The growing boycott movement has put Israeli academe on the defensive, but more is required, says Lisa Taraki On the day that UK academics debated motions to boycott Israel the international media reported on a letter addressed to the Israeli defence minister. It had been sent by academics and intellectuals, including the presidents of four Israeli universities, and it called for the lifting of the ban on Gaza students travelling to the West Bank. This move, as well as the recent lobbying tour of UK universities by Israeli academics opposed to the proposed UCU action, and the Israeli foreign minister's intervention with the British government, show that the boycott is already beginning to bite. Far from being ineffective, the action's inexorable expansion into the mainstream is worrying its intended targets. However, the Israeli response is as revealing as it is pathetic. The intellectual elite's letter notes that "blocking access to higher education for Palestinian students from Gaza who choose to study in the West Bank casts a dark shadow over Israel's image as a state that respects and supports the principle of academic freedom and the right to education". This statement and its timing reveal that far from being motivated by lofty sentiments it has more to do with the public relations campaign to shore up Israel's badly deteriorating international image. Is this the best they can do? Is it credible that the gravest issue facing higher education for Palestinians today is the inability of students from the Gaza Strip to study at "superior" West Bank universities? Even in the heyday of the "good old" occupation before Oslo, Gaza did not contribute more than a fraction of the West Bank student body. Do the presidents of Israeli universities really intend to convince the world that they are champions of the right to education for Palestinians? Do they hope that this will let them off the hook? What is the credibility of these "respectable" academics and intellectuals who appeal to a key representative of the repressive occupation machine, a cynical labour boss and politician responsible for much of the death and destruction sown in Palestine and Lebanon since he took office? Instead of making a bold statement against the occupation they ask for the amelioration of some of its more sordid features. This is even further diluted by the suggestion (stated by a member of the organisation that initiated the appeal) that each case be evaluated individually. We all know what "individual evaluation" entails, what its stringent and un-transparent criteria are, and who does the evaluation: the military security establishment itself. The appeal epitomises what is wrong with the Israeli academy. While throwing a stale crumb our way these academic leaders are silent on the core issue: the deepening of the occupation regime that threatens the lives and futures of all Palestinians, including students and teachers. Not only that, they sidestep the issue of racism and discrimination against Palestinian citizens within the Israeli academy itself. It continues to be true that the Israeli academy has behaved shamelessly in the matter of stifling of basic freedoms of Palestinians, including the freedom of education. During the past 40 years our universities have been shut down by military order numerous times and for long durations, thousands of our students and teachers have been imprisoned and exiled, and our basic right to free access to our institutions has been violated. Not once have the presidents of Israeli universities, or for that matter any association of Israeli academics, challenged the occupation regime and demanded its dismantlement. It is ironic that one of the persistent themes in the critique of the academic boycott is the "fact" that the academy has done more than any other sector in Israeli society to campaign for Palestinian rights. This is a hollow claim belied by the fact that only a handful of brave Israeli academics have ever taken a public stand against the occupation. As an academic at a Palestinian university I remain vindicated in my belief that pressure, and nothing but pressure, will make Israelis, including academics, accede to demands for a radical change in the status quo. This is not about punishment of Israeli academics. Rather, it is based on the assumption that both the vociferous and silent colluders in the academy can be pressured to act to bring about change. The growing boycott movement has put the academy on the defensive, but there are many more miles to be traversed before a truly moral response issues from its spokespersons and rank and file. Lisa Taraki is a sociologist at Birzeit University in Palestine.
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By: Amira Hass
Date: 27/05/2013
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Slain Bedouin girls' mother, a victim of Israeli-Palestinian bureaucracy
Abir Dandis, the mother of the two girls who were murdered in the Negev town of Al-Fura’a last week, couldn't find a police officer to listen to her warnings, neither in Arad nor in Ma’ale Adumim. Both police stations operate in areas where Israel wants to gather the Bedouin into permanent communities, against their will, in order to clear more land for Jewish communities. The dismissive treatment Dandis received shows how the Bedouin are considered simply to be lawbreakers by their very nature. But as a resident of the West Bank asking for help for her daughters, whose father was Israeli, Dandis faced the legal-bureaucratic maze created by the Oslo Accords. The Palestinian police is not allowed to arrest Israeli civilians. It must hand suspects over to the Israel Police. The Palestinian police complain that in cases of Israelis suspected of committing crimes against Palestinian residents, the Israel Police tend not to investigate or prosecute them. In addition, the town of Al-Azaria, where Dandis lives, is in Area B, under Palestinian civilian authority and Israeli security authority. According to the testimony of Palestinian residents, neither the IDF nor the Israel Police has any interest in internal Palestinian crime even though they have both the authority and the obligation to act in Area B. The Palestinian police are limited in what it can do in Area B. Bringing in reinforcements or carrying weapons in emergency situations requires coordination with, and obtaining permission from, the IDF. If Dandis fears that the man who murdered her daughters is going to attack her as well, she has plenty of reason to fear that she will not receive appropriate, immediate police protection from either the Israelis or the Palestinians. Dandis told Jack Khoury of Haaretz that the Ma’ale Adumim police referred her to the Palestinian Civil Affairs Coordination and Liaison Committee. Theoretically, this committee (which is subordinate to the Civil Affairs Ministry) is the logical place to go for such matters. Its parallel agency in Israel is the Civilian Liaison Committee (which is part of the Coordination and Liaison Administration - a part of the Civil Administration under the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories). In their meetings, they are supposed to discuss matters such as settlers’ complaints about the high volume of the loudspeakers at mosques or Palestinians’ complaints about attacks by settlers. But the Palestinians see the Liaison Committee as a place to submit requests for permission to travel to Israel, and get the impression that its clerks do not have much power when faced with their Israeli counterparts. In any case, the coordination process is cumbersome and long. The Palestinian police has a family welfare unit, and activists in Palestinian women’s organizations say that in recent years, its performance has improved. But, as stated, it has no authority over Israeli civilians and residents. Several non-governmental women’s groups also operate in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem, and women in similar situations approach them for help. The manager of one such organization told Haaretz that Dandis also fell victim to this confusing duplication of procedures and laws. Had Dandis approached her, she said, she would have referred her to Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, which has expertise in navigating Israel’s laws and authorities.
By: Phoebe Greenwood
Date: 27/05/2013
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John Kerry unveils plan to boost Palestinian economy
John Kerry revealed his long-awaited plan for peace in the Middle East on Sunday, hinging on a $4bn (£2.6bn) investment in the Palestinian private sector. The US secretary of state, speaking at the World Economic Forum on the Jordanian shores of the Dead Sea, told an audience including Israeli president Shimon Peres and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas that an independent Palestinian economy is essential to achieving a sustainable peace. Speaking under the conference banner "Breaking the Impasse", Kerry announced a plan that he promised would be "bigger, bolder and more ambitious" than anything since the Oslo accords, more than 20 years ago. Tony Blair is to lead a group of private sector leaders in devising a plan to release the Palestinian economy from its dependence on international donors. The initial findings of Blair's taskforce, Kerry boasted, were "stunning", predicting a 50% increase in Palestinian GDP over three years, a cut of two-thirds in unemployment rates and almost double the Palestinian median wage. Currently, 40% of the Palestinian economy is supplied by donor aid. Kerry assured Abbas that the economic plan was not a substitute for a political solution, which remains the US's "top priority". Peres, who had taken the stage just minutes before, also issued a personal plea to his Palestinian counterpart to return to the negotiations. "Let me say to my dear friend President Abbas," Peres said, "Should we really dance around the table? Lets sit together. You'll be surprised how much can be achieved in open, direct and organised meetings."
By: Jillian Kestler-D'Amours
Date: 27/05/2013
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Isolation Devastates East Jerusalem Economy
Thick locks hug the front gates of shuttered shops, now covered in graffiti and dust from lack of use. Only a handful of customers pass along the dimly lit road, sometimes stopping to check the ripeness of fruits and vegetables, or ordering meat in near-empty butcher shops. “All the shops are closed. I’m the only one open. This used to be the best place,” said 64-year-old Mustafa Sunocret, selling vegetables out of a small storefront in the marketplace near his family’s home in the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City. Amidst the brightly coloured scarves, clothes and carpets, ceramic pottery and religious souvenirs filling the shops of Jerusalem’s historic Old City, Palestinian merchants are struggling to keep their businesses alive. Faced with worsening health problems, Sunocret told IPS that he cannot work outside of the Old City, even as the cost of maintaining his shop, with high electricity, water and municipal tax bills to pay, weighs on him. “I only have this shop,” he said. “There is no other work. I’m tired.” Abed Ajloni, the owner of an antiques shop in the Old City, owes the Jerusalem municipality 250,000 Israeli shekels (68,300 U.S. dollars) in taxes. He told IPS that almost every day, the city’s tax collectors come into the Old City, accompanied by Israeli police and soldiers, to pressure people there to pay. “It feels like they’re coming again to occupy the city, with the soldiers and police,” Ajloni, who has owned the same shop for 35 years, told IPS. “But where can I go? What can I do? All my life I was in this place.” He added, “Does Jerusalem belong to us, or to someone else? Who’s responsible for Jerusalem? Who?” Illegal annexation Israel occupied East Jerusalem, including the Old City, in 1967. In July 1980, it passed a law stating that “Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel”. But Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem and subsequent application of Israeli laws over the entire city remain unrecognised by the international community. Under international law, East Jerusalem is considered occupied territory – along with the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Syrian Golan Heights – and Palestinian residents of the city are protected under the Fourth Geneva Convention. Jerusalem has historically been the economic, political and cultural centre of life for the entire Palestinian population. But after decades languishing under destructive Israeli policies meant to isolate the city from the rest of the Occupied Territories and a lack of municipal services and investment, East Jerusalem has slipped into a state of poverty and neglect. “After some 45 years of occupation, Arab Jerusalemites suffer from political and cultural schizophrenia, simultaneously connected with and isolated from their two hinterlands: Ramallah and the West Bank to their east, West Jerusalem and Israel to the west,” the International Crisis Group recently wrote. Israeli restrictions on planning and building, home demolitions, lack of investment in education and jobs, construction of an eight-foot-high separation barrier between and around Palestinian neighbourhoods and the creation of a permit system to enter Jerusalem have all contributed to the city’s isolation. Formal Palestinian political groups have also been banned from the city, and between 2001-2009, Israel closed an estimated 26 organisations, including the former Palestinian Liberation Organisation headquarters in Jerusalem, the Orient House and the Jerusalem Chamber of Commerce. Extreme poverty Israel’s policies have also led to higher prices for basic goods and services and forced many Palestinian business owners to close shop and move to Ramallah or other Palestinian neighbourhoods on the other side of the wall. Many Palestinian Jerusalemites also prefer to do their shopping in the West Bank, or in West Jerusalem, where prices are lower. While Palestinians constitute 39 percent of the city’s population today, almost 80 percent of East Jerusalem residents, including 85 percent of children, live below the poverty line. “How could you develop [an] economy if you don’t control your resources? How could you develop [an] economy if you don’t have any control of your borders?” said Zakaria Odeh, director of the Civic Coalition for Palestinian Rights in Jerusalem, of “this kind of fragmentation, checkpoints, closure”. “Without freedom of movement of goods and human beings, how could you develop an economy?” he asked. “You can’t talk about independent economy in Jerusalem or the West Bank or in all of Palestine without a political solution. We don’t have a Palestinian economy; we have economic activities. That’s all we have,” Odeh told IPS. Israel’s separation barrier alone, according to a new report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTD), has caused a direct loss of over one billion dollars to Palestinians in Jerusalem, and continues to incur 200 million dollars per year in lost opportunities. Israel’s severing and control over the Jerusalem-Jericho road – the historical trade route that connected Jerusalem to the rest of the West Bank and Middle East – has also contributed to the city’s economic downturn. Separation of Jerusalem from West Bank Before the First Intifada (Arabic for “uprising”) began in the late 1980s, East Jerusalem contributed approximately 14 to 15 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in the Occupied Palestinian territories (OPT). By 2000, that number had dropped to less than eight percent; in 2010, the East Jerusalem economy, compared to the rest of the OPT, was estimated at only seven percent. “Economic separation resulted in the contraction in the relative size of the East Jerusalem economy, its detachment from the remaining OPT and the gradual redirection of East Jerusalem employment towards the Israeli labour market,” the U.N. report found. Decades ago, Israel adopted a policy to maintain a so-called “demographic balance” in Jerusalem and attempt to limit Palestinian residents of the city to 26.5 percent or less of the total population. To maintain this composition, Israel built numerous Jewish-Israeli settlements inside and in a ring around Jerusalem and changed the municipal boundaries to encompass Jewish neighbourhoods while excluding Palestinian ones. It is now estimated that 90,000 Palestinians holding Jerusalem residency rights live on the other side of the separation barrier and must cross through Israeli checkpoints in order to reach Jerusalem for school, medical treatment, work, and other services. “Israel is using all kinds of tools to push the Palestinians to leave; sometimes they are visible, and sometimes invisible tools,” explained Ziad al-Hammouri, director of the Jerusalem Centre for Social and Economic Rights (JCSER). Al-Hammouri told IPS that at least 25 percent of the 1,000 Palestinian shops in the Old City were closed in recent years as a result of high municipal taxes and a lack of customers. “Taxation is an invisible tool…as dangerous as revoking ID cards and demolishing houses,” he said. “Israel will use this as pressure and as a tool in the future to confiscate these shops and properties.”
By the Same Author
Date: 09/06/2007
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Fine Words Come Cheap, Strong Action is Needed
The growing boycott movement has put Israeli academe on the defensive, but more is required, says Lisa Taraki On the day that UK academics debated motions to boycott Israel the international media reported on a letter addressed to the Israeli defence minister. It had been sent by academics and intellectuals, including the presidents of four Israeli universities, and it called for the lifting of the ban on Gaza students travelling to the West Bank. This move, as well as the recent lobbying tour of UK universities by Israeli academics opposed to the proposed UCU action, and the Israeli foreign minister's intervention with the British government, show that the boycott is already beginning to bite. Far from being ineffective, the action's inexorable expansion into the mainstream is worrying its intended targets. However, the Israeli response is as revealing as it is pathetic. The intellectual elite's letter notes that "blocking access to higher education for Palestinian students from Gaza who choose to study in the West Bank casts a dark shadow over Israel's image as a state that respects and supports the principle of academic freedom and the right to education". This statement and its timing reveal that far from being motivated by lofty sentiments it has more to do with the public relations campaign to shore up Israel's badly deteriorating international image. Is this the best they can do? Is it credible that the gravest issue facing higher education for Palestinians today is the inability of students from the Gaza Strip to study at "superior" West Bank universities? Even in the heyday of the "good old" occupation before Oslo, Gaza did not contribute more than a fraction of the West Bank student body. Do the presidents of Israeli universities really intend to convince the world that they are champions of the right to education for Palestinians? Do they hope that this will let them off the hook? What is the credibility of these "respectable" academics and intellectuals who appeal to a key representative of the repressive occupation machine, a cynical labour boss and politician responsible for much of the death and destruction sown in Palestine and Lebanon since he took office? Instead of making a bold statement against the occupation they ask for the amelioration of some of its more sordid features. This is even further diluted by the suggestion (stated by a member of the organisation that initiated the appeal) that each case be evaluated individually. We all know what "individual evaluation" entails, what its stringent and un-transparent criteria are, and who does the evaluation: the military security establishment itself. The appeal epitomises what is wrong with the Israeli academy. While throwing a stale crumb our way these academic leaders are silent on the core issue: the deepening of the occupation regime that threatens the lives and futures of all Palestinians, including students and teachers. Not only that, they sidestep the issue of racism and discrimination against Palestinian citizens within the Israeli academy itself. It continues to be true that the Israeli academy has behaved shamelessly in the matter of stifling of basic freedoms of Palestinians, including the freedom of education. During the past 40 years our universities have been shut down by military order numerous times and for long durations, thousands of our students and teachers have been imprisoned and exiled, and our basic right to free access to our institutions has been violated. Not once have the presidents of Israeli universities, or for that matter any association of Israeli academics, challenged the occupation regime and demanded its dismantlement. It is ironic that one of the persistent themes in the critique of the academic boycott is the "fact" that the academy has done more than any other sector in Israeli society to campaign for Palestinian rights. This is a hollow claim belied by the fact that only a handful of brave Israeli academics have ever taken a public stand against the occupation. As an academic at a Palestinian university I remain vindicated in my belief that pressure, and nothing but pressure, will make Israelis, including academics, accede to demands for a radical change in the status quo. This is not about punishment of Israeli academics. Rather, it is based on the assumption that both the vociferous and silent colluders in the academy can be pressured to act to bring about change. The growing boycott movement has put the academy on the defensive, but there are many more miles to be traversed before a truly moral response issues from its spokespersons and rank and file. Lisa Taraki is a sociologist at Birzeit University in Palestine.
Date: 20/08/2004
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Boycotting the Israeli Academy
The boycott movement was not initiated by Palestinians, although it has widespread support among Palestinian academics. The initial call was made in the UK in April 2002, at the height of the Israeli assault upon Palestinian cities and towns. During this assault, Palestinian governmental and civil institutions--including schools and universities--sustained tremendous losses, ranging from the destruction of facilities and infrastructure to the severe curtailment of operations as a result of long curfews, army raids, and the system of checkpoints that continues to this day. The British initiative was not a call for a blanket boycott of the Israeli academic community, but was a restricted call for a moratorium on European research and academic collaboration with Israeli institutions.[2] This call for a moratorium was followed by other initiatives in Europe, Australia, and the US (in the US, divestment campaigns have been the main form of activism). In August 2002, a group of Palestinian organizations in the occupied territories, including the Palestinian NGO Network, issued a statement calling for a comprehensive boycott of Israel, including a boycott of academic and cultural institutions. This was followed in October 2003 by a statement by Palestinian academics and intellectuals in the occupied territories and in the diaspora calling for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions.[3] Encouraged by the growing international boycott initiative, a group of Palestinian academics and intellectuals launched the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel in Ramallah in April 2004. The Campaign's statement of principles was met with widespread support, and has to date been endorsed by nearly sixty Palestinian academic, cultural and other civil society federations, unions, and organizations, including the Federation of Unions of Palestinian Universities' Professors and Employees, the Palestinian NGO Network in the West Bank, the Teachers' Federation, the Palestinian Writers' Federation, the Palestinian League of Artists, and many other professional associations. The campaign has also established an advisory committee comprised of well-known public figures and intellectuals. Briefly, the Campaign calls upon international academics to refrain from participation in any form of academic and cultural cooperation, collaboration or joint projects with Israeli institutions; advocate a comprehensive boycott of Israeli institutions at the national and international levels, including suspension of all forms of funding and subsidies to these institutions; promote divestment and disinvestment from Israel by international academic institutions; work toward the condemnation of Israeli policies by pressing for resolutions to be adopted by academic, professional and cultural associations and organizations; support Palestinian academic and cultural institutions directly without requiring them to partner with Israeli counterparts as an explicit or implicit condition for such support; and finally, to exclude from the actions against Israeli institutions any conscientious Israeli academics and intellectuals opposed to their state's colonial and racist policies.[4] The boycott campaign statement may be an appropriate point of departure for dealing with some of the points raised by critics of the boycott. In particular, I wish to take up claims about the nature of the Israeli academy and the fear that the boycott will hurt the forces of peace in Israel. One Israeli critic of the boycott has claimed that it plays into the hands of right-wing, neo-McCarthyist forces who have stepped up their attacks on "pro-peace" and left-of-center academics and intellectuals in Israel.[5] In doing so, I will be underlining what I see as a remarkable aspect of the Israeli and pro-Israeli polemic against the boycott: the tremendous agency with which the Israeli left (academic or otherwise) is invested by its members and supporters. This stems from a self-centered--I daresay narcissistic--worldview, nourished, in my opinion, by the deep-seated and pervasive exceptionalism with which Israel is treated by the world's powerful and hegemonic institutions. The same exceptionalism that has shielded Israel from censure in world bodies such as the United Nations Security Council through automatic US vetoes is also at work here among apologists for the Israeli academy. Left-leaning Israeli academics and some of their international allies have argued that the boycott will isolate the forces of peace in Israel and will compromise their ability to fight against the occupation and work for a just peace between Palestinians and Israelis. Israeli academic David Newman reports that many left-wing Israeli academics are "opposed the boycott on the grounds that it would cause irreparable harm to those who constituted the voice of protest inside Israel, who worked closely with Palestinian academic and human rights organizations, and who promoted joint Israeli-Palestinian dialogue and scientific activities."[6] There are a number of issues that need to be unpacked here. First, it is not clear why the boycott should necessarily delegitimize the forces of peace. This may be the time to ask some uncomfortable questions: do the anti-boycott academics mean that if the Israeli peace forces are provoked they may jump the peace ship? If so, what does this say about their commitment to peace? Another possibility, generally not considered by them, is that Israeli peace forces truly dedicated to an end to colonial rule may actually be encouraged to do more because of the boycott. It is possible, in the words of a pro-boycott Israeli professor in a personal communication, that they will "not feel more righteous when condemned by the world, but more ashamed." Would not some outside pressure in the form of sanctions and boycotts aimed at isolating Israel in the international arena and rendering it a pariah state help in the process of making people come to terms with the hard facts? May this not spur action on the part of the peace camp rather than demoralize, alienate, or isolate its members? After all, the pro-peace forces in Israel have had several decades' worth of experience in persuasion, and their dismal record in this regard shows that it is time for some external intervention. In the face of collusion by world powers in the maintenance of the status quo, international civil society should be given a chance to exercise pressure with the tools at its disposal. Boycott is among the few nonviolent tools available to world activists, and must be given the opportunity to prove its potential for effecting positive change in the status quo, as it undoubtedly did in the dismantling of the system of apartheid in South Africa. This brings us to the issue of the record of the Israeli academy in the fight against Israeli colonial rule over the Palestinians. It has often been claimed that Israeli academics have been at the forefront of anti-occupation activities, and that targeting them and their institutions is at best unfair and at worst unethical or hypocritical. If we examine the record of the most enlightened of Israeli academic institutions (leaving aside the right-wing think tanks, strategic studies centers, and some university departments), we find that there is little that they can be proud of when it comes to their contribution to the struggle against the regime of colonial rule. The question that needs to be asked is what these "progressive" Israeli institutions and their members have done against the system of colonial control? How many of these individuals have written, lectured or otherwise acted against the occupation and racial discrimination inside Israel? How many of them have refused to serve in their state's colonial army on conscientious grounds? It is worth noting that hardly any of them have worked to pass resolutions in their faculty senates and other academic forums condemning Israeli colonial policy in general and the war being waged on the Palestinians in the past three years, not to mention raise their voices to protest the damage done to Palestinian educational institutions over the years. Whereas the anti-boycott movement is in full force in Israel, with hundreds of academics signing anti-boycott petitions and setting up committees to fight the boycott, the academics who claim they are fighting for their academic freedom are nowhere to be found when it comes to protecting the academic freedom of Palestinians, which has been all but obliterated by the occupation. I wish to relate a very telling incident involving the Truman Institute, since this institution has been often singled out as a model of Israeli-Palestinian cooperation in research and academic activities in general. In November 2002, several months after the concerted Israeli military attack against the whole of Palestinian society launched in March of the same year, a letter was sent to Palestinian academics by the Truman Institute library offering some library services to "Palestinian scholars captured by the difficult circumstances of wartime" due to the continuing curfews and restrictions on movement. As I said in a letter to the Truman Institute library in response, if concern for Palestinian scholars' inability to carry out their work was what lay behind this offer, how was it that we had not heard their voice protesting the near-destruction of Palestinian universities through the military system of total control and obstruction of normal life? What, besides providing journal articles, were they doing for the Palestinian scholars "captured by the difficult circumstances of wartime?" Had they asked what was the role of their state, of which their institution is a part, in this war that had kept Palestinian scholars "out of touch" and at home? Why were they not protesting the fact that these colleagues were at home to begin with? Needless to say, I did not receive an answer from the Institute's leadership. They knew full well that aside from throwing a few crumbs our way they had done nothing for Palestinian academics. For to do so would have meant taking a courageous and public stand against their government's war on Palestinian civil society, not to mention the decades-long assault on Palestinian educational institutions through repeated closures and the detention and deportation of tens of thousands of students and faculty. The recent killings by the Israeli army of two Palestinian university professors, Dr. Yasir Abu-Laimun and Dr. Khalid Salah (and the latter's 16-year-old son), did not elicit any condemnation, either from the Truman Institute or any other academic institution or body in Israel.[7] From our vantage point here in Palestine, we consider the Israeli academy as a whole to have been complicit in the perpetuation of colonial rule over the Palestinians, either actively (as in the case of certain scholars directly involved in colonial rule such as Menahem Milson, Shlomo Gazit, and Moshe Ma'oz), or else passively, through its silence. We do not have a catalogue of this active complicity; assembling that promises to be an eye-opening exercise if it were to be undertaken systematically and comprehensively. Suffice it to say that Israeli academics have been at best uncaring about the deeds of their colleagues actively in the service of the colonial machine. For example, very few professors of medicine have raised their voices over the years to protest the corruption of the medical ethics they teach their students when their former students and colleagues have been implicated in the torture and mistreatment of Palestinians in Israeli jails. Hardly any law professors have challenged the system of "justice" meted out to Palestinians in Israeli military courts since 1967. Nor have we heard from the professional associations of physicians and lawyers on the way their professions have been used by the military and the intelligence services in the service of the occupation (many military prosecutors and judges are reservists; it is quite likely that, in the many years since 1967 when the military courts have been in existence, some or many of them may actually have been academics). On the contrary, the vast majority of Israeli academics have hardly said a word in public by way of censuring colleagues in the service of the colonial apparatus or espousing racist opinions cloaked in scholarly language (just as an example, there has been no public outrage by Israeli philosophers and their association at the work of Tel Aviv University philosophy professor Asa Kasher, who provides an "ethical" defense of the government's assassination policy). The role of Israeli academics and their institutions in maintaining the system of apartheid against Palestinian citizens of Israel by buttressing its ideological scaffolding hardly needs to be mentioned here, and is a vast topic that cannot be dealt with adequately in this short space. But it is clear that academic disciplines such as history, archaeology, demography, psychology, and sociology have always been highly politicized in Israel, and there has been very little public censure of racist and ethnocentric theses, findings, and positions espoused by scholars. For example, very few academics providing think tanks, political parties and the government with ammunition on the "demographic question," itself a racist construct, have been called to task by their colleagues in the Israeli academy. Writing about "demographic balance" and "the demographic threat" is a routine and normal preoccupation among many academics, and hardly raises an eyebrow in the Israeli academy for its horrific implications, not least for what it says about licensed racism in dealing with the Palestinian citizens of Israel. The silence of the organized scholarly community on the pronouncements of scholars justifying ethnic cleansing and extreme measures by the army is remarkable. Aside from condemnations and critiques from a handful of critical scholars, I know of no position adopted by an academic body, university senate, or other representative or professional group criticizing or censuring academic work in the service of colonial or racist policies. In short, it is clear that the Israeli academy--as an institution--has failed miserably in upholding the ethical principles which the status of its members as scholars and intellectuals demands of them. As such, we believe that academics have no special immunity, and cannot be treated differently from Israeli workers, growers, businesspeople, and manufacturers negatively affected by economic and trade boycotts. I am mentioning these sectors in particular since for some left-leaning Israeli academics, economic and trade boycotts are understandable and perhaps even permissible, while academic boycotts are regarded as immoral and self-defeating. But we believe that Israeli academics have not as a group distinguished themselves as fighters for the cause of justice. I may add that some of them, admittedly a handful, are supportive of sanctions and boycotts against their institutions, and are aware that the funding for their research and the training of their students will be hurt by the withdrawal of outside funding. It should also be made clear here that we know of many Israeli scholars and intellectuals who have devoted their life work to the struggle against the occupation. We encourage all Palestinians and their supporters to work with these courageous individuals. The last point I wish to take up is the claim that the boycott hurts joint Palestinian-Israeli cooperation in research and other academic pursuits. Let me point out here that most Palestinian universities have a policy of non-cooperation with Israeli institutions, and thus the scope of joint projects is in reality very limited. Those projects, where they existed, were severely compromised after the eruption of the intifada in late 2000, when for practical and political reasons many Palestinian partners in joint projects terminated their involvement in them. It is important to note here for those who do not know that not all funds for Palestinian research come without a price tag; support from many European, American and other international foundations and governments is available only if Israeli and Palestinian scholars enter into partnerships. Palestinians view such schemes as highly political, aiming at politicizing research by luring Palestinian (and Israeli) scholars into joint projects with the promise of funds and prospects for publishing and scholarly advancement. We believe that if international funding institutions are really interested in developing the scientific and research capacity of Palestinian institutions and scholars, they should offer direct assistance and not politicize their support. We are happy to note, however, that many respectable foundations in the United States, Canada, and in Europe appreciate this and have steered clear of politicizing research by stipulating joint projects with Israelis. I will end this discussion of Palestinian-Israeli cooperation with an excerpt from an open letter issued by Birzeit University in the West Bank in February 2004 and addressed to members of the European Parliament debating ratification of a scientific and trade agreement between the European Union and Israel: "[C]ooperation between Israeli and Palestinian Universities is either not possible or is at the absolute minimum. That lack of cooperation is a direct result of the political situation and it is hoped that the international community would understand the dynamics of the relations between the occupier and those who are under occupation. Within these dynamics, cooperation is neither encouraged nor welcomed. This is not bigotry or prejudice, but a position dictated by the severe realities of military occupation. It is not a position that is taken uniquely by the Palestinians. During most, if not all military occupations, people under occupation steered away from cooperating with the occupier or its institutions -- whether they are civil or governmental. It is within this context that Birzeit University and most other Palestinian universities do not find it appropriate to cooperate with Israeli institutions."[8] While we encourage our colleagues abroad to expand their boycott of the Israeli academy, we extend our hands to those Israeli academics and intellectuals who find it possible to join us in the fight against the system of colonial rule and apartheid. Only when the colonial apparatus has been dismantled can we meet as equals and engage in the normal business of institutional academic collaboration and cooperation. Notes: 1. Lisa Taraki is a founding member of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, and teaches sociology at Birzeit University in Palestine. The Campaign can be reached at info@BoycottIsrael.ps. 2. <http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4388633,00.html>. 3. The text and list of signatories can be viewed at <http://www.academicsforjustice.org/petition/>. 4. The statement can be seen at <http://www.birzeit.edu/news/news-d?news_id=22200>. 5. David Newman, "The Threat to Academic Freedom in Israel-Palestine," Tikkun, July-August, 2004 <http://www.tikkun.org/magazine/index.cfm/action/tikkun/issue/tik0407/artic le/040725.html>. 6. Ibid. 7. See Haaretz, April 30, 2004 and July 24 July, 2004 (www.haaretzdaily.com). 8. The letter can be viewed on the Birzeit University website: <http://www.birzeit.edu/news/news-d?news_id=22200>. Date: 15/07/2003
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Another day in the life of an insignificant
It is a hot day in July. By ten in the morning, which is the time I arrive, the place is teeming with hopeful applicants. Most have been there since 8:30, when the gate is opened. The Israeli "civil administration" outpost on the edge of the settlement of Beit El consists of a few shacks with corrugated tin roofs topped by sandbags, barbed wire, and an empty watchtower which must have seen better days. No cars are allowed into this compound; supplicants and applicants must walk a stretch of the once-flourishing Ramallah-Nablus highway by foot, after scaling some dirt mounds softened and worn down by thousands of feet leading to the compound from the desolate "parking lot" on the Ramallah side of the road. A concessionaire has been granted permission to dispense coffee, cold drinks and nuts in exchange for sweeping the courtyard. The public toilets are unspeakably filthy, and a healthy swarm of flies enjoys unhindered access to the teeming multitudes. There are four windows with faded signs in Hebrew and Arabic indicating where different kinds of permits can be applied for and received. A big crowd of men of various ages and a few women waits patiently at the windows marked "magnetic cards." My window, a multi-purpose window for various kinds of permits, is in chaos. A burly young man who has situated himself at the top of the line by the window, is a self-appointed translator for the rest of us ignorants. He is trying to push the pile of applications gathered from the rest of the crowd since 8:30 through the small opening of the "window" (protected by iron bars) so that the soldier-clerk on the other side will begin processing them. By ten o'clock, he is lucky enough to have the clerk receive them. I heave a sigh of relief that my application for a permit to use Ben Gurion airport for a trip abroad is among the papers. Or so I think at the time. I decide to use my waiting time for ethnographic inquiry. A good cross-section of society is represented here. I note that the gender balance is quite acceptable, and follow intently the politics of the gendered body (how much space is allowed a woman to approach the window; what weight the age factor has here; the benefits and drawbacks of the various forms of dress worn by women: full hijab, modified hijab, token hijab, full western dress with jeans, modified western dress with skirt, etc., etc.). The vast majority of the applicants are here to get "checkpoint passes," given out for varying durations (a few hours to several days, for internal checkpoints). A smattering want "Israel passes," permits that allow you to enter Israel. Some, like me, are waiting for airport permits. A young couple from Gaza living in Ramallah are hoping to get permits so they can visit their families in Gaza (have not been able to do so for two years). At 11:40 they announce that the soldiers are going on a lunch break, will reopen the curtains at 1 o'clock sharp. Lots of comments about the kind of food to be consumed by the soldiers and wishes for good digestion float about. At 2:35 sharp, the curtains on the other side of my window rustle. A huge crowd of hopefuls readies their ID cards waiting for their names to be called. This turns out to have been a false alarm, probably a careless soldier brushing against the curtain. At this point, a young man strategically situated at the window tells me that he just saw my papers with the new pile to be submitted after the window reopens after lunch. I am crestfallen, thinking they were submitted with the 10 o'clock batch. But one can never be sure. At 2:45 the curtain is pulled aside. Within fifteen minutes, the soldier has received the new pile of applications, and the applicants remark victoriously that now that they have been submitted it will be only a short wait until the results are out. By 3 pm the names are called out (but from the morning batch of applications). But who can hear their names being called out with so much commotion around? Our tireless interpreter saves the day, shouting out the names. The most common word shouted out after the names is marfoudh (refused). Others, more lucky, are told to buttress their applications with doctors' reports, employers' testimonies, and the like, and to come back the next day. By 4 pm it is clear that my papers were indeed in the afternoon batch. A quick succession of marfoudhs, and then nothing. A young man reassures me that they call out the rejectees' names first. So the fact that I have not been called is a good omen. At 4:50, I hear my name over the din. But how to approach the window with the multitudes of men swarming there (some have climbed up on top of the railings in order to get a better view of the goings-on behind the iron bars). But the gallant crowd allows the right amount of space for a woman to approach the window. The soldier barks out something in Hebrew; by this time a new translator (the first one has departed with his marfoudh) saves the day. I try English. "You are rejected." Thank you very much. A productive seven-hour day spent in scientific observation and notes for further inquiry. As I leave the compound, a foreign woman pulls up confidently in her yellow-plated car. The soldiers yell at her to move the car to another place away from the entrance. I know instinctively that she is there to get airport permits for Palestinians invited abroad by her organization or government but in need of a little intercession with the army so they can depart through the airport and not suffer the indignities of the route through Jordan. I had the same idea, of course. "I am not responsible for the occupation," she says when I point out that I wished the hundreds of people over there had this same privilege. "Well, examine your conscience and see if you are not perpetuating it," was my parting shot as she went into the compound and I set off on my journey back to Ramallah over the dusty trail leading from the "parking lot." But who can be sure she or he will not be tempted to use a little intervention? Ramallah 13.7.2003 Contact us
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