18.02.26
Editorial Note
The Jacob Robinson Institute for the History of Individual and Collective Rights at the Hebrew University promotes high-quality research in the spirit of its namesake, Jacob Robinson, the Jewish jurist of Lithuanian origin (1889-1977). As the About Us page states, “His life and work guide the Institute’s academic activities and define its topics.” It also reveals Robinson’s personal story: he was a member of the Lithuanian parliament and the European Congress of Nationalities in the 1920s and defended the minority rights of Jews and others. In 1940, Robinson escaped Europe and moved to New York, where, together with his brother Nehemiah, he developed plans for postwar compensation to Jewish victims of the Nazis. Robinson advised the American prosecution team in the Nuremberg trials. In 1952, the brothers were involved in the negotiations with Germany over Holocaust reparations. In 1961, he assisted with the Israeli prosecution in the Eichmann trial. From the moment of Israel’s founding in 1948, Robinson served as a legal adviser to its delegation to the United Nations and was heavily involved in drafting the 1951 UN Refugee Convention. He also participated in establishing the UN Human Rights Commission.
The Robinson Institute continues Robinson’s life’s work across several disciplines, including law, history, and international relations. Individual topics include modern Jewish and non-Jewish minority politics, the idea of national self-determination, and the development of collective human rights and their relationship to individual rights; compensation to Jewish and non-Jewish victims of grave human rights abuses; international criminal law with respect to the Holocaust and other mass atrocities; Israel’s statehood, sovereignty, and relationship with the Jewish and Israeli diaspora; forced displacement; the history of the human rights regime, humanitarianism; and the interplay between democracy and the rule of law.
In May, the Institute will host an international conference to mark the 60th anniversary of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD). The Conference is titled “Opposing Racial Discrimination: Historical Struggles and Legal Perspectives.”
The Call For Papers noted that the Conference honors the 60th anniversary (December 21, 1965) of the United Nations’ adoption of this landmark treaty – a pivotal milestone in the global fight against racism, aimed at combating racial prejudice and advancing human rights. “The adoption of the Convention followed complex and often contentious debates among states, international institutions, and civil society actors,” it states. The international symposium aims to bring together international and local scholars to reflect on the Convention’s history and legacy. The papers will be “addressing broader questions related to anti-racist and anti-antisemitism activism, as well as the evolving role of international law, diplomacy, and civil society in confronting racial and ethnic hatred.”
Not surprisingly, the Palestinian BDS movement published numerous calls for the boycott of the Conference, announcing that “Palestinians Call to Boycott Orwellian Conference ‘Opposing Racial Discrimination’ at Complicit Israeli University.” The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Department of Culture and Information also endorsed the BDS boycott call.
The call for boycott stated “Hebrew University’s absurd conference… must be boycotted,” calling on “all principled scholars to boycott the conference.” The boycott call asks, “How can a conference purporting to address the role of international law in confronting racial prejudice be held at an institution complicit in grave crimes such as apartheid and genocide? During Israel’s ongoing genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, Hebrew University has openly declared it has provided ‘diverse logistics equipment to several military units’ serving in the genocide. As legal scholars have noted, Hebrew University is partially built on land illegally expropriated from Palestinian owners in Israeli occupied East Jerusalem. Hebrew University has additionally offered its campus buildings to Israeli forces for the express purpose of oppressing the surrounding occupied Palestinian communities. Hebrew University itself hosts a military base on campus to offer academic training to Israeli soldiers, including during times of genocide. Hebrew University embodies absolute disregard for international law, racial justice and equality. In the current era of might-makes-right, where universal principles are being shredded, we cannot allow, or afford for international law to be hijacked by those working to undermine it. This includes rogue states and their complicit institutions.”
The call to boycott the Conference appeals to “principled scholars to boycott the Conference and to work for accountability by ending institutional ties with Hebrew University and all complicit Israeli institutions.” The highly active British Committee for the Universities of Palestine (BRICUP) also published a post repeating the same allegations.
The BDS appeal to boycott the Conference is especially ironic because the Palestinians have been the primary beneficiary of Robinson’s work. After the 1948 Arab–Israeli war, the UN created the United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA) specifically to provide relief and employment for Palestinians displaced from Mandatory Palestine. Unlike all other refugees, their refugee status is passed from parent to child indefinitely. UNRWA has been misused by the Palestinians for decades, but the Gaza War revealed corruption on an unimaginable scale. Hamas penetrated the UNRWA bureaucracy, used its buildings to store weapons and munitions, and dug shafts into its extensive tunnel system. Islamist ideology permeated the educational material in UNRWA schools and generally benefited from its humanitarian legitimacy. Faced with evidence provided by the IDF, UNRWA admitted that some of its employees were in fact Hamas members. Other groups that were inspired by Robinson’s forceful humanitarian advocacy have also served the Palestinians and were taken advantage of by Hamas. For instance, the French organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF) recently admitted that Hamas gunmen were active in one of their hospitals.
The call to boycott the Conference reveals a striking moral irony. It repudiates the very universalist principles—human dignity, civilian protection, and humanitarian obligation—that made institutions such as UNRWA conceivable in the first place. What is lost, then, is not merely a conference, but an opportunity to affirm that humanitarian law is not an ethnic possession, nor a political weapon, but a fragile moral inheritance that depends on intellectual honesty to survive.
REFERENCES:
International Conference on the 60th Anniversary of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD)
Tom Eshed•11/30/2025Announcement
Call for Papers
Date
May 11, 2026 – May 12, 2026
Location
Israel
Subject Fields
Diplomacy and International Relations, Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies, Human Rights, Jewish History / Studies, Law and Legal History
Call for Papers
International Conference on the 60th Anniversary of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD)
“Opposing Racial Discrimination: Historical Struggles and Legal Perspectives”
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Mt. Scopus Campus, 11-12 May 2026
The year 2025 marks the 60th anniversary of a pivotal milestone in the global fight against racism: on December 21, 1965, the United Nations adopted the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), a landmark treaty aimed at combating racial prejudice and advancing human rights.
The adoption of the Convention followed complex and often contentious debates among states, international institutions, and civil society actors. Against the backdrop of ICERD’s 60th anniversary, this international symposium will bring together scholars to reflect on the history and legacy of the Convention. We also welcome papers addressing broader questions related to anti-racist and anti-antisemitism activism, as well as the evolving role of international law, diplomacy, and civil society in confronting racial and ethnic hatred.
Submission Guidelines
We invite scholars to submit proposals for 20-minute presentations. Please send an abstract of up to 350 words, along with a short bio (up to one page), by January 15, 2026, to Dr. Tom Eshed at tom.eshed@mail.huji.ac.il. The event will take place in person at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Participants will be provided with single-occupancy accommodation in Jerusalem for the duration of the event. Economy-class flight expenses will be reimbursed, subject to budgetary considerations.
For further inquiries, please contact Dr. Eshed at the email address above.
Contact Information
Tom Eshed at tom.eshed@mail.huji.ac.il
Contact Email
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BDS: Palestinians Call to Boycott Orwellian Conference “Opposing Racial Discrimination” at Complicit Israeli University (February 4, 2026)
Read it here
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PALESTINIANS CALL TO BOYCOTT ORWELLIAN CONFERENCE “OPPOSING RACIAL DISCRIMINATION” AT COMPLICIT ISRAELI UNIVERSITY
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- Published4-02-2026
- Author infoPalestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI)
- TagsPACBI StatementAcademic Boycott
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) calls on all principled scholars to boycott the conference “Opposing Racial Discrimination: Historical Struggles and Legal Perspectives” to be held at Hebrew University, May 11-12, 2026.
How can a conference purporting to address the role of international law in confronting racial prejudice be held at an institution complicit in grave crimes such as apartheid and genocide?
During Israel’s ongoing genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, Hebrew University has openly declared it has provided “diverse logistics equipment to several military units” serving in the genocide.
As legal scholars have noted, Hebrew University is partially built on land illegally expropriated from Palestinian owners in Israeli occupied East Jerusalem.
Hebrew University has additionally offered its campus buildings to Israeli forces for the express purpose of oppressing the surrounding occupied Palestinian communities. Hebrew University itself hosts a military base on campus to offer academic training to Israeli soldiers, including during times of genocide.
Hebrew University embodies absolute disregard for international law, racial justice and equality.
In the current era of might-makes-right, where universal principles are being shredded, we cannot allow, or afford for international law to be hijacked by those working to undermine it. This includes rogue states and their complicit institutions.
We call on principled scholars to boycott the conference and to work for accountability by ending institutional ties with Hebrew University and all complicit Israeli institutions.
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Hebrew University’s absurd conference on “Opposing Racial Discrimination” (11-12 May) must be boycotted
admin1 week ago02 mins
5 February 2026
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) calls on all principled scholars to boycott the conference “Opposing Racial Discrimination: Historical Struggles and Legal Perspectives” to be held at Hebrew University, May 11-12, 2026.
How can a conference purporting to address the role of international law in confronting racial prejudice be held at an institution complicit in grave crimes such as apartheid and genocide?
During Israel’s ongoing genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, Hebrew University has openly declared it has provided “diverse logistics equipment to several military units” serving in the genocide.
As legal scholars have noted, Hebrew University is partially built on land illegally expropriated from Palestinian owners in Israeli occupied East Jerusalem.
Hebrew University has additionally offered its campus buildings to Israeli forces for the express purpose of oppressing the surrounding occupied Palestinian communities. Hebrew University itself hosts a military base on campus to offer academic training to Israeli soldiers, including during times of genocide.
Hebrew University embodies absolute disregard for international law, racial justice and equality.
In the current era of might-makes-right, where universal principles are being shredded, we cannot allow, or afford for international law to be hijacked by those working to undermine it. This includes rogue states and their complicit institutions.
We call on principled scholars to boycott the conference and to work for accountability by ending institutional ties with Hebrew University and all complicit Israeli institutions.
israel-academia-monitor.com 