report, submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution S-30/1, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel describes the activities that it has carried out to date and how it plans to implement its mandate, given its ongoing nature.

• "Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question" (Institute for Palestine Studies): click here!-

  Explore thousands of events, biographies, highlights, places and primary documents, in the first interactive platform entirely devoted to the Palestine Question. ─ Conceived by the Institute for Palestine Studies as part of a joint project with the Palestinian Museum, the Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question traces the history of modern Palestine, from the end of the Ottoman era to the present. Consisting in the description of various aspects of the Palestine Question that is simultaneously objective and committed, the Encyclopedia presents the Palestinians as they are—purposeful actors and not just victims. Following years of preparation and several stages of implementation, the Encyclopedia is now a fully-bilingual platform geared towards academics, students, journalists, and the general public.

• "Israëlische Apartheid: Drie Basisteksten"(Nederlands Palestina Komitee 2021, pdf, 60p., 8 Engelstalige bijlagen): click here!-

  Ontwikkelingen op de grond – de stelsel-matige kolonisatie door Israel van de Palestijnse leefomgeving in combinatie met ambitieuze annexatieplannen, het voortduren van de bezetting (inmiddels ruim een halve eeuw), het einde van de zogenaamde ‘twee staten-oplossing’ en de invoering van de Basiswet op de Joodse Natie-Staat – hebben de discussie over toekomstige politieke verhoudingen in Israel/Palestina nieuwe impulsen gegeven.

• "A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid" (B'TSELEM, Jan 12, 2021, pdf, 8p.): click here!

  More than 14 million people,roughly half of them Jews and the other half Palestinians, live between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea under a single rule. The common perception in public, political, legal and media discourse is that two separate regimes operate side by side in this area, separated by the Green Line.

• "Highway to Annexation Israeli Road and Transportation Infrastructure Development in the West Bank." The Israeli Centre for Public Affairs & Breaking the Silence (December 2020, pdf, 39p.): click here!

  While the threat of de jure Israeli annexation of West Bank territory has lessened, de facto annexation is accelerating at a rapid and alarming pace. The Israeli political Right has stated that it hopes to grow the population to 1,000,000 settlers. Even if such a number is not reached, the significant road and transportation development projects that the Israeli government has advanced in the past five years make it plausible that the current settler population could double in the coming decades. Settlement expansion cannot take place without the parallel development of road, water, and electricity infrastructure. Because of this, when tracking settlement expansion, it is important to track not only the number of new housing units, which is the most common benchmark used today, but also the development of settlement infrastructure.

• "The October 2000 Killings (October Uprising)" (Adalah, 30 Sept 2020): click here!

  "Between 1 and 8 October 2000, Israeli police officers shot dead 13 young unarmed Palestinian men, 12 citizens of Israel and one resident of Gaza. The 13 deaths and hundreds of injuries occurred when Israeli police opened fire on Palestinian citizens who had taken to the streets to protest against the Israeli military's killing and wounding of scores of Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (West Bank and Gaza) at the outbreak of the Second Intifada."

• Report: "Reclaiming the PLO, Re-Engaging Youth" An Al-Shabaka Policy Circle Report (August 2020, pdf, 41p.): click here!

  "Introduction: The Palestinian national movement is in an acute state of crisis, facing unprecedented obstacles to its quest for self-determination. The Oslo Accords of the 1990s and the statehood project they produced have failed on every count to secure justice for the Palestinian people. On the contrary, Israel is tightening its military control of the Palestinian territory it occupied in 1967 and expanding its illegal settlement enterprise. Meanwhile, annexation of the rest of the occupied territory is rapidly becoming reality."

• "The Israeli Occupation of the West Bank and the Crime of Apartheid: Legal Opinion by Adv. Michael Sfard" (Yesh Din Position paper, June 2020, pdf, 58p.): click here!

  "Introduction: Apartheid?! Us?! Accusations of apartheid have been leveled at Israel, at varying degrees of intensity, for decades. Apartheid has been attributed to the Israeli regime in various contexts, at various time periods, and in relation to a variety of spaces under Israeli control and its treatment of different populations. So, for instance, the accusation was made in relation to Israel’s treatment of its Palestinian citizens, to Zionism as a movement and a concept, control of East Jerusalem, the treatment of Negev Bedouins, the military government in the occupied territories outside the Green Line and the entire Israeli project from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea."

• "How Not to Fight Antisemitism." A Critique of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Working Definition of Antisemitism (IHRA-WDA)" (Independent Jewish Voices Canada/Voix juives indépendantes", May 2020, pdf, 24p.): click here!

  "The IHRA-WDA is a deeply flawed document. It fails to provide an adequate objective standard that can be used to identify antisemitic incidents and/or antisemitic speech. It is insufficiently precise for legal and administrative uses, and its adoption for this purpose by Zionist lobby groups is opportunistic. Even Kenneth Stern has strongly opposed its use as a legal or administrative definition of antisemitism. He has warned that such a use will be a threat to both academic freedom and freedom of expression in general."

• HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: "Born Without Civil Rights. Israel’s Use of Draconian Military Orders to Repress Palestinians in the West Bank" (November 2019, ISBN: 978-1-6231-37816, pdf, 97p.): click here! Summary (Dec 17): click here!

  The Israeli army has deprived generations of Palestinians in the West Bank of their basic civil rights, including the rights to free assembly, association and expression, regularly drawing on military orders issued in the first days of the occupation. Even if such restrictions could have been justified then to preserve public order and safety, the suspension of core rights more than half a century later with no end in sight violates Israel’s core responsibilities under the law of occupation.

• ADDAMEER "Collects Hard Evidence on Torture and Ill-Treatment Committed against Palestinian Detainees at Israeli Interrogation Centers" (23 Dec 2019, pdf, 8p.): click here!

  Since its creation, the occupying state developed and enforced laws and practices that led to both the systematic use of torture and to absolute impunity for the perpetrator of this crime. There has never been any individual or agency held accountable for the well-documented crimes of torture and ill-treatment at Israeli prisons and interrogation centers. The occupation authorities, in particular, the Israeli intelligence agency “Shabak” resorts to torture and ill-treatment as standard operating procedure in a systematic and wide-scale approach against Palestinian detainees.

• ADDAMEER Annual Violations Report 2018 (pdf, 98p.): click here!

  In 2018, the Israeli occupation authorities continued implementing their main policy to enshrine the apartheid and racism regime against Palestinians, this policy is integrated within its laws, judiciary and practices… In 2018, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) arrested around (6500) Palestinians, including (1080) children, (133) women, (6) PLC members and (17) journalists. Additionally, they issued (912) administrative detention orders, (398) of which were new. In 2018, the IOF continued its policy of arbitrary detention of Palestinians. The year, 2018, ended with 5700 Palestinian detained in Israeli prisons, this number included (230) were children, (54) are females including one minor, approximately (500) administrative detainees, (19) journalists, (8) PLC members, and around (700) prisoners with health issues needing urgent medical attention. There are also (27) long-term prisoners who were arrested before the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993; including the two longest serving prisoners, Karim and Maher Younis, who were arrested in 1983.”

• Kenniscentrum Israël Palestina. Documentatie over Palestijnen, Israël, Midden-Oosten (docP): click here!

  Een volledig vernieuwd digitaal kenniscentrum over Israël en Palestina. Met inmiddels een kleine honderd artikelen over onderwerpen die belangrijk zijn voor het begrip van wat er is gebeurd in het Palestina van vóór 1948, in de joodse staat vanaf 1948 en in de bezette gebieden. En voor wat er vandaag de dag aan de hand is in de Negev woestijn, in de Jordaanvallei en in Jeruzalem...

• Richard FALK & Virginia TILLEY, "Update to the ESCWA Report of 15 March 2017" (pdf, 62p.): click here!
• Court of Justice of the European Union, "Press Release No 140/19, 12 November 2019" (pdf, 2p.): click here!

  Foodstuffs originating in the territories occupied by the State of Israel must bear the indication of their territory of origin, accompanied, where those foodstuffs come from an Israeli settlement within that territory, by the indication of that provenance.

• "Letter from European researchers and academics concerning Israel's participation in Horizon Europe" (June 4, 2019, pdf, 6p., with list of 155 endorsers): click here!

  Letter sent to: Ms. Federica Mogherini - High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and to: Mr Carlos Moedas - European Commission, DG for Research and Innovation. The letter was answered by Commissioner Moedas, July 11: click here!

• World Health Organization - Occupied Palestinian Territories & Health Cluster oPt: "Emergency Trauma Response to the Gaza Mass Demonstrations 2018–2019. A One-Year Review of Trauma Data and the Humanitarian Consequences" (Issued May 2019, pdf, 86p.): click here!

  Gaza’s health system is chronically deteriorating and more than a decade of blockade has led to a serious deterioration of the social determinants of health. Water from the aquifer is basically unfit for human consumption, sewage flows largely untreated into the Mediterranean and the economy is stifled, with unemployment rates way over 50%. Of the 1.4 million Palestinians in need of humanitarian interventions in 2019, 1.2 million live in the Gaza Strip.

• Israeli & Palestinian Human Rights Organisations" (BACBI, pdf, 2p.): click here!
• Report: "House Demolitions as a Central Tool for the Dispossession and Concentration of the Bedouin Population in the Negev/Naqab: Updated Data for 2017" (Dukium, Nov 27, 2018, pdf, 33p.): click here!

  In the course of 2017, an unprecedented amount of 2,220 structures were demolished in the Bedouin communities in the Negev/Naqab - an unfathomable number. The State of Israel implements its demolition policy in all Bedouin localities, recognized and unrecognized alike, and demolishes new structures alongside old ones, in order to force its Bedouin citizens to settle according to the government’s aspirations and the various master-plans it created.

• Ico MALY: "Over Racisme en beeldvorming in het Israëlisch-Palestijnse conflict" (Licentieverhandeling, UGent 2001): click here!
• "I've Been There": "A Study of Torture and Inhumane Treatment in Al-Moscabiyah Interrogation Center" (Report of Addameer, 25 Oct 2018, pdf, 46p.): click here!
• "September 2018 Demolition and Displacement Report" (ICAHD - The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, Oct 3): click here!
• "Questions & Réponses: Ce que vous avez besoin de savoir à propos des réfugiés palestiniens et des personnes déplacées internes" (BADIL, mai 2015, pdf, 32p.): click here!
• Jonathan COOK: "Apartheid Israel" (16p., The Link, Vol. 51, Issue 2, April-May 2018): click here!
• "Palestine and the Israeli Occupation, Issue No. 1: Israeli Practices towards the Palestinian People and the Question of Apartheid". Rapporteurs: Prof. Richard Falk & Prof. Virginia Tilley. UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (Beirut 2017, 74p., was removed but is saved on bacbi.be): click here! La traduction française (AURDIP, 62p.): click here!

  The authors of this report, examining whether Israel has established an apartheid regime that oppresses and dominates the Palestinian people as a whole, fully appreciate the sensitivity of the question. Even broaching the issue has been denounced by spokespersons of the Israeli Government and many of its supporters as anti-Semitism in a new guise.

• "Palestine and the Israeli Occupation, Issue No. 1: Israeli Practices towards the Palestinian People and the Question of Apartheid, Executive Summary" (UN-ESCWA, 2017): click here!

  "This report concludes that Israel has established an apartheid regime that dominates the Palestinian people as a whole. Aware of the seriousness of this allegation, the authors of the report conclude that available evidence establishes beyond a reasonable doubt that Israel is guilty of policies and practices that constitute the crime of apartheid as legally defined in instruments of international law".

• BACBI-Dossier Nr 5: Herman DE LEY, « "The Land of Checkpoints". Israëls Apartheidspolitiek in de West Bank » (14 april 2022, pdf, 74p.): klik hier!
• BACBI-Dossier Nr 4: Herman DE LEY, "De 'Omvolking' van Palestina 1917-2021:" Deel 1: "Van Yishoef naar Nakba" (22 oktober 2021, pdf, 34p.): klik hier!
• BACBI: « "Lettre ouverte aux ministres fédéraux belges et aux membres belges du Parlement Européen : Donnez la politique belge et européenne à l’égard d’Israël une nouvelle orientation et une nouvelle force !" / "Open brief aan de Belgische federale ministers en Europees parlementsleden: Geeft Belgisch en Europees beleid ten aanzien van Israël een nieuwe wending en een nieuwe slagkracht!" » (BACBI, 28 Feb 2021, pdf): click here!
• BACBI, Communiqué de presse, le 24 février 2020: «Nous avons honte d’être belges» (BACBI, 24 février 2020, pdf): click here!

  "La représentation belge au Conseil de Sécurité, actuelle présidente du Conseil, a honteusement décidé de retirer l'invitation de l'ONG palestinienne 'Defense for Children International -Palestine' à un briefing sur le Moyen-Orient (voir Le Soir, De Standaardet Pickx). En tant qu'universitaires, artistes et travailleurs culturels belges, nous avons profondément honte d’être «belges»..” [English version: click here!]

• BACBI: “Wij schamen ons Belg te zijn”" (De Wereld Morgen, 24 feb 2020): click here!

  "De Belgische vertegenwoordiging in de Veiligheidsraad, tijdelijk voorzitter van de Raad, had de bekende Palestijnse ngo ‘Defense for Children International – Palestine’ uitgenodigd op een briefing over het Midden-Oosten. Onder Israëlische druk, in Jeruzalem en Brussel, heeft ze beslist de uitnodiging voor deelname aan de briefing weer in te trekken (zie berichten op Pickx en in de Standaard, 22-23 februari). Als Belgische academici, kunstenaars en cultuurwerkers schamen wij ons voor deze, wat we niet anders kunnen noemen dan 'lafhartigheid van ons land'..."

• "Deelname van de Stad Gent aan de VOKA-handelsmissie naar Israël. Aan Schepen Sofie Bracke, Gentse schepen bevoegd voor Economie en Handel, en het Gentse Schepencollege" (Gent, 21 januari 2020, 5 blz.): click here!

  "Mevrouw de Schepen, via De Standaard van 15 januari vernamen wij dat u in februari wilt deelnemen, in naam van de Stad Gent, aan een VOKA-handelsmissie naar Israël. Als academici, auteurs en kunstenaars die de Israëlische politiek ten aanzien van de Palestijnse bevolking in de Bezette Gebieden reeds lang kritisch volgen, voelen wij ons genoopt uw participatie aan de VOKA -missie in vraag te stellen..."

• To Ms. Federica Mogherini - High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy & To Mr Carlos Moedas - European Commission, DG for Research and Innovation Brussels, Letter from European researchers and academics concerning Israel's participation in Horizon Europe (Nozomi Takahashi, 4 June, 2019, pdf, 6p., 155 signatories): click here!
• Herman DE LEY, "'Moreel verwerpelijk': Tweede open brief aan minister Alexander De Croo" (De Wereld Morgen, 28 sept 2018 ): click here!

  "Telkens in uw repliek de Israëlische zijde ter sprake komt, kenmerkt uw woordgebruik zich door een hoge mate aan empathie en gevoelsmatig inlevingsvermogen. Dit empathische taalgebruik blijft bij u achterwege zodra de duizenden onschuldige, Palestijnse slachtoffers ter sprake komen. Dit volharden in een 2-maten-2-gewichten-politiek, waarin de zwakke wél zwaar wordt aangepakt maar men de sterke de facto laat betijen, hoe moeten we dat vanuit moreel opzicht benoemen, geachte Minister De Croo? Ik zou durven gewagen van: 'moreel verwerpelijk'."

• Alexander DE CROO: "De Croo reageert op kritiek tegen stopzetting Belgische ondersteuning van Palestijns ministerie van Onderwijs" (De Wereld Morgen, 25 sept 2018 ): click here!
• Herman DE LEY, "'Vrijheidsstrijder' versus 'Terrorist': Open brief aan De Croo, minister van Ontwikkelingssamenwerking" (De Wereld Morgen, 21 sept 2018 ): click here!
• Herman DE LEY, "Lettre ouverte à Alexander De Croo, Vice-Premier ministre et ministre de la Coopération au développement" (Pour la Palestine, 19 sept 2018 ): click here!
• BACBI: “Het bloedbad aan het Gazahekken: ook journalisten onder de slachtoffers.” Brief aan Pol Deltour, secretaris-generaal van de Vlaamse Vereniging van Journalisten (11 april 2018; 4p.): click here!
• BACBI: "Le gouvernement belge doit mettre la pression sur Israël" (Le Soir+ Forum, le 11 avril, 2018): click here!

  La Belgian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israël (BACBI) adresse une lettre ouverte au gouvernement pour l’exhorter à protester officiellement contre la politique israélienne d’expropriation et de répression à l’égard des Palestiniens.

• BACBI: "Lettre ouverte de condamnation du massacre à Gaza perpétré par l’État d’Israël (BACBI)" (Pour la Palestine, le 5 avril, 2018): click here!

  La Belgian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israël (BACBI) adresse une lettre ouverte au gouvernement pour l’exhorter à protester officiellement contre la politique israélienne d’expropriation et de répression à l’égard des Palestiniens.

• BACBI: "Lettre ouverte de condamnation du massacre à Gaza perpétré par l’État d’Israël" (le 5 avril 2018; 3p.): click here!
• BACBI: "Open brief naar aanleiding van het bloedbad in Gaza aangericht door de staat Israël" (5 april 2018; 3p.): click here!
• BACBI: "Beste Belgische regering, stop iedere samenwerking met Israël!" (De Wereld Morgen, 4 april 2018): click here!

  Na het bloedbad van 30 maart 2018 in Gaza door scherpschutters van het Israëlische leger, richten academici, kunstenaars en vertegenwoordigers van de culturele sectoren, verenigd in de Belgische Campagne voor de Academische en Culturele Boycot van Israël (BACBI), een oproep tot de Belgische regering en de EU tot krachtig protest en tot de bevolking om de BDS-boycotcampagne te versterken.

• BACBI Lettre: "ll faut libérer Ahed Tamimi." Aux Membres de la Chambre des représentants, du Sénat de Belgique et des Parlements régionaux (Nevele, le 22 février 2018, pdf, 6p.): click here!
• BACBI : "Brief voor de vrijlating van de Palestijnse tiener Ahed Tamimi." Aan de leden van de Belgische Kamer van Volksvertegenwoordigers, de Belgische Senaat en de regionale parlementen (Nevele, 21 februari 2018, pdf, 11p.): click here!
• BACBI-Dossier N° 3 (EN): "Boycott Israel (BDS), A Moral Duty", Part 1 (draft): "Apartheid" (11 March 2018, pdf, 69 p.): click here!
• BACBI-Dossier N° 3 (EN): "Boycott Israel (BDS), A Moral Duty", Part 2 (draft): "Boycott" (23 Oktober 2018, pdf, 78 p.): click here!
• BACBI-Dossier Nr 3 (NL): "Boycot Israël (BDS), een morele plicht" (12 mei 2017, pdf, 55 blz.): click here!
• BACBI-Dossier Nr 3 (FR):"Le boycott d'Israël (BDS), un devoir moral" (traduction par J.-M. Flémal, 10 mai, 2017, pdf, 45p.): click here!
• Letter to Ms. Federica Mogherini and Mr. Carlos Moedas (March 8, 2017): click here! Also on AURDIP, 10 mars: click here! Trad. française: click here! Vertaling: click here!
• BACBI-Dossier Nr 2 (EN): "The "LAW-TRAIN" Project: Why A Partnership With The Israeli Police Is Indefensible" (March 8, 2017, pdf, 50p.): click here!
• BACBI-Dossier Nr 2 (FR): "Le projet "LAW-TRAIN": Un partenariat avec la police israélienne est indéfendable" (15 février 2017, pdf, 50p.): click here!
• BACBI-Dossier Nr 2 (NL): "Het “LAW-TRAIN” Project: Waarom een partnership met de Israëlische politie onverdedigbaar is" (17 maart 2017, pdf, 54p.): click here!
• "Appel au Procureur Fédéral, Frédéric Van Leeuw, d' arrêter la participation belge au projet 'Law-Train'" (27 janvier 2017): cliquez ici!
• Brief/antwoord aan Minister Koen Geens (feb 28, 2017): klik hier!
• BACBI-Dossier Nr 1b: "Universiteit en Kolonialisme. Bedenkingen bij partnerships met Israël" (Herman De Ley, 4 maart 2017, pdf, 97 p.): click here!
• BACBI-Dossier Nr 1: "Kritische bedenkingen bij UGent partnerships met het 'Technion – Israel Institute of Technology' en 'Israel Aerospace Industry (IAI)'." (23 januari 2016, pdf, 19p.): click here!
• Open brief aan KU Leuven-rector Rik Torfs: "Stop de samenwerking met de Israëlische politie" (De Morgen, 26 sept 2016): click here!

  Een dertigtal KU Leuven-academici schrijft rector Rik Torfs een open brief om op te roepen de samenwerking te stoppen met een Israëlische universiteit.

• "Waarom wij academici Israël boycotten" (De Standaard, 16 mei 2015): click here!

  Een boycot tegen het apartheidsregime van Zuid-Afrika heeft zijn effect niet gemist. Ruim 200 Belgische academici willen Israël op soortgelijke manier onder druk zetten opdat het stopt met zijn voortdurende schendingen van de mensenrechten van de Palestijnen.

• Ramzy BAROUD & Ilan PAPPÉ, "Our Vision for Liberation. Engaged Palestinian Leaders & Intellectuals Speak Out". Clarity Press, March 31, 2022, 462p., ISBN 1949762440 , price: £15: click here!

  "Our Vision for Liberation: Engaged Palestinian Leaders & Intellectuals Speak Out" aims to challenge several strata of the current Palestine discourse that have led to the present dead end: the American pro-Israel political discourse, the Israeli colonial discourse, the Arab discourse of purported normalization, and the defunct discourse of the Palestinian factions. None promote justice, none have brought resolution; none bode well for any of the parties involved. Here, an alternative Palestinian view of liberation and decolonization is provided by engaged Palestinian leaders and intellectuals, those who been actively involved in generating an ongoing Palestinian discourse on liberation, taking into account the parameters of their struggle as it now stands.

• Azmi BISHARA, « Palestine. Matters of Truth and Justice. » C. Hurst & Co. Publ., London, 342pp., pb 9781787387102, £20. click here!

  A leading Arab scholar considers settler colonialism, occupation and nationhood, powerfully arguing for a justice-based approach to the ongoing conflict. Book review (Juan Cole).

• Sylvain CYPEL, « The State of Israel vs. the Jews. » Transl. by William Rodarmor (Other Press, 360pp., $27.99. ). click here!

  Review: David Shulman, "Lost Illusions. Sylvain Cypel's transformation from liberal Zionist to ferocious critic of Israel" (NYRB, Jan 12, 2022), click here!
  Review: Robert Herbst, "The State of Israel vs the Jews." Important new book chronicles Israel's spiritual demise"" (Mondoweiss, January 10, 2022), click here!

• Joshua RICKARD, « The Fragmentation of Palestine. Identity and Isolation since the Second Intifada » (I.B.Tauris, Feb 2022, pb, 184p., ISBN 9781784535872, £76.50). click here!

  This book examines processes of fragmentation that have altered the social dynamics of Palestinian society since the second intifada. With a specific focus on the city of Nablus and its outer laying areas, the book details the extraordinarily personal experience of isolation - namely the physical division of communities through long-term military siege, and the ways that communities have adapted to get by despite frequently changing restrictions. J.R. shows various forms of isolation and social fragmentation, combined with the uncertainty of everyday life, that have come to characterise the existential experience of being Palestinian. More relevant than how the conditions of fragmentation have occurred is what isolation and uncertainty mean to communities that are severed from those surrounding them.

• Jody SOKOLOWER, « Determined to Stay. Palestinian Youth Fight for Their Village » (Olive Branch Press, 2021, pb, 240p., ISBN: 9781623718886, $ 20). click here!

  "What is life like for you, Jody Sokolower asks the children and young people of the Palestinian village of Silwan. Her extraordinary book tells their stories … And she brings the stories home, documenting the parallel histories in which Israeli efforts to destroy Palestinian lives and seize their land are met with the same generations of resistance as US efforts to eliminate the Indigenous people of this land.” – Phyllis Bennis, author of 'Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict.'

• Teodora TODOROVA, « Decolonial Solidarity in Palestine-Israel. Settler Colonialism and Resistance from Within » (Bloomsbury Publ., 15 July 2021, hb ISBN 9781786996411, 168p., £58.50 (RRP £65), click here!

  Through the analytical lens of settler colonial studies, this book examines the impact of this new 'decolonial solidarity' through case studies of three activist groups: 'Zochrot,' 'Anarchists Against the Wall,' and the 'Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions' (ICAHD). In doing so, Todorova extends the framework of settler colonial studies beyond scholarly analysis and into the realm of activist practice.

• Haim BRESHEETH-ZABNER, « An Army Like No Other. » How the Israeli Defense Forces made a nation. (Verso 2020, hb ISBN 978-1-78873-784-5, 425p., £15.00 40% off), click here!

  Professor Haim Bresheeth-Zabner is a Filmmaker, Photographer and a Film Studies Scholar, and Professorial Research Associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). He is the editor of The Gulf War and the New World Order, (with Nira Yuval-Davis), and the author of The Holocaust for Beginners (with Stuart Hood). His films include the widely shown State of Danger (1989, BBC2)—a documentary on the first Palestinian Intifada—and London is Burning, after the 2011 riots. He has also written in the Israeli Ha’aretz and the Cairo-based Al-Ahram Weekly.

• Sylvain CYPEL, "L'État d'Israël Contre les Juifs" (La Découverte, Cahier libres, 2020, 327p., ,ISBN 978-2-348-04344-4, 20 euros) clicquez-ici!
• Lori ALLEN, "A History of False Hope. Investigative Commissions in Palestine" (Stanford UP, Dec 2020, ISBN pb 9781503614185, 432p., from $30.00), click here!

  This book offers a provocative retelling of Palestinian political history through an examination of the international commissions that have investigated political violence and human rights violations. More than twenty commissions have been convened over the last century, yet no significant change has resulted from these inquiries. Drawing on debates in the press, previously unexamined UN reports, historical archives, and ethnographic research, Lori Allen explores six key investigative commissions over the last century. She highlights how Palestinians' persistent demands for independence have been routinely translated into the numb language of reports and resolutions. These commissions, Allen argues, operating as technologies of liberal global governance, yield no justice - only the oppressive status quo. Excerpt (Mondoweiss): click here!

• Shay HAZKANI, "Dear Palestine. A Social History of the 1948 War" (Stanford Studies in Middle Eastern and Islamic Societies and Cultures, April 2021 352 p. Pb ISBN: 9781503627659; Ebook ISBN: 9781503627666. From £28.00), click here!

  Shay Hazkani's "Dear Palestine" is an incredibly valuable contribution that uses meticulous archival research to upend our understanding of the 1948 war... Among other things, the author Shay Hazkani exposes Ashkenazi racism towards Moroccan Jewish soldiers, as well as revealing the tensions between the Arab League Army (ALA) and those of the indigenous Palestinians. When all is said and done, this account reinforces the view that there never was any genocidal intent on the part of the ALA to "throw the Jews into the sea" nor any encouragement for Palestinians to leave their homes. Quite the contrary. It also reveals "disturbing, blood-curdling calls to genocide in the indoctrination materials produced by the Israeli military" (Jewish Voice for Labour).

• Sumaya AWAD and Brian BEAN (eds.), "Palestine: A Socialist Introduction" (Haymarket Books, Dec 2020, 250p., Pb ISBN: 9781642592764, $18.95, $13.26 30% off, with free bundled Ebook. Ebook: ISBN: 9781642595314, $15.99: FREE 100% off), click here!

  This edited volume makes an impassioned and informed case for the central place of Palestine in socialist organizing and of socialism in the struggle to free Palestine. "Palestine: A Socialist Introduction" systematically tackles a number of important aspects of the Palestinian struggle for liberation, contextualizing it in an increasingly polarized world and offering a socialist perspective on how full liberation can be won.

• Ella SHOHAT, "On the Arab-Jew, Palestine, and Other Displacements. Selected Writings" (Pluto Press, 2017, pb ISBN 978 0 7453 9949 2, 464p., £15.00. ), click here!  Winner of the MEMO Palestine Book Awards 2017.

  Defying the binarist and Eurocentric Arab-versus-Jew rendering of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, Shohat's work has dared to engage with the deeper historical and cultural questions swirling around colonialism, Orientalism and nationalism. Shohat's paradigm-shifting work unpacks such fraught issues as the anomalies of the national/colonial in Zionist discourse; the narrating of Jewish pasts in Muslim spaces; the links and distinctions between the dispossession of the Nakba and the dislocation of Arab-Jews; the traumatic memories triggered by partition and border-crossing; the echoes within Islamophobia of the anti-Semitic figure of 'the Jew'; and the efforts to imagine a possible future inter-communal 'convivencia'.

• Bashir BASHIR and Amos GOLDBERG, eds., "The Holocaust and the Nakba: A New Grammar of Trauma and History" (published online by Cambridge UP: 08 April 2021), click here!

  Authors: Doris L. Bergen, Geoff Eley, Laura Jockusch, Philipp Ther, Michelle Tusan, Teresa Koloma Beck, Bashir Bashir and Amos Goldberg.

• Ronit LENTIN, "Traces of Racial Exception. Racializing Israeli Settler Colonialism" Bloomsbury, paperback edition 2020, ISBN: 978-1-350-15094-2, 269p.; online price: £26.09: click here!

  Positioning race front and centre, this book theorizes that political violence, in the form of a socio-political process that differentiates between human and less-than-human populations, is used by the state of Israel in racializing and ruling the citizens of occupied Palestine. Lentin argues that Israel's rule over Palestine is an example of Agamben's state of exception, Goldberg's racial state and Wolfe's settler colony; the Israeli racial settler colony employs its laws to rule besieged Palestine, while excluding itself and its Jewish citizen-colonists from legal instruments and governmental technologies. Governing through emergency legislation and through practices of exception, emergency, necessity and security, Israel positions itself outside domestic and international law.

• "Enforcing Silence. Academic Freedom, Palestine and the Criticism of Israel". Edited by David LANDY, Ronit LENTIN, and Conor McCARTHY. ZED Books, May 2020, ISBN 9781786996503, 288p. Pb: £15.19.

  Situates the academic boycott of Israel in the broader context of academic freedom. This collection uses the controversies surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a means of exploring the limits placed on academic freedom in a variety of different national contexts. It looks at how the increased neoliberalisation of higher education has shaped the current climate, and considers how academics and their universities should respond to these new threats. Bringing together new and established scholars from Palestine and the wider Middle East as well as the US and Europe, "Enforcing Silence" shows us how we can and must defend our universities as places for critical thinking and free expression.

• Rashid KHALIDI, "The Hundred Years' War on Palestine. A History of Settler Colonial Conquest and Resistance." Profile Books, Feb 6, 2020, hardback, 9781781259337, 336p. Price (The Guardian Bookshop): £21.00 (£25.00): click here!

  Avi Shlaim. "Riveting and original ... a work enriched by solid scholarship, vivid personal experience, and acute appreciation of the concerns and aspirations of the contending parties in this deeply unequal conflict," Noam Chomsky.

• Ramzy BAROUD, "THESE CHAINS WILL BE BROKEN. Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons." Publ. by Clarity Press, Nov 2019, ISBN 9781949762099, 204p. Price: £16.00 - $24.95. Foreword by Khalida JARRAR, Member of the Palestinian Legislative Council. Afterword by Richard FALK, former UN Special Rapporteur. Illustrated by Dalia Alkayyali, click here!

  Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have experienced life in Israel's prisons since 1967, as did many more in previous decades during the course of the ongoing Israeli military occupation. Yet rarely has the story of their experiences in Israeli jails been told by the prisoners themselves. Typically the Western media portrays them as 'terrorists' while well-meaning third-party human rights advocates paint them as hapless victims. They are neither. This book permits the reader to access the reality of Palestinian imprisonment as told by Palestinian prisoners themselves - stories of appalling suffering and determination to reclaim their freedom. Palestinian prisoners are an essential element in the collective resistance against Israeli colonialism, apartheid and military occupation. Rather than being viewed as unfortunate victims, their steadfastness exemplifies the ongoing fight of the Palestinian people as a whole. Despite Palestinian factionalism and lack of a unified political movement, Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons serve as one of the remaining platforms for unity.

• Abeer BAKER & Anat MATAR (ed.), "Threat. Palestinian Political Prisoners in Israel" Pluto Press 2013, 261 p., ISBN: 978-0-7453-3020-4; £12: click here!

  Palestinian prisoners charged with security-related offences are immediately taken as a threat to Israel's security. They are seen as potential, if not actual, suicide bombers. This stereotype ignores the political nature of the Palestinian prisoners' actions and their desire for liberty.

• Yasmeen ABU-LABAN & Abigail B. BAKAN, "Israel, Palestine and the Politics of Race." I.B. Tauris 2019, ISBN: 9781780765334, 352p. Online price: £20.69: click here!

  As the situation in Israel/Palestine seems to become ever more intractable and protracted, the need for new ways of looking at recent developments and their historical roots is more pressing than ever. Bearing this in mind, Yasmeen Abu-Laban and Abigail B.Bakan discuss the historic and contemporary dynamics in Israel/Palestine, and their international reverberations, from the unique vantage point of 'race', racialization, racism and anti-racism. They therefore offer close analysis of the 'idea' of Israel and the 'absence' of Palestine by examining the concepts of race and identity in the region. With fresh coverage of themes relating to gender, indigeneity, the environment, surveillance and the war on terror, "Israel, Palestine and the Politics of Race" will appeal to scholars in political science, sociology and Middle East studies.

• Massoud HAYOUN, "When We Were Arabs: A Jewish Family's Forgotten History." The New Press, 2019, hard cover, 304 p., ISBN: 978-1-62097-416-2; $ 24.29.: click here!

  Review/Report: Dana El Kurd, "Memoir of a Jewish Arab" (Middle East Report Online, Oct 04): click here!

• Noura ERAKAT, "Justice for Some. Law and the Question of Palestine." Stanford UP, April 2019, Cloth ISBN: 9780804798259, 352 pages, $30.00: click here!

  Justice for Some offers a new approach to understanding the Palestinian struggle for freedom, told through the power and control of international law. Focusing on key junctures — from the Balfour Declaration in 1917 to present-day wars in Gaza — Noura Erakat shows how the strategic deployment of law has shaped current conditions. Over the past century, the law has done more to advance Israel's interests than the Palestinians'. But, Erakat argues, this outcome was never inevitable. Interview & excerpt on Jadaliyya: click here!

• Uri BEN-ELIEZER, "War over Peace: One Hundred Years of Israel’s Militaristic Nationalism." Transl. by Shaul Vardi. 2019, Univ. of California Press, ISBN: 9780520304345, 328p., $34.95/£27.00: click here!  Review by Rod Such, "Religiously inspired colonial nationalism feeds Israel’s wars" (The Electronic Intifada, 14 Aug): click here!

  Religiously inspired colonial nationalism feeds Israel's wars. "War over Peace", by the Israeli sociologist Uri Ben-Eliezer, raises several questions about the nature of Israeli society, chief among them being: Why has Israel attempted to solve virtually every conflict it has encountered or engendered by military rather than diplomatic means? His answer might briefly be summarized as follows: War and violence are embedded in Zionist ideology.

• Ilan PAPPE, "Ten Myths About Israel" Verso, 2017, ISBN: 978-1-78663-019-3, 171p.; £9.99: click here!

  In this groundbreaking book, published on the fiftieth anniversary of the Occupation, the outspoken and radical Israeli historian Ilan Pappé examines the most contested ideas concerning the origins and identity of the contemporary state of Israel.

• Nadia ABU-ZAHRA & Adah KAY, "Unfree in Palestine. Registration, Documentation and Movement Restriction" Pluto Press 2013, 222p.; £24.99: click here!

  This book reveals the role played by identity documents in Israel's apartheid policies towards the Palestinians, from the red passes of the 1950s to the orange, green and blue passes of today. The authors chronicle how millions of Palestinians have been denationalised through the bureaucratic tools of census, population registration, blacklisting and a discriminatory legal framework. They show how identity documents are used by Israel as a means of coercion, extortion, humiliation and informant recruitment. Movement restrictions tied to IDs and population registers threaten Palestinian livelihoods, freedom of movement and access to basic services such as health and education.