Falsification of History at the Center for the Study of the Holocaust Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity

30.03.23

Editorial Note

The Center for the Study of the Holocaust Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity (CHGCAH) at the City University of New York (CUNY) is “dedicated to the study and prevention of mass violence and its legacies.” Its mission is to “promote the exchange of ideas across disciplines and generations. Serving as a hub for a vibrant community of scholars from many fields with convergent interests, the Center is a forum for innovative research, graduate student mentoring, and public programming. Reaching beyond the university, the Center is enriched by linkages with NGOs, cultural institutions, and supra-national organizations.”

According to Prof. Deborah Dwork, its Director, CHGCAH is hosting a year-long virtual series on “The Marginalized and the Erased,” explaining that “The historical record is marked by voids: elided events; disappeared people; erased accounts; marginalized communities.” CHGCAH aims “to tackle a number of those blank spots.”

As part of this series, a conference titled “Beyond the Settler State: Anticolonial Pasts and Futures in Palestine/Israel,” will take place on Apr 27, 2023. The conference description states, “Born in the Bronx or Berlin, Jews of a certain age remember the justificatory slogan for the establishment of Israel, ‘A land without a people for a people without a land.’ Persuasive as this may have been at the time, it spoke and continues to speak today to a settler colonial policy of violent erasure. Erasure that the November 2022 Israeli election and subsequent ministerial choices promise to intensify. Looking forward, what futures beyond the settler state might there be? Please join a conversation between sociocultural anthropologist and Feminist Studies scholar Sarah Ihmoud (College of the Holy Cross) and Holocaust and Genocide Studies scholar Raz Segal (Stockton University) about possible paths toward anticolonial futures, particularly in light of anticolonial pasts, in the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.”

Interestingly, Prof. Raz Segal, Stockton University, published a paper, “Israeli Apartheid and Its Apologists” in 2022 and “Distorting the definition of antisemitism to shield Israel from all criticism” in 2019. Prof. Sarah Ihmoud of the College of the Holy Cross published a paper “Antiblackness and the Womb of Zionist Settler Colonialism” in 2021 and “Mohammed Abu-Khdeir and the Politics of Racial Terror in Occupied Jerusalem” in 2015.

These events are also supported by The Center for Jewish Studies, The Graduate Center—CUNY; CUNY Academy for the Humanities and Sciences, The Graduate Center–CUNY; The School of General Studies and the Master of Arts in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Stockton University; The Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, New York University.

Two weeks ago, CHGCAH hosted “The Bedouin Village of Rah’ma: Toward Recognition and Beyond,” where, according to the invitation, “The Bedouin of the Negev desert have long sought legal recognition from the State of Israel. Without legal status, they are denied their basic rights as Israeli citizens: access to public health services, water, electricity, public transportation, is inadequate or unavailable. Rah’ma is one of the few unrecognized villages that has been promised recognition, yet that promise remains unfulfilled. Still: a school has been approved and built, public utilities have improved, and village residents see some hope. What makes Rah’ma different from other Bedouin villages in the Negev? What paved the way to the promise of recognition? What changes will recognition bring? And can Rah’ma be a model for Israeli-Bedouin relations going forward?”

The conference featured a discussion between Sliman Elfregat, Rah’ma school principal; Debbie Golan, co-founder and president of Atid Bamidbar; and Dvir Warshavsky, Ministry of Education project director. Chair and moderator: Eli Karetny, deputy director of the Ralph Bunche Institute.

Last month, CHGCAH organized a conference titled “Israel/Palestine: What the Archives Reveal and Conceal.” According to the invitation, “The story of the past calls for extensive use of archival documents. But, adducing risk to state security, Israeli archives, especially the state archives, block access to key collections that pertain to the state’s history in general and the Palestinian Nakba and ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict in particular. Palestinian researchers who seek to tell the story of the Palestinian past using Palestinian personal papers and archival materials face additional, unofficial, obstacles.”

This event was chaired and moderated by Professor Amos Goldberg, head of the Avraham Harman Research Institute for Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University. The speakers, Areej Sabbagh-Khoury, professor of sociology at the Hebrew University and a 2022 Guggenheim Distinguished Scholar, and Yaacov Lozowick, a historian who served as Israel’s chief archivist from 2011-2018. The conference discussed the “role of archives in the power dynamics of the conflict.”

Clearly, the Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity, with its partners – have all lost their moral and academic compass. A conference’s use of the slogan “A land without a people for a people without a land” is a cheap shot catering to the popular theory that the Jews were and are colonizers who had no historical connection or right to the land. No one in the Zionist movement, or anyone else, had any illusion that the Palestinians would disappear from the land. For much of its history, the Zionist movement has emphasized the need to share the land: the Jews accepted the 1947 UN Partition Proposal, which the Palestinians rejected. Right after the Six-Day War in 1967, the Palestinian and their Arab supporters gathered at the Khartoum Conference, the capital of Sudan. The resolution contained what became known as the “Three Noes”: “No peace with Israel, no negotiation with Israel, no recognition of Israel.” Even as recently as 2001, in Camp David II, Yasser Arafat rejected the Israeli proposal to return virtually the entire West Bank and the Gaza Strip. When Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza, Hamas, supported by the Islamist regime of Iran, turned it into a launching pad for missiles and rockets against Israeli villages and towns.

IAM, which has periodically dealt with CUNY, has uncovered the incessant focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Far from being “marginalized and disappeared,” there is a vast literature on Palestinians, probably more than on any other ethnic group.

There is a simple answer to the question as to why CHGCAH has deviated from its mission in researching the Holocaust, genocide and crimes against humanity. The false Palestinian narrative gives the activist Center a handy tool to bash Israel.

References

“Israel/Palestine: What the Archives Reveal and Conceal”

ORGANIZER

Center for the Study of the Holocaust Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity

“Israel/Palestine: What the Archives Reveal and Conceal”

February 15 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

Email:
info@chgcah.org View

Organizer Website

VENUE

Virtualbit.ly/3QVelvP
New York, + Google Map View Venue Website

DETAILS

Date:February 15Time:

12:00 pm – 1:00 pmEvent Categories:Archive, Events https://gc-cuny-edu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Ck1w1nSDTca0gVCrapV9IQ

The story of the past calls for extensive use of archival documents. But, adducing risk to state security, Israeli archives, especially the state archives, block access to key collections that pertain to the state’s history in general and the Palestinian Nakba and ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict in particular. Palestinian researchers who seek to tell the story of the Palestinian past using Palestinian personal papers and archival materials face additional, unofficial, obstacles. Areej Sabbagh-Khoury, professor of sociology at the Hebrew University and a 2022 Guggenheim Distinguished Scholar, and Yaacov Lozowick, a historian who served as Israel’s chief archivist from 2011-2018, will discuss what Israeli archives reveal and conceal. Please join for a challenging conversation that will range from the role of archives in the power dynamics of the conflict to the stories still to be told if access to the archives were unfettered. Chair and moderator: Hebrew University professor Amos Goldberg, head of the Avraham Harman Research Institute for Contemporary Jewry.

This event is hosted in association with:

The Center for Jewish Studies, The Graduate Center—City University of New York

CUNY Academy for the Humanities and Sciences, The Graduate Center–CUNY

The School of General Studies and the Master of Arts in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Stockton University

The Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, New York University

===================================================

https://gc-cuny-edu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_u8Z9T44TTzCBmXHq4JQMdQ

Beyond the Settler State: Anticolonial Pasts and Futures in Palestine/IsraelDescription

Born in the Bronx or Berlin, Jews of a certain age remember the justificatory slogan for the establishment of Israel, “A land without a people for a people without a land.” Persuasive as this may have been at the time, it spoke and continues to speak today to a settler colonial policy of violent erasure. Erasure that the November 2022 Israeli election and subsequent ministerial choices promise to intensify. Looking forward, what futures beyond the settler state might there be? Please join a conversation between sociocultural anthropologist and Feminist Studies scholar Sarah Ihmoud (College of the Holy Cross) and Holocaust and Genocide Studies scholar Raz Segal (Stockton University) about possible paths toward anticolonial futures, particularly in light of anticolonial pasts, in the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

This event is hosted by the Center for the Study of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Crimes Against Humanity in association with:

The Center for Jewish Studies, The Graduate Center—CUNY

CUNY Academy for the Humanities and Sciences, The Graduate Center–CUNY

The School of General Studies and the Master of Arts in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Stockton University

The Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, New York UniversityTime

Apr 27, 2023 12:00 PM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)

===================================================

https://www.gc.cuny.edu/events/israelpalestine-what-do-archives-reveal-and-conceal

EVENTS
ISRAEL/PALESTINE: WHAT DO THE ARCHIVES REVEAL AND CONCEAL?

ISRAEL/PALESTINE: WHAT DO THE ARCHIVES REVEAL AND CONCEAL?

Wednesday, February 15, 2023

12:00 pm — 1:00 pm

Online

Open to the Public

A conversation about how archival materials about the state’s history in general and the Palestinian Nakba and ongoing Israeli-Palestine conflict are blocked from public access.

HOSTED BY

Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies

ADMISSION PRICE

Free

REGISTER

CHAIR AND MODERATOR

Amos Goldberg, professor at Hebrew University, and head of the Avraham Harman Research Institute for Contemporary Jewry.

SPEAKERS

Yaacov Lozowick
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury

THIS EVENT IS HOSTED IN ASSOCIATION WITH

The Center for Jewish Studies, CUNY Graduate Center
CUNY Academy for the Humanities and Sciences, CUNY Graduate Center
The School of General Studies and the Master of Arts in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Stockton University
The Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, New York University

======================================================

“Israel/Palestine: What do the Archives Reveal and Conceal?”

CSHGCAH

Feb 16, 2023
The story of the past calls for extensive use of archival documents. But, adducing risk to state security, Israeli archives, especially the state archives, block access to key collections that pertain to the state’s history in general and the Palestinian Nakba and ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict in particular. Palestinian researchers who seek to tell the story of the Palestinian past using Palestinian personal papers and archival materials face additional, unofficial, obstacles. Areej Sabbagh-Khoury, professor of sociology at the Hebrew University and a 2022 Guggenheim Distinguished Scholar, and Yaacov Lozowick, a historian who served as Israel’s chief archivist from 2011-2018, will discuss what Israeli archives reveal and conceal. Please join for a challenging conversation that will range from the role of archives in the power dynamics of the conflict to the stories still to be told if access to the archives were unfettered. Chair and moderator: Hebrew University professor Amos Goldberg, head of the Avraham Harman Research Institute for Contemporary Jewry. This event is hosted in association with: The Center for Jewish Studies, The Graduate Center—City University of New York CUNY Academy for the Humanities and Sciences, The Graduate Center–CUNY The School of General Studies and the Master of Arts in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Stockton University The Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, New York University

===============================================================

Transcripts generated by Youtube

Introduction
2:33
Deborah Dwork: Hello. My name is Deborah Dwark, and I am the director of the Center for the study of the holocaust genocide and crimes against humanity at the graduate Center City University of New York.
2:50
Deborah Dwork: It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the force Deborah Dwork: of a year long virtual series on the marginalized and the erased.
3:02
Deborah Dwork: The historical record is marked by voids alighted, events
3:07
Deborah Dwork: disappeared. People Deborah Dwork: erased accounts, marginalized communities. This series tackles a number of those blank spots in history and in our own time.
3:24
Deborah Dwork: I thank our series partners, and why use Professor Emerita of Hebrew, and today studies Marion Kaplan and Stockton University. Professor Raz. Segal.
3:37
Deborah Dwork: I thank 2 Center associate, one as Avedo, and who’s help? I rely. Dr. Eli correct me. Deputy director of the Ralph Bunch Institute for his support and the DC’s. Terrific it people.
3:54
Deborah Dwork: Above all, I am grateful t0 0ur speakers and to everyone who has tuned in.
4:02
Deborah Dwork: Thank you for your engagement. Deborah Dwork: It is now my pleasure to introduce almost Goldberg the chair of our panel, and it is he who has the honor of introducing our speakers
4:18
Deborah Dwork: almost holds the Jonah Mac over chair in Holocaust Studies in the Department of Jewish History and contemporary jewelry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
4:30
Deborah Dwork: He heads the Abraham Armen Research Institute of Contemporary Jewelry at the same institution.
4:40
Deborah Dwork: An audacious scholar. Deborah Dwork: Amos’s Anna analyses of the past and of the present are as unflinching
4:52
Deborah Dwork: as they are erudite both qualities. Deborah Dwork: his encyclopedic knowledge and his steadfast honesty
5:04
Deborah Dwork: shine bright in his scholarship, public engagement, and teaching.
5:11
Deborah Dwork: I have learned from him over and over again his books push me.
5:18
Deborah Dwork: actually demand of me to rethink questions long held as settled
5:27
Deborah Dwork: not only what to think about the past. but how to think about the past.
5:35
I mentioned just 2 0f his works. Deborah Dwork: trauma in first person, dire rewriting during the holocaust.
5:42
Deborah Dwork: which probes the effects of violent oppression on the inner self
5:49
Deborah Dwork: and a co-edited volume with the sociologist and political scientist, Bashir Bashir.
5:57
Deborah Dwork: the Holocaust and the Nakba. Deborah Dwork: a new grammar of trauma and history.
6:05
Deborah Dwork: which brings us t0 0ur panel today. Deborah Dwork: which I hastened to say
6:11
Deborah Dwork: came into being, thanks to the generosity of our speakers, Arish and Yakov
6:20
Deborah Dwork: and our chair almost Deborah Dwork: Hamas. The floor is yours.
Israel today
6:30
Amos Goldberg: Thank you, the Bora very much for this very generous introduction of myself, and I really thank you and all
6:38
Amos Goldberg: the bora and all the institutions, sponsoring, and the individuals organizing this important event. You are
6:46
Amos Goldberg: an example of academic leadership. AIM Amos Goldberg: I. I will frame this a talk within what’s happening today in Israel.
6:57
Amos Goldberg: We are experiencing today in Israel a very dramatic and very frightening political moment. The constitutional basis of this country.
7:05
Amos Goldberg: the actual that actually lacks the constitution is, we made. The 3 classical branches of government are restructed to collapse into the executive branch. The government.
7:15
Amos Goldberg: in order to become an authoritarian regime. Amos Goldberg: I participated in some of the demonstration in Jerusalem, including the big one. Just 2 days ago. It was huge between 100,000 t0 360000 participant, and estimated to participate in Depends who, you ask.
7:33
Amos Goldberg: But there were very few Palestinians there. Amos Goldberg: They could not feel welcome within the sea of Israeli flags, while Palestinian slag were particularly both practically banned.
7:43
Amos Goldberg: Palestinians and liberal Jews tend to experience the events very differently. Pull or a poll and frightening.
7:51
Amos Goldberg: But why liberal Israel is 10 again. This is, of course, not cute, but
7:56
Amos Goldberg: some kind of a was typology. Amos Goldberg: Israeli Jews tend to think of it in terms of revolution which turns inside from being a liberal democracy to become a totalitarian regime
8:08
Amos Goldberg: similar to Turkey or Hungary. Palestinians tend to see it again. Amos Goldberg: All Palestinians, but
8:14
Amos Goldberg: in terms of typology is a continuation of a long historical process and an almost inevitable outcome of the settler colonial setting of this country and its apartheid regime that it established since 1,948,
8:28
Amos Goldberg: I think more or less, is the same. Would be said the same could be said about the archives, which is our theme today.
8:36
Amos Goldberg: All agree that there are big problems in the Israeli archives. They conceal much more than they reveal.
8:42
Amos Goldberg: but only a small portion of the files are open to the public to see Amos Goldberg: the Mossad in the Shabbat. The 2 main secret services archives are completely sealed, and it is to the best of my loan, and I was told by Adam R. As another
8:57
Amos Goldberg: expert in archives. The Idf archive open only some 56,000 files out of 2 mill 12 million, which is half a percent.
9:06
Amos Goldberg: Nonetheless. Amos Goldberg: I think Palestinian scholars and liberal Israeli scholars tend to perceive the Israeli archives very differently, while many, again a technologically liberal Jews approach the archive for not adhering to democratic standouts. Many Palestinians see it as yet another hostile
9:25
Amos Goldberg: settler colonial institution, even if it could bring some benefit under some certain circumstances.
9:31
Amos Goldberg: and also the experience physically encountering the archivists, and and then in the archives themselves are very different.
9:39
Amos Goldberg: Today we have 2 very imminent scholars. Both are experts on Israeli archives.
9:46
Amos Goldberg: After I introduce to talk about these issues or other issues that they will choose to talk
9:51
Amos Goldberg: about Amos Goldberg: After I introduce them they will talk for about 15 min each. Then we will open the floor for questions. You are most invited to post your questions
10:01
in the Q. And a. Books Amos Goldberg: on the bottom ball. They already, during the talks, and not Don’t, wait for them to the end.
10:13
Amos Goldberg: so we will. Then we will have some 20 0r 25 min Talk a. Amos Goldberg: And Q. And a. And we will close in 1 h.
10:22
Amos Goldberg: First, we’ll speak. Dr. Yako Blasovic is a chief archivist. 20112018, and currently running research project into the history of Israel’s settlement project at the top center for Israeli. Start Israel studies at New York University.
10:35
Amos Goldberg: and he’s also proud Grandpa. Amos Goldberg: He will talk on Israel’s National Archives Online or bloke.
10:44
Amos Goldberg: Second, we’ll speak. Dr. Ariza, Bahouri, Senior Lecturer of Sociology, and on Topology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The research in Swiss line, Political and historical Sociology, Settler Colonialism memory, gender indigenous studies and critical to a social theory. A forthcoming book colonizing Palestine and Zion is left in the making of the Palestinian N. Akbar by Stanford University Press
11:09
Amos Goldberg: is coming soon, and it examines encounters between kibut settlers and palestinians inhabitants in northern Palestine Israel Valley before during and after 1,948
11:21
Amos Goldberg: she’s I would she’s a My person is on it. She is a proud mother.
11:27
Amos Goldberg: So Yakov please go ahead. Yaacov Lozowick: Thank you almost for the invitation. Thank you to Nora for the
Opening remarks
11:35
Yaacov Lozowick: greater invitation, and thank always what this once you come to listen to us this evening, it’s the evening
11:45
Yaacov Lozowick: I i’m speaking in 2 capacities between 2,011 and 2,018. I was ahead of the I was the State archivist, which means basically I was the head of the of Israel’s national archives and of race, other entities.
11:58
And then, at late in late, 2,018, I left that job and crossed the lines, and literally the next week
12:05
Yaacov Lozowick: became a major. one of the one of the major users
12:12
Yaacov Lozowick: of the archive system in a project in which we will get ordered
12:17
Yaacov Lozowick: millions of pages of documentation, and some of them we’ve gotten. Yaacov Lozowick: So i’m bringing 2 perspectives. So what about about the person running the archives and trying to keep the as good or possible as as good as possible service to the public.
12:34
Yaacov Lozowick: and then following on that a user who is much more aware of the failures of the system.
12:41
Yaacov Lozowick: So let me start with the good news. The good news Yaacov Lozowick: that for those of us who use archival documentation, and our kind of documentation is
12:50
Yaacov Lozowick: exceedingly important. If you want to understand all sorts of aspects of the past, not all of them, but many
12:56
Yaacov Lozowick: so for those of you. Thus us who use our kind of documentation, some of the archive of documentation of the state of Israel is actually very, very easily accessible.
13:06
Yaacov Lozowick: Let me start with the best place of all. The rest of the wall is the website of the Knesset. which has simply put up on its website just about
13:14
Yaacov Lozowick: all the protocols and the deliberations of the Yaacov Lozowick: plan them and of the committees
The Knesset website
13:21
Yaacov Lozowick: since the beginning of the State, and it’s all up there, maybe not all of it, but almost all of us up there, and what it is not yet is going on
13:29
Yaacov Lozowick: starting from 1,948 until until this morning. Any Any meeting or deliberation in the Knesset today will be online tomorrow with the
13:39
Yaacov Lozowick: it’s not for a searchable. It’s you have to know what you’re looking for in order to find it. But if you know what looking for, you can find it.
13:48
Yaacov Lozowick: and just this morning not in connection with this meeting I had a discussion with the head of the woman who runs their archive, and she was telling me, among other things, about the project they have now of
14:00
Yaacov Lozowick: of constructing a very intelligent search engine capacity that they don’t yet have and hold. She hopes at some some point in the near future, they will have that and make the material even more accessible. So that’s the
14:15
Yaacov Lozowick: at the opposite end of the because it is almost mentioned. The intelligence agencies. There’s no Assad in the in the in the in the Shabbat.
14:23
Yaacov Lozowick: Some of those, some of the intelligence agencies of the military are basically sealed. For all practical purposes those materials are not going to be open in our lifetime.
14:33
Yaacov Lozowick: For better or for worse. Yaacov Lozowick: it can be explained, it could be justified. It’s not a particularly good thing. It’s a fact.
State and military archives
14:41
Yaacov Lozowick: However, those agencies produce only a very small percentage of the archival records of the state of Israel and the government in the
14:49
Yaacov Lozowick: so the fact that it’s all is sealed is problematic. But doesn’t affect the broader picture
14:55
Yaacov Lozowick: and a broader picture. There are 2 major archives legally in the same archive, but in reality there are 2 archives, the State archive and the military outcome.
15:04
Yaacov Lozowick: Theoretically a military archive is subordinates. The stay in Archive and as part of it. Yaacov Lozowick: but in reality it doesn’t work that way, and the stair are kind of has very little influence over what happens in the
15:16
Yaacov Lozowick: military archive when I was a state archives they were always very respectful and different to me as long as I did exactly what they wanted. In other words, if I was the front
15:25
Yaacov Lozowick: for there, for for whatever they were doing. Then they gave me all the respect to somebody who’s Who so, who has a high position and and represents them.
15:35
Yaacov Lozowick: The moment that I tried not to to, to to their line, I found that I had absolutely no power whatsoever.
15:42
Yaacov Lozowick: and the State archive. The State archive is probably the largest in so depending how you measure it, and the State archive is contains all of the documentation of the government of the state of future, of meaning the Government Ministries.
15:57
Yaacov Lozowick: There is material there from from the Presidents, the ministry which is actually not ministry. There’s some material from the from the military agencies.
16:06
Yaacov Lozowick: and there’s a lot of material which are not from ministries at all, but from various other agencies in the, in, the in, the in, the in the general administration.
State archives online
16:20
Yaacov Lozowick: about 10 years ago. Yaacov Lozowick: we, the Government, a cabinet in a, you know, in a process of which I was very proud to participate, decided to put what for archives are very large sums of money, and hundreds of millions of dollars
16:35
on to pour them on to the state archives in, or that the State archives g0 0nline. Yaacov Lozowick: And to the best of my knowledge, even today the state of Israel is one of the few countries in the world. I know of 2, but there could be another one or 2 that i’m not aware of. The United States is not one of them.
16:53
Yaacov Lozowick: Where there is the intention to put the entire archival record online.
16:59
Yaacov Lozowick: everything Yaacov Lozowick: online for free and online for use by anybody where wherever they are, and whenever they are, and when there’s a lockdown because of Covid and the archives remain open because they
17:12
Yaacov Lozowick: that was the attempt, and between the moment the Government made that decision until I left in 2,018, we made significant strides in achieving that goal
17:23
Yaacov Lozowick: such that today. I don’t. I don’t i’m not there anymore, and I try and stay away from them.
17:29
Yaacov Lozowick: I don’t know the number today, but I would. My estimate is that there are 50 0r 60 million pages
17:36
Yaacov Lozowick: of documentation online at the website of the usual. Say Archive, and they’re there, and anybody can go and use them.
17:44
Yaacov Lozowick: The archive is continuing to put online materials according to their own reports.
17:50
Yaacov Lozowick: to the tune of about let’s say 40 0r 50,000 files a year times a 100, so it will give you 400. They’re putting on a couple of more 1000000 0f pages every every year.
18:05
Yaacov Lozowick: and so that’s that’s the good news, if what you’re interested in is has already been opened. It’s a smallish percentage, but it’s not tiny.
18:15
Yaacov Lozowick: If what you just use has already been open, then it’s there, and if what you’re interested in has not yet been open, you can order it.
18:22
Yaacov Lozowick: and they will open it for you free of charge and put it online for you in favor of everybody to see it. And that’s the end of the bit of the good news. Now it’s going to
18:31
Yaacov Lozowick: the bad news is that far more documentation is not online than his online.
18:37
Yaacov Lozowick: And the raids of opening. I said 40 0r 50,000 Yaacov Lozowick: files a year is actually smaller than the rate of documentation which becomes which should be going online according to the law documentation, which is 15 years old, should be online.
18:55
Yaacov Lozowick: and unless it’s diplomatic or Yaacov Lozowick: classified secret to a certain extent, in which case it with 25 years, or 3 years or 50 years, and there’s some issues of privacy that capability keep it sealed even longer. But privacy issues, for example, from very rarely will keep a file sealed, because, since it’s all digital lines all online.
19:15
Yaacov Lozowick: The archive is figured out wasn’t Very hard to do is figure out a way of redacting names in such a way that the entire file can g0 0nline without minus the names.
19:25
Yaacov Lozowick: So Yaacov Lozowick: the the archives have a tremendous backlog, and the back of is growing every year.
19:33
Yaacov Lozowick: There’s more material that comes of age and should be online. That is open. The second thing is that even when you do all order something, and and as a general rule in most cases, what the archive does is it opens what’s being ordered? In other words.
19:48
Yaacov Lozowick: they would like to have enough resources t0 0pen systematically entire part segments of the archive, but they don’t have those resources.
19:57
Yaacov Lozowick: and in reality most of what is open every year is what the public has ordered.
20:03
Yaacov Lozowick: and from my own personal experience. I can tell you that when you order material that you sometimes will get it within a week it will come online for you, and sometimes it takes 3 0r 4 years.
20:12
Yaacov Lozowick: And why does it sometimes take 3 0r 4 years? Well, this is a big and tough question, and I’m give the very, very few minutes. I mean this that I have here. I’m not going to delve into it in any great depth.
20:24
I will say that there are Yaacov Lozowick: basically a number of motivations for slowing down the process of opening
20:31
Yaacov Lozowick: the archival material. Yaacov Lozowick: The largest motivation is that the archive does not have the budget and the funds, and the resources to deal with the with the problem.
20:42
Yaacov Lozowick: But, on the other hand, it’s also not doing its best to utilize the resources that it does have. Yaacov Lozowick: and the possibilities that it does have. So that is an excuse which they love to use, but which I find only partially convincing. There’s something to it.
20:56
Yaacov Lozowick: but it’s not as convincing as they would like you to believe when they say we don’t have the resources to be.
21:02
Yaacov Lozowick: The second reason is that there’s material in there. They don’t want that. They don’t want you to see. But here, actually, the reality is that this is not a major issue. The archives the only have their act together, and they’re working much slower than they ought to be, but it’s not primarily, because they’re trying to keep
21:20
Yaacov Lozowick: so so specific things secret. And the proof of that is in the fact that you look at what they have opened.
21:27
Yaacov Lozowick: and you will find that in the 50 for 60 million pages that they’ve opened there is endless amounts of damning and incredibly incriminating things that do not like, make the state of Israel, and his policies look particular and particularly nice.
21:41
Yaacov Lozowick: And yet the archives are not. Yaacov Lozowick: They’re not blocking that material for that reason, according to the law, they’re not allowed to use that reason. In other words, embarrassing findings are not a legal reason that you’re allowed to
21:56
Yaacov Lozowick: to it so. Yaacov Lozowick: But the fact is that that is not generally what’s going on. What’s going on is
22:05
Yaacov Lozowick: sometimes a broader interpretation of what might harm the States
22:11
Yaacov Lozowick: security and foreign relations, then in reality is justified. Those are the 2, the the 2 principles that they’re allowed to use. If opening something will harm either the the the foreign relations, or the security of the state of Israel and the archivist are allowed not t0 0pen it.
22:30
Yaacov Lozowick: As I said, embarrassing material is not doesn’t. Fall under that.
22:36
Yaacov Lozowick: but they do at times use those interpretations in a broader way than
22:41
Yaacov Lozowick: and then then they should be, and there’s no political oversight, and there’s no public oversight. It’s very opaque. You can’t. You can’t see what it is and what it is that there that there’s not opening because they’re not opening it. There’s no way of
22:54
Yaacov Lozowick: of, of of of supervising their their their internal processes.
22:59
Yaacov Lozowick: So that is one part of what’s going on, and the second part of what’s going on is bureaucratic inertia and non-interest. The current administration of the archives
23:11
Yaacov Lozowick: is very excited about adapting AI to archival material, which is indeed a very fascinating topic.
23:18
Yaacov Lozowick: and they’re putting a lot of effort into that. And they’re doing all sorts of other things which are interesting to them into the system around the matter which are not particularly interest. I’m. Interested in public, which means that even the resources they do have.
23:30
they do not Yaacov Lozowick: puts as much effort int0 0pening material as they ought to.
23:36
Yaacov Lozowick: And the bottom line is that a lot of what the public by law should be allowed to see? It cannot see, or it can see only if it’s. If If researchers are willing to to put pressure on them and to and also to have a lot of patients. And Indeed, i’m talking from personal experience. There’s material that I ordered 4 years ago, which is not yet built.
24:04
Yaacov Lozowick: Finally, my last comment. Yaacov Lozowick: The reality is that at the moment in the entire state of Israel, and over the entire globe there are fewer than 5 people in the entire world.
No public pressure
24:15
Yaacov Lozowick: We know enough about the laws of archives in Israel, and care enough. and are willing to stand up to the archives to make a fuss. One of the reasons that the archives allows itself not to.
24:27
Yaacov Lozowick: To. To. To hit the schedule and not to do things in a satisfactory way is because they know that nobody is going to complain that it doesn’t make any difference when I was a State, or I ever said I would use to say, the public demands this to be open. Everybody would look at me, and they would as if I was crazy, and they would say, Yaku! If there’s no public they want it t0 0pen. There may be an individual researcher, but even the individual researcher is not going to make this team.
24:51
Yaacov Lozowick: and they were Basically, right. Yaacov Lozowick: There are almost no users of the archives who stand up to them, face them, demand
25:01
Yaacov Lozowick: from knowledge what the rules really are, and demand that their material be open; and since there’s no public pressure on them like any other bureaucracy. There’s no public pressure on that, and there are other things that they’re more interested in, and so they don’t do it.
25:16
Yaacov Lozowick: And my final comment to that is that my experience has been that when I do
25:22
Yaacov Lozowick: argue with them, first of all, they open more material than otherwise. Yaacov Lozowick: and secondly, when they have redacted parts of a file, and I point out to them, if this doesn’t make any sense in about 25% of the cases that I say that
25:37
Yaacov Lozowick: they eventually agree with me in the open the full they open the full file. I mean 75 0f the cases they don’t, but it does mean that when you face them they will back down 25% of the cases
25:49
Yaacov Lozowick: roughly Yaacov Lozowick: so My request and suggest is that if any of you out there want to join us, instead of there will be, instead of our being 4 0r 5 people putting pressure on them. If we could be 50 0r 500 it would probably make a difference.
26:04
Yaacov Lozowick: And with that I finished with this.
26:09
Amos Goldberg: Thank you very much. A cold, knowing it from within and from without. And now, Orange, go ahead.
26:18
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: Hi, everyone! Thank you all for the introduction, and of course thank you with the border for the organization. I’m grateful for the invitation to speak today on this important panel.
26:30
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: and to share my insight as a sociologist who has long been working with Israeli and Palestinian archives. My historical sociological findings derive from field work in numerous archives in Israel.
26:45
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: Local Kibbut’s archive of Hashemer had Sahar’s settlement movement especially in Mar, Haymek, Hazoria, and the Gizral Valley, which intensively documented interactions with the ultimately displaced neighboring Palestinian villages
27:01
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: and 5 national archives. Yet the Ii research and Documentation Center, and has to be on Institute for Labour Movement Research, Hagana Historical Archives is real estate archives, and the central same archives
27:15
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: dedicated to the history of the Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: my years of archival mining engaged systematic analysis of
27:25
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: protocols, interview files, photographic collections, correspondences, memoirs, theologies, books
27:34
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: that the Kibu team and other historians produced on their own initiative and recurring newsletters.
27:43
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: I reconstruct the sediment processes on the frontier between 36 and 56, the zenith of the process of Zionist Colonization and Palestine and Palestinian resistance, using also post hoc recollections
28:00
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: recorded between sixties and the Ninetys, and preserved in the archives through my field work in Kibbut’s archives, tracing ruler named
28:11
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: Occupation, and take over, I transformed my relationship from one of Positivists
28:19
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: extraction t0 0ne of ethnographic participant observation. Realizing that these archives can be useful in explicating the informational mechanisms of settler colonial rule and the Palestinian past.
28:35
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: In this talk I speak to how the Zionist left during the British mandate, and following the Israeli State establishment, archived as means of appropriating land, and ultimately eliminating neighbouring Palestinians
28:51
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: from desired space, and in doing so preserved both a history of indigenous presence and of settler colonial violence.
29:02
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: I describe this process as archives of apprehension. Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: by which I mean information gathering on the indigenous as as a. As a reconnaissance and ethnographic practice of settler, colonial conquest and apprehension As an effective state of anxious
29:22
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: archival subjects concerned with the reversibility of settler territorial sovereignty.
29:29
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: He puts archives during the British mandate period, and shortly after we’re organized as a practice of colonization.
29:38
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: Local examples from Hashemer had saire the allegedly radical lift as faction within the Zenous settlement movement, and other forms of apprehension, such as the Hagana village files project in the forties. Mandatory Palestine show how archives of apprehension include what colonization s0 0ften aims to eliminate.
30:02
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: even as lift the stainless archives reflect a selectivity around terms of perpetuation and guilt. They document encounters with and observation of the indigenous, whose resistance shaped inclusion, and exclusion in the archives.
30:23
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: This talk emerges in response to an epistemic context in Israeli social science and history in which the critical archival theories, long in play, in the study of transatlantic slavery and settler colonialism in the Americas and Antipodes have only recently trickled into the historical study of Palestine. Israel
30:48
generally, by way of cultural studies Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: as positivism, largely rains in historic historiographic methods. Archives of apprehension can partially recover histories of Palestinian villages and their inhabitants, especially regarding records of life on the frontier.
31:09
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: A populated rural zone, marked by a collision over land between Jew settlers Palestinians and British forces.
31:19
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: I argue that these archives of apprehension can reconstruct the historicity of a protracted colonization otherwise and preserved
31:31
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: in the case of Palestine Israel archives have often been treated as repositories for extracting contempt on territorial conflict.
31:43
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: Most scholars have relied on and continue to rely on elite sources in national Israeli British and Arab archives, and therefore depict a macro political account of 1,948 war based on details, of battles and war maneuvers.
32:04
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: diplomacy elite decisions and planning, or demographic and geographic accounts of transformation. This approach sidelined ambivalences, contingency and local variations wherever it neglects constitutive interactions between settlers one
32:23
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: and the indigenous that preceded the watershed moment of the 1,948 to grasp micro and meso-level processes. It is beneficial. Consider
32:36
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: to consider the resources produced in settler colonial archives, instrumentalizing such archives for historical sociological work, in tales, examining archival forms and processes of meaning, making
32:51
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: alongside, attempting to historically situate their functions in the constitution of settler sovereignty.
32:59
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: Settler colonial archives are conflict archives, in which political violence, physical and epistemic, is seen chronically documented and encoded these partial and fragmented archives vitally disclose otherwise unknowable aspects of indigenous life
33:18
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: on the frontier, and ultimately of settler colonial governance, including mechanism of classification and contribution attribution. In preserving phenomenological moments of the past. This archive became central to colonize their self-understanding
33:37
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: as they work to displace indigenous sovereignty and ensure the irreversibility of settlers accumulations
33:47
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: archive of apprehension, should be formulated and reconstructed a set of tools to trace colonization practices and to potentially reappropriate indigenous historicity
34:01
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: prior to the israeli founding in 4 in 48 Zionist colonial Nikolai in the populated frontier, prepared for land purchase by gathering detailed information about the Palestinian villages.
34:17
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: geography, typography, demography, political activity, customs, and culture, a strategy that in able design is move movement, albeit minimal initial foothold. In late Ottoman and mandatory Palestine.
34:32
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: The same is colonies among these those of Hashomer had Sair came to constitute pockets of a semi-sovereign rule listed within British Imperial view.
34:43
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: the archival institution and ethnographic practices of apprehension that appears through our design. This movement contributed to a colonial information, and Field used to entrench surveillance and control.
34:59
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: The goal was to a certain to rhetori at every visibility in the rural frontier. and to consolidate continuous presence outside urban centers. These archives, then.
35:13
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: would merge the history of the settler colonizer and the indigenous as dialectically intertwined, especially on the constitutive violence enacted against the indigenous population and practices of land control and resistant to replacement.
35:31
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: He boots settlers first fare faced a question of how to frame the story of the existence and ultimate disappearance of the Palestinian villages nested. Besides him.
35:47
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: I want to share a screen showing. I hope I can share.
35:54
If you are with me. Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: It’s just 1 s, and I think it will share. Can you see the screen?
36:06
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: I’m sorry it’s a slow, but Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: a second, and I will be with you. Then you see the screen.
36:15
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: Yes. Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: yes, okay.
36:22
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: Take a look at how the kibbut’s Archive documented
36:28
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: The documents. Each are a village that it’s helped to displace on a large map hanging prominently on the wall in the entrance of the keyboard archive representational discourse of the Palestinian Arab villages
36:45
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: shaped how settlers perceive the history of the indigenous, and their exit, as has she met, had saved settlers articulated indigenous life. Their information, gathering practices became a legitimation mechanisms as they attempt
37:01
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: to reconfigure Palestinian history as prehistory, and as they became intensely interested in the question of the Palestinian ethnic origin. The colonial archive captured captures the displaced Palestinian villages, just as it re
37:19
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: structures the historical narrative Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: representation of the Palestinian villages and their inhabitants persisted in the archive, despite systematic endeavors, to silence what preceded the distraction of property, renaming of places and etc. Many of the kibut’s archives contain media collections with images of the later displaced Palestinian village
37:46
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: villages and Kib boots. Member encounters with the Palestinian, indigenous in the vicinity
37:53
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: at Kibbutza, and Hashofet Archive, For instance, I located photographs of one of the one time Palestinian village Dramara.
38:03
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: a hilltop village which the Kibbutz colony subsumed in 37 after its residents were displaced.
38:13
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: I will share. Can you see the screen.
38:19
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: Ramos? Yes.
38:25
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: great. This is the Palestinian village, Johara I actually discovered in the Archive.
38:38
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: Neither Johara nor its occupation appear in Israeli and Palestinian historical sources on the displaced Palestinian villages, and yet detailed R. Of these villages and other others that elsewhere are lost remains in the keyboards archive.
39:00
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: Another another instance is in the project of the village files a completion of documents containing detailed information about the Palestinian villages and cities in mandatory Palestine, collected by the Hagana, the Zionist Free State militia between 43 and 48. The projects astounding delivers of cartographic visual and discursive detail can still be found in the Hagana Historical archives.
39:30
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: facilitated by hundreds of Hagana scouts, reconnaissance commanders, and intelligence officers. The settler militia apparatus inclusive of lyftusky wood settlers and Arab experts sought to apprehend the basic structure of the Arab village in their terms. Even as as the settler’s goals for the file wharfed over time scouts surveyed the village, topographic
39:57
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: geographic architecture, socio-cultural and political features, including infrastructure elements like roads, land, quality, water sources, and demographic data, including religious affiliation and age Details of the male Population
40:15
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: mit Ctl. And informants, Kitchen villages, maths, and viewpoints in my field work. Investigating the shermer, had saved colonies at Hagana historical archives, I encountered thousands of files detailing a range of information about the Palestinian villages, one
40:33
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: among them those that neighbor that would seem. I examine Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: files, detailed anything from your aura. So from a Bosre village newly planted through trees, or the number of students enrolled in it’s girls schools to the location of 29 0r up coffee houses in hyphen where political activity was presumed to take place to the names and ages of the Arab activity. Activists in Tantura obtained from an in for
41:07
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: this slide that I’m. Showing now depicts the first page of a
41:26
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: practices, and these 2 images, this, one and the other one.
41:32
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: Our drawings created by Hagan’s count on
41:39
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: efforts to apprehend Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: just a second. I I see there is object. Efforts to apprehend. The Palestinians are important to resource are important resources, not least because they outline how Zenus lift us on the frontier understood themselves. There are numerous
42:02
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: erez
42:21
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: a value Hashemer had surre often profaced alongside their value of class liberation. For these lift, test. The archive reflected, and produced their self perception by preserving the Palestinian villages in Archival Iv. Even as the villages were being displaced, they simultaneously recognized, and this about the settlement rule in the village distraction, the constant colonial anxiety over impairments reinforced
42:49
by persistent violent violent scrimmage. Required a iterative reaffirmation of the colonial legitimacy and the Zionist militia attempt to so to secure it.
43:01
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: Second, the inclusion forms part of an appropriation come substantial process settlers did not express feeling jeopardized by their explicit inclusion of the Palestinian path they legitimized their practices of territorialization and their right to claim space
43:20
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: by de-linking Palestinians as non-sover, non-historical, and rooted and unproductive from the land the kibut settlers substantiated their claims by linking themselves to
43:33
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: to conting just a jewish history extending to ancient time to position their claim to land as indisputable. They also aligned the right to belonging with Hashomer had say, Socialism claims that Lang belonged to those who productively worked it.
43:51
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: Therefore the Palestinian on these settlers believed to be unproductive, despite their long history of cultivation, were not deemed legitimate processors of desired space, and their inclusion and archival form was no threat of
44:07
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: a redistribution. Third and loss. Some left as them as settlers expressed on few occasions, and in various locations across the archive effects of uneasiness and hunting over their own actions, and all over the sordid fate of their previous Palestinian neighbors, including the Palestinian in the archives, then may be one way. The settlers attempted to preserve this past
44:31
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: and all its features to depict what they turned an inevitable and intentional outcome and lost hyper inclusion in the archives pissed pits entirely. The Zionist policy of details. Palestine was not
44:47
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: only the promised land, it was a specific territory with a specific characteristic that was surveyed down to the laws.
44:55
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: Millimeters settled on, planned for in detail, as it were. To it, argues Zenus Sittler historiography has dual function to inhabit the claims of settler and legitimacy on one hand, and to preserve the history of settler violence. On the other hand, thereby settler colonial archives are a significant but totally in adequate resource that we can that can be called up on to revive a past elsewhere denied
45:23
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: Such archives, offer tools to challenge the inevitability of colonization and the valence of this position through the attempt to collect and eternalize settler national sovereignty. Such a process, paradoxically and dialectically preserve indigenous collective presence. Thank you.
45:44
Amos Goldberg: Thank you very much. We have already a number of questions, and I asked you also to prepare questions to each other. But let’s first. They go to the audience that they have, they. So I I I will. I will
Audience Questions
46:01
Amos Goldberg: collect together a couple of questions. I think you mostly
46:07
Amos Goldberg: a both of you. But you decide what you so many, many ask about those things that
46:16
Amos Goldberg: not open. Amos Goldberg: and for a it can. The speakers give an idea of what is the unavailable part of the archive? In other words, what are the authorities trying to hide? And what are the mechanisms?
46:30
Amos Goldberg: Another question in this direction is Amos Goldberg: a a for for for for a a Dr. Lassovi. One example of the unavailable parts would be their Ghana photographer, Shaga pellets, photos taking a April 1,948 during the Delia scene. Massacre
46:47
Amos Goldberg: and documentary movie make a Neta Sushani and many others have tried to have looked at the these photos during the years, but the request have always been denied. So with the kind of material from 1947 1949 will ever be released.
47:02
Amos Goldberg: So and there are several more questions on Amos Goldberg: what is what is unavailable. So perhaps you start the Yakub, and then I leave you at your jump in and add your
47:14
Amos Goldberg: what Amos Goldberg: unmute? Yaacov Lozowick: Yes, Sorry about that.
State Archive
47:21
Yaacov Lozowick: First of all in in the State Archive. There’s almost nothing from 1,948, which is still sealed. Yaacov Lozowick: And no should there be there’s no law that would allow it still to be sealed up to almost 75 years.
47:33
Yaacov Lozowick: It’ll say like, have. So I, as I said, there’s that that’s I mean. I suppose there may be a file here out there that somebody missed, or for whatever reason. But there’s no policy of hiding material from 1,948 the family matter is in the State archive. There’s no policy abiding information at all.
47:51
Yaacov Lozowick: There is in the State archive and in the Military Archive. Yaacov Lozowick: What is hidden is much more a question of what they have not yet gotten to, and they’re not in any hurry to get to. I’ll give you an example. The protocols of the cabinet meetings. according to law, should be open up until 1,992 is nice. Remain seal for 30 years, and 92 t0 23 is.
48:13
Yaacov Lozowick: is it? Where that’s that’s a 30 year period. So it it should be that all the cabinet meetings from 1,948, until 1,992 should all be open. In reality they’re open until 1,977 and from 1977 0n They’re not open.
48:28
Yaacov Lozowick: Is this a policy decision to say that we’re not going t0 0pen? What was done for the big and gave government? I don’t think so. I honestly don’t think that’s what’s going on. Opening cabinet to protocols is a is a is a lengthy process. 2 different people have to read it. A third person has to has to look over at what they did. It’s a lot of work. They’re not in any particular way to do so. This is very aggravating.
48:52
Yaacov Lozowick: but I don’t think it’s a policy of saying we don’t want people to know what the vacant government is.
48:58
Yaacov Lozowick: As a general statement, I would say, even in the military archive, which is far more sealed than the state of
49:04
Yaacov Lozowick: you’ve been in the military archive. There is rarely a policy of saying, we don’t want this sort of material to be to a certain extent in the military archive. There is, indeed military material from 1,948, which is not yet open.
49:19
Yaacov Lozowick: There is a lot of material in the State in the military, from from more recent years which is an open.
49:26
Yaacov Lozowick: I again I I I mean I will be the first to admit that this is very frustrating and aggravating.
49:33
Yaacov Lozowick: but I have to say that I think it is more Yaacov Lozowick: a question of
49:40
Yaacov Lozowick: focusing their Yaacov Lozowick: limited resources on things that interest them rather than things interest the public More than a policy of this is what we want to hide. I I don’t think that they are certainly not in state archive
49:54
Yaacov Lozowick: in the military archive I don’t know, but in the standard I have. There is no policy that says we’re going to hide the events of 1948 0r 1967 0r or anything else. And so it’s a question of they don’t care enough, and the public is not putting pressure on them, and so they’re not getting around to doing.
50:17
Amos Goldberg: Please, do you want to add something? Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: I think I want to add another layer of say of what Yakov, they say. Thank you, Yako, I think. First of all, the question is not about hiding or not. It’s not to just that.
Discussion
50:36
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: First of all, how the percentage of materials that are exposed in this or cars. They, as as far as I know, they don’t exceed 5%. This is first.
50:47
so we, the the general information from the archives are just 5, so we have 95 around 95%
50:57
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: that are not a a a open to the public. The second thing is, i’m not sure about the your opinion, Yakov. About their. They They rarely hide information or etc. I myself find in different files
51:18
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: places where a paper was added. A file was removed from here, especially after the a. After the the archives were opened, and there were information about the 48 the like, the and etc. So this is one. The second thing the harm was, I think, we should like the the that we should raise is also which kind of archive we are looking for, and for which, what is the AIM of this?
51:46
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: As I said on my port in in my talk, and I want to in a certain that that the the this state archived as as the State archive, or the Hagan, or etc., they give us to just a general a general pictures, and if we go to the local archives, the one that I examine, they really expose
52:11
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: mit Ctl, and a different kind of history of past of information and the possibility to read against the archivally grain. That means not to just what they AIM. By the collections of this archive archival material is more open to us. One.
52:27
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: So I would move if from the question of hiding or not, because I I think, and and the other people actually Benny Morris himself talks about, for example, how the how the Zionist leaders would themselves
52:44
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: through their right, through their writing, their preserving the protocols of committees, Bingarian himself and his diaries would eliminate part of what the
52:58
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: in the beginning role in this journals or in these menu. So the question is for for me is to they construct and to read the critically the archives. It’s not the just what they include, but how we read them. What are the information that we can extract from them.
53:19
Yaacov Lozowick: I I would agree with her. She’s right.
53:29
Yaacov Lozowick: and what she’s describing is a way of a very intelligently analyzing what’s in there in order to see
53:37
Yaacov Lozowick: the outlines of what’s not in there. That’s great, that that’s that’s that’s good historical research doesn’t it doesn’t change the fact that the archives are open or not open.
53:53
Amos Goldberg: I don’t know if you mentioned it, that they Amos Goldberg: they unlock unlawfully. It sends out the archives and a a and it’s it’s, it’s, it’s it’s the archives and in and of it and UN unlawfully.
54:10
Yaacov Lozowick: No, no, I don’t. I don’t. There is no such committee not that i’m aware of. There’s a process again in this. In the in the in the military archives they have a committee which has no legal standing, but it’s very. It’s very much there which a a decides in the case of each researcher, if they’re going to be, if they’re going to be helpful or not, which is totally illegal.
54:30
Yaacov Lozowick: and I’ve told them any number of times. This is illegal, but they continue to it, and that’s the way it is. But there there’s no committee which is deciding that this is, or that can’t be open. What there is is a process of
54:43
Yaacov Lozowick: checking files before they open to the public. Yaacov Lozowick: and some of that was done many years ago. When, when I really says correctly, she’s right. When I read, says that she gets files that have entire pages removed. She’s right. But the fact is, those files are probably the pages. We probably will removed in the 19 nineties, or maybe even in the 19 eighties.
55:04
Yaacov Lozowick: or certainly 20 years ago, and if you, if you, if you say to them, wait a minute that you could have done that then, but you can’t do it now. They will back up. They’ll feel back off. I I have this experience with the military archive. Last week they sent me a pile of files took me a long time to get them, but they sent me a pile of files.
55:23
Yaacov Lozowick: about 20,000 pages of files, and there were about 760 pages that were there, were they were it it said that they were removed.
55:31
Yaacov Lozowick: I said, what’s going on? You You can’t do that that’s illegal, and they said you’re right, Yako. But the files were checked in in 2,006, and in 2,006. It was still legal, because it was less than 50 years, and we since you call our attention to fact, we will now go and re-examine those files, but I assume that they’re probably open most of the pages.
55:48
Yaacov Lozowick: This will take months to waste of their time in line. It’s aggravating. Yaacov Lozowick: But and this is what I said before, if there were more users who were insisting on
55:59
Yaacov Lozowick: who knew the law and insisted that they live according to the law, they would be more careful.
56:07
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: Yeah. Cove a, and that’s Yaku. Sorry almost. Can I have the small thing about the digitization, Yakov? I would think I I I I think we need to complicate our our perspective of the digitization and make the archive accessible to general to public. Because if we, if we
56:34
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: try to deeply understand this process. This is, I see it as part of surveillance that the original materials before they’re digitizing are scrutinized to the public. I am afraid that this process might take out out
56:53
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: further information. Further, a files that could that we, as researchers, can approach them differently. This is first, second, almost, if they, if you may let me. I see one questions from Dr. Sal about the the significance of using left in this case
57:16
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: to this is the question I I address deeply in my book. But here I want to say that
57:25
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: the
57:48
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: there’s an in interaction with these movements. So they, the the question of left here is in the Archive, specifically dealing with the archives, I think, and according to my work, in different archives, the list test archives quote, and was left us. Zen is left us include more information about the Palestinians, because they address also the question.
58:17
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: the Arabic question intensely, and they are occupied with. So, in terms of how these archives can help us
58:26
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: reconstruct the Palestinian House. It’s beneficial, but E. As to the other question about left, I I will leave it to my book, because it will take more time from me to explain
58:46
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: almost. You are still in a muted Amos Goldberg: Thank you. So let’s take one very brief. We fair question, and I I encourage also the public, the audience
58:58
Amos Goldberg: to search a to a search, the website of a keyboard?
59:04
Amos Goldberg: A. What do we do? Do we do a an extensively and an impressive work in the archives, and search there and see the reports on
59:15
Amos Goldberg: on, on various aspects, on various topics that we have discussed here. So
59:20
Amos Goldberg: we Google a you vote and see how Ak or v it, and and you can see it there. A very brief question to to to you a
59:33
Amos Goldberg: a it. Amos Goldberg: a Los Angelesen, and it’s, please be. We have 1 min to answer it as a a taking the add, a history is told by the oppressive victims. It face value and seeking an alternative narrative. What forms of archival or historical knowledge are available from Palestinian projectives.
59:55
Amos Goldberg: a perspectives either through all this or less institutional, any means of information collection. Please be brief, because we have only 1 min.
1:00:05
I just want to say that the the answer to this is, I can share in in an article that I published, which is settler colonialism, and the Archives of Apprehension, where I based my talk on it’s that I can’t relate to this question. But the oral history projects by the Palestinian Institute and different Palestinian Institute are very important and crucial a oral history projects and the family
1:00:35
Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: files, of course, and there are other, a Palestinian documents and resources. I think that should be, including, while we a right the history of Palestine and the Palestinian I myself did around 50 0ral history interviews, and this will be this in on my second book. Project.
1:00:57
Amos Goldberg: Okay. Amos Goldberg: Thank you very much.
1:01:04
Deborah Dwork: and I add my thanks. Thank you, Ari Shakov, and almost for the work each of you does for these fabulous presentations for your participation in this event.
1:01:18
Deborah Dwork: Indeed, many thanks to everyone, speakers and listeners for Jo for joining today. The conversation prompts all of us to think and to think a new, and to send in requests to the Archive for the opening of documents.
1:01:38
Deborah Dwork: So I thank you. Deborah Dwork: and have a good evening. All
1:01:44
Deborah Dwork: those who are in Jerusalem, and a good afternoon for those of us in New York. Thank you so very, very much.
1:01:52
Yaacov Lozowick: Thank you. Areej Sabbagh-Khoury: Thank you. The Board and everyone. Thank you.

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The Bedouin Village of Rah’ma: Toward Recognition and Beyond.

CSHGCAH

Mar 17, 2023 The Bedouin of the Negev desert have long sought legal recognition from the State of Israel. Without legal status, they are denied their basic rights as Israeli citizens: access to public health services, water, electricity, public transportation, is inadequate or unavailable. Rah’ma is one of the few unrecognized villages that has been promised recognition, yet that promise remains unfulfilled. Still: a school has been approved and built, public utilities have improved, and village residents see some hope. What makes Rah’ma different from other Bedouin villages in the Negev? What paved the way to the promise of recognition? What changes will recognition bring? And can Rah’ma be a model for Israeli-Bedouin relations going forward? Please join for a discussion between Sliman Elfregat, Rah’ma school principal; Debbie Golan, co-founder and president of Atid Bamidbar; and Dvir Warshavsky, Ministry of Education project director. Chair and moderator: Eli Karetny, deputy director of the Ralph Bunche Institute.

Transcript

0:59
Deborah Dwork: Hello. Deborah Dwork: My name is to Deborah Dwork, and I am the director of the Center for the study of the holocaust
1:07
Deborah Dwork: genocide and crimes against humanity at the graduate Center City University of New York.
1:15
Deborah Dwork: It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the fifth of a year long series on the marginalized
1:24
Deborah Dwork: and the displaced. Deborah Dwork: The historical record is marked by voids. Delighted events disappeared. People erased to counts marginalized communities.
1:38
Deborah Dwork: This series tackles a number of those blank spots in history. and in our own time.
1:48
Deborah Dwork: I thank our series partners, and why You’s Professor Emerita, of Hebrew and Judic Studies, Marion Kaplan and Stockton, University, Professor Ros. Sagon.
2:02
Deborah Dwork: I think, to center associate one as a vehicle on whose help I rely
2:09
Deborah Dwork: Michael X. From for his outreach activities and the Gc’s terrific it people Brad, Wholesh and Steve Thomas.
2:20
Deborah Dwork: Above all. Deborah Dwork: I am grateful to our speakers and to everyone who has tuned in. Thank you for your engagement.
2:30
Deborah Dwork: It is now my pleasure to introduce my colleague, Dr. Eli. Correct me. Deputy Director of the Ralph Bunch Institute for International Studies, and a lecturer in Political science at Baruch College at Cuny.
2:48
Deborah Dwork: Eli will have the honor of introducing our esteemed guests.
2:55
Deborah Dwork: the son of immigrants. Deborah Dwork: not by their own reckoning refugees, so as I say, the son of immigrants from the Ukraine. As it was then
3:08
Deborah Dwork: Eli returned to his parents homeland as a Peace Corps volunteer. His life path took him from there to scholarship
3:19
Deborah Dwork: on the intellectual foundations of American neo-conservatism the wartime origins of the United Nations.
3:29
Deborah Dwork: And now a research project on the negative Bedouin
3:36
Deborah Dwork: in the course of the discussion today you may catch a glimpse of a core interest.
3:44
Deborah Dwork: What factors influence the path Deborah Dwork: to recognition of Bedouin villages by the state of Israel. I will leave you with that cliffhanger.
3:58
Deborah Dwork: Eli. Deborah Dwork: It is with great appreciation that I seed the floor to you.
4:07
Eli Karetny: Thank you, Professor Dork. Eli Karetny: It is my honor and privilege on behalf of the Cuny Graduate Center, the Route Bunch Institute
4:14
Eli Karetny: and the center for the study of the holocaust genocide and crimes against humanity. To moderate this discussion of the Bedouin of the negative.
4:21
Eli Karetny: Our second discussion of the topic Eli Karetny: This is a follow up to our October, 2021 event which looked at the Bedouin issue through the lens of emptied lands and displaced people there we discussed the situation of the unrecognized villages and now Israeli Policies of displacement and urbanization
4:39
Eli Karetny: have led to hopeless conditions in these villages, leaving some to become symbols of Sumud. Eli Karetny: a Bedouin tradition of steadfastness that animates an attitude of nonviolent resistance which the Palestinian writer, Raja Shahade, has described as a third way between mute submission and blind rage.
4:57
Eli Karetny: But an ethic of resistance that links identity and political struggle to reclaiming ancestral land is not the only way the better, and have chosen to pursue their goals
5:06
Eli Karetny: better when Sumud expresses itself differently from village to village. Some villages even choose to focus on the tools of engagement
5:13
Eli Karetny: by deepening relations with neighboring Jewish towns. Eli Karetny: The village of Ahma is a case study, and how good neighborly relations between Bedouins and Jews on the periphery can overcome challenges at the national level.
5:26
Eli Karetny: The plan for today’s discussion is to focus on. Eli Karetny: to compare it to other unrecognized Bedouin villages, discuss what makes it unique, but also what makes it representative of those Bedouin villages that resist urbanization while seeking recognition by working closely with neighboring Jewish communities
5:43
Eli Karetny: and local government agencies rather than emphasizing the tools of resistance. Eli Karetny: But in light of what’s happening now in Israel? We’re reminded that resistance is often required
5:52
Eli Karetny: when state policies threaten the basic rights of citizens. Eli Karetny: Some commentators like Youval Harari, have called the government’s proposed changes to the judiciary.
6:02
Eli Karetny: a cool. Eli Karetny: an anti-democratic plan, that endangers the fundamental rights of all Israeli citizens, particularly minorities. the nature, and maybe even the existence of Israeli. Democracy appears to be at stake. Certainly the liberal character of Israeli. Democracy is at stake.
6:18
Eli Karetny: but Israel’s Arab citizens never experienced Israel State power as liberal Eli Karetny: Israeli Arabs understand the State can deny its citizens their basic rights.
6:27
Eli Karetny: and if the State privileges the Jewish character of his democracy. so Eli Karetny: how much of what we fear could happen in Israel and not just in Israel is already happening, maybe has always been happening. The logic of the modern state can be ruthless, and the logic of ideologies that privilege, certain chosen groups, is always so.
6:45
Eli Karetny: The better one of the negative have their own story to tell about their experience as indigenous Arabs confronting a modern State, which granted them citizenship soon after its founding.
6:55
Eli Karetny: but never protected the basic rights that accompany this legal status. Eli Karetny: But there seems to be a positive shift in recent years and State policy towards some guideline villages.
7:04
Eli Karetny: even as the Supreme Court ruled definitively against all Bedouin claims to ancestral land ownership. It also insisted that the State cannot deny it’s bed on the citizens their basic rights.
7:15
Eli Karetny: the act of recognizing Bedou and villages, but forced the State to build schools, provide electricity, water, health services.
7:23
Eli Karetny: But the State continues to deny that recognition. So all but a few villages and treat the bedroom as trespassers on their own historic lands.
7:32
Eli Karetny: The State has favored Jewish settlement of the land since it’s founding, which is meant that some Bedou and villages are relocated to make room for new Jewish towns.
7:40
Eli Karetny: How this would change, if at all, under a transformed Israeli regime is unclear
7:46
Eli Karetny: for some bedroom villages nothing will change at all. Eli Karetny: Pressure to urbanize will continue demolitions, relocations with the dial of recognition. This will continue
7:56
Eli Karetny: some villages of long known. They would never be recognized by the State. Eli Karetny: and even as they differ amongst themselves as to how best to proceed with honor, Young Bedouin may be turning toward new legal and political tools. Some of them may turn to international law and the protections offered by undrip the UN Declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples.
8:14
Eli Karetny: Some may turn to their king in the Palestinian national movement. Some will remain steadfast in their samood.
8:20
Eli Karetny: but Rafael has pursued a different path, and it now finds itself at the doorstep of legal recognition which should facilitate further development. I’m delighted to introduce our panelists who have each played in their own way a role in the changes that Akma is now undergoing, centered around an elementary school that was built in 2,020.
8:38
Eli Karetny: I’ll introduce our speakers and invite each to share a few thoughts about what’s happening in Israel at the national level. But then we’ll shift our focus to Rahma, which may offer some insight into changing social dynamics in Israel.
8:51
Eli Karetny: Debbie Goldman and Golan was born in the Us. And made Aliyat to Israel in 1,972 ultimately settling in the town of Utaham in the negative desert She’s, the co-founder of ate Buttoni, Butter, which means future in the desert.
9:05
Eli Karetny: which does important work in several areas, including as an incubator for Bedou and Jewish initiatives that support women’s, empowerment programs, capacity development projects for Bedouin farmers and other educational health initiatives.
9:17
Eli Karetny: A Tee Bami Bar is a co-founder and leading member of the good neighbors network, and the negative, which includes 9 Grassroots, Bedouin and Jewish organizations, and 40 activists in 14 Bedouin and Jewish localities.
9:31
Eli Karetny: The Network’s mission is to build a foundation of trust and collaboration between residents of Jewish and Bedouin communities share best practices, create grassroots, social change
9:41
Eli Karetny: and influenced public policy. Eli Karetny: Slim on Alpha-gat has been the Rahma school principal since it opened in 2,020.
9:49
Eli Karetny: He was born in Rahma got a master’s degree in history and geography from Jadata University in Jordan.
9:55
Eli Karetny: has a teacher certificate from Ben Gurion University, and is a graduate of the principals training program at Ahma College
10:02
Eli Karetny: for 17 years. Lemon was a nature education teacher and one of the biggest bedroom schools in the Mega. Eli Karetny: He believes better when education requires blending modern pedagogy with traditional cultural knowledge
10:13
Eli Karetny: via. Or Shevsky. Eli Karetny: He’s a social activist, engage in education, policy, reform. He has managed projects for the Ministry of Education consulted for various foundations and currently works. The Rashi Foundation.
10:25
Eli Karetny: via is a lifelong resident of, and has worked closely with, the Bedouin of Rahma for many years, including developing educational programs at the Rahma School
10:34
Eli Karetny: landscaping projects after-school robotics programs, student mentoring even helping Rachman residents defend against demolition orders
10:43
Eli Karetny: the format of Today’s talk is a. Q. A. About the Bedouin of Rahma. I’ll ask each speaker, as I said, to say a few words about the national situation. But then we’ll shift our focus to Rahma.
10:53
Eli Karetny: A note to the audience. The final round of questions will come directly from you, so please use the Q. A. Box and zoom to ask questions of our panelists.
11:03
Eli Karetny: So the first question is to each of you, we I I want to apologize. We were hoping Sliman would, would would be here by now. But
11:12
Eli Karetny: I’m sorry. Okay, that’s great. I see perfect. So
11:18
Eli Karetny: that is excellent Welcome, Shalom. The first question is for you. How concerned are you about the this this situation happening nationally the political situation? How is it affecting life for for you? And in
11:37
Eli Karetny: Hi, let me just say, Slamine, who was aware that this question would be coming, prepared a few remarks. He will speak in Hebrew, and I will share a screen of his translated remarks, which they’d be translated earlier today. So i’m going to share that screen and
11:53
Eli Karetny: slim on police. The floor is yours.
12:08
Debbie Golan: Hey, man Dvir Warshavsky: again.
12:41
Dvir Warshavsky: and a to. Aye, aye, Sierra Leone.
13:01
Dvir Warshavsky: Oh, now she hmm!
13:17
Dvir Warshavsky: And of the Kazakh.
13:25
Eli Karetny: So the Sliman
13:30
Dvir Warshavsky: David Eli Karetny: to be here. Maybe I i’ll shift to you to beer, just to say a few words, please, about the you know your thoughts about the national political situation. How far do you think some of these proposed changes could actually go. Do you? Do you see this as a threat to? Is Israeli democracy?
13:49
Dvir Warshavsky: Yeah. So I would say, in short, that all I think all of us Really, we don’t really know what’s gonna happen, but it’s it. It’s it’s quite scary, and we we don’t really know. But the direction is.
14:05
Dvir Warshavsky: I don’t know it. It looks very problematic.
14:11
Dvir Warshavsky: but I have to say that I think that it’s important to to to point about the distinction between the things that going on in the political level
14:21
Dvir Warshavsky: and the things that happened in the civic level of the the level of the communities, especially in the periphery context.
14:29
Dvir Warshavsky: I mean, there is a it’s. Of course, there is connection between these levels. but definitely not
14:36
Dvir Warshavsky: total correlation, like there is other trends that happen in the same time, maybe sometimes in a very paradoxical way.
14:46
Dvir Warshavsky: And there’s many new connections in the level of communities
14:51
Dvir Warshavsky: that they that Dvir Warshavsky: exist, although we don’t really know how.
15:00
Dvir Warshavsky: in the long run the the political level will influence them. So it’s an important thing to note and let’s see.
15:08
Eli Karetny: Thank you to be here and and Debbie. Maybe you could just share a few thoughts about how you understand what what’s happening.
15:14
Debbie Golan: I I really identify with the words of the President of Israel Hertzog. It’s a character of last night, he said. We’re either on the edge of a cliff, but also maybe on a potential for moving off to a new rising to a new future. And I think
15:31
Debbie Golan: that we have a tremendous opportunity here as well as tremendous. What looks like danger to basic democratic rights and
15:39
Debbie Golan: balances, and
15:45
Debbie Golan: I think my my personal take is to Debbie Golan: a Debbie Golan: work harder to to do what we can to connect communities and people
15:57
Debbie Golan: of differing opinions, and also differing nationalities here in Israel, and also between Rahma and Yvonne, in the hope that the interpersonal and intercommunal relationships that we’re building will be strong enough to weather any top down.
16:15
Debbie Golan: Kind of decisions. I’m. I’m. Very concerned. But I want to spend my energy
16:21
Debbie Golan: on the the building of the better foundations which I think are necessary, and I think that I see them also emerging.
16:29
Debbie Golan: New groups are coming into the protest movement. Who are, I mean right wing, and
16:34
Debbie Golan: not only left wing, and that Debbie Golan: for me is the kind of awakening of the silent majority what’s called a silent majority that gives me great hope that there is a lot of people who don’t want to rush down
16:47
Debbie Golan: this too fast road to Debbie Golan: to what looks dangerous
16:54
Eli Karetny: today. Thank you for that, Debbie, just knowing a little bit about just how hard you you work. I can’t imagine what what it looks like for you to work even harder. So with that I wouldn’t want to shift to to talking about Rahma and what’s happening with the Bedouin in the negative.
17:10
Eli Karetny: and Debbie might maybe we can begin with you sharing some some of the experiences with the the work of your organization that
17:20
Eli Karetny: I know You’ve done a lot of important work over the years with the Bedouin. Maybe you can tell us about how the relationship between the residents of Utah and the bedroom of Rahma serves as a kind of model for the work of the good good neighbors network.
17:36
Debbie Golan: I’ll be happy to the Our nonprofit is over it’s almost 33 years old, from 1,990, and from the in the inception one of our goals was creating connections, mutual acquaintance and joint
17:53
Debbie Golan: work, joint action, collaboration between diverse population groups, both within your and and between Yuru Khan and Rahma, and between different population groups in the negative region as a whole, and I think the key to our work is working with, and not for, and being very
18:12
Debbie Golan: listening really carefully to what what hurts other people, but also what we have in common, and what? What will work
18:22
Debbie Golan: together, maybe to to make things better. The the work with the Rasma sits on of between you are common. It’s on a very solid foundation of relationships that we’re built because a lot of the Presidents of are Arabic, speaking North African Jews and some of the Persian Jews who Don’t speak Arabic.
18:41
Debbie Golan: but they come from agricultural backgrounds and found a a common language also. Many of the men in Raqhma. The older men especially served in the Idf as trackers for many years, and some lived in Yurucham. So that was like a kind of foundation of mutual acquaintance. 150
18:57
Debbie Golan: and good neighborly relations that a group called a Citizens group called Milk is only need. Your original texture and neighbors that we started about 17 years ago. One
19:08
Debbie Golan: built on that. And then we decided to. We began talking with our Bedwin neighbors and seeing, okay, what’s one of the big issues? What are the big issues that you’re dealing with.
19:19
Debbie Golan: and one area was education. There were no kindergartens. They, the Government ministry of education assumed that 3 to 5 year olds, would be bused 35 kilometers to another tribe or another town, and and that just didn’t happen. So the people in Rahma said the first thing we water kindergartens
19:35
Debbie Golan: so our kids can get prepared for school. And then after that there was a 5 year struggle. That also was about 5 years, 4 and a half years, and then a 5 year struggle to get the elementary school open again, so the children wouldn’t have to be bust, and there wouldn’t be the dropout situation. That’s often new case in Bedwin schools, and
19:53
Debbie Golan: the work that we do together today is based on Debbie Golan: both. As you mentioned Women’s empowerment a a joint Yurukam Rahma Women’s group that became a model for a rod. Telerad, the robotics program that beer headed that he’ll he’ll speak about. I think Yuri Khan is a robotics empire for children, and and that’s also
20:15
Debbie Golan: benefiting the residents of Raja. But also there’s something called a youth home that a lawyer, you know, a police set up for disadvantaged neighborhoods around Israel. And this is his first time to set up such a program in Rothman and unrecognized Bedwin village.
20:30
Debbie Golan: It’s basically giving afternoon enrichment activities and help with homework.
20:36
Debbie Golan: But we also see that bed with women that we’ve worked with, that we work now with. There are 3 groups of women studying Hebrew in their homes, and some some of them started help with the homework for the kids in their area of Rahma. I think I should say that Rahman is not like a concentrated in one spot village. It’s 16
20:55
Debbie Golan: clubs of settlement surrounding your and 300 degrees, and very spread out. It’s a kind of way of preserving something of the nomadic distance between people that existed also in a sedentary format, and
21:11
Debbie Golan: therefore you need buses for everything to get people to the school and to the kindergarten, and also to activities enrichment activities in your
21:22
Debbie Golan: which provides services. De facto is a mixed city Debbie Golan: for for Eli Karetny: Debbie. Can you say a little more about about this unique relationship? What seems to me like a unique relationship, or maybe, or maybe tell us just how unique is this, and also what what is what? Some of the kind of historical experiences that have contributed to this to the relationship. Some, you know you do harm is not like other Israeli cities, right? So maybe give us a feel for what makes you, Tom unique, and how that contributes to to this special relationship.
21:53
Debbie Golan: Okay, I I think I mentioned that that maybe i’ll make it clear. Your hum is a small town of not even yet 13,000 people
22:01
Debbie Golan: by extremely diverse with representatives from most of the major immigrant groups that came to Israel, I would say about 40% North African, 12% Indian Jews, maybe 5% Persian Jews, and about 25% Russian speaking Jews from all over the former Soviet Union, and
22:21
Debbie Golan: and Debbie Golan: also a religious Zionist community and and secular and ultra orthodox.
22:29
Debbie Golan: So it’s a very, very mixed community and a poor community. The socioeconomic ranking of Israeli localities has us, in the third from the bottom
22:40
Debbie Golan: level, and it’s about 30% of your home’s budget goes to welfare.
22:47
Debbie Golan: elderly immigrants, etc., and Debbie Golan: therefore there is maybe a commonality of
22:56
Debbie Golan: the the the need to deal with issues of being in a periphery, and the negative periphery far from the center of country, far from centers of power. And
23:06
Debbie Golan: one of the things that’s also unique about your home, I think, is that it always, from the beginning actually had this entrepreneurial spirit in areas of education and culture, and even businesses, to some extent that that has
23:22
Debbie Golan: maybe interacted with and and helped Debbie Golan: promote some of those initiatives, also with our neighbors and friends in Rahma the
23:32
Debbie Golan: I. When we founded the good neighbors network with chateau, and and then later, the Council for unrecognized villages in Israel, we said, the model of promoting
23:45
Debbie Golan: good health. Okay, which is a critical issue for poor communities where it’s cheaper to buy junk food and
23:51
Debbie Golan: get Debbie Golan: obese and diabetes and heart problems, especially if you’re leading a sedentary life now instead of a nomadic one. It’s also in in your and it’s I mean it’s. It’s a common problem in poor populations in the negative.
24:06
Debbie Golan: And Debbie Golan: so we we said, okay, we Debbie Golan: We can
24:13
Debbie Golan: teach other activists in Bedwin and Jewish villages and towns in the Negative how to
24:20
Debbie Golan: News Debbie Golan: Women’s Empowerment. Hebrew Instruction. Arabic Language Studies Sports for Children and Tourism Development as so community-based tourism. The kind of tourism that a Tibet Bar believes in as a social change tool, because it adds.
24:38
Debbie Golan: it gives a stage for personal stories. It gives income. Debbie Golan: and it gives
24:44
Debbie Golan: a new way to encounter the other. Okay, whether you’re from the center of the country or from abroad, and you you, you are no longer trapped by the images that the media sells, and this is important for Yurukan no less than for Raja.
25:02
Eli Karetny: Thank you, Debbie. Thank you. In in our discussions you’ve helped me understand the complexity of the Bedouin issue, both as a subset of the broader Israeli Palestinian struggle and a separate challenge related to indigenous rights, Ancestral land claims and the protection of basic citizenship rights.
25:23
Eli Karetny: So the Bedouin are Israeli citizens. They are Palestinian Arabs. They’re Muslim, but above all, they’re better win. Even if the Bedouin way of life is no longer an option, the traditional better one way of life.
25:36
Eli Karetny: But you often remind me that these identity questions can actually create obstacles to progress, and it’s better to think in terms of village strategies. And here we’ve discussed 2 different approaches to kind of sets of tools, some mood and engagement.
25:54
Eli Karetny: Can you talk about what each of these mean to you? Why, some villages would emphasize one approach over the other, and why Rahma has tended to opt for engagement.
26:06
Dvir Warshavsky: sure. So I can say that in general, when we are thinking about the different strategies.
26:12
Dvir Warshavsky: I should say that even though every every village, every community, bedroom community have its own story, which is quite unique. The challenges the big challenges is a is most of the time quite similar. Like all of the villages
26:31
Dvir Warshavsky: doesn’t matter, if they are recognized or unrecognized, suffer by demolition orders by lack of
26:39
Dvir Warshavsky: infrastructures, and many, many challenges which is very similar.
26:45
Dvir Warshavsky: So so it’s not so trivial, and it’s, maybe may surprise us that different villages choose different strategies of how of how to deal with
26:56
Dvir Warshavsky: the very challenging and difficult situation that they are deal with.
27:02
Dvir Warshavsky: So Dvir Warshavsky: if if I I will start with talking about this full mode.
27:08
Dvir Warshavsky: so we know about, and maybe it’s more famous about a few villages that they are like the role model of how a bedroom, local community, a struggle, and and
27:21
Dvir Warshavsky: and in in in more or less effective way try to to get the
27:29
Dvir Warshavsky: rights on on lens, sometimes to to.
27:36
Dvir Warshavsky: So it’s create processes of recognition. So one case study which is very famous is the Omar Khran is a village next to me, and Fora to to my town, maybe more.
27:57
Dvir Warshavsky: which is. Dvir Warshavsky: which is a unrecognized village, who there was a plan to build the
28:06
Dvir Warshavsky: Jewish down above it. Dvir Warshavsky: And then there was a big, like many, many ways. They tried many strategies in many ways, and then some of them was to collaborate with the Jewish actors, and I was part of some of that. This
28:28
Dvir Warshavsky: projects and and Dvir Warshavsky: the same time, and after after a while it was more a central, also more a
28:39
Dvir Warshavsky: protests and and active strategies also, with many times with the Jewish bedroom collaboration.
28:50
Dvir Warshavsky: And then. Dvir Warshavsky: but but in a way. That is more, I can say more like
28:58
Dvir Warshavsky: a classical way in in an active term, because it’s more complicated, but
29:05
Dvir Warshavsky: not for now. Now I will be a quite simplistic, and then i’ll try to to make it more complicated.
29:13
Dvir Warshavsky: So there is a story of which is also a village that destroyed hundreds of times, and every time, like the police destroyed and
29:26
Dvir Warshavsky: the activists and the inhabitants. Dvir Warshavsky: it’s the original I mean the the owners of the land come again and build it again. And it’s like very repetitive.
29:37
Dvir Warshavsky: and that’s maybe the classical a form in the the most famous form of a so what there is many other ways that I will not mention all of them, but also
29:50
Dvir Warshavsky: is also a very interesting case studio. If one of you want to see, I think it’s a very interesting, and and you can you can check after
29:59
Dvir Warshavsky: after the Webinar Dvir Warshavsky: and and I want to mention to mention a different way different strategy. which which is a more typical to
30:13
Dvir Warshavsky: community Dvir Warshavsky: in. I think that the during all the history of the village and it’s the village, as I said that suffered by the the same challenges, like every other unrecognized village.
30:29
Dvir Warshavsky: still the strategy focus on Dvir Warshavsky: for operations and then working with
30:38
Dvir Warshavsky: Jewish communities, and also most of the time with the authorities.
30:43
Dvir Warshavsky: and to try to find find out together solutions. I have to say that today that we feel that the political level is, is less an address than
30:56
Dvir Warshavsky: a year ago. So when we have a demolition order, it’s more like a collaboration between communities.
31:04
Dvir Warshavsky: And that’s that’s I think the the most important thing here.
31:10
Dvir Warshavsky: and it’s it’s independent in what’s going on in the politic 11 like. I think that there is a stable infrastructure of connections between the communities, which is also a strategy of how to deal with demolition, all those how to deal with the lack of infrastructures. And I think that
31:29
Dvir Warshavsky: thinking about what’s happened in the last 10 years, this last 10 years in we we can see a few very successful processes that we can.
31:43
Dvir Warshavsky: We we can see as a Dvir Warshavsky: outcome of of this strategy. Starting with creating a building.
31:54
Dvir Warshavsky: the kindergarten, the first indoor garden in the village about 15 years ago, I think if i’m right, maybe 17, yeah. And no 15. Yeah. Okay. And then and also 3 years ago, after a very long and intensive process.
32:12
Dvir Warshavsky: And that was, it Dvir Warshavsky: was a a project that there was also a collaboration between a actors from Italian and from the leadership of last me, and they established a elementary school, which is Lima now is the the manager of the size of this school.
32:34
Dvir Warshavsky: which which is an official school of the Ministry of education and everything. And so it’s not. Of course there is many, many things that we still have to do. It’s only one step, and then the go, of course.
32:49
Dvir Warshavsky: is to have a service center is to recognize this village, but I think that that the steps that we already did, and I say we because I think that it’s a a share shirt project. Of that many will come people.
33:05
Dvir Warshavsky: I think that we did something that is very unique, and it makes me to think that
33:12
Dvir Warshavsky: the strategy of collaborations between communities Dvir Warshavsky: is a is a very effective way.
33:19
Dvir Warshavsky: Maybe I will add Dvir Warshavsky: that I think that this choice, the choice of rasm to
33:25
Dvir Warshavsky: to take this Dvir Warshavsky: strategy. Dvir Warshavsky: Connect I. There is many factors here, but one of them, maybe 2 of them, is what they’d be mentioned that Las Vegas, in fact, part of it will come, and it will come surrounded by rasm. And actually the center of it will come. The commercial center is also.
33:45
Dvir Warshavsky: and and the services center of real time is also the services and the commercial center of. So the connection between the the communities is very like it’s very basic. It’s daily.
33:58
Dvir Warshavsky: and it it makes more levels of of connections, of of collaborations, and which is very, extremely important.
34:05
Dvir Warshavsky: and also the cultural background, which is also something that the that we mentioned mentioned. And I think that it’s also a very important point.
34:17
Dvir Warshavsky: and maybe I will adjust to say Dvir Warshavsky: to to Con as a conclusion that when we talk about solid.
34:27
Dvir Warshavsky: I think that some more have Dvir Warshavsky: many applications like there is more active applications that we can see in many villages.
34:36
Dvir Warshavsky: and also sometimes in. But I think that an important application that we we can see in Rasman, and it’s
34:43
Dvir Warshavsky: also a form of Simon is Dvir Warshavsky: is also about patience. He is also about the understanding.
34:53
Dvir Warshavsky: and that’s something that Simon told me 2 months ago, when the Government just elected, and I was really worried, and I went to Slim on, and I asked him what what we’re going to do right now. It’s really scary, and and we don’t really know what’s going to happen to all the projects that we we do. And Simon told me, okay, see
35:11
Dvir Warshavsky: if it will be and not democratic government, you know. It’s not the first one in this area.
35:19
Dvir Warshavsky: The Ottoman Empire was here. Dvir Warshavsky: It wasn’t the most democratic, you know, political system. The British Mand that was here, and they left, and we are still here.
35:33
Dvir Warshavsky: and you and me. We’re still gonna be here, and and and we just have to wait.
35:39
Dvir Warshavsky: And I think that this form of so mode is is is an important point, because
35:46
Dvir Warshavsky: I really believe that all of us like in in this the communities. The society is gonna be here, anyway, in any case. So all all the infrastructures, all the all the connections that we create in this level, I think that it’s is is really
36:06
Dvir Warshavsky: so standing by the way to to to look on on on this very complicated situation.
36:12
Dvir Warshavsky: Yeah, thank you very much and lots of important things.
36:18
Eli Karetny: and I I wanna shift the to talking about the school and hearing about from both Debbie and and Suliman about the process of, you know, getting the approvals getting the school bill. What are kind of all the different moving parts. But I I do want to first follow up with with something you said one of the things you said, you know, in thinking about this special relationship between Raqqa and and you know, Ham, and the way that the the tools of of engagement have been effective for Rahma.
36:48
Eli Karetny: Remember you telling me in the past that other bedroom villages also tried, you know, tried engagement, tried other approaches, and and they they weren’t effective. So the kind of turning to kind of some mood as a kind of long term resistance. Strategy was seemed to be for some villages the the only alternative left
37:08
Eli Karetny: but for for Rahmah engagement has been effective, so I maybe help us see again, or or further. W. Why, Why, it’s worked there, and it doesn’t work elsewhere. And you mentioned the location, the kind of the closeness.
37:21
Eli Karetny: proximity, the geographical closeness to to you know you also mentioned the kind of for the cultural history of of, and the kind of the make up of of of you to hom. But I wonder if if leadership plays any role. There’s civic leadership.
37:37
Eli Karetny: but also political leadership leaders in Rahma leaders in Utahom. What makes them different than maybe a a leaders elsewhere throughout Israel.
37:48
Dvir Warshavsky: Yeah, that’s a good point. So I think that basically the the connections in the more like daily level in so small place like it will come in last me.
38:01
Dvir Warshavsky: so that immediately affects also the decision making in the political level in the municipality of it will come. And of course, in the Council of Rasm, which exists, I have to say, and 101.
38:18
Dvir Warshavsky: So that’s that’s one thing that it’s. I think that it’s important to to note.
38:24
Dvir Warshavsky: And yeah, and and also Dvir Warshavsky: it may be.
38:30
Dvir Warshavsky: I I may say that the I think that the in different Dvir Warshavsky: in different communities in different villages it’s Sometimes there is
38:41
Dvir Warshavsky: similarities to what’s to the situation here in in your, for example, and also in Diamonda, which is about 15 min north from Iraq, and there is also a a village next to the Mona, who called the Casino.
38:58
Dvir Warshavsky: And then Dvir Warshavsky: and there is many connections like there is many people from the man who works in the educational system inside Casara sale, and also people from
39:09
Dvir Warshavsky: it work in the man I like. There is Dvir Warshavsky: connections, and also there is also in the political level. There is a dialogue at least.
39:17
Dvir Warshavsky: and between the communities. Dvir Warshavsky: but I think that the the geographical distance which exist there and have a very big influence, because it’s not in your Also, I think that we we, in a way we can call it a mixed city.
39:31
Dvir Warshavsky: So Dvir Warshavsky: whatever we do in last may effect immediately, it will come if there is a problem, and the people of of last now afraid to be in a roof, and they will not
39:45
Dvir Warshavsky: the the of of of the local communities, so they they will not. The I don’t know, go to come to go to shops, and they will not be at work, and, like the friends of them in your home, will ask why we don’t You don’t come in the opposite like
40:04
Dvir Warshavsky: It’s the it’s a it’s one city in many ways in the Mona and Castle assail there is many connections.
40:10
Dvir Warshavsky: but it’s not the same. You got geographical Dvir Warshavsky: space.
40:16
Dvir Warshavsky: So so in a way, it creates also, I think, different connections and a less connections, I think also, and and it affects. It affects also the
40:32
Dvir Warshavsky: the nature of the of the dialogue between the leadership in both sides.
40:38
Debbie Golan: But but it’s not the dichotomy. Okay, there’d be one. I want to add something. So I I would like to add that in the neighbour good neighbors network between the mits paramount, and
40:52
Debbie Golan: even though there is geographical distance. There’s a lot of interactions, especially around joint tourism, entrepreneurship, and also and now the recognition of Abe, which is a large
41:03
Debbie Golan: hereto for unrecognized village that was one of the 3 Rahma Abde, and in Hashemzana that were recognized by the Government by the preceding government, and and
41:16
Debbie Golan: are in some kind of recognition process, and Jews and Bedwin are working together both on the leadership level and also on the grassroots level in that area, and to a lesser extent, but also in Arad Telescope there is a interaction between especially education and Women’s groups
41:35
Debbie Golan: at the schools in Bolt, Arad, the Democratic School, and the school in Elfura and Tallahad, and and the around enrichment activities. I wanted to maybe translate for Suleiman.
41:47
Debbie Golan: Your question maybe, has something to add about leadership, because I think it is an important question
42:11
Debbie Golan: the the
42:16
Debbie Golan: so you should be my bedroom ab day.
42:24
Debbie Golan: But but the kidu she’s Debbie Golan: sharing to him
42:30
Debbie Golan: tagat Al-miye tad license
42:39
Dvir Warshavsky: and
43:00
Dvir Warshavsky: she
43:09
Dvir Warshavsky: a
43:15
Dvir Warshavsky: hey?
43:28
Dvir Warshavsky: I mean
43:42
Dvir Warshavsky: a
44:23
Debbie Golan: all kinds of interactions. The the commercial center is to be able mentioned the the fact that I mentioned also the residents of roughly get their services from you will come. So there is that interaction. But also there’s a lot of opportunities through a Tibet bar and other communal organizations for mutual.
44:42
Debbie Golan: a consultation for mutual interaction, and that he it Part of that is also that the leadership
44:49
Debbie Golan: in both towns in both the knows knows each other, and also the last point was very important. In other words, Tai Kyle is invited to Rahma to speak. When we had demonstrations to open the school in in Raqqa. So she came to speak, and her, the leader of the opposition to the municipal council also came to speak.
45:08
Debbie Golan: and the the a lot of people in Rahma about 300 Bedwin are registered as voters in Yukon, because a lot of roughness it’s in the
45:17
Debbie Golan: jurisdiction. The the boundaries, the the municipal boundaries of your will have
45:23
Debbie Golan: which Yukon has decided to give up. Debbie Golan: and Ramat, negative Regional Council have decided to give up about 2,000. Do not for the betterment, for the for the planned recognized dropway in the future. So
45:38
Debbie Golan: there’s a sense here that it’s going to be better for both communities. If situation in Rahma will improve, and that we have a mutual responsibility to help each other. I think that’s right. That’s what
45:50
Debbie Golan: So I was trying to say.
46:33
Dvir Warshavsky: who are we?
46:41
Dvir Warshavsky: And Dvir Warshavsky: my time T. V.
46:55
Dvir Warshavsky: The I have the
47:09
Dvir Warshavsky: but it’s it’s. Maybe it’s.
47:21
Eli Karetny: Thank you, because i’m on. We don’t have too much time I want to take at least a few questions from the audience. I have, you know, tons more questions, but i’ll be able to follow up with you guys, you know, after the Webinar about lots of. But here’s a a question from from Carol sitcherman, and it’s a question that also kind of
47:40
Eli Karetny: frames there our whole discussion today, and Eli Karetny: it’s about to what extent Rahma can be a model or or the relationship between you, Don’t, have to be a model. Carol asks, Can the cooperation cooperative relationship between the Bedouin village of Rahma and the Jewish town of Gilcombe be emulated in other communities that Don’t have the demography of you know how.
48:02
Eli Karetny: To what extent does that demography demographics make the town receptive to cooperation? So to? Is there something here or that that can be a model to to others.
48:13
Debbie Golan: and maybe maybe I think that’s the whole idea of the good neighbors network was to use Euro-com Rahma relations and mutual projects, joint projects as models for other places. And when we have funding we could do a lot, and even without funding, we’re still doing.
48:28
Debbie Golan: Not a not Not so, not very. We. We’re we’re doing significant things together. And I think that
48:36
Debbie Golan: I spoke about the demography right. If there’s a Debbie Golan: a kind of mutual culture of hospitality and
48:46
Debbie Golan: live and let live. Okay, that is characteristic of your hub, then.
48:51
Debbie Golan: That’s it. I think. Le Man also mentioned right now in what he was saying, that people in Alaska want to live their lives
48:59
Debbie Golan: quietly. If there is a theft Debbie Golan: in in your home, and it’s bed when it’s never bed, when from Rahma it’s from other places. And there’s a there’s been offers of cooperation in in the the Civil Civil Civil Civil Guard, so to speak, of the
49:22
Debbie Golan: There’s Debbie Golan: this. The brief answer is, Yes, I I think that there this can be a model, and the kinds of projects that we’re doing. There’s a lot that we can learn and teach other places to
49:37
Eli Karetny: the farm that we have only a few minutes left, and we’re getting a couple of really good questions on from from Mary and Kaplan. She asks whether the schools are integrated. I I know they’re not, but maybe you can just say something more about. You know better when schools being for the better when children and separated from the Jewish schools.
50:24
Dvir Warshavsky: you a mute
50:40
Dvir Warshavsky: Yeah, it’s the growth. Dvir Warshavsky: Yes, that mode
51:17
Dvir Warshavsky: they had to be on a bedroom. I for not here. I need no idea.
51:22
Debbie Golan: I’m not i’m not as a mentality currently in Rahma and in your home won’t.
51:33
Debbie Golan: won’t, be amenable to having a a a a bilingual school, or a by national school. People are interested in having education systems or institutions that reflect their own cultures and help them
51:48
Debbie Golan: advance their children. But it it doesn’t contradict the deep desire for coexistence and mutual respect.
51:57
Debbie Golan: The question of land, he said if we had. There are also examples of people from Raqqa who’s children studied in Yoruhan schools.
52:05
Debbie Golan: but also went back to out of your office and move back to Rosma Debbie Golan: A,
52:12
Debbie Golan: and we can go into this. But there’s not really a lot of time. Debbie Golan: if not always. I think integration is the best.
52:21
Debbie Golan: The way to enable people to move ahead. That’s my permission. That’s my take on things. But another very important issue that he mentioned is that
52:30
Debbie Golan: the whole question of land and the Bedouin claims to only about 3% of the territory of the negative. But he said, okay, if the Government doesn’t think that
52:40
Debbie Golan: we. We even have that land. So where am I going to live right? So
52:46
Debbie Golan: he thinks that that maybe Debbie Golan: in a in a mixed school some of the politics might get in the way of mutual joint education that would be beneficial to both communities.
52:58
Eli Karetny: Thank you.
53:06
Dvir Warshavsky: is shared. Debbie Golan: He wants to. So they might have something urgent that came up.
53:11
Dvir Warshavsky: and he’s he’s apologizing that he has to
53:17
Debbie Golan: You’ll have another question a last question he’d be. You’ll be happy to answer before he goes. Maybe something about the the the role that the school plays in the kind of unfolding process of recognition. What what comes next? Water, electricity, paved roads like. What w that? That that sequencing work?
53:53
Dvir Warshavsky: Say a classic. Dvir Warshavsky: And it’s no
54:02
Dvir Warshavsky: I I
54:08
Dvir Warshavsky: the
54:15
Dvir Warshavsky: Hello, Akara! Dvir Warshavsky: No. Can I make sure
54:23
Dvir Warshavsky: De Luca, my and Shehma comes here in my there. Dvir Warshavsky: you know no relevant. It’s no. I heard you from a car
54:34
Dvir Warshavsky: that’s it through.
54:52
Dvir Warshavsky: It’s the they that I had no
55:01
Dvir Warshavsky: myself but Debbie Golan: the fact, the fact, he says, that the fact that there is a school, one of the factors in the recognition of the town, and that he, he.
55:15
Debbie Golan: he what he sees and what he feels Bedwin in is recognition, and on their own terms, in other words, a a a model of a town that will be also agricultural, and enable them to pursue certain traditional ways of life that they have.
55:32
Debbie Golan: But what are the things that they’re aiming for is this kind of Mo shave, which is an Israeli Jewish, cooperative, agricultural village that can combine tourism with agriculture with people who live there and do engage in other professions, and there’s no reason that it can’t be a model for
55:51
Debbie Golan: Rahm and other Bedwin villages in the negative, so that it’s not a completely urban settlement, but something that’s more integrated with the way of life of Bedwin traditionally, and just to say that next week there’s a visit of the ministry of Agriculture people, and in the text that I’m sent the third text. He talks about
56:11
Debbie Golan: how when we work together getting Debbie Golan: higher-ray ranking officials down to discuss making a Bedwin moshave is something that Jews can do more easily with Bedwin, and then, when the Bedwin talk, it’s a different perspective when it’s backed up by Yurujan, by the mayor, and by leadership
56:34
Debbie Golan: and by civilian activists, that Debbie Golan: that can explain why it’s so important to do something that will have sustainability and relevance for bedwin way of life.
56:48
Eli Karetny: Thank you, Debbie Toda Sliman. Eli Karetny: Maybe we just to to close things off. We only have a few minutes left. It would be great to learn to to understand little more about what recognition means, like what? What was the process of getting here now that it it’s kind of happened. What what does it mean now? Does it? Does it really pave the way for further developments? Is it a kind of
57:12
Eli Karetny: you know? Is it a symbolic thing, because it it always I thought of it as something more than symbolic, that it really has legal weight right? But but but what’s changed since recognition, so maybe help us understand that
57:25
Debbie Golan: you can complete my my my answer. But I think that the answer is that it’s not so clear for everyone like
57:38
Dvir Warshavsky: we. We are looking on the recognized villages, and like on the like, Officially.
57:44
Dvir Warshavsky: Yeah, when you were recognized on a village legally. Dvir Warshavsky: so you can hope that there will be like a a plan for this like planning
57:56
Dvir Warshavsky: a process, and then Dvir Warshavsky: recognition will mean that there will be like a services center, and we see that sometimes there is sometimes not. And
58:09
Dvir Warshavsky: but but it’s it’s it’s an important step, because I I will. I would say that without recognition. There is no chance
58:17
Dvir Warshavsky: to these processes. Dvir Warshavsky: but with the recognition it’s an option. It’s not necessarily will happen, because it’s really not so clear. What’s
58:24
Dvir Warshavsky: the immediate effect of this act, but it’s a necessary necessary step
58:30
Dvir Warshavsky: before all of the of the all the other processes that we want to add something
58:36
Dvir Warshavsky: Yeah. Eli Karetny: muted. Debbie Golan: so they might apologize that he had to really leave. Now I think I completely agree that the Government still Hasn’t discovered the most
58:52
Debbie Golan: the best practices for recognizing a Bedouin village, and it’s definitely more than symbolic, because it means that along with a municipal plan, there’s also the possibility of building legally so. There theoretically, wouldn’t be any demolition orders needed.
59:11
Debbie Golan: and that it would mean there are infrastructures like sewage, like paved roads like electricity from the national grid like
59:20
Debbie Golan: after school and the leisure activities like a community center. These things Don’t exist in in as well.
59:30
Debbie Golan: and also water in a in a better way, and and then, as Saliman said in our preparatory meeting, he said that he would. He’s he’s dying to pay municipal taxes, because it’ll mean he’ll be getting the services that are due to him, and not only that, but negative towns
59:47
Debbie Golan: and other towns in Israel that are low in the lower ranking of Israeli socioeconomic ranking of Israeli settlements. They get discounts and taxes in your home residents. We pay 10% less taxes, and he’s saying, i’m, i’m dying to get a 10% discount on my taxes. So far my salary goes mostly to taxes.
1:00:05
Debbie Golan: so it’s definitely something promising. He also mentioned in the preparatory meeting. It’s in the text a translator for him that
1:00:13
Debbie Golan: he he wants a house, a permanent settlement, not pertinent building right, not a metal shack that he may have to change the roof if the weather is bad, and and might leak and stuff, and
1:00:25
Debbie Golan: and it’s true that some of the Bedwin have made nice homes out of those metal shacks, but it’s no
1:00:31
Debbie Golan: a comparison to a home that has a paved road, and that has a neighborhood, and it has the infrastructures that hopefully future Rahma will. And, as beer mentioned, the so far the examples of some of those recognized bedroom villages
1:00:47
Debbie Golan: not talking about the towns initiated by by Israel are not that attractive to to to Bedwin? So what we’re trying to do here, I think, in Rahma together.
1:00:59
Debbie Golan: the Bedwin of Rahma and the Jews in the and the leadership in both communities is to create a model of what
1:01:06
Debbie Golan: could work for the best Debbie Golan: right? And that’s what we’re working on. Eli Karetny: Thank you, Debbie. Thank you, Devere, and I’ll thanks, Sliman again. It’s time to wrap up. I wish we had more time, and our conversations will continue. But I invite the Bora back to to to wrap things up. Thank you again.
1:01:26
Eli Karetny: Thanks, David. Deborah Dwork: Tomorrow, please. What I add my thanks. For some reason I I press the
1:01:35
Deborah Dwork: it start Video. Deborah Dwork: Okay. So I add my thanks to Eli. And I thank you, Eli, for moderating this really riveting conversation. So many thanks to Debbie to Sulimon, to beer, and to everyone who has joined to listen. Today
1:01:57
Deborah Dwork: the discussion prompts us to think a new and in light of the current political situation, and what we have learned to plum new perspectives.
1:02:10
Deborah Dwork: so warmest wishes to all stay safe. Stay well.

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https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=29027
Colonizing Palestine:

The Zionist Left and the Making of the Palestinian NakbaAREEJ SABBAGH-KHOURYSERIES: STANFORD STUDIES IN MIDDLE EASTERN AND ISLAMIC SOCIETIES AND CULTURES

AUGUST 2023

History / Middle East

Middle East Studies

Sociology / Middle East

Among the most progressive of Zionist settlement movements, Hashomer Hatzair proclaimed a brotherly stance on Zionist-Palestinian relations. Until the tumultuous end of the British Mandate, movement settlers voiced support for a binational Jewish-Arab state and officially opposed mass displacement of Palestinians. But, Hashomer Hatzair colonies were also active participants in the process that ultimately transformed large portions of Palestine into sovereign Jewish territory. Areej Sabbagh-Khoury investigates this ostensible dissonance, tracing how three colonies gained control of land and their engagement with Palestinian inhabitants on the edges of the Jezreel Valley/Marj Ibn ‘Amer.

Based on extensive empirical research in local colony and national archives, Colonizing Palestine offers a microhistory of frontier interactions between Zionist settlers and indigenous Palestinians within the British imperial field. Even as left-wing kibbutzim of Hashomer Hatzair helped lay the groundwork for settler colonial Jewish sovereignty, its settlers did not conceal the prior existence of the Palestinian villages and their displacement, which became the subject of enduring debate in the kibbutzim. Juxtaposing history and memory, examining events in their actual time and as they were later remembered, Sabbagh-Khoury demonstrates that the dispossession and replacement of the Palestinians in 1948 was not a singular catastrophe, but rather a protracted process instituted over decades. Colonizing Palestine traces social and political mechanisms by which forms of hierarchy, violence, and supremacy that endure into the present were gradually created.

About the author

Areej Sabbagh-Khoury is Assistant Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Reviews

“Colonizing Palestine guides us with great precision and acumen through the memory lanes of Israelis and Palestinians. Those who think they have read it all about the Nakba and its impact on our present realities will need to consult this impressive and crucial addition to the literature on settler colonialism and Palestine.”—Ilan Pappé, University of Exeter

“Areej Sabbagh-Khoury’s groundbreaking book sheds light on the structures and events that facilitated Zionist settler colonialism in Palestine. A must-read for anyone who wants to understand exactly how the tensions between socialism and Zionism played out on the ground.”—Maha Nassar, University of Arizona

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https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/document?repid=rep1&type=pdf&doi=1a68621207ab977886041b5d3ee32db984dcad7e

borderlands

e-journal

www.borderlands.net.au

VOLUME 14 NUMBER 1, 2015

Mohammed Abu-Khdeir and the Politics of Racial Terror in

Occupied Jerusalem

Sarah Ihmoud

University of Texas, Austin

Harvard’s Hijacked Center for Middle Eastern Studies

23.03.23

Editorial Note

The Center for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES) at Harvard University will host on March 30, 2023, Prof. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, chair in Law, Institute of Criminology-Faculty of Law, The Hebrew University; and Chair in Global Law, Queen Mary University of London.

The invitation states, “Her research focuses on trauma, state crimes and criminology, surveillance, gender violence, law and society. She studies the crime of femicide and other forms of gendered based violence, violence against children in conflict ridden areas, crimes of abuse of power in settler colonial contexts, surveillance, securitization and social control. As a resident of the old city of Jerusalem, Shalhoub-Kevorkian is a prominent local activist. She engages in direct actions and critical dialogue to end the inscription of power over Palestinian children’s lives, spaces of death, and women’s birthing bodies and lives.”

The CMES homepage directs the reader to “Readings and Digital Resources on Palestine,” a list of readings on Palestine gathered by Rosie Bsheer and Cemal Kafadar, CMES core faculty members. The reading list aims to “contextualize current events in Palestine,” offering “analyses and histories of expulsion, occupation, settler colonialism, forced evictions, home demolitions, and annexation that situate the current struggle as part of the ongoing Nakba of 1948 and in relation to the Naksa of 1967. These resources also point to the myriad attempts to control knowledge production on Palestine and to silence critical speech that attempts to humanize Palestinians.”

The Center’s one-sided list of readings includes: “Fayez Abdullah Sayegh, Zionist Colonialism in Palestine, Vol. 1 (Beirut, Lebanon: Research Center, Palestine Liberation Organization, 1965). Walid Khalidi, From Haven to Conquest: Readings in Zionism and the Palestine Problem Until 1948 (Institute for Palestine Studies, 1971). Fouzi Al-Asmar, To Be an Arab in Israel (Institute for Palestine Studies, 1978). Rosemary Sayigh, The Palestinians: From Peasants to Revolutionaries (Zed Press, 1979). Edward W. Said, The Question of Palestine (Vintage, 1992). Nadia Abu El-Haj, Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society (University of Chicago Press, 2002). Rafi Segal and Eyal Weizman, A Civilian Occupation: The Politics of Israeli Architecture (Verso, 2003). Sara Roy, Failing Peace: Gaza and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Pluto Press, 2006). Ussama Makdisi and Paul A. Silverstein, Memory and Violence in the Middle East and North Africa (Indiana University Press, 2006). Omar Jabary Salamanca, Mezna Qato, Kareem Rabie, and Sobhi Samour, “Past is Present: Settler Colonialism in Palestine,” Settler Colonial Studies 2.1 (2012). Shira Robinson, Citizen Strangers: Palestinians and the Birth of Israel’s Liberal Settler State (Stanford University Press, 2013). Jasbir Puar, “Rethinking Homonationalism,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 45.2 (2013), 336-39. Ella Shohat, On the Arab-Jew, Palestine, and Other Displacements (Pluto Press, 2017). Tareq Baconi, Hamas Contained: The Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance (Stanford University Press, 2018). Rana Barakat, “Lifta, the Nakba, and the Museumification of Palestine’s History,” Native American and Indigenous Studies 5.2 (Fall 2018), pp. 1-15. Sherene Seikaly, “How I Met My Great-Grandfather: Archives and the Writing of History,” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East 38.1 (May 2018), p. 6-20. Ussama Makdisi, Age of Coexistence: The Ecumenical Frame and the Making of the Modern Arab World (University of California Press, 2019). Matthew Hughes, Britain’s Pacification of Palestine: The British Army, the Colonial State, and the Arab Revolt, 1936–1939 (Cambridge University Press, 2019). Noura Erakat, Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine (Stanford University Press, 2019). Rashid Khalidi, The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017 (Metropolitan Books, 2020). Seth Anziska, Preventing Palestine: A Political History from Camp David to Oslo (Princeton University Press, 2020).”

Clearly, Harvard’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies was hijacked by Palestinian and pro-Palestinian advocates, providing anti-Israel bias. As can be seen, the first monograph on the reading list is Zionist Colonialism in Palestine, published by the Palestinian Liberation Organization research center in Beirut. The author, Fayez Abdullah Sayegh, was born in 1922 in Kharaba, Mandatory Syria; as a child, the family moved to Tiberias, and he went to school in Safed. He joined the Syrian Social Nationalist Party in 1938 and was later expelled. In 1949, he earned his Ph.D. in philosophy, with a minor in political science, from Georgetown University. Sayegh worked for the Lebanese Embassy in Washington, DC and at the United Nations. He taught at several universities, including Yale, Stanford, and Macalester College, as well as at The American University of Beirut – his alma mater and the University of Oxford. Sayegh founded the Palestine Research Center in Beirut in 1965. That year, the Center published his historical study entitled Zionist Colonialism in Palestine.

Nothing on the CMES reading list acknowledges that the Palestinians and their Arab allies were belligerent and attacked the Jewish Yishuv. They lost the war between November 30, 1947, and July 20, 1949, which they started. As a result, the Palestinian Nakba in 1948 and Naksa in 1967 were the outcomes of their own making. Moreover, during this period, both Jordan, which occupied the West Bank, and Egypt, which occupied the Gaza Strip, did not find the Palestinians meritorious for independence.

Shalhoub-Kevorkian, who wrote in the past about the “Honor Killing” in Palestinian society, where family members kill the daughter of the family because she is independent, switched her focus to blaming Israel for the “unchilding” (that is, “the authorized eviction of children from childhood for political goals”) of Palestinian children, who are fighting against the Israeli security forces. Stone-throwing, knifing, and shooting are among the Palestinian children’s methods.

Equally important, her switch to writing on settler colonialism is equally egregious. The settler colonialism in Palestine began during the Ottoman Empire era and lasted 402 years.

Contrary to Shalhoub-Kevorkian and CMES assertion, the Jews received the right to establish their national home in their ancestral homeland in Palestine from the League of Nations in 1922. Britain was appointed the executor of this decision. At this time, Transjordan was created for the Arabs in Palestine. The CMES at Harvard University should teach facts, not false.

The CMES has a long history of catering to Palestinians. In one infamous case, it received a donation from the Alawi Foundation, a regime’s charity that specialized in tarnishing Israel in American universities. In return, it hosted as a visiting scholar Ali Akbar Alikhani from the Faculty of Worlds Studies at the University of Tehran, an anti-Semite and a propagandist for the regime. Alikhani suggested that criticisms of the modern Israeli state are immaterial given the “historical violence of Zionism… Israel is a country that from its inception was based on force, coercion and oppression of others.” Among Alikhani’s “academic” sources was the notorious Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy.

An Ivy League University such as Harvard should provide its students with a marketplace of ideas, not one-sided propaganda.

References:

https://cmes.fas.harvard.edu/event/jerusalem-examining-settler-colonialism-and-undoing-colonial-knowledge-production

Jerusalem: Examining Settler Colonialism and Undoing Colonial Knowledge Production

Date:

Thursday, March 30, 2023, 4:30pm to 6:00pm

Location:

CGIS Knafel 262, 1737 Cambridge St, Cambridge, MA 02138

The WCFIA/CMES Middle East Seminar is pleased to present

Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian
Lawrence D Biele Chair in Law, Institute of Criminology-Faculty of Law, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; and Chair in Global Law, Queen Mary University of London

Discussant: M. Brinton Lykes, PhD, Professor of Community-Cultural Psychology and Co-Director of the Center for Human Rights and International Justice, Boston College

Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian is the Lawrence D. Biele Chair in Law at the Faculty of Law-Institute of Criminology and the School of Social Work and Public Welfare at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Global Chair in Law- Queen Mary University of London. Her research focuses on trauma, state crimes and criminology, surveillance, gender violence, law and society. She studies the crime of femicide and other forms of gendered based violence, violence against children in conflict ridden areas, crimes of abuse of power in settler colonial contexts, surveillance, securitization and social control.

Shalhoub-Kevorkian is the author of numerous books among them “Militarization and Violence Against Women in Conflict Zones in the Middle East: The Palestinian Case Study” published in 2010; “Security Theology, Surveillance and the Politics of Fear”, published by Cambridge University Press, 2015. She just published a new book examining Palestinian childhood entitled: “Incarcerated Childhood and the Politics of Unchilding”, and a new edited book entitled: Understanding Campus-Community Partnerships in Conflict Zones”, and is currently co-editing two new book on the sacralization of politics and its effect on human suffering, and Islam and gender based violence.

She has published articles in multi-disciplinary fields including British Journal of Criminology, Feminist Studies, Ethnic and Racial Studies, State Crime, Violence Against Women, Social Science and Medicine, Signs, Law & Society Review, International Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies. As a resident of the old city of Jerusalem, Shalhoub-Kevorkian is a prominent local activist. She engages in direct actions and critical dialogue to end the inscription of power over Palestinian children’s lives, spaces of death, and women’s birthing bodies and lives

Contact: Liz Flanagan

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https://cmes.fas.harvard.edu/news/readings-and-digital-resources-palestine

Readings and Digital Resources on Palestine

May 21, 2021

Rosie Bsheer, Assistant Professor of History, and Cemal Kafadar, Vehbi Koç Professor of Turkish Studies, both core faculty members of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, recommend the following English-language materials and resources to contextualize current events in Palestine. These resources offer analyses and histories of expulsion, occupation, settler colonialism, forced evictions, home demolitions, and annexation that situate the current struggle as part of the ongoing Nakba of 1948 and in relation to the Naksa of 1967. These resources also point to the myriad attempts to control knowledge production on Palestine and to silence critical speech that attempts to humanize Palestinians.

Samir Mansour Bookshop in Gaza, Before and After Israeli attack, May 18, 2021. Credit: @samirbookshop

ACADEMIC READINGS

Fayez Abdullah Sayegh, Zionist Colonialism in Palestine, Vol. 1 (Beirut, Lebanon: Research Center, Palestine Liberation Organization, 1965).

Walid Khalidi, From Haven to Conquest: Readings in Zionism and the Palestine Problem Until 1948 (Institute for Palestine Studies, 1971).

Fouzi Al-Asmar, To Be an Arab in Israel (Institute for Palestine Studies, 1978).

Rosemary Sayigh, The Palestinians: From Peasants to Revolutionaries (Zed Press, 1979).

Edward W. Said, The Question of Palestine (Vintage, 1992).

Nadia Abu El-Haj, Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society (University of Chicago Press, 2002).

Rafi Segal and Eyal Weizman, A Civilian Occupation: The Politics of Israeli Architecture (Verso, 2003).

Sara Roy, Failing Peace: Gaza and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Pluto Press, 2006).

Ussama Makdisi and Paul A. Silverstein, Memory and Violence in the Middle East and North Africa (Indiana University Press, 2006).

Omar Jabary Salamanca, Mezna Qato, Kareem Rabie, and Sobhi Samour, “Past is Present: Settler Colonialism in Palestine,” Settler Colonial Studies 2.1 (2012).

Shira Robinson, Citizen Strangers: Palestinians and the Birth of Israel’s Liberal Settler State (Stanford University Press, 2013).

Jasbir Puar, “Rethinking Homonationalism,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 45.2 (2013), 336-39.

Ella Shohat, On the Arab-Jew, Palestine, and Other Displacements (Pluto Press, 2017).

Tareq Baconi, Hamas Contained: The Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance (Stanford University Press, 2018).

Rana Barakat, “Lifta, the Nakba, and the Museumification of Palestine’s History,” Native American and Indigenous Studies 5.2 (Fall 2018), pp. 1-15.

Sherene Seikaly, “How I Met My Great-Grandfather: Archives and the Writing of History,” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East 38.1 (May 2018), p. 6-20.

Ussama Makdisi, Age of Coexistence: The Ecumenical Frame and the Making of the Modern Arab World (University of California Press, 2019).

Matthew Hughes, Britain’s Pacification of Palestine: The British Army, the Colonial State, and the Arab Revolt, 1936–1939 (Cambridge University Press, 2019).

Noura Erakat, Justice for Some: Law and the Question of Palestine (Stanford University Press, 2019).

Rashid Khalidi, The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017 (Metropolitan Books, 2020).

Seth Anziska, Preventing Palestine: A Political History from Camp David to Oslo (Princeton University Press, 2020).

FICTION / POETRY

Emile Habibi, The Secret Life of Saeed: The Pessoptimist (1974, 2001).

Sahar Khalifeh, Wild Thorns (Interlink Books, 1976).

Ghassan Kanafani, Men in the Sun and other Palestinian Stories (Lynn Rienner, 1999).

Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin (Bloomsbury, 2010).

Mahmoud Darwish, In the Presence of Absence, trans. Sinan Antoon (Archipelago Books, 2011).

Basma Ghalayini (ed.), Palestine +100 Anthology: Stories from a Century after the Nakba (Commapress, 2019).

Ibtisam Azem, The Book of Disappearance (Syracuse University Press, 2019).

HUMAN RIGHTS REPORTS

Al-Haq, Annual Report on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, 1989.

UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), Israeli Practices towards the Palestinian People and the Question of Apartheid, 2017.

UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Concluding Observations on the Combined Seventeenth to Nineteenth Reports of Israel, 2019.

Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, Joint Submission to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Occupied Since 1967, 2020.

Human Rights Watch, A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution, 2021.

B’Tselem, A Regime of Jewish Supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This Is Apartheid, 2021.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

Mohammed El-Kurd, “Tomorrow My Family and Neighbors May Be Forced From Our Homes by Israeli Settlers,” The Nation, November 20, 2020.

Noura Erakat and Mariam Barghouti, “Sheikh Jarrah Highlights the Violent Brazenness of Israel’s Colonialist Project, The Washington Post, May 10, 2021.

“Israel v Palestine Conflict,” Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, S08E12, May 16, 2021.

Nora Erakat, interview by Becky Anderson, CNN, May 18, 2021.

Nimer Sultany, “Peaceful Coexistence in Israel Hasn’t Been Shattered – It’s Always Been a Myth,” The Guardian, May 19, 2021.

Omar Barghouti, “People of Conscience: Palestinians Ask You to Boycott Israel,” The Guardian, May 19, 2021.

INDEPENDENT MEDIA

Joel Beinin and Lisa Hajjar, “Palestine, Israel, and the Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Primer,” Middle East Research and Information Project, 2014.

“Gaza in Context,” JADMAG, Summer 2016, Issue 4.1.

Avi Shlaim, “Avi Shlaim on Israel’s New Historians, Hamas, and the BDS Movement,” Jadaliyya, October 23, 2017.

Judith Butler, Angela Davis, Samera Esmeir, and Sherene Seikaly, “Thinking Palestine Intersectionally,” Status, November 19, 2017.

Sarah Ihmoud, “Sheikh Jarrah: The Question Before Us,” Jadaliyya, May 16, 2021.

“On Targeting Doctors in Gaza, Israeli War Crimes, and the Palestinian General Strike,” Democracy Now, May 18, 2021.

“What Does Palestine Mean for Black America? A Conversation in Partnership with the Dream Defenders,” The Root, May 18, 2021.

Amjad Iraqi, “Hamas Breaks out of Its Gaza Cage,” +972 Magazine, May 21, 2021.

TEACH-INS

Holding Palestinian Ground: Lessons from Gaza to Sheikh Jarrah, featuring Samer Abu Aysheh, Ziad Abu-Rish, Issam Adwan, Mariam Barghouti, Noura Erakat, Amjad Iraqi, Yasser Qous, Mouin Rabbani, and Sherene Seikaly, Jadaliyya, May 15, 2021.

Dr. Lana Tatour in conversation with Prof. Rashid Khalidi, Cultural Media, May 17, 2021.

Conversation on Sheikh Jarrah, featuring Ussama Makdisi, Mouin Rabbani, and Sherene Seikaly, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, May 19, 2021.

A Third Intifada? Palestinians and the Struggle for Jerusalem, featuring Rana Barakat, Beshara Doumani, Aya Ghanameh, Weeam Hammoudeh, Adrienne Keene, and Adi Ophir, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Brown University, May 20, 2021.

DIGITAL ARCHIVES / RESOURCES

Al-Quds Archive

Archiving the Struggle: Towards a New Political Imaginary for Palestine

Avalon Project (Yale Law School)

Films by Palestinian Women

Gaza in Context: Narrative Documentary

Nakba Oral History Project

Palestinian Poster Project Archives

Palestinian Oral History Archive (AUB)

Palestine Oral History Project (Columbia University)

Visualizing Palestine

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https://history.fas.harvard.edu/event/cmes-political-thought-islamic-world-findings-study-280-muslim-scholars-7th-century

CMES: Political Thought In The Islamic World: Findings From A Study Of 280 Muslim Scholars From The 7th Century To The Present

Date:

Tuesday, April 26, 2016, 12:30pm to 2:00pm

Location:

CMES, Room 102, 38 Kirkland St, Cambridge, MA

The CMES Middle East Forum presents

Ali Akbar Alikhani
Associate Professor of Political Thought in the Islamic World, Chair, Arab World Studies Department, University of Tehran; Visiting Scholar, Center for Middle Eastern Studies

Contact: Liz Flanagan

Palestinian BDS as Hate Speech

16.03.23

Editorial Note

Arnold Schwarzenegger, the American actor, and politician who served as the governor of California between 2003 and 2011, emerged as an unexpected combatant against antisemitism. In a compelling video, Schwarzenegger spoke about the rising hate and antisemitism that “we have seen all over the world.” He talked about his visit to Auschwitz, the Nazi concentration camp where more than a million Jewish men, women, and children lost their lives. “Once you’ve spent the time to really think about all those things, then your imagination has no choice but to start the real work, how do we stop this from ever happening again? After a trip to Auschwitz, you will never question why never again is the rallying cry of all of the people who fight to prevent another Holocaust.”

Having been deeply touched by his experience in Auschwitz, he decided to appeal to those full of hatred. “I don’t want to preach to the choir. Here is the day I want to talk to the people out there who might have already stumbled into the wrong direction, into the wrong path. I want to talk to you if you have heard some conspiracies about Jewish people or people of any race or gender orientation and thought that makes sense to me. I want to talk to you if you found yourself thinking that anyone is inferior and how to get you because of their religion or the color of their skin, or their gender. I don’t know the road that has brought you here, but I’ve seen enough people throw away their futures for hateful beliefs.״

He ended by pleading, “I don’t care how many hateful things you may have written online. I don’t care how often you have marched with carrying that hateful flag or what hateful things you may have said in anger, there’s still hope for you, there’s still time for you to choose strength, choose life. Conquer your mind. You Can Do It.״

Schwarzenegger did not identify those who wave the flag of hatred by name, but some academic groups and individuals stand out. Earlier this month, the Palestinians and their supporters announced “Israeli Apartheid Week” on campus.

In the US, at UC Davis, Apartheid Week is about to begin. Organized by Students for Justice in Palestine, an on-campus political advocacy group for Palestinian Liberation, it is recognized by chapters nationwide. UC Berkeley’s Apartheid Week is also coming up, where an apartheid wall is erected in conjunction with Bears for Palestine. Apartheid Week is focused on the “right of return for Palestinian refugees and the end of the Israeli occupation in the West Bank in Gaza.”

In the Netherlands, Israeli Apartheid Week is taking place in the Hague, Groningen, Amsterdam, Haarlem, Utrecht, and Leiden under the banner #UnitedAgainstRacism.

In Ireland, the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign organized an “Israel Apartheid Week” in Celbridge, Dublin, Ennis, and Wexford under the banner of “Boycott Israeli Goods Action” on March 4, 2023. The group asked shoppers “not to buy Israeli products on sale in Irish stores.” According to the organizers, the BDS campaign “aims to apply economic pressure through people power, on the Israeli state to compel it to comply with international law and end the apartheid regime it imposes upon the Palestinian people.”

Closter to home, the BDS campaign has targeted Ben Gurion University. The Philosophy Department at BGU is hosting a conference in Israel titled “Anti-theory in the Philosophy of Science and Ethics” between July 4, 2023, to July 6, 2023. The invitation explains that two philosophical movements emerged in the 1970s and 80s, the philosophy of science and ethics. Both challenged the prevailing conception of philosophical theorizing. Despite the undeniable differences between science and ethics, there is an important similarity between the two anti-theory movements. The aim of the conference is to “bring together scholars from philosophy of science and ethics to provide a comparative assessment of anti-theory movements in the philosophy of science and in ethics and to explore ways in which insights gleaned from one subfield can shed light on the other.” The confirmed speakers included Sophie-Grace Chappell (Open University, UK), K. Brad Wray (Aarhus University, Denmark), Nora Hämäläinen (University of Helsinki), Jamie Shaw (Leibniz Universität Hannover), Shlomit Wygoda Cohen (Polonsky Fellow, Van Leer Institute), it says.

However, Prof. Sophie-Grace Chappell has declined the invitation. In a Facebook post, she explained her decision as a response to what she saw as a “brutal” oppression of the Palestinians. She said it is a protest “In light of the longstanding failure of the State of Israel to accord basic human rights to the Palestinian people living within its legitimate territory.” The BDS movement congratulated Chappell on her decision and urged others to follow.

Like most pro-Palestinian advocates, Chappell has never seen fit to discuss the appalling lack of basic human rights in the Gaza Strip and the only marginally better situation in the West Bank. The latest statistics of the Freedom House, which measures civil, religious, and political freedoms around the globe, gave very low marks to the PLO, which runs the West Bank, and especially Hamas, which is in charge of the Strip. Corruption, an integral part of Palestinian self-rule, is also sky-high.

Schwarzenegger’s plea would behoove the BDS movement for an open-minded dialogue as an antidote to hatred of Israel.

References:

https://philevents.org/event/show/105433

Anti-theory in the Philosophy of Science and Ethics

July 4, 2023 – July 6, 2023

Philosophy Department, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Beersheba Israel

View the Call For Papers

Speakers:

Klodian Coko

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Uri D. Leibowitz

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Jamie Shaw

University of Toronto, St. George Campus

K. Brad Wray

Aarhus University

Shlomit Wygoda Cohen

(unaffiliated)

Organisers:

Klodian Coko

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Uri D. Leibowitz

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Topic areas

Talks at this conference

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Details

During the 1970s and 80s two movements emerged—one in the philosophy of science and the other in ethics—that challenged the prevailing conception of philosophical theorizing in their respective fields. In PoS, Paul Feyerabend (1970, 1975) criticized attempts to identify a scientific method and to formulate a theory of scientific rationality. Scientists, he claimed, do not—and should not—follow strict rules of a fixed method. In ethics, a diverse group of prominent philosophers questioned the purpose and value of moral theorizing. They insisted that excellent moral behavior does not consist in following strict moral principles and that organizing our lives on dictates of moral theory is morally pernicious (MacIntyre 1981; Williams 1985; Baier 1985; Taylor 1989).

Despite the undeniable differences between science and ethics, there is, nevertheless, a deep and important similarity between the two anti-theory movements—they both reject the presumption that a chief task of their field is to formulate strict principles for practical guidance. Interestingly, this principal similarity has been overlooked and the debates in the philosophy of science and in ethics have developed independently one from the other. The aim of the workshop is to bring together scholars from philosophy of science and ethics to provide a comparative assessment of anti-theory movements in the philosophy of science and in ethics and to explore ways in which insights gleaned from one subfield can shed light on the other.

Confirmed Speakers: Sophie-Grace Chappell (Open University, UK), K. Brad Wray (Aarhus University, Denmark), Nora Hämäläinen (University of Helsinki), Jamie Shaw (Leibniz Universität Hannover), Shlomit Wygoda Cohen (Polonsky Fellow, Van Leer Institute)

The workshop is organized by Dr. Uri D. Leibowitz (urileib@bgu.ac.il) and Dr. Klodian Coko (klodian.coko.hps@gmail.com) from the Philosophy Department at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in conjunction with a research project funded by the Israeli Science Foundation (ISF 1943/20).

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Registration

Is registration required? Yes

Registration deadline: June 15, 2023, 9:00am IST

How to register: antitheory.bgu [here goes you know what sign] gmail.com

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https://bdsmovement.net/news/scholar-sophie-grace-chappell-withdraws-from-ethics-conference-apartheid-israel

Scholar Sophie Grace Chappell Withdraws From Ethics Conference in Apartheid Israel

March 8, 2023

/ By

Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI)

As Palestinians, we salute scholar Sophie Grace Chappell for her principled decision to withdraw from the Anti-theory in the Philosophy of Science and Ethics conference in apartheid Israel.

Chappell withdrew over “the longstanding failure of the State of Israel to accord basic human rights to the Palestinian people” and the “increasingly extreme, inhumane, and violently oppressive policies currently being deployed against innocent Palestinians by the Settler movement in the West Bank and elsewhere, with the connivance and at times active support of the Israeli [occupation forces] and of members of the present Israeli government.”

We appreciate the fact that Chappell chose to heed Palestinian and anti-colonial Israeli appeals urging her not to allow Israel’s decades-long apartheid regime, currently under its most racist, homo- and trans- phobic government ever, to use her name and standing as a stamp of approval.

With her withdrawal, Chappell joins the many principled scholars who are refusing to participate in complicit conferences that whitewash Israeli apartheid. It sends a message to Israel that, like apartheid South Africa, it cannot continue to commit the crime against humanity of apartheid without consequences. It also signals to Israeli institutions that are complicit in apartheid that scholars will not continue business-as-usual relations with them.

The conference host, Ben Gurion University, is deeply complicit in Israel’s system of oppression against Palestinians. As early as 2011, the University of Johannesburg in South Africa severed all institutional ties with Ben Gurion University after a fact-finding mission found it guilty of “institutional complicity and active collaboration with the Israeli military, occupation and apartheid practices.”

We urge all remaining speakers to follow Chappell’s ethical example by withdrawing from the conference at Ben Gurion University. Apartheid was the antithesis of ethics in South Africa, and it is the same with Israel. Organizing a conference on ethics in apartheid Israel makes a travesty of ethics.

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Sophie Grace

1 March at 15:39

In light of the longstanding failure of the State of Israel to accord basic human rights to the Palestinian people living within its legitimate territory, or adjacent to that territory; in light of the increasingly extreme, inhumane, and violently oppressive policies currently being deployed against innocent Palestinians by the Settler movement in the West Bank and elsewhere, with the connivance and at times active support of the Israeli Defence Force and of members of the present Israeli government; in light of the Netanyahu administration’s continuing attacks upon the judiciary and the rule of law in Israel; in light of my perception that if I went to Israel and was arrested for protesting about these things, the probability of effective lobbying for my release from the British Government is extremely low; and in light of the advice of friends both Palestinian and Israeli; I have reached the conclusion that I must withdraw from the speaking engagement at a conference in Israel in June that I entered into last November, when consequences of the result of the last Israeli General Election that are now obvious to all, were not yet apparent to me.

I must apologise to the organisers of the conference for any inconvenience caused to them by my decision, which is not reversible except by a drastic alteration in the political situation in Israel.

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Students for Justice in Palestine mark ‘Apartheid Week’

Students for Justice in Palestine mark ‘Apartheid Week’

BYMONICA STARK

MARCH 9, 2023

A large Palestinian flag hung from a tree in the quad, waving in the sunshine as students gathered around on Wednesday to hear personal stories about life in Palestine and precautions when visiting there.

Organized by Students for Justice in Palestine, an on-campus political advocacy group for Palestinian Liberation, the teach-in was day three in a weeklong event at UC Davis known as Apartheid Week, recognized by chapters nationwide. Focused on the right of return for Palestinian refugees and the end of the Israeli occupation in the West Bank in Gaza, throughout the week, educational events also included a Hunger Banquet: Living on $1.90 a Day and work on an apartheid wall at UC Berkeley in conjunction with Bears for Palestine.

The World Bank’s previous definition of “extreme poverty”, $1.90 per person per day, was updated last September, measuring at $2.15 per person per day. According to the World Bank, about 648 million people were in extreme poverty in 2019.

President of SFJ UCD Yara (who requested her last name be withheld for safety reasons) said Apartheid Week highlights how “the system perpetuates apartheid” and how different experiences of Palestinians differ depending on gender, age, where they are geographically in Palestine. “Even within the West Bank, Palestinians, some different towns and cities are living under different forms of restrictions of movement, economic suppression, political and civil suppression from the Israeli military. So throughout the week, we’re just going to be having educational events highlighting these forms of violent oppression that Palestinians are subjected to,” she said.

The Apartheid Wall invites community members to question its symbolism. “There’s an apartheid wall in the West Bank and around Gaza right now, so people struggle to get in or leave, especially when it comes to Gaza. Palestinians can’t leave Gaza, and Palestinians can enter if they live outside,” Yara said.

Seena

Born in the U.S., Seena, the vice president of Students for Justice in Palestine, travels each summer to visit family outside of Palestine. Their village was demolished and her grandparents became refugees in Jordan and Kuwait. She returns every summer to visit family and work in the refugee camps.

“(Working in the camps) is a world within itself,” she said. “Seeing your people that way is challenging, but they have so much hope and resistance. It’s very hard coming into contact with settlers or Israeli forces, but at the end of the day, Palestinian people are the most resilient people I know. It’s a beautiful culture and a beautiful place. While everything we talked about is so sad, I always have shown and shed light on the beauty of the land and the people in the culture.”

What follows is a personal account Seena shared at the teach-in regarding her visit to Palestine last summer. It has been edited for clarity:

I got to go to Palestine for three months, see my family, see my land, and be with my people. And a big thing for me is to go pray in Jerusalem. I got the privilege of doing that this summer, and I couldn’t be more grateful. But I must say it’s not easy for me to get in as a Palestinian woman. My American passport means nearly nothing to them. When I was in Jerusalem, going through all of the little vendors selling food, shirts and little knickknacks, I was stopped by an IOF (Israeli Occupation Forces) soldier. I was asked to present my visa and passport, which I did without argument.

As I waited to get those things returned to me, I had a sweet older man who asked me what village I was from. And I, of course, I’m so proud of where I’m from, and I immediately began to tell him about how the beautiful village my family is from is sadly in ruins, and he was actually able to know and understand, which was very fun and interesting for me. And then, it came time for me to get my passport back.

Before giving my passport back, I was asked to recite the opening verse of the Quran. I was asked, as a Muslim woman, why I was there. Upon being asked to recite the opening verse in the Quran, I couldn’t really bite my tongue, and I looked at him, and I said, “Are you kidding me? Because in what way are you to make me feel so low? It makes me feel as though I have to prove myself as a Muslim woman, on my ground and land, to pray in a mosque for my people?”

And not long after the second those words left my mouth, the environment around me completely changed. He had a gun larger than me on him. He began to explicitly tell me, “Do you understand where you are? I don’t care if you’re from California. This isn’t California. I will have you forcibly removed. I will have you arrested, and I will not allow you to pray in your mosque.” This all happened to me in 10 minutes with my cousin right next to me in absolute and utter shock that I was being treated this way.

But at the same time, I expect nothing less. I expect nothing less of this military occupation. It is something that I do not fear. I do not fear these soldiers. I do not fear these people because, at the end of the day, their main basis, their main foundation, is absolutely nothing. It’s empty words. It’s empty promises. So at the end of the day, I looked at him and said “really” again, and he was starting to get very frustrated. I saw his hand moving to his gun, and I knew that they shoot before they ask.

And, immediately, all I could think about was my family. My mother, my cousin who is a martyr, and at that moment, I knew I couldn’t do that to my family. The countless stories you hear of them shooting up Palestinians are devastating. At that moment, my cousin and I began to recite the verse. And at that moment, he gave us our passports back. But I wasn’t going to go without that being said. Midway through the recitation, he asked me to stop after giving me my passport. I continued with my recitation.

I could see the anger on his face because he could tell that I was not bothered. He could tell that there was no effect on me. I walked away with a smile because, at the end of the day, I was still home. That’s my home. I have the right to return to my home, and I wish nothing but that for every Palestinian brother and sister.

My story is no different than thousands of others. My story is not the worst; if anything, it’s a great story. I’m here to tell you about it today. But I want you to know that this is ongoing. Palestinians face going through checkpoints through these interactions, just getting into Palestine. All of that is a struggle for us. But we continue to go because we know that’s home that will forever be home. I am sharing one of my many stories of Palestine’s beautiful land and beautiful people, and I am so proud to call it home.

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https://www.dailycal.org/2023/03/11/student-activists-for-palestine-host-apartheid-week

Student activists for Palestine host ‘apartheid week’

VICTOR CORONA | STAFF

Events began Monday and continued throughout the week.

VICTOR CORONA

STAFF

MARCH 11, 2023

“Apartheid week” is being held this week, hosted by student groups Bears for Palestine, or BFP, and Berkeley Law Students for Justice in Palestine, with the goal of covering “the origins of Israeli apartheid and how it affects Palestinians today.”

Events began Monday and will continue throughout the week, ending with an “apartheid wall assemble” Friday.

“Apartheid week” was planned in collaboration with various Palestinian clubs across campuses in the United States and Canada, said a BFP representative who wished to remain anonymous due to security reasons, in an email.

They noted that the topics and discussions brought up during this week are important to Palestinian Americans and international students, since many have family members who have been “directly affected by the occupation.”

“This year, the United States has already given $3.8 billion to Israel. It’s only March. Since the year started, we have heard reports almost every week about different villages Israeli Defense Forces have been raiding,” the BFP representative said in the email. “We’re constantly worried that the next person we hear about dead will join our long list of family members who have passed at the hands of the regime.”

On Monday, they hosted a workshop discussing the debate around “greenwashing” in Palestine.

Tuesday’s event, titled “Apartheid: The Matrix of Control,” consisted of a workshop with Palestine DeCal facilitators, covering how Israel “controls” Palestinians in occupied territories, the representative said.

On Wednesday, they hosted a screening of “Farha” and had a Q&A with the director Darin Sallam. Thursday’s event, titled “Youth: The Yearn for Return,” consisted of a workshop about Palestinian activism over the years, the representative said, along with a panel discussing questions accumulated throughout the week.

Friday’s planned event consists of a makeshift wall, which they plan to plaster on campus. The BFP representative added that the event and wall were supposed to represent the separation of Palestinians.

“As Palestinians, we’re always attacked when we try to speak about our injustices. The truth is hard to hear, and many choose to be ignorant,” the BFP representative said in the email. “We’re just asking for our basic human rights. We demand our right to return and live in our ancestral homeland without the constant fear of death and erasure.”

A campus sophomore, who wishes to remain anonymous for safety concerns, said in an email that it was “wonderful” to see many people on campus coming together to discuss Palestine.

The source added that the events serve as a reminder of the reality of the “trauma, difficulties, and hardships” Palestinians face.

“It’s incredibly heartbreaking that people have become so desensitized to violence, specifically violence occurring in the MENA region,” the source said in the email. “These events not only bring people together, but they educate us on what a free Palestine really is, and challenges us to unlearn false narratives that have been embedded in our education system and the general media.

Contact Victor Corona at vcorona@dailycal.org, and follow him on Twitter at @victorcoronas.

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https://bdsnederland.nl/iaw2023/
March 12, 2023

Israeli Apartheid Week Begins! #UnitedAgainstRacism

Israeli Apartheid Week kicks off next week! For the 18th time, thousands of events and actions are organized worldwide under the banner of Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) and #UnitedAgainstRacism.

Numerous panel discussions, demonstrations, workshops, film evenings, etc. will also be organized in the Netherlands this year. The Hague, Groningen, Amsterdam, Haarlem, Utrecht and Leiden are #UnitedAgainstRacism

Support #IAW23 with a donation

Inspired by the ongoing resistance in Palestine, we hope to contribute to the Palestinian liberation struggle with Israeli Apartheid Week 2023. We have listed all events. View them below in the IAW Calendar.

Activists, students, organizations and everyone else making #IAW23 possible: You are amazing!

The goal of IAW is to highlight Israel’s regime of settler colonialism and apartheid over the Palestinian people, and mobilize global action to help dismantle it. Thanks in part to IAW, it is becoming increasingly difficult for apartheid Israel to hide the institutionalized racism and systematic oppression of the Palestinians.

IAW fuels the unstoppable growth of the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice and equality.

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Events

[Celbridge] Israeli Apartheid Week – Boycott Israeli Goods Action
Sat, 4 March 2023, 11:00AM
(Outside Castletown Gates)
[Celbridge] Israeli Apartheid Week – Boycott Israeli Goods ActionSat, 4 March 2023, 11:00 Outside Castletown GatesAs part of #IsraeliApartheidWeek 2023, the North Kildare Branch of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign will hold a Boycott Israeli Goods information stall outside Castletown Gates on Saturday 4th March from 11:00am, asking shoppers not to buy Israeli products on sale in Irish stores.The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign aims to apply economic pressure through people power, on the Israeli state to compel it to comply with international law and end the apartheid regime it imposes upon the Palestinian people.
[Dublin] Israeli Apartheid Week – Boycott Israeli Goods Action
Sat, 4 March 2023, 12:30PM
(Outside the old Debenhams Shop, Henry Street, Dublin 1)
[Dublin] Israeli Apartheid Week – Boycott Israeli Goods ActionSat, 4 March 2023, 12:30 Outside the old Debenhams Shop, Henry Street, Dublin 1As part of #IsraeliApartheidWeek 2023, the Dublin Branch of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign will hold a Boycott Israeli Goods leafleting action, meeting outside the old Debenhams shop on Henry Street in Dublin on Saturday 4th March from 12.30pm, asking shoppers not to buy Israeli products on sale in Irish stores.The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign aims to apply economic pressure through people power, on the Israeli state to compel it to comply with international law and end the apartheid regime it imposes upon the Palestinian people.
[Ennis] Israeli Apartheid Week – Boycott Israeli Goods Action
Sat, 4 March 2023, 11:30AM
(Tesco and Aldi, Frances Street, Ennis) [Ennis] Israeli Apartheid Week – Boycott Israeli Goods ActionSat, 4 March 2023, 11:30 Tesco and Aldi, Frances Street, EnnisAs part of #IsraeliApartheidWeek 2023, the Clare Branch of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign will hold a Boycott Israeli Goods leafleting action at Tesco and Aldi in Ennis on Saturday 4th March from 11:30am, asking shoppers not to buy Israeli products on sale in these stores and others such as Dunnes Stores, Lidl etc.The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign aims to apply economic pressure through people power, on the Israeli state to compel it to comply with international law and end the apartheid regime it imposes upon the Palestinian people.
[Wexford] Israeli Apartheid Week – Boycott Israeli Goods Action
Sat, 4 March 2023, 2:00PM
(The Bullring, Wexford)

[Wexford] Israeli Apartheid Week – Boycott Israeli Goods Action

Sat, 4 March 2023, 14:00 The Bullring, Wexford

As part of #IsraeliApartheidWeek 2023, the South East Branch of the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign will hold a Boycott Israeli Goods leafleting action at The Bullring in Wexford on Saturday 4th March from 2pm, asking shoppers not to buy Israeli products on sale in Irish stores.

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign aims to apply economic pressure through people power, on the Israeli state to compel it to comply with international law and end the apartheid regime it imposes upon the Palestinian people

Van Leer Institute and Hebrew University Promote the Israeli ‘Jewish Apartheid Regime’ Fallacy

09.03.23

Editorial Note

The construct of Israel as an apartheid state has deep academic roots. Encouraged by the boycott and the subsequent collapse of the apartheid regime in South Africa, academic activists decided to apply the formula to Israel. Members of Matzpen, the radical group, were the first to use the term ‘apartheid’ to describe the Israeli political system. For example, Uri Davis wrote Israel: An Apartheid State in 1987. However, the early radicals were too marginal and too few to affect a serious change in perception.

The Islamist government in Iran provided a more decisive impetus in the 1990s. Alarmed by the Oslo peace, which would have established a Palestinian state alongside Israel, the regime deployed its formidable propaganda apparatus to push the apartheid narrative, mostly by collaborating with the rapidly growing number of left-wing NGOs. Tehran was triumphant at the 2001 human rights Durban Conference when some three thousand NGSs declared Israel an apartheid state and called for BDS, seen in Tehran as a significant achievement. Propaganda aside, Iran, working through the Quds Force (QF), the foreign operations division of the Revolutionary Guards, did its best to undermine the Israeli trust in the Oslo peace process. The QF activated the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and Hamas in a wave of terror attacks, including the devastating suicide bombings which killed and injured thousands of Israelis. Yasser Arafat, who lost control of the Palestinian Authority, refused to sign the Camp David II peace agreement, an act that triggered the bloody Second Intifada.

Unmoved by these developments, the activist-academic community worked assiduously on promoting the “Israel as an apartheid” construct. In 2002 the British newspaper the Guardian published an exposé on how David Slater, the editor of an academic journal Political Geography rejected articles by Israeli authors just because of their nationality. The exception was a co-authored article by Dr. Oren Yiftachel. After months of negotiations, the editor accepted the article on the condition that it would reference the Israeli polity as an apartheid state. Since then, Yiftachel has published numerous writings using the false narrative that Israel is an apartheid State.

IAM reported in 2021 on Yiftachel’s activism in “BGU Oren Yiftachel’s Two Decades of Apartheid Analogy.” Yiftachel mentioned in his 2021 Haaretz article a report published by the Israeli human rights group B’tselem, which he referred to as an “apartheid document.” Yiftachel, a board member of B’tselem, co-authored this report. It was this report that Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch cited and adopted the apartheid fallacy.

Having emerged as the leader of the activists, Yiftachel was under pressure to explain why Israel should be considered an apartheid country. He took a stab at this in his book Land and Power: from Ethnocracy and Creeping Apartheid in Israel/Palestine, in Hebrew, which is full of confounding statements. For instance, in Yiftachel’s view, Ethiopian Jews, who are full Israeli citizens, are “white.” Israeli Arabs are not white. He never bothered to explain why a “white colonial government” would bring African blacks as immigrants to Israel and even proceed to give them full citizenship.

Despite the glaring contradictions – the construct of apartheid based on racial differences in Israel – the academic community has forged on. According to Google Scholar, over twelve thousand scholarly articles and books discuss the apartheid analogy in Palestine/Israel.

In February 2023, the Israeli social sciences network published a call for papers for a conference titled “A Partnership Based Israeli-Palestinian Peace – Toward a Changed Paradigm.” The conference will occur at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute on May 10, 2023, and at the Hebrew University on May 11, 2023. The invitation explains that it has been twenty years since the collapse of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the intensification of the “Jewish apartheid regime between the Jordan and the sea.”

Unsurprisingly, Yiftachel is on the conference’s steering committee. The committee includes, among others, Dr. Yael Barda of the Hebrew University, another political activist, as IAM reported in 2019.

According to the organizers, there is a growing recognition that “the two-state solution has reached an impasse.” Therefore, “an alternative paradigm for the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, based on equality and partnership (the partnership paradigm), has begun to take shape in academic and public discourse. The most significant change is not rooted in a specific political model; instead, this new paradigm signifies a shift in the basic assumptions for evaluating the desired political arrangements and the social processes that may lead to their realization. The new partnership paradigm assumes that it is not possible, nor is it appropriate, to strive to abolish the existing integration of Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs throughout the country, and recognizes the strong affiliation of the two nationalities to the entire space between the Jordan and the sea. It assumes that national (collective) and individual rights are of equal importance to everyone—Jews and Palestinians—and that their realization is justified insofar as it is consistent with equality between the nations and the individuals.”

The conference aims to “examine, from a multidisciplinary, theoretical, and comparative point of view the possible future implications of this paradigm shift for academic research, social action, and cultural production in the [sic] Israel.”

In other words, the conference promotes an imaginary vision that should replace reality. “According to the commonly accepted approach, Israeli-Palestinian peace will materialize only in a framework of two national states, based on political and geographic separation between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs. This separation paradigm has far-reaching implications for academic research and social action. One particular consequence is the restriction of constitutional, social, economic, and political discourse to the land within the Green Line—effectively categorizing anything beyond it as not representative of the ‘Israeli reality,’ and thus outside the acceptable boundaries for research, discussion, and action. Thus, the partnership paradigm requires corrections in all these aspects and their interplay.”

Among other points, the conference aims to “encourage and facilitate the growing discourse in academia and civil society that focuses on paradigms of peace and decolonization based on equality and partnership.” Also, the conference seeks to establish an “egalitarian political framework” and the “Presentation and examination of grassroots activism aimed at propelling social, cultural, and economic processes for implementing the new paradigm.”

The steering committee “invites proposals related to the conference topic from scholars in a variety of disciplines and using various research methods as well as from individuals involved with the topic in civil society organizations.”

Of course, there is nothing wrong with holding a conference that promotes peace. But the neo-Marxist, critical jargon indicates that the organizers live in a bubble separated from the reality in the region and, indeed, the global scene. The Palestinians are not independent agents that can make peace. Hamas and the PIJ – along with Hezbollah, the Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq, and the Houthis in Yemen – are part of the network of Iranian proxies in the Middle East. Having established dominance in the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank, they would continue to serve as opponents to peace. Indeed, more so now than during the Oslo process. Iran has vastly improved its position by becoming a close ally of Russia and China against the background of the war in Ukraine. The regime has supplied drones to the Russian army; there are concerns that, in return, Moscow would help Tehran to develop its nuclear project. Iran has recently been admitted as a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a Russian-Chinese alliance to counter the American-led international order.

No amount of critical rhetoric can hide these facts. Without explaining the pernicious doings of the Iranian regime, the conference would be just another exercise in Israel-bashing.

Van Leer has used its considerable resources to promote the narrative of apartheid by providing a platform for political activist academics like Yiftachel. It is unfortunate that the Hebrew University is legitimizing Van Leer’s endeavor.

References:

[SocSci-IL] קול קורא להגשת הצעות להשתתפות בכנס ״שלום ישראלי-פלסטיני מבוסס שותפות – לקראת שינוי פרדיגמה״ – מאי 10-11, 2023 ירושלים

On Tue, 14 Feb 2023 at 07:14, limor yehuda wrote:

מכון ון ליר, המחלקה לסוציולוגיה ולאנתרופולוגיה והמרכז לחקר המגוון והרב תרבותיות באוניברסיטה העברית מזמינים הצעות להשתתפות בכנס בנושא״שלום ישראלי-פלסטיני מבוסס שותפות – לקראת שינוי פרדיגמה״.הכנס יתקיים בימים 10-11 במאי, 2023 במכון ון-ליר ובאוניברסיטה העברית בירושלים, וילווה בתרגום סימולטאני מעברית וערבית לאנגלית.מצורף קול קורא בעברית, ערבית ואנגלית.

מועד אחרון להגשת הצעות 1.3.2023.

Limor Yehuda, PhD |

ليمور يهودا ، د. |

לימור יהודה, ד״ר

Research Fellow, The Harry S. Truman Research Institute

for the Advancement of Peace

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Mount Scopus, Jerusalem, Israel

[m] +972.54.20.10.246

Collective Equality: Theoretical Foundations for the Law of Peace, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies (2022)Forthcoming book: Collective Equality – Human Rights and Democracy in Ethno-National Conflicts, Cambridge University Press (2023)

THE VAN LEER JERUSALEM INSTITUTE

Call for Proposals

For Participation in a Conference Titled

A Partnership-Based Israeli-Palestinian Peace – Toward a Changed Paradigm

The conference will take place at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute on Wednesday 10.5.23

and at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on Thursday 11.5.23

Background

A Partnership-Based Israeli-Palestinian Peace – Toward a Changed Paradigm

Twenty years after the collapse of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the intensification of the Jewish apartheid regime between the Jordan and the sea there is a growing recognition that the two-state solution has reached

an impasse. In light of this, in recent years an alternative paradigm for the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, based on equality and partnership (the partnership paradigm), has begun to take shape in academic and public discourse. The most significant change is not rooted in a specific political model; instead, this new paradigm signifies a shift in the basic assumptions for evaluating the desired political arrangements and the social processes that may lead to their realization.

The new partnership paradigm assumes that it is not possible, nor is it appropriate, to strive to abolish the existing integration of Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs throughout the country, and recognizes the strong affiliation of the two nationalities to the entire space between the Jordan and the sea. It assumes that national (collective) and individual rights are of equal importance to everyone—Jews and Palestinians—and that their realization is justified insofar as it is consistent with equality between the nations and the individuals.

Topic and Rationale

According to the commonly accepted approach, Israeli-Palestinian peace will materialize only in a framework of two national states, based on political and geographic separation between Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs. This separation paradigm has far-reaching implications for academic research and social action. One particular consequence is the restriction of constitutional, social, economic, and political discourse to the land within the Green Line—effectively categorizing anything beyond it as not representative of the “Israeli reality,” and thus outside the acceptable boundaries for research, discussion, and action. Thus, the partnership paradigm requires corrections in all these aspects and their interplay.

The goal of this conference is to encourage and facilitate the growing discourse in academia and civil society that focuses on paradigms of peace and decolonization based on equality and partnership. In this context, the conference aims to examine, from a multidisciplinary, theoretical, and comparative point of view the possible future implications of this paradigm shift for academic research, social action, and cultural production in the Israel.

Possible Proposal Topics

1. Change in the analysis and understanding of the conflict and the local situation, in their various dimensions, arising from the adoption of an approach that assumes political partnership and equality

2. New approaches to measuring and evaluating local social, economic, political, cultural, and spatial data and processes

3. Learning comparatively—historically and theoretically—from other places that have undergone a transition from an exclusionary political framework to a more multinational or multi-communal inclusionary and egalitarian political framework

4. Presentation and examination of approaches to Palestinian and Jewish reconciliation and where they overlap or contradict each other

5. The place of local and regional government and of urban spaces in the approach to peace based on equality and partnership

6. Presentation and examination of grassroots activism aimed at propelling social, cultural, and economic processes for implementing the new paradigm

7. The influence of the new geopolitics, including the changes in regional politics and Israel’s status

8. Examination of the roles of the law and the international community, including states, the United Nations, and other international organizations

9. An examination of class, religious, and gender issues and their expression in the partnership paradigm

Submission of Proposals

The steering committee invites proposals related to the conference topic from scholars in a variety of disciplines and using various research methods as well as from individuals involved with the topic in civil society organizations. Each proposal must include the following

details: (1) the proposer’s full name and academic or organizational affiliation;

(2) an abstract of 200–250 words. Proposals for unconventional formats are welcome.

Deadline for Submission of Proposals: 1.3.23

Please send proposals to Nogaf@vanleer.org.il and write in the subject line “Proposal for the conference on partnership-based peace.”

The Conference Steering Committee

Dr. Limor Yehuda, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and The University of Haifa

Mr. Ameer Fakhoury, Polonsky Academy, The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute

Prof. Oren Yiftachel, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev

Dr. Rula Hardel, Shalom Hartman Institute

Dr. Yael Barda, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Dr. Assaf David, The Van Leer Jerusalem Institute.

===============================================

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2002/dec/12/highereducation.uk

‘It’s water on stone – in the end the stone wears out’

This summer, a little-known Manchester academic caused an international storm when she sacked two Israeli scholars from the editorial board of her journal. But was it an isolated freelance protest – or the first skirmish in a wider academic boycott?

Andy Beckett

The Guardian, Thursday 12 December 2002

Until a few months ago, Dr Oren Yiftachel was the kind of Israeli dissident that foreign critics of his country found admirable. He was born on a socialist kibbutz half a century ago. During his 20s and 30s, as that strain of cosmopolitan idealism began to lose its influence on Israel, he went abroad to live and travel. In 1994, he returned to Israel to work in the geography department at Ben Gurion University in the arid south of the country, where the particular proximity of Palestinian settlements and the challenges of desert life in general had made collaboration with Palestinian academics a local tradition.

Over the next eight years, with his open-necked shirt and his open, inquisitive face, Yiftachel became a familiar irritant to Israeli rightwingers. He made a point of working with Palestinians whenever possible. He published books and articles about his government’s illicit appetite for Palestinian land. He told Israeli newspapers that, “Israel is almost the most segregated society in the world.” He set up an Arab-Israeli journal that so enraged some Israeli conservatives that they campaigned to have it banned.

Given these radical credentials, Yiftachel did not anticipate any problems when, last spring, he submitted a paper to a left-leaning periodical called Political Geography. He had written for the respected British journal before. It specialised in the same probings of territory and power as he did. This time Yiftachel’s paper, co-written with a Palestinian academic, Dr Asad Ghanem of Haifa University, described Israel as “a state dedicated to the expansion and control of one ethnic group”; the paper concluded that such societies “cannot be classified as democracies in a substantive sense”.

Yet when Yiftachel heard back from Political Geography, he got a shock. The precise details of what happened are disputed but, according to Yiftachel, the paper was returned unopened. An explanatory note had been attached, he says, stating that Political Geography could not accept a submission from Israel.

“I hadn’t read the paper,” says David Slater, one of the periodical’s editors, who is also a geography professor at Loughborough University and a prominent British supporter of Palestinian causes. “But I was familiar with some of the author’s previous work… I was not sure to what extent he had been critical of Israel.” Slater says he hesitated about what to do with the paper, “for a while”.

“I protested,” Yiftachel says. Through the summer and autumn, it is agreed by both sides, there was a tense exchange of email. Among the editors of the periodical, Slater admits, there was “a slight disagreement” over how to proceed: his colleagues were keener on the paper than he was. Eventually, Yiftachel says, Political Geography was “forced” to consider his work; but between May and November, whenever he asked if it was actually going to be published, the journal simply responded that the paper was “under consideration”.

Finally, in mid-November, between six and eight months after Yiftachel first submitted his paper, depending on whose account you believe, Political Geography informed him that it would publish his article as long as he made “substantial revisions”. Yiftachel was asked to include a comparison between his homeland and apartheid South Africa.

Yiftachel agreed. Yet he still sounds slightly puzzled at how he ran into such difficulties with an apparent political kindred spirit like David Slater. Slater maintains that Political Geography is not officially hostile to contributions from Israel. But then, almost in passing, he mentions something interesting. At some point last spring or summer, while he was pondering Yiftachel’s paper, Slater signed a petition calling for an academic boycott of Israel.

The idea first surfaced as a polite, almost diffident letter to this newspaper on April 6. “Despite widespread international condemnation for its policy of violent repression against the Palestinian people, the Israeli government appears impervious,” the letter began, somewhat predictably. Yet then it proposed a novel solution: “Many national and European cultural and research institutions regard Israel as a European state for the purposes of awarding grants and contracts. Would it not therefore be timely if a moratorium was called upon any further such support unless and until Israel abides by UN resolutions and opens serious peace negotiations with the Palestinians… “

The letter had been written by two British academics: Steven Rose, professor of biology at the Open University, and his wife, Hilary, professor of social policy at Bradford University. Besides their signatures, the letter listed 123 other academics as supporters, mostly European but a few from the US and Israel.

All this did not come completely out of the blue. Nine months earlier, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign had called for a British boycott of Israeli agricultural produce, with some success. Other boycotts of Israeli tourist resorts, Israeli-manufactured goods and Israeli investment opportunities had been long been mooted on the internet. In liberal British academic and literary circles, which for years had contained critics of Israel, there had been renewed stirrings of protest against the Israeli government during 2001 and early 2002: circular letters of support for Palestinian writers, collective statements of outrage at Israeli military tactics, and occasional flashes of public anger, such as the poet Tom Paulin’s repeated comparisons of Israeli nationalists to Nazis. Finally, in the fortnight before the Roses published their letter, there were the daily television and newspaper images from Israel and the Palestinian territories. As invading Israeli tanks ground parts of Jenin to dust and Palestinians bombed chattering cafes in Tel Aviv and civilians on both sides were killed in greater numbers than for decades, it was hard for the politically conscious in Britain and elsewhere not to take sides. “There was this cumulative frustration,” says Steven, “that European governments were not doing more to stop things.”

However, what seemed straightforward in April now seems less so. The original, quite limited, boycott proposed then has grown into something larger and less well-defined. As the Roses’ petition has acquired hundreds more signatures, other, more radical calls for academic boycotts of Israel have been launched from Britain and abroad. Rival counter-petitions condemning the boycotts have been set in motion. And around all this has swirled a vast and ferocious debate about Israel and the Palestinians, about anti-semitism, about academic freedom, about boycotts in general. International political figures have been drawn in: from Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who issued a statement supporting the Roses and comparing their protest to the struggle against apartheid, to Tony Blair, who last month reportedly told Britain’s chief rabbi that he was “appalled” at the academic boycott and would “do anything necessary” to stop it.

One obvious but significant feature of a political dispute involving academics is that they tend to relish arguments. They have access to the internet. They have international contacts and horizons. And since April, as the violence in Israel and the Palestinian territories has continued almost unabated, universities in both places have been directly affected. Israeli campus buildings have been bombed; Palestinian universities have been blockaded by Israeli troops. Whatever your view of the academic boycott, it has become increasingly difficult to dismiss it as pure ivory tower politics.

Yet the extent to which an actual academic boycott of Israel exists, beneath all the rhetoric for and against, has remained mysterious. In April, the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education voted for “all UK institutions of higher and gurther education… to review – with a view to severing any academic links they may have with Israel”. In May, the Association of University Teachers voted for a funding boycott of Israeli universities. But when I rang both unions almost six months later to ask what concrete effect these resolutions had had, a Natfhe press officer said, “I’m unaware of any action being taken so far. Given the size and complexity of higher education institutions, implementing a boycott will take a long time… We’ve asked our branches to engage in a discussion as to what an academic boycott should be.” At the AUT, no one even seemed able to remember what boycott they had agreed.

There have been instances of individual British academics boycotting Israel. In June, two Israeli professors were removed from advisory positions on a pair of small academic journals put out by a Manchester publishing firm called St Jerome. The editor of the journals and the co-owner of St Jerome, Mona Baker, was and is – for the time being at least – a professor of translation studies at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (Umist). She briefly became the most infamous academic in Britain and is currently subject to an investigation by Umist, the limits of which have remained ominously unstated. The inquiry is expected to conclude within weeks.

In April, an English lecturer at Birmingham University called Sue Blackwell removed the links to Israeli institutions from her personal website. A dispute about her underlying attitude to Israel has flickered intermittently since, between her and the Board of Deputies of British Jews. Blackwell’s website has been scrutinised by Birmingham University; last month it was cleared of alleged breaches of university regulations. As with Baker, the very length of the controversy generated by what originally seemed a small political gesture suggests that openly boycotting Israel may be a hard and lonely road to take.

More discreet withdrawals of cooperation, however, may be another matter. As Yiftachel discovered, the workings of academic journals and academia in general, with its intricate, stop-start machinery of international collaborations, research grants and references, paper submissions and promotions and assessments – much of this screened from outsiders by traditions of confidentiality, and by anxiety about damaging careers – provides plenty of opportunities for boycotts and semi-boycotts and temporary boycotts that never declare themselves as such. At some Israeli and British universities, and in some Jewish pressure groups, there are persistent and growing murmurs about boycott-related discrimination. Some cases are minor but revealing. “I am concerned about my return to England at the end of the academic year,” a British lecturer at an Israeli university writes to a friend in London. “English friends have made me feel like a settler for being here.” Other cases are more substantial – a thesis supervisor at a British university, it is alleged, is currently refusing to support an Israeli student’s work due to the student’s nationality – but impossible to prove without the breaking of professional confidences. Other cases are verifiable but add little to the overall picture: St Jerome Publishing recently refused to fulfil an order for a single book placed by Bar-Ilan University in Israel.

On British campuses, the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) claims that anti-Israeli posters and pamphlets and stickers are appearing and anti-Israeli meetings are being held with increasing frequency. Alleged hostility to Jewish student societies and Jewish individuals is also on the rise. “Students are incredibly worried,”says Michael Phillips, the campaigns director of the UJS. “The boycott may have started with reasonably legitimate aims, but it’s a very different thing now.”

In Israel, it is starting to have an effect on everyday academic life. “Every year we send most of our research papers abroad for refereeing,” says Professor Paul Zinger, the outgoing head of the Israel Science Foundation. “We send out about 7,000 papers a year. This year, for the first time, we had people writing back – about 25 of them – saying, ‘We refuse to look at these.'” At the Academic Study Group on Israel and the Middle East, a fund for joint projects between Israeli and British universities, the number of people applying for grants has fallen by a third. “There is a palpable slowing down of academic activity,” says John Levy, who helps run the fund. “We’re not even attempting to set up [joint] workshops. What we’re encountering is very many people who are saying, ‘Can we simply delay matters?'”

Not all of this change, Levy says, is directly because of the boycott. Anxiety about visiting Israel amid the current violence is putting off foreign academics, too. But security concerns can be a useful cover for people who want to withdraw cooperation without causing a fuss. “Since the intifada began we’ve had conferences that people have said they would come to but haven’t,” says Frank Schuldenfrei of the British Council in Tel Aviv. “If someone looks you in the face and says, ‘I’m not coming over because my wife doesn’t want me to come,’ who can say if that’s the reason? There is no doubt that in certain circles Israel has become less popular in the last six months.”

In one of the curious symmetries of politics, strong supporters of the boycott offer the same sort of vague-but-potent anecdotes about its impact as the boycott’s opponents. “We’ve had specific instances of people reporting in, as it were, saying they’ve cancelled such and such a project with Israeli colleagues,” says Steven Rose.

Colin Blakemore, an Oxford University professor of physiology who was one of the original signatories of the Rose letter, says with certainty, “I do not know of any British academic who has been to a conference in Israel in the last six months.”

This matters more to Israel than you might imagine. Academic activity, and particularly science, are areas in which the country excels. “In physiology and neuroscience, physics and computer science, the Israelis certainly punch above their weight,” says Blakemore. Schuldenfrei calls Israel “a very important player in the academic marketplace”. For a small nation without abundant natural resources, this has had obvious benefits. From agriculture to arms manufacturing, Israel has become more technology-driven and successful than comparable nations.

At the same time, though, the nature of Israel’s academic pre-eminence makes it vulnerable to a boycott. “We are top of the world league with Switzerland and, I think, Sweden for the proportion of research projects that are international collaborations,” says Zinger. “Close to 40% of papers published in Israel involve cooperation abroad.” For complicated and expensive scientific research, there is often no alternative; yet for the weightiest historical and political reasons, campus links between Israel and its Arab neighbours have always been limited. Instead, Israel has developed academic connections with the west, and Europe in particular – which has its own equally weighty historical reasons, notably the holocaust, to treat it generously. Israel receives subsidies from EU funds for scientific research, the only non-member state to do so. “In the most recent four-year framework programme, we paid in €150m,” says Zinger, “and we got research grants of €165m.”

Back in April, when Steven and Hilary Rose composed their letter, targeting this cashflow seemed clever politics. “We both had an academic-political interest in EU science policy,” says Hilary, as if this were the most natural thing in the world. “We tried out the letter on a few friends, and they said it was a goer.” There is a pause. Then her husband says: “It’s not the first time we’ve done something like this.”

The Roses are sitting side by side, sharp-eyed and slouching confidently in their casual, donnish clothes, on a low sofa in their living room in north London. Together and separately, they have been involved in left-wing political causes for decades. They speak in long, fluently argued paragraphs.Since April, the Roses have written newspaper letters and articles defending the boycott and the right of people such as Mona Baker to interpret it in their own way. In August, Steven Rose, who is Jewish, publicly renounced his entitlement to Israeli residence and citizenship. At times, he and Hilary can make the boycott sound almost beyond criticism. It has generated important debates, they say. It has put pressure on an unjust government. It has Palestinian support: “It is rather touching,” says Hilary, “to have the chancellor of Bir Zeit [the main Palestinian university] write to you.” Finally, the boycott has reasserted the important right of people to challenge Israel without being anti-semitic. Steven Rose gets up from the sofa and disappears upstairs to fetch a piece of paper. It is a copy of a letter from Albert Einstein, Hannah Arendt and dozens of other prominent Jews to the New York Times in 1948, condemning the then brand-new state of Israel for containing extreme Jewish nationalists of a “fascist” nature, who had recently carried out a “massacre” of Palestinian villagers. The boycott, the Roses say, is in this tradition of constructive criticism.

Yet occasionally an unease slows their rhetoric. “Our initiative has produced a certain number of would-be supporters,” says Steven, choosing his words carefully, “who are pathologically anti-Jewish.” He produces another letter, this time with a recent date and a plastic folder around it as if it were poisonous.

“Dear Professor Rose,” it begins, “I write to congratulate you on the campaign to boycott Israel which I believe you and your husband are sponsoring. The problem is that it does not go far enough. We need to set up a boycott of all Jewish businesses, organizations and individuals. Hit the Zionist Yids where it hurts them – in their pockets… ” The typed letter ends with a shaky blue signature and an address in south London. “We called the commission for racial equality,” says Hilary crisply.”We are keeping the letter in plastic so we can give it to the police.”

Since April, the boycott has awakened other ugly impulses. The Roses’ email addresses, like those of many people drawn into the debate have been flooded daily with abusive messages. “Become a suicide bomber and blow yourself up… if you died the world would be a better place… what you are doing is worse than what the Nazis did… you sonderkommando [concentration camp collaborator] scum… ” From the day the first boycott petition appeared, what you could call a counter-boycott has been organised against the Roses and their allies. Like the boycott itself, this campaign has its moderates and extremists, its public gestures and undeclared initiatives, its concrete steps and carefully directed threats.

In June, Patrick Bateson, a professor of animal behaviour and provost of King’s College, Cambridge, who had signed the Rose letter, became involved in a correspondence with Henry Gee, a senior editor at the science magazine Nature. Gee made clear his objections “as a Jew” to the academic boycott. Then he continued: “I would not, of course, do anything as crass as ‘boycott’ papers from you and your colleagues that might happen to pass across my desk at Nature, though I would get much less pleasure in reading them… knowing what I do of your attitudes… [These] confirm my view… that Cambridge, and particularly the university, would be an uncomfortable place for me to visit.”

“The implicit threat was plain,” Bateson says. When contacted recently, Gee declined to discuss their correspondence further. Bateson says he will continue sending articles to Nature: “It may be an interesting test case.”

Colin Blakemore’s experience since he signed the Roses’ petition has been more bruising. “I was contacted by Steven just two days before it was submitted,” he says. “I was a bit hesitant about signing, because I saw a lack of balance. I asked for a sentence condemning Palestinian terrorism. But there was not enough time – the letter was about to be sent out.”

So he signed it anyway. Shortly afterwards, a French translation of the petition began circulating, which was significantly more aggressive than the original, with Blakemore and the other initial signatories’ names attached.

“I found myself being sucked in,” he says. Over the summer, although he still had links with Israeli academia Blakemore found himself facing a public campaign. He was, and is, president of the Physiological Society. Without naming him, a motion was proposed by a Jewish member for the society’s annual general meeting stating that, by supporting the boycott, Blakemore was breaking an important international convention on academic freedom, statute five of the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU). Since the 30s, the Physiological Society and other ICSU members had agreed to behave “without any discrimination on the basis of… citizenship, religion, creed, political stance, ethnic origin, race, colour, language, age or sex”. For many opponents of the academic boycott, this is a clinching argument.

In the end, Blakemore never faced a hostile annual general meeting. “My train was late.” The motion was withdrawn, he says, “after a lot of talk”. But he remains anxious about the consequences of his involvement in the boycott and how his stance became distorted: “I am deeply concerned for relations with my Jewish colleagues. The misrepresentation sticks. You can’t explain your personal position to everyone.”

In truth, boycotts are blunt weapons. Even the most apparently straightforward and justified ones, on closer inspection, have their controversies and injustices. Since the academic boycott of Israel began, both its supporters and its opponents have frequently cited the cutting of campus links with apartheid South Africa as an example of a less contentious action. But the South African boycott did not necessarily seem like that at the time.

The first calls for a general boycott of South Africa came in the 50s. Yet it was not until 1980 that the UN passed a resolution urging “all academic and cultural institutions to terminate all links with South Africa”. Opposition to this boycott persisted throughout the 80s: conservatives around the world disliked such anti-apartheid initiatives; campus libertarians perceived a loss of academic freedom; and some liberal South Africans argued that their universities, as centres of resistance to apartheid, made precisely the wrong targets.

Then, as now over Israel, some boycott participants seemed to become infamous almost by accident. In 1985, it was Professor Peter Ucko of Southampton University, who reluctantly banned South Africans, including personal friends, from an archaeological convention. This time, the boycott’s anti-heroes have been Mona Baker and her husband Ken.

Unlike the Roses, and many of their petition’s signatories, the Bakers are not prominent or politically connected academics. They now move in a lurid new world of death threats, feverish messages of support, conspiracy theories about Zionist networks, and computer viruses sent almost monthly to sabotage their business. For critics of the Bakers, they have received support from some awkward quarters. The leftwing, anti-Zionist Israeli historian, Ilan Pappe, is in regular, approving contact; Ken describes him as “fabulous”. In Israel, Pappe’s career has been regularly threatened by right-wingers who disapprove of his pro-Palestinian views. Like the harassment of Palestinian students by the Israeli army, this is a tricky fact to take on board for those who oppose the academic boycott on the grounds that it threatens campus freedoms in Israel and the Palestinian territories.

So far, the boycott feels less substantial than the issues around it. “It is annoying but there is no damage,” says Paul Zinger of the Israel Science Foundation. “It doesn’t seem that it has gathered any momentum.” The Roses insist it is too early to judge the boycott’s effectiveness. “Boycotts are slow,” says Hilary. “We didn’t eat South African oranges for about 1,000 years.” Steven adds: “It’s water on stone – eventually water on stone wears away.”

There are signs that the turbulent experiences of some of the boycott signatories have made them more, not less militant. At the Physiological Society, Colin Blakemore has set up a study group to examine when conventions about academic freedom should give way to boycotts. Its conclusions, he hints, are not likely to be favourable to Israel. More broadly, he has come to question whether academia should be insulated from politics at all: “Is it really true that scientific research is such a special activity that it should be last on the list when it comes to boycotts?” Steven Rose goes further: “Academic freedom I find a completely spurious argument in a world in which science is so bound up with military and corporate funding.”

Even Oren Yiftachel, for all his difficulties with Political Geography, agrees that academia cannot and should not function in a vaccuum. Yet that does not mean he has become a convert to the academic boycott of Israel. His objections are not just personal or philosophical, but tactical. Recently, he went to America with a Palestinian colleague to speak about Israel. “In all our lectures, we would talk about roadblocks, terrorists, a colonial situation. Everyone in the crowd would ask about whether the boycott was anti-semitic.”

In this report we referred to the treatment of a paper written by Professor Oren Yiftachel of Ben Gurion University and Dr Asad Ghanem of Haifa University, which was submitted to the journal Political Geography. We reported that Professor Yiftachel had, after a protracted dispute, agreed to revise the paper according to suggestions made by Political Geography, including the insertion of a comparison of Israel and apartheid South Africa, and that on this basis the paper had been accepted for publication. We now understand that the paper’s acceptance for publication has not been guaranteed, and that agreement has not been reached between Professor Yiftachel and Dr Ghanem and Political Geography over all the changes the journal suggested – in particular the comparison of Israel and South Africa. Professor Yiftachel and Dr Ghanem have received a list of comments and suggestions from three academic referees appointed by Political Geography, and they are considering what revisions are most appropriate for the paper, purely on scholarly grounds. Whatever revisions are finally made, the paper will then be refereed again. Professor Yiftachel, as we reported, has consistently opposed the academic boycott, and he remains committed to his position, as well as to the ending of Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.

The following correction was printed in the Guardian’s Corrections and Clarifications column, Wednesday January 15 2003

In this article, we quoted from correspondence between Patrick Bateson of King’s College Cambridge and Henry Gee, a senior editor of the science magazine, Nature. Dr Gee, has asked us to make it clear that the correspondence was quoted without his agreement or permission.

The Palestinian Nakba: Failure to Dismantle the Jewish State

02.03.23

Editorial Note

In November 2022, IAM reported that “(Hebrew U) Amos Goldberg Continues Comparing the Palestinian Self-Inflicted Nakba to the Holocaust of the Jews by the Nazis.”

Professor Amos Goldberg, a Hebrew University Holocaust researcher, and Dr. Bashir Bashir of the Van Leer Institute, Jerusalem, co-authored a 2018 book that contends “the Shoah [Holocaust] and the Nakba are two interlinked catastrophes.” According to them, when a Palestinian is asked about the Holocaust, he often brings up the Nakba, “the displacement of Palestinians associated with the founding of the state of Israel.” Goldberg and Bashir have “developed a concept aimed at promoting dialogue about these two interlinked national traumas.”

According to Goldberg and Bashir, The “Shoah was, in terms of its scale, not comparable with any other event that as such is considered singular.” But since “the Holocaust has become the ultimate symbol of evil… any attempt to connect it even loosely with other chapters of the history of violence is quickly suspected of being an attempt to trivialize the Holocaust.” They argue, “while the Shoah is over as an historical event and the Jewish people have, despite the trauma, been able to get back on its feet again, the Palestinians are to this day, in a position of political, military, economic, and cultural weakness because of the consequences of the Nakba.” This “asymmetry in the national catastrophes of both peoples from a moral point of view: the Palestinians were not to blame for the Holocaust, but the Israelis were responsible for the displacement and flight of the Palestinians and for their discrimination in Israel and oppression in the Occupied Territories.” The “rapprochement between Israelis and Palestinians, who both see themselves as victim communities, is made more difficult above all because the Shoah and the Nakba are used equally to legitimize national claims.” They wish to integrate the catastrophe of the other into one’s own narrative without abandoning the “ultimate claim to justice.”

As IAM explained, an event hosting Goldberg and Bashir titled “Understanding the pain of the others.” by the Goethe institute in Tel Aviv and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation was supposed to take place on November 13, 2022, but a week earlier, Goethe institute postponed the event.

According to the Goethe Institute, “The public discourse that has developed in Germany and Israel in the run-up to the event has made it impossible to carry out the event appropriately. Since we are expecting disruptions to the event, we cannot guarantee a safe implementation of the panel discussion at this point. The important topic of remembrance culture cannot be addressed in the way it needs to under these circumstances. The Goethe-Institute and the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation have therefore decided to postpone the event.”

Dani Dayan, the chairman of Yad Vashem, announced that the event would be canceled entirely.

However, disregarding the protest, the event took place in Germany on February 2, 2023. The Einstein Forum at the University of Potsdam held the roundtable discussion.

The speakers included Bashir, Goldberg, and Charlotte Wiedemann. According to the invitation, “In her book Understanding the Pain of Others, the author Charlotte Wiedemann pleads for a new inclusive memory culture that promotes solidarity instead of competition among victims. Doing justice to the victims of colonial crimes and their descendants does not call into question the specificity of the Shoah. On the contrary: the importance of human rights for all is a central lesson from the Holocaust. But tragically, Holocaust memory has not brought us much closer to such universal values. In their co-edited volume The Holocaust and the Nakba: A New Grammar of Trauma and History Amos Goldberg, Bashir Bashir, and the contributors to the volume explore the possibility of creating a shared language for discussing the memories of two entangled, but entirely different historical events: the genocide of European Jews and the displacement of Palestinians. At the center of this new language is the concept of empathic unsettlement which challenges the mutual denial of the suffering of the Other, recognizes the political asymmetries in Israel-Palestine, and gives rise to an egalitarian binationalism.”

The following day, Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt, wrote on Twitter: “‘Understanding the Pain of Others: The Holocaust, the Nakba and German Memory Culture’- An outstanding event yesterday night at the @einsteinforum , in Potsdam. I was deeply moved by it, & the eloquence & strength of the speakers on such a sensitive topic.”

As IAM indicated, efforts to equate the Holocaust and the Nakba are insidious cases of propaganda to demonize the Jewish state.

Goldberg, a Professor of Holocaust Studies, should know well that Jews had no choice when loaded on trains to be murdered in extermination camps. On the other hand, the Palestinians made their own choice, albeit flawed. The Palestinian leader, Mufti Haj Amin al Husseini, a Nazi collaborator, ordered the riots of 1936-39, where numerous Jews were killed. His ultimate goal, which he discussed with Hitler in Berlin, was establishing extermination camps in Palestine. The British victory over the Nazis in El Alamein spared the Jews in Palestine the fate of their European brethren.

In 1947, when the United Nations voted to divide Palestine into two states – a larger one for the Palestinians and a smaller one for the Jews – the Palestinians made another flawed decision. They rejected the Partition Proposal and – together with their Arab Allied States started a war against the new Jewish states, which they lost.

It is easy to understand why the Palestinians would want to minimize their responsibility. It is more difficult to explain why Goldberg would spend much of his academic career producing propaganda-like literature to this effect. Unfortunately, he is not the only one. IAM has repeatedly pointed out that radical academic activists have used the lax rules of academic freedom to write about topics that further their political agenda. The Israeli taxpayer who supports the universities deserves better.

References:

https://www.einsteinforum.de/veranstaltungen/den-schmerz-der-anderen-begreifen /

Understanding the Pain of Others. The Holocaust, the Nakba and German Memory Culture

Solidarity in Danger

Podiumsdiskussion

Donnerstag, 2.2.2023, 19:00h

Bashir Bashir, Amos Goldberg, Charlotte Wiedemann

Understanding the Pain of Others
The Holocaust, the Nakba and German Memory Culture

Gesprächsleitung: Susan Neiman, Potsdam

Live im Einstein Forum. Das Tragen einer medizinischen Maske wird empfohlen.
Auch im Live-Stream via Zoom (hier registrieren)

In her book Understanding the Pain of Others, the author Charlotte Wiedemann pleads for a new inclusive memory culture that promotes solidarity instead of competition among victims. Doing justice to the victims of colonial crimes and their descendants does not call into question the specificity of the Shoah. On the contrary: the importance of human rights for all is a central lesson from the Holocaust. But tragically, Holocaust memory has not brought us much closer to such universal values.
In their co-edited volume The Holocaust and the Nakba: A New Grammar of Trauma and History Amos Goldberg, Bashir Bashir, and the contributors to the volume explore the possibility of creating a shared language for discussing the memories of two entangled, but entirely different historical events: the genocide of European Jews and the displacement of Palestinians. At the center of this new language is the concept of empathic unsettlement which challenges the mutual denial of the suffering of the Other, recognizes the political asymmetries in Israel-Palestine, and gives rise to an egalitarian binationalism.
This debate was originally scheduled to take place in the Goethe Institute Tel Aviv but was cancelled due to political pressure.

Charlotte Wiedemann is a journalist and author. She has published numerous books on international topics, most recently Den Schmerz der Anderen begreifen. Holocaust und Weltgedächtnis (2022). Afflicted by silence in her own family, she has followed debates about German responsibility for National Socialism for four decades.

Bashir Bashir is associate professor of political theory at the Open University of Israel and senior research fellow at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. His research interests are: democratic theory, nationalism and citizenship studies, liberalism, decolonization, and reconciliation. His most recent publication is The Arab and Jewish Questions: Geographies of Engagement in Palestine and Beyond (2020).

Amos Goldberg is associate professor of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. For decades he has researched Holocaust memory at the intersection of history, critical theory, and literature. His publications include Trauma in First Person: Diary Writing during the Holocaust (2017) and his co-edited volume Marking Evil: Holocaust Memory in the Global Age (2015).

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Bashir Bashir, Amos Goldberg, Charlotte Wiedemann: Understanding the Pain of Others

Einstein Forum
3.29K subscribers

Feb 5, 2023

Understanding the Pain of Others: The Holocaust, the Nakba and German Memory Culture In her book »Understanding the Pain of Others«, the author Charlotte Wiedemann pleads for a new inclusive memory culture that promotes solidarity instead of competition among victims. Doing justice to the victims of colonial crimes and their descendants does not call into question the specificity of the Shoah. On the contrary: the importance of human rights for all is a central lesson from the Holocaust. But tragically, Holocaust memory has not brought us much closer to such universal values. In their co-edited volume »The Holocaust and the Nakba: A New Grammar of Trauma and History« Amos Goldberg, Bashir Bashir, and the contributors to the volume explore the possibility of creating a shared language for discussing the memories of two entangled, but entirely different historical events: the genocide of European Jews and the displacement of Palestinians. At the center of this new language is the concept of empathic unsettlement which challenges the mutual denial of the suffering of the Other, recognizes the political asymmetries in Israel-Palestine, and gives rise to an egalitarian binationalism. This debate was originally scheduled to take place in the Goethe Institute Tel Aviv but was cancelled due to political pressure. Chair: Susan Neiman, Potsdam Charlotte Wiedemann is a journalist and author. She has published numerous books on international topics, most recently »Den Schmerz der Anderen begreifen. Holocaust und Weltgedächtnis« (2022). Afflicted by silence in her own family, she has followed debates about German responsibility for National Socialism for four decades. Bashir Bashir is associate professor of political theory at the Open University of Israel and senior research fellow at the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute. His research interests are: democratic theory, nationalism and citizenship studies, liberalism, decolonization, and reconciliation. His most recent publication is »The Arab and Jewish Questions: Geographies of Engagement in Palestine and Beyond« (2020). Amos Goldberg is associate professor of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. For decades he has researched Holocaust memory at the intersection of history, critical theory, and literature. His publications include »Trauma in First Person: Diary Writing during the Holocaust« (2017) and his co-edited volume »Marking Evil: Holocaust Memory in the Global Age« (2015).

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"Understanding the Pain of Others: The Holocaust, the Nakba and German Memory Culture"- An outstanding event yesterday night at the @einsteinforum, in Potsdam.

I was deeply moved by it, & the eloquence & strength of the speakers on such a sensitive topic.
Recording available. https://t.co/RkYZnrUxzf
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) February 3, 2023

Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt

@FranceskAlbs

“Understanding the Pain of Others: The Holocaust, the Nakba and German Memory Culture”- An outstanding event yesterday night at the

@einsteinforum, in Potsdam. I was deeply moved by it, & the eloquence & strength of the speakers on such a sensitive topic. Recording available.

Quote Tweet

Einstein Forum

@einsteinforum

Feb 2

Bashir Bashir, Amos Goldberg, Charlotte Wiedemann: Understanding the Pain of Others https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1YpJkgAWpOYJj…

10:33 AM · Feb 3, 2023

69.3K Views

Replying to

and

there is not room at all ever to even think of equiparating the nakba with the holocaust. no. way. ever.

Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt

Replying to

and

If you took the time to listen to the event & the speakers you would realize that no one here or there is trying to equate anything. As Professor Goldberg masterfully said, it is about understanding the nexus between the two tragedies as key to understand ‘the pain of the other’.

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https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-722205

German event comparing Holocaust to ‘Nakba’ canceled after Yad Vashem intervenes

The planned panel faced stark criticism from the Israeli Foreign Ministry and Jewish organizations.

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL

Published: NOVEMBER 13, 2022 03:16

The German state-funded Goethe Institute pulled the plug on a slated Sunday event in Tel Aviv that draws a line of connection between the Holocaust and the Palestinian “Nakba,” Yad Vashem chairman Dani Dayan announced on Friday.

Nakba (catastrophe) is the term Palestinians use for their defeat and exile at the hands of Israeli forces during the 1948 War of Independence.

Dayan wrote on Twitter: “At the end of our in-depth conversation, [Goethe Institute Board chairman Mr. Johannes] Ebert assured me that the event will not take place. Wise decision.”

Earlier today, I spoke at length with the Chairman of the Board of the worldwide Goethe Institute Mr. Johannes Ebert. At the end of our in-depth conversation, Mr. Ebert assured me that the event will not take place. Wise decision. https://t.co/O60L0CYtQM— Dani Dayan (@AmbDaniDayan) November 11, 2022

When The Jerusalem Post queried the institute on Monday, Jessica Kraatz Magri, a spokeswoman for Goethe, told the Post that the organization “postponed the event” until Sunday and provided an updated link to the discussion. The event was sponsored by left-wing German political party Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (RLS).

Foreign Ministry, Jewish and Zionist organizations express outrage at planned panel

Following a hailstorm of criticism on Wednesday about the event just as Jews around the world were commemorating Kristallnacht, Goethe stuck with its postponement.

The Foreign Ministry called for the cancellation of the event and expressed “shock and disgust” after the original announcement, calling it “blatant contempt of the Holocaust” and a “cynical and manipulative intent to create a connection whose entire purpose is to defame Israel.”

Dayan tweeted prior to the event that it “constitutes intolerable distortion of the Holocaust. Holding it on the anniversary of the November Pogrom (‘Kristallnacht’) is unforgivable.”

The event planned by the German cultural institute @goetheinstitut in Israel constitutes intolerable distortion of the Holocaust. Holding it on the anniversary of the November Pogrom (“Kristallnacht”) is unforgivable. pic.twitter.com/T1ifmEwVqc— Dani Dayan (@AmbDaniDayan) November 8, 2022

Israel’s Ambassador to Germany Ron Prosor told 103FM Radio that the event is “an attempt to make an inappropriate comparison at the expense of Holocaust survivors.” He added that “if it wasn’t ironic it would be tragic. This must not become an accepted discourse under the pretense of ‘holding a civilized discussion.’ It’s not.”

Alrun Kaune-Nüßlein, the director of political communication for RLS, told the Post that “we try to enable a debate between different democratic and emancipatory positions, as it corresponds to the tasks of an institution for social analysis and political education. As a left-wing institution in and from Germany, dealing with the numerous Nazi mass crimes – and in particular the murder of six million Jews – is central to us. Relativizing the Shoah is unacceptable for the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation,” she said.

“We regret that the date of the event caused irritation. We are therefore postponing the event to November 13, 2022.”

Journalist at center of panel has faced criticism for anti-Israel views

At the now-canceled event, journalist Charlotte Wiedemann was set to discuss her book Grasping the Pain of the Others with Bashir Bashir, associate professor of Political Theory at the Open University of Israel; Amos Goldberg, associate professor of Holocaust History and director of the Research Institute for Contemporary Judaism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; and Inge Gunther, a journalist covering Israeli and Palestinian affairs.

Wiedemann has faced criticism for her attacks on Israel’s existence. She wrote in the left-wing German daily newspaper taz: “There is no need to agree on the extent to which the founding of the State of Israel was also an act of settler colonialism.”

The left-wing and pro-Israel weekly paper Jungle World criticized the author for her pro-Iran regime views. Danyal Casar wrote that “Charlotte Wiedemann can nowhere see such an opposition in the taz.” Wiedemann wrote that ‘there is no opposition’ which could take responsibility in Tehran if the current system implodes.”

Tzvi Joffre contributed to this report.

BDS Call on upcoming Molecular Biology Meeting in Israel

23.02.23

Editorial Note

The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) will hold a workshop in Israel between 11 to 14 March 2023. Titled “Mechanisms of Neuronal Remodeling,” it will take place in Kibbutz Nahsholim. According to the invitation, the workshop is “essential for establishing functional nervous systems across species. Remodeling involves specific elimination of existing connections, typically followed by strengthening of surviving synapses or even axon regrowth to develop new, adult-specific connections. While altered remodeling has long been suspected of contributing to neuropsychiatric conditions, such as autism, schizophrenia, and ADHD, studies only recently established firm molecular similarities between such disorders and developmental remodeling. Moreover, the mechanisms involved in developmental remodeling appear to be reiterated in neurodegeneration and during regeneration. Despite these significant advances in the field, many important questions remain open and will be discussed.”

The workshop will also discuss topics such as “Cell biological mechanisms and signaling pathways that control remodeling. Pathways activated in different paradigms and across species. Types of remodeling in circuit formation and its impact on learning and memory. Contributions of non-neuronal cells during remodeling. Neuron-neuron and tissue-neuron interactions during remodeling. Mechanisms of regrowth during development remodeling and post-traumatic regeneration?

The published list of speakers includes: Aakanksha Singhvi Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center | US; Andrew Chisholm UC San Diego | US; Asya Rolls Technion | IL; Avraham Yaron Weizmann Institute of Science | IL; Cagla Eroglu Duke University | US; Claude Desplan New York University | US; Debra Silver Duke University | US; Elly Tanaka Institute of Molecular Pathology | AT; Guillermina López-Bendito Instituto de Neurociencias UMH-CSIC | ES; Hongyan Wang Duke–NUS Medical School | SG; Jaeda Coutinho-Budd University of Virginia | US; Laura Andreae Kings College London | UK; Laura Cancedda Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia | IT; Laurent Nguyen University of Liege | BE; Lora Sweeney Institute of Science and Technology Austria | AT; Marco Terenzio Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology | JP; Oliver Hobert Columbia University | US; Oren Schuldiner Weizmann Institute of Science | IL; Peri Kurshan Albert Einstein College of Medicine | US; Stefanie Schirmeier Technische Universität Dresden | DE; Susana Cohen-Cory UC Irvine | US; Thomas Misgeld TUM/DZNE | DE; Timothy Mosca Jefferson University | US; Dietmar Schmucker Universität Bonn | DE.

However, the Palestinian BDS Movement is trying to sabotage the workshop. A letter was circulated by the Palestine Academy for Science and Technology (PalAST) calling on the EMBO to refrain from “holding workshops in Israel until its apartheid regime has been dismantled” and to uphold its “moral obligation to end its complicity in whitewashing Israel’s crimes.”

Particularly egregious are the Palestinians’ claims that the workshop’s location is “particularly offensive to us as Palestinians.” Because it is close to “the site of a massacre and a mass grave.” According to the Palestinians, “In May 1948, during the ethnic cleansing of Indigenous Palestinians from our homeland, the Israeli army attacked the Palestinian village of Tantura. After seizing the village, Israeli soldiers gunned down as many as 200 unarmed captive Palestinian civilians. The testimony of Israeli soldiers present at the massacre, which was featured in a recent documentary, shows the savagery with which the soldiers acted. ‘They put them into a barrel and shot them in the barrel.’ Following the massacre, the bodies of the slaughtered Palestinians were buried in a mass grave. In June 1948, just weeks after the massacre and after expelling the remaining Palestinians from Tantura, Zionist settlers took over Palestinian homes, renaming the village Nahsholim. Today, the mass grave is located under the beach parking lot. This is where EMBO plans to hold its “Mechanisms of neuronal remodeling” workshop. Neither Tantura is the only site of a massacre committed by the Israeli regime, nor are massacres relegated to history.”

To those unfamiliar with the history, the fighting in Tantura was part of the 1948 war when the Palestinians and their Arab allies were confident they could win after rejecting the 1947 UN Partition Plan. In the ensuing fighting, large Arab and Palestinian forces were deployed against the small Jewish army. Tantura, located on the main road between Haifa and Tel Aviv, was the scene of a fierce battle between the two sides. The Palestinian “Nakba” was self-inflicted and caused the Jewish Yishuv to lose one percent of its population. This tragic act of war that the Palestinians and their Arab allies instigated harmed both people, Israelis and Palestinians.

The gross misrepresentation of the Tantura battle is just one example of the continuous misinformation used by the Palestinians to push their BDS campaign.

The Palestinian letter to the EMBO also states, “In just the past year and a half, Israel has carried out two extensive military assaults on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, killing hundreds, including more than 80 children, injuring thousands, and destroying vital infrastructure. Gaza, with its 2 million Palestinian residents, has been under a brutal 15-year illegal Israeli siege. EMBO’s partners in these workshops are deeply complicit in Israel’s ongoing crimes against Palestinians.”

The BDS movement represents the decades-old fixation with victimhood that prevented the Palestinians from solving the conflict, even when the Oslo Accords and Camp David II presented a fair solution. The BDS rhetoric obscures that Iran, the main supporter of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), has cardinally opposed ending the conflict. In the eschatology of the Islamist regime, liberating Jerusalem is thought to be the prelude to the return of the Hidden Imam. Theology aside, by aligning itself with the Palestinians, the Shiite regime has bolstered its bona fides in a Sunni region. The Quds Force (QF), the foreign division of the Revolutionary Guards, had trained and equipped Palestinian jihadist suicide bombers to undermine the Oslo Accords. When Israel unilaterally withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2006, QF helped to turn the area into a heavily armed proxy against the so-called “Little Satan,” the Iranian name for the Jewish State.

Hamas and the PIJ have run a brutal and corrupt regime that subjugates its people. “Whispered in Gaza,” a recently clandestinely produced documentary, uncovers the lives of Palestinians under their Iranian-supported masters. The BDS would be well-advised to watch it to discover what real suffering means.

References:

https://meetings.embo.org/event/23-neuronal-remodelling

EMBO Workshop

Mechanisms of neuronal remodelling

11 – 14 March 2023 | Kibbuz Nahsholim, Israel

About the Workshop

Developmental neuronal remodelling is essential for establishing functional nervous systems across species. Remodelling involves specific elimination of existing connections, typically followed by strengthening of surviving synapses or even axon regrowth to develop new, adult-specific connections. While altered remodeling has long been suspected of contributing to neuropsychiatric conditions, such as autism, schizophrenia, and ADHD, studies only recently established firm molecular similarities between such disorders and developmental remodeling. Moreover, the mechanisms involved in developmental remodelling appear to be reiterated in neurodegeneration and during regeneration. Despite these significant advances in the field, many important questions remain open and will be discussed at this meeting.

Specific topics that will be covered in this workshop include:

Cell biological mechanisms and signaling pathways that control remodelling.
Pathways activated in different paradigms and across species.
Types of remodelling in circuit formation and its impact on learning and memory.
Contributions of non-neuronal cells during remodelling.
Neuron-neuron and tissue-neuron interactions during remodelling.
Mechanisms of regrowth during developmental remodelling and post-traumatic regeneration?

About EMBO Courses and Workshops

EMBO Courses and Workshops are selected for their excellent scientific quality and timelines, provision of good networking activities for all participants and speaker gender diversity (at least 40% of speakers must be from the underrepresented gender).

Organisers are encouraged to implement measures to make the meeting environmentally more sustainable.

Speakers

Aakanksha SinghviFred Hutchinson Cancer Center | US

Andrew ChisholmUC San Diego | US

Asya RollsTechnion | IL

Avraham YaronWeizmann Institute of Science | IL

Cagla ErogluDuke University | US

Claude DesplanNew York University | US

Debra SilverDuke University | US

Elly TanakaInstitute of Molecular Pathology | AT

Guillermina López-BenditoInstituto de Neurociencias UMH-CSIC | ES

Hongyan WangDuke–NUS Medical School | SG

Jaeda Coutinho-BuddUniversity of Virginia | US

Laura AndreaeKings College London | UK

Laura CanceddaIstituto Italiano di Tecnologia | IT

Laurent NguyenUniversity of Liege | BE

Lora SweeneyInstitute of Science and Technology Austria | AT

Marco TerenzioOkinawa Institute of Science and Technology | JP

Oliver HobertColumbia University | US

Oren SchuldinerWeizmann Institute of Science | IL

Peri KurshanAlbert Einstein College of Medicine | US

Stefanie SchirmeierTechnische Universität Dresden | DE

Susana Cohen-CoryUC Irvine | US

Thomas MisgeldTUM/DZNE | DE

Timothy MoscaJefferson University | US

Dietmar SchmuckerUniversität Bonn | DE

Programme

Day 1 | 11 March 2023

Day 2 | 12 March 2023

Day 3 | 13 March 2023

Day 4 | 14 March 2023

====================================================================

https://www.palast.ps/en/news/palestinian-scientists-urge-embo-relocate-workshops-apartheid-israel-including-site-tantura-masscare
https://bdsmovement.net/news/palestinian-scientists-urge-embo-relocate-workshops-from-apartheid-israel-including-site

Palestinian Scientists Urge EMBO to Relocate Workshops from Apartheid Israel, Including at Site of Tantura Massacre

February 16, 2023 / By Palestine Academy for Science and Technology (PalAST) /The Palestine Academy for Science and Technology (PalAST) calls on the European Molecular Biology Organization to uphold its “moral obligation to end its complicity in whitewashing Israel’s crimes” by refraining “from holding workshops in Israel until its apartheid regime has been dismantled.”

On the 19th of January 2023 and after finding out that the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) was organizing multiple workshops in Apartheid Israel, Palestine Academy for Science and Technology (PalAST) sent the following letter to the organizing board:

As Palestinian scientific and academic societies and unions, we note with grave concern that the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) is planning three workshops in apartheid Israel. We urge EMBO to immediately relocate these workshops to any other country that is not committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Israel’s illegal settlement regime in the occupied Palestinian territory is considered a war crime under international law.

The EMBO workshops include “Bacterial cell biophysics: DNA replication, growth, division, size and shape” (11–15 December 2022), “The 20S proteasome degradation pathway” (8–12 January 2023), and “Mechanisms of neuronal remodelling” (11–14 March 2023).
Holding any of the EMBO workshops in apartheid Israel as it continues to deny the fundamental rights of millions of Palestinians will, regardless of intentions, contribute to prolonging Israel’s well-documented crimes against Palestinians.

Prominent human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Israeli NGO B’Tselem, have all found Israel guilty of the crime against humanity of apartheid, as have UN experts.

The last workshop’s scheduled location is particularly offensive to us as Palestinians. While whitewashed as “beautiful” and “secluded” on “Israel’s most beautiful stretches of beach” in an area of “serenity and tranquility,” it is in fact the site of a massacre and a mass grave.

In May 1948, during the ethnic cleansing of Indigenous Palestinians from our homeland, the Israeli army attacked the Palestinian village of Tantura. After seizing the village, Israeli soldiers gunned down as many as 200 unarmed captive Palestinian civilians. The testimony of Israeli soldiers present at the massacre, which was featured in a recent documentary, shows the savagery with which the soldiers acted. “They put them into a barrel and shot them in the barrel.”

Following the massacre, the bodies of the slaughtered Palestinians were buried in a mass grave. In June 1948, just weeks after the massacre and after expelling the remaining Palestinians from Tantura, Zionist settlers took over Palestinian homes, renaming the village Nahsholim. Today, the mass grave is located under the beach parking lot. This is where EMBO plans to hold its “Mechanisms of neuronal remodelling” workshop.

Neither Tantura is the only site of a massacre committed by the Israeli regime, nor are massacres relegated to history. They are our everyday lived experience. In just the past year and a half, Israel has carried out two extensive military assaults on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, killing hundreds, including more than 80 children, injuring thousands, and destroying vital infrastructure. Gaza, with its 2 million Palestinian residents, has been under a brutal 15-year illegal Israeli siege.

EMBO’s partners in these workshops are deeply complicit in Israel’s ongoing crimes against Palestinians. Ben-Gurion University (BGU), for example, hosts the Homeland Security Institute whose partnerships include Israel’s top weapons companies and the Ministry of Defense.

The Weizmann Institute offers an MA program tailored specifically for active duty soldiers and recently opened a pre-military academy that will prepare high school seniors for “meaningful military service.”

The US-Israel Binational Science Foundation funds research in illegal Israeli settlements built on militarily occupied Palestinian land in violation of international law.

This past March, EMBO endorsed a statement by seven national science academies just days into Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, defining it as “an assault on the fundamental principles of freedom, democracy and self-determination, which provide the basis for academic freedom and opportunities for scientific exchange and cooperation.”

By the same standard, EMBO must also recognize Israel’s decades-long regime of military occupation and apartheid as an assault on Palestinian freedoms and right to self-determination, and refrain from holding workshops in Israel until its apartheid regime has been dismantled, as was South Africa’s.

EMBO has a moral obligation to end its complicity in whitewashing Israel’s crimes. We urge EMBO to respect this obligation by relocating the upcoming workshops. We further call on speakers not to participate, if the workshops go ahead as planned.

There is no “serenity and tranquility” atop a massacre’s mass grave.

(PalAST will keep its fellow academics updated regarding any replies from EMBO)

An initial posting of this letter mistakenly included an incorrect image. PalAST took immediate steps to remove it and apologize for any offense that it has caused.
This does not take away from the well-documented case of the Tantura massacre as mentioned in our letter.

Israel’s Technion Falls to anti-Israel Cyber Attack

16.02.23

Editorial Note

On Sunday, February 12, the computer servers of the Technion in Haifa were targeted by a cyber attack, as announced by the university. The university disconnected the computer systems until it completed its investigation. An email allegedly sent by the hacking group Darkbit reveals they demanded 80 bitcoins, or some $1,750,000, in ransom.

According to the Technion, classes are taking place as usual despite the attack.

The wording of the Darkbit email that followed the attack included anti-Israel rhetoric. It said, “We regret to inform you that we’ve had to hack Technion network completely and transfer ‘all’ data to our secure servers… Keep calm, take a breath and think about an apartheid regime that causes troubles here and there. They should pay for their lies and crimes, their names and shames. They should pay for occupation, war crimes against humanity, killing the people (not only Palestinians’ bodies, but also Israelis’ souls) and destroying the future and all dreams we had. They should pay for firing high-skilled experts,”

In an interview, Alex Steinberg, a product manager at the cyber security firm ESET, explained that “the motivation to steal information from the institute could stem from a number of reasons. Firstly, countries like Iran, China, and Russia, could benefit greatly from the information. Additionally, they may want to steal the information to sell it for a profit,” he said. “In the ransom note, it seems that the attackers are demanding a monetary sum, but it could be a façade for other purposes… Some sources indicate that security and private entities in Israel are requesting to conduct in the Technion research whose results are not intended for publication. Hopefully, sensitive information didn’t leak as a result of the attack.”

In 2021, Bar-Ilan University was also the subject of a cyber-attack when the hackers demanded $2.5 million. Bar Ilan refused to pay, and as a result, the hackers leaked hundreds of thousands of personal information of students and faculty. The media notes that the cyber-attack was carried out by an Iran-linked group named Agrius.

Checkpoint, the Israeli cyber security firm, reported that, on average, Israeli educational institutions are targeted by hackers 3,383 times per week. Checkpoint explained that hackers prefer educational organizations due to their valuable personal data and the scant investment in cyber security.

Interestingly, Tasnim, the Iranian news agency based in Tehran, reported on the Technion cyber ransomware attack. They noted the attack came about a fortnight after a massive cyber attack targeted several Israeli chemical companies operating across “the occupied territories.” Tasmin explained that on January 30, a group of hackers launched a massive cyber-attack on Israeli chemical companies and “warned” engineers and workers to “quit their posts before they suffer severe repercussions of the Tel Aviv regime’s relentless violence against Palestinians.” In their words, “Our message to chemists working in the chemical factories is to leave their job, look for a new one, and take refuge in a place where we are not present. This is while we have a strong presence anywhere.” A message by the “Electronic Quds Force” stated, “We confirm that your work in chemical factories poses danger to your lives; however, we will never hesitate to melt your bodies with chemicals next time an act of aggression is perpetrated against Palestinians.”

Meanwhile, Tomas Meskauskas, the founder, author, and editor of PCrisk, a cyber security portal that informs Internet users about the latest digital threats, offers removal and decryption options of the DarkBit ransomware.

IAM will report on the investigation once it is published.

References

https://www.ynetnews.com/business/article/syjobiuti

Leading Israeli research institute falls prey to cyberattack
In ransom note littered with anti-Israel rhetoric, hackers threaten to leak Technion’s data online if demands not met within five days

Roei Hahn, Yuval Mann | published: 02/12/23 | 16:02

Computer servers at the Technion Institute of Technology in Haifa were targeted by a cyberattack overnight Sunday, a spokesperson for the university confirmed in a statement.

According to the statement, all of the university’s computer systems have been disconnected deliberately until a probe sheds light on the extent and intent behind the attack.

While the academic institute did not divulge information about the nature of the attack, in an email that reached Ynet and was allegedly sent by the group – going by the name Darkbit, hackers demanded that Technion pay 80 bitcoin, or about $1,750,000, in ransom.
The hacker group threatened to increase the requested sum by 30% if their demands are not met within 48 hours, and put all of the university’s data up for sale on the web after five days.
Despite the attack, classes at the Technion took place as usual on Sunday, with students being asked to disconnect their personal computers from the local network and minimize email traffic until further notice.
Cybersecurity experts recommend against paying ransom for two reasons: firstly, there is no guarantee the attackers will keep their word and return the stolen information, and secondly, paying ransom encourages hackers to continue targeting other companies and organizations.

The wording of the email that followed the attack is littered with anti-Israeli rhetoric, which suggests the attack was motivated by ideological reasons, and not greed.
“We regret to inform you that we’ve had to hack Technion network completely and transfer ‘all’ data to our secure servers,” the attackers wrote in the email, “Keep calm, take a breath and think about an apartheid regime that causes troubles here and there. They should pay for their lies and crimes, their names and shames.”
“They should pay for occupation, war crimes against humanity, killing the people (not only Palestinians’ bodies, but also Israelis’ souls) and destroying the future and all dreams we had. They should pay for firing high-skilled experts,” the mail read.
Alex Steinberg, a product manager at cybersecurity firm ESET, explained that “the motivation to steal information from the institute could stem from a number of reasons. Firstly, countries like Iran, China, and Russia, could benefit greatly from the information. Additionally, they may want to steal the information to sell it for a profit.”
“In the ransom note, it seems that the attackers are demanding a monetary sum, but it could be a façade for other purposes,” Steinberg added. “Some sources indicate that security and private entities in Israel are requesting to conduct in the Technion research whose results are not intended for publication. Hopefully, sensitive information didn’t leak as a result of the attack.”

This isn’t the first attack targeting an academic institute in Israel. In 2021, Bar-Ilan University also fell prey to a ransomware attack in which hackers demanded around $2.5 million.
The university refused to pay the sum, resulting in the hackers leaking hundreds of thousands of personal records of students and academic faculty. The cyberattack was reportedly carried out by an Iran-linked hacker group known as Agrius.
According to data from cybersecurity firm Checkpoint, Israeli educational institutions are targeted by hackers 3,383 times per week on average, twice as often as other organizations.
The company explained that educational organizations are a preferred target for hackers due to the valuable personal data they hold and relatively scant investment in cybersecurity.

==============================================

https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2023/02/14/2853272/cyberattack-targets-israel-s-technion-university

Cyberattack Targets Israel’s Technion University

February, 14, 2023 – 09:12 World news

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A top Israeli technology school and a center for cyber security education came under a ransomware attack by a group of hackers.

The attack on the Technion University came nearly a fortnight after a massive cyberattack targeted Israeli chemical companies operating across the occupied territories.

According to the Walla news site, the cyberattack was carried out by a group called Darkbit, which demanded 80 bitcoins from Technion, which is equivalent to $1,747,971.

The group has also said that the amount will go up by 30% if the ransom is not received within 48 hours.

“You will receive a decrypting key after the payment. Notice that you just have 48 hours. After the deadline, a 30% penalty will be added to the price. We put data for sale after 5 days,” DarkBit wrote in a message on the university website.

“We’re sorry to inform you that we’ve had to hack Technion network completely and transfer all data to our secure servers. So, keep calm, take a breath and think about an apartheid regime that causes troubles here and there,” DarkBit group wrote in the mail.

“They should pay for their lies and crimes, their names and shames. They should pay for occupation, war crimes against humanity, killing the people … and destroying the future and all dreams we had. They should pay for firing high-skilled experts,” the hacker group further mentioned.

The group also shared a TOX messenger ID through which individuals can contact them to recover their personal files. DarkBit has claimed that the files are encrypted using AES-256 military-grade algorithm.

“Any try for recovering data without the key (using third-party applications/companies) causes permanent damage,” DarkBit wrote.

The university said it is postponing scheduled exams due to the ransomware attack, but classes will continue as usual. Its website remained inaccessible at the time of writing.

Back on January 30, a group of hackers launched a massive cyberattack on Israeli chemical companies, warning their engineers and workers to quit their posts before they suffer severe repercussions of the Tel Aviv regime’s relentless violence against Palestinians.

“Our message to chemists working in the chemical factories is to leave their job, look for a new one, and take refuge in a place where we are not present. This is while we have a strong presence anywhere,” Russia’s Arabic-language RT Arabic television news network cited the message published by the Electronic Quds Force.

It added, “We confirm that your work in chemical factories poses danger to your lives; however, we will never hesitate to melt your bodies with chemicals next time an act of aggression is perpetrated against Palestinians.”

===================================================

New cybercrime group calling itself DarkBit attacks Israeli university

New cybercrime group calling itself DarkBit attacks Israeli university

It’s not yet clear who is behind the group, but the name could have connections to other ransomware variants such as DarkSide and LockBit.

BYAJ VICENS

FEBRUARY 13, 2023

A general view taken from the Mount of Olives shows an Israeli flag with houses in Jerusalem’s predominantly Arab neighbourhood of Silwan appearing in the background, on January 2, 2023. (Photo by AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty Images)

Apreviously unknown cybercrime group attacked an Israeli technical university over the weekend, demanding $1.7 million in bitcoin as payment for what the attackers claim are the Israeli government’s “lies and crimes” ranging from occupation to war crimes to tech layoffs.

The Israel Institute of Technology, also called Technion, announced the attack on Twitter midday Sunday, and on Monday tweeted that the school remained “under a challenging cyber attack,” calling it a “complex event,” according to a Google translation. Around the same time, the online malware repository vx-underground posted a photo purporting to show the ransom note in which the group identified itself as “DarkBit” and demanded 80 Bitcoin.Image posted to the DarkBit Telegram channel

The school said Monday services were slowly returning to normal, but its website remained inaccessible Monday morning U.S. time. The school said in one of its tweets that it had “proactively blocked all communication networks.”

DarkBit launched a Telegram channel on Saturday and claimed responsibility for the attack on the school, calling it “the technological core of an apartheid regime,” and threatening more attacks on entities affiliated with Israel. It’s not yet clear who is behind the group. The name could be seen as an amalgamation of older, established ransomware variants DarkSide and LockBit, and the demand of 80 Bitcoin follows an established ransomware pattern. But the ransom note seems designed to evoke the appearance of hacktivism, with the references to war crimes and occupation.

“While this attack had the characteristics of a ‘usual’ large scale ransomware attack (asking for 80btc to release the encrypted files), the way the group delivered their message and the overall political sentiment they used, and the threats, make us believe it’s ideologically driven and not a pure financial ransomware attack,” Messing said. “We expect them to continue to threaten the leakage of information, and also possibly act on the threat, in an attempt to embarrass the university and threaten its faculty, students and partners.”

Gil Messing, spokesperson at Israeli cybersecurity company Check Point, told CyberScoop in a statement that the company believes DarkBit “are linked to a different ideological group with possible connections to Iran” based on a both technical and non-technical factors. Messing noted the creation of the Telegram channel the day before the attack, as well as hacking into and manipulating the school’s LinkedIn account:Screenshot of a post made to the university’s jobs page on LinkedIn (Check Point)

Israel’s education sector is targeted roughly 3,400 times per week, compared to 1,600 per week for the overall national average, Messing noted, and universities there have been targeted by ideological hackers from Iran in the past.

“The university is a quality target for hackers and they are still in the process of understanding the scope of the attack, which servers are impacted and what data is encrypted,” he said. “This will take some time before the full picture becomes clearer.”

==================================

*הודעה חשובה*
הטכניון נמצא תחת מתקפת סייבר. היקפה של המתקפה ואופיה מצויים בבדיקה. כדי לבצע את תהליך איסוף המידע והטיפול בו, אנו נעזרים במיטב המומחים בתחום, בטכניון ומחוצה לו, ומתואמים עם הרשויות המוסמכות. הטכניון חסם בשלב זה באופן יזום את כל רשתות התקשורת. pic.twitter.com/SBIbZVwzRc
— Technion Israel (@TechnionLive) February 12, 2023

Technion Israel

@TechnionLive

*הודעה חשובה* הטכניון נמצא תחת מתקפת סייבר. היקפה של המתקפה ואופיה מצויים בבדיקה. כדי לבצע את תהליך איסוף המידע והטיפול בו, אנו נעזרים במיטב המומחים בתחום, בטכניון ומחוצה לו, ומתואמים עם הרשויות המוסמכות. הטכניון חסם בשלב זה באופן יזום את כל רשתות התקשורת.

Translate Tweet

7:37 PM · Feb 12, 2023

================================

*הודעת עדכון*
לבית הטכניון שלום,
הטכניון נתון במתקפת סייבר מאתגרת. מדובר באירוע מורכב והחזרה לשגרה מלאה תארך זמן. pic.twitter.com/no0anKlwWw
— Technion Israel (@TechnionLive) February 13, 2023

Technion Israel

@TechnionLive

*הודעת עדכון* לבית הטכניון שלום, הטכניון נתון במתקפת סייבר מאתגרת. מדובר באירוע מורכב והחזרה לשגרה מלאה תארך זמן.

Translate Tweet

4:49 PM · Feb 13, 2023

================

DarkBit (.Darkbit) ransomware virus – removal and decryption options

Also Known As: DarkBit virus

Type: Ransomware

Damage level:

Written by Tomas Meskauskas on February 14, 2023

https://www.pcrisk.com/removal-guides/26015-darkbit-ransomware

Dear Colleagues,
We’re sorry to inform you that we’ve had to hack Technion network completely and transfer “all” data to our secure servers.
So, keep calm, take a breath and think about an apartheid regime that causes troubles here and there.
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The Making of Activist Disguised as Academic: Eilat Maoz a Case in Point

09.02.23

Editorial Note

The Hebrew-language Behevrat Haadam (In the Company of Man) of the Israeli Association of Anthropology published “Congratulations on receiving the Distinction Award for your doctoral thesis!” to Dr. Eilat Maoz in June 2022. Behevrat-Haadam explained that Maoz, a postdoctoral researcher in the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning at the Technion, wrote her doctoral thesis in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Chicago under the supervision of Kaushik Sunder-Rajan and Stephan Palmie. Maoz’s doctoral thesis is a historical ethnography focusing on the police in Jamaica, where she “investigates the global, stratified and deceptive social order.” She proposes the concept of a “police economy,” replacing the “state police,” assuming that the state is the “main, if not the only, agent of organized violence.”

Interestingly, both supervisors research entirely different topics. Rajan’s recent book is Pharmocracy: Value, Politics and Knowledge in Global Biomedicine, as seen from contemporary India. Palmie’s work focuses on Afro-Cuban religious formations.

According to Behevrat-Haadam, Maoz’s doctoral thesis, “The Frontier and the Plantation: A Police Economy of Post-Slavery Jamaica,” shows how “formal and informal, global and national organizations, operating in offices Air conditioned and in the field, coalescing together to create violence that is perceived – more and more – as abstract, uncontrollable, or in Marxist terms ‘alienated.'”

Her “work is based on 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork in several central locations: the Jamaican police, the police investigation department established in 2011 and managed “jointly” by Great Britain and Jamaica, and a civil society organization that deals with creating peace agreements between gangs, preventing blood feuds and helping young people. In addition, the work relies on archival research in England and Jamaica and in-depth interviews with police officers of various ranks, local and foreign security and reform consultants, gang members, and social and political activists. The work seeks to understand and describe the configuration of organized violence, and the way in which this violence takes on meaning and is perceived in a post-slavery, post-colonial society where concepts such as “emancipation” (1838) and “independence” (1962) have almost lost all meaning.”

Her Ph.D. thesis deals with “the rise and fall of the post-colonial state in Jamaica – a story told through the police so that the police are a means of understanding the state and not the other way around. Among other things, this part deals with the development of a radical black consciousness in the ranks of the police in the 1970s. It shows how the ‘return of the colonial masters’ at the beginning of the millennium is a necessary product of the destruction of the leftist political project in the 1970s and the imposition of the neoliberal dogma on the state (as it happened throughout South America). This part also deals with the role of liberal discourses (in particular, the ‘cancellation’ or abolitionist discourse, that of the 19th century as opposed to today) in abolishing the political autonomy of groups and peoples seeking to liberate themselves.”

She follows Frantz Fanon, a French West Indian Psychologist and Political Philosopher from the French colony of Martinique, whose work became influential in post-colonial studies, critical theory, and Marxism.

Her Ph.D. thesis deals with the issues of “murder by the police through an ethnographic examination of two cases… Beyond the description of a global control structure, in which the state is only one factor, and not the most central one, the work claims, following Fanon, that decolonization requires us to confront the need to reorganize the structures of violence – in order to take control of alienated colonial violence. In this sense, the work criticizes the tendency of the left and contemporary critical theory to deny, retaliate, or attribute violence, especially to the state and to ‘the other’ in general. A tendency that has moral and racist elements, which undermines the role of politics and breeds a right-wing populism of ‘law and order.'”

Clearly, her attack on police viewed through the critical, neo-Marxist lens fits her current work.

Maoz’s work at the Smart Social Strategy at the Technion. Her work is “Critical Urban Safety: A Democratic Framework.” She starts by claiming that “conservative studies and programs emphasize territorial defense, spatial control, and increased surveillance, critical studies direct our attention to financial disinvestment, spatial inequality, racialized class stratification, displacement, and gentrification.” The “former views it as a collection of defensible and securitized properties and assets, whereas the latter views the built environment and urban society as one intermeshed fabric.” At Smart Social Strategy, “we join forces with critical scholars.”

Although not a criminologist, she uses “comparative critical criminology and critical security debates.” In her words: “we also aim to envision and model forward-looking, critically inspired, urban change.” The case study is the Hadar neighborhood in Haifa, Israel. This urban quarter of some 40,000 residents is home to a diverse population of Jews, “Palestinian-Arabs,” and others. Established in the 1920s by Jewish entrepreneurs in the context of “Zionist colonization.” In her work, she plans to “promote security and justice for victimized populations,” suggesting that she might critically examine the police, as she did in Jamaica, stating that “crime rates tend to be inflated by excessive policing and over-reporting.” The “lower-class residents—most of them Arabs—fear the growing infiltration of gangs and arms. The latter fear for young men who may become victims and perpetrators or suffer police brutality on account of their national identity.”

Maoz is a Hadash (a communist party) activist. She appeared in September 2020 in a radio program named “Hadash Party Wave,” which noted: “We hosted the anthropologist and left-wing activist Eilat Maoz to delve deeper into the forces that navigate and control the occupation, on the occasion of the release of her new book on ‘Living Law.’ We talked about the connection between privatization and neoliberalism within the Green Line and the Wild West policy in the West Bank, about the differences between the occupation during the formation days and the Likud days, about policemen and thieves in the occupied territories – and we tried to understand why the settlers opposed the annexation plan?”

After completing her post-doctorate, if Maoz secures an academic position, she would join the burgeoning ranks of political activists whose critical, neo-Marxist analysis is distant from political and economic reality. For instance, her analysis of the Hadar neighborhood should have tried to explain the skyrocketing criminality in the Arab sector instead of dismissing it with the worn-out critical, neo-Marxist tropes of “promoting security and justice for the victimized populations.”

It looks like the Israel National Insurance Special Projects Fund sponsors her project and gets little in return for its money.

References:

כלכלת המשטרה של ג׳מייקה – ברכות לאילת מעוז על קבלת פרס הצטינות על עבודת הדוקטורט!

ברכות על קבלת פרס הצטינות על עבודת הדוקטורט!

בחברת האדם
09/06/2022

אילת מעוז, כיום פוסט-דוקטורנטית בפקולטה לארכיטקטורה ובינוי ערים בטכניון, כתבה את עבודת הדוקטורט שלה במחלקה לאנתרופולוגיה באוניברסיטת שיקגו, בהנחיית קאושיק סונדר-רג׳אן ושטפן פלמיה. עבודת הדוקטורט של מעוז היא אתנוגרפיה היסטורית התמקדות במשטרה בג׳מייקה – כמושג, כמוסד, וכרעיון וחוקרת דרכו את הסדר החברתי הגלובלי, המרובד והמתעתע. בעבודתה היא מציעה את המושג של ״כלכלת משטרה״ (police economy) כתחליף למושג ״מדינת משטרה״ שמניח כי ״המדינה״ היא הסוכן המרכזי, אם לא הבלבדי, של אלימות מאורגנת; ובוחנת את השחקנים, ההגיונות והפרקטיקות המעצבים ויוצרים את מה שהיא מכנה אלימות מנוכרת.

העבודה זכתה בפרס ליכטשטיין של אוניברסיטת שיקגו לדוקטורט המצטיין באנתרופולוגיה בשנת 2021. מאמר ראשון מתוכה, Black Police Power: The Political Moment of the Jamaica Constabulary עתיד להתפרסם בכתב העת Comparative Studies in Society and History.

הנה פירוט על עבודתה:

ב-7 במאי 2003, בשעה חמש אחר הצהריים, עצרה ניידת משטרה מול בית קטן בכפר קראל במרכז ג׳מייקה. השוטרים, שהשתייכו ליחידת ״עילית״ לניהול הפשע, ירדו מהרכב ופתחו באש לעבר תושבי הבית וחבריהם – כולל ילדה בת שבע המכונה פינקי – שישבו במרפסת. לדברי השוטרים, הם הגיעו לבית כדי לעצור גנגסטר ידוע בשם צ׳ן צ׳ן, שהגיע לאחרונה לאיזור והחל לגבות דמי חסות ממכרה זהב שהקים תאגיד אוסטרלי עלום בשם אוסג׳ם. אבל כמה דקות אחרי חמש השוטרים כבר הודיעו בקשר שבמהלך ״חילופי אש״ נהרגו ארבעה מיושבי הבית (צ׳ן צ׳ן לא היה ביניהם).

הגרסה שמסרו השוטרים היתה קונבנציונאלית ביותר. הם טענו שירו על התושבים רק כדי להתגונן. השכנים, ששמעו את הכל מבעד לגדר טענו בדיוק את ההפך: שהמשטרה ירתה בשתי נשים ושני גברים בדם קר, בעודם מתחננים על חייהם. מה שלא היה ידוע באותה שעה, אבל החל להתברר בהמשך, זה שזמן קצר אחרי הרצח התקשר מפקד היחידה לגנגסטר ידוע אחר וביקש לקנות ממנו אקדחים כדי לטמון בזירה – דבר שהפך זה מכבר לפרקטיקה מקובלת.

במדינה שבה שיעור הרצח על ידי המשטרה הוא השני הגבוה בעולם, רצח כמו זה שהתרחש בקראל היה יכול בקלות להצטרף לסטטיסטיקה מכוערת (250 מקרי מוות בידי המשטרה מידי שנה בממוצע, במדינה של פחות משלושה מיליון נפש). אבל, מסיבות שלא כאן המקום לפרט, אירוע קראל הניע תגובת שרשרת שהביאה חמישה קציני משטרה בריטיים לתפוס עמדות פיקוד בכירות – כולל את תפקיד סגן המפכ״ל – במשטרת ג׳מייקה. אירוע שתושבי האי הקריבי, ובעיקר השוטרים, כינו באירוניה מובנת ״שובם של הקצינים הקולוניאליים״ או אפילו ״שובו של המאסטר״. להזכירנו כי משטרת ג׳מייקה הוקמה עם סיום משטר עבדות בן יותר משלוש מאות שנה והמשיכה לשמש כלי דיכוי מרכזי של המדינה הקולוניאלית עד העצמאות ב-1962 – ובעצם, כפי שמתברר, אולי גם הרבה אחרי.

עבודת הדוקטורט ״הספר ואחוזת המטעים: כלכלת המשטרה של ג׳מייקה״ (The Frontier and the Plantation: A Police Economy of Post-Slavery Jamaica), היא אתנוגרפיה היסטורית שחוקרת את סדר חברתי גלובלי, מרובד ומתעתע באמצעות שימוש במשטרה – כמושג, כמוסד, וכרעיון – כעדשה אנליטית מושחזת. העבודה מציעה את המושג של ״כלכלת משטרה״ (police economy) כתחליף מתבקש למושג של ״מדינת משטרה״ שמניח כי ״המדינה״ היא הסוכן המרכזי, אם לא הבלבדי, של אלימות מאורגנת ומראה כיצד ארגונים פורמליים ולא-פורמליים, גלובליים ולאומיים, הפועלים במשרדים ממוזגים ובשטח, מתלכדים יחד ליצירת אלימות שנתפסת – יותר ויותר – כאבסטרקטית, בלתי נשלטת, או במונחים מרקסיסטיים ״מנוכרת״.

הריסות בקינגסטון, בירת ג’מייקה – עיר של מלחמת אזרחים מושתקת. צילום: אילת מעוז

העבודה מבוססת על 18 חודשים של עבודת שדה אתנוגרפית בכמה מוקדים מרכזיים: המשטרה הג׳מייקנית, מחלקת חקירות השוטרים שהוקמה ב-2011 ומנוהלת ״במשותף״ על ידי בריטניה וג׳מייקה וארגון חברה אזרחית שעוסק ביצירת הסכמי שלום בין כנופיות, במניעת נקמת דם ובסיוע לצעירים. נוסף על כך, העבודה נשענת על מחקר ארכיוני באנגליה ובג׳מייקה ועל ראיונות עומק עם שוטרים בדרגות שונות, יועצי רפורמה וביטחון מקומיים וזרים, חברי כנופיות, ופעילים/ות חברתיים ופוליטיים. העבודה מבקשת להבין ולתאר את התצורה של אלימות מאורגנת, ואת האופן שבו אלימות זו מקבלת משמעות ונתפסת, בחברת פוסט-עבדות פוסט-קולוניאלית שבה מושגים כמו ״שחרור״ (1838) ו״עצמאות״ (1962) כמעט ואיבדו כל פשר.

החלק הראשון של הדוקטורט עוסק בעלייתה ונפילתה של המדינה הפוסט-קולוניאלית בג׳מייקה – סיפור שמסופר דרך המשטרה, כך שהמשטרה היא אמצעי להבנת המדינה ולא להפך. בין היתר, חלק זה עוסק בהתפתחות של תודעה שחורה רדיקלית בשורות המשטרה בשנות השבעים ומראה איך ״שיבתם של האדונים הקולוניאליים״ בראשית המילניום היא תוצר מתבקש של הרס הפרויקט הפוליטי השמאלי בשנות השבעים וכפיית הדוגמה הניאו-ליברלית על המדינה (כפי שהתרחש בכל בדרום אמריקה). חלק זה גם עוסק בתפקיד של שיחים ליברליים (בפרט , שיח ״הביטול״ או האבולישן, זה של המאה ה-19 ולהבדיל זה של ימינו) בביטול האוטונומיה הפוליטית של קבוצות ועמים המבקשים להשתחרר.

חלקו השני של הדוקטורט עוסק באופן ישיר בסוגיות של רצח על המשטרה, על ידי בחינה אתנוגרפית של שני קייסים – רצח של ״עבריינים״ כפי שהוא נתפס על ידי מנהיג כנופיה מכהן ורצח שיטתי של גובי פרוטקשן. בשני המקרים, העבודה מתארת את הכלכלה הפוליטית של הרצח, אשר במקרה הראשון משמש כאמצעי משמוע ובמקרה השני כאמצעי ניהול של סקטור בכלכלה הגלובלית של הפשע. בחלק האחרון של הדוקטורט אני עוסקת במימדים מרכזיים של הרפורמה המשטרתית המקודמת בג׳מייקה, ועומדת על הפיכתה של קהילת העוני, או הסלאם, למעין נכס.

מעבר לתיאור של מבנה שליטה גלובלי, שהמדינה בו היא רק גורם אחד, ולא המרכזי ביותר, העבודה טוענת, בעקבות פאנון, שדה-קולוניזציה דורשת מאיתנו להתעמת עם הצורך לארגן מחדש את מבני האלימות – על מנת להשתלט על אלימות קולוניאלית מנוכרת. במובן זה, העבודה מבקרת את הנטייה של השמאל והתיאוריה הביקורתית בת זמננו להתכחש, להיפרע, או ליחס אלימות במיוחד למדינה ובכלל ״לאחר״. נטייה שיש בה יסודות מוסרניים וגזעניים, שחותרת תחת תפקיד הפוליטיקה ומצמיחה פופוליזם ימני של ״חוק וסדר״.

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פרק 23 – עוד דונם ועוד עז

SEP 27, 2020

גל חד״ש

אירחנו את האנתרופולוגית ופעילת השמאל אילת מעוז בשביל לנבור עמוק יותר בכוחות שמנווטים ושולטים בכיבוש, לרגל הוצאת ספרה החדש בנושא “חוק חי”. דיברנו על הקשר בין ההפרטה והניאו-ליברליזם בתוך הקו הירוק למדיניות המערב הפרוע בגדה המערבית, על ההבדלים בין הכיבוש בימי המערך לימי הליכוד, על שוטרים וגנבים בשטחים הכבושים – וניסינו להבין למה המתנחלים התנגדו לתכנית הסיפוח? מראיין:גולי דולב השילוני תודה רבה לצוות ההפקה שלנו: טל שדות, יהונתן שמילוביץ, תומר שור, תמר מארה, דוריאל לנקה, אורי נתן, סער יהלום, גלעד פולמבו, אמנון ברונפלד וזוהר אלון עיצוב לוגו: פלג ספיר הצטרפו לרשימת התפוצה שלנו – ותקבלו הודעה בוואטסאפ בכל פעם שעולה פרק חדש: https://chat.whatsapp.com/LaUdAfDuvMq… לרכישת ספרה של אילת מעוז “חוק חי: שיטור וריבונות תחת כיבוש”: https://www.kibutz-poalim.co.il/livin… אפשר להאזין גם בספוטיפיי http://tiny.cc/kea8oz או בסאונדקלאוד https://soundcloud.com/gal-hadash או במלא מקומות אחרים https://anchor.fm/gal-hadash נשמח אם תכתבו לנו! כאן בתגובות, או ל-gal.hadash2020@gmail.com גל חד”ש הוא הפודקאסט השבועי, השמאלי והפוליטי של סניף חד”ש-תל אביב

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https://www.3ssmart.social/the-team/eilat-maoz

Dr Eilat Maoz

Research Fellow, Urban Safety in a Transitional Era

PhD. University of Chicago, Anthropology
M.A. Tel Aviv University, Sociology and Anthropology
B.A, Tel Aviv University, History and Gender Studies

Research focus
‍Eilat Maoz studies and implements democratic security-making and urban conflict transformation. Drawing on a rich comparative stock of critical research and action, she develops participatory frameworks for making cities safe, creative, and egalitarian. Recognizing momentous planetary challenges in the present era—combating inequality and fighting climate change—she turns critical insights, especially from anti-colonial theory and from the Global South, into collective action plans.
Combining ethnographic, historical, and cartographic methods, Maoz analyzes complex security regimes and multi-dimensional urban conflicts. Her dissertation, based on 18 months of ethnographic study of policing and organized crime in Jamaica, coined the term “police economy” to theorize the multi-scalar formal-informal formations of organized violence that stretch ‘above’ and ‘below’ the state. The work was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) and won the prestigious William Rainey Harper Dissertation Fellowship (2019) and the Lichtstern Dissertation Prize in Anthropology (2021).
Her first book, Living Law, was published by the Van Leer Institute in 2020, and her articles are published across academic and popular venues. She teaches classical social theory, political-economic anthropology, critical criminology, and qualitative research design, and works closely with activists, local government, and civil society.

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https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/comparative-studies-in-society-and-history/article/black-police-power-the-political-moment-of-the-jamaica-constabulary/C680E2BA56F44020FE075B45781839F1

Black Police Power: The Political Moment of the Jamaica Constabulary

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 October 2022

Eilat Maoz

Abstract

Contemporary debates on policing trace the rise of “law and order” populism and police militarization to colonial histories and imperial boomerang effects. In a time marked by the renewed imperative “to decolonize,” however, few studies examine what decolonizing policing did or could look like in practice. This article draws on oral history narratives of Jamaican police officers to recover their ideas about transforming the colonial Jamaica Constabulary Force in the 1970s. Born out of black power mobilizations and under a democratic socialist government (1972–1980), police decolonization was viewed as part of broader transformative effort to rid the country of colonial inheritances in economics, culture, and politics. Jamaican policemen, radicalized since the early twentieth century, then began revising their social mandate and ask who the police should serve and protect. Ultimately, due to internal contradictions and external pressures, the experiment failed, giving rise to police populism and increased violence against black men and women in the ghettos. The episode reveals how populism emerges out of a failure of emancipatory campaigns and how radical critique can turn into ideological justification. It also highlights the need to distinguish between diverse, contradictory, and overlapping demands to decolonize societies and institutions today.

Calls to Boycott Ariel University

02.02.23

Editorial Note

Ariel University is holding a conference, “Israel-Korea Workshop for Astronomy and Space Science,” from January 29 to February 3, 2023. “Is-Ko-Space 2023” aims to enhance the collaborations between the Korean and Israeli “highly productive astronomical communities.” The workshop includes “two days of science presentations, a two-day visit to Israeli astronomical observatories, and plenty of time to discuss collaborations. The science-presentation part (January 29 – 30) will include four plenary sessions: Observational Facilities and Instrumentation Extragalactic Physics and Astronomy Stars and Planets Solar System Physics and Space Science For students: Award prizes will be given to the best poster and the best talk. The observatory visit will be held on February 02 – 03 and will feature: Visit of Wise Observatory in Mitzpe Ramon Visit of Weizmann Institute Observatory in Ne’ot Smadar Time to discuss possible collaborations In between (January 31 – February 01) participants are invited to: Attend the 18th Ilan Ramon International Space Conference Work on individual Israeli-Korean collaborations.”

Advocates of the academic boycott of Ariel University were quick to react. On January 29, 2023, Prof. Nir Gov of the Department of Chemical and Biological Physics at Weizmann Institute, sent an email to the Academia IL Network. “To all Academy members in Israel willing to cooperate with the institution called “Ariel University”.” Gov gave the example of “Is-Ko-Space 2023.”

He wrote: “I hope you are aware that 1) Ariel University is located in the Ariel settlement in the heart of the West Bank, which was occupied in 1967, on an area most of which was declared state land and in this way was confiscated from the use of the local Palestinian residents by orders of the army. 2) The State of Israel exercises military rule in this territory against the Palestinian residents, including a military court, without basic human rights. 3) The area where Ariel is located has never been annexed to the State of Israel, as determined by the High Court of Justice in its ruling on Ariel University. Ariel is not inside the State of Israel. According to the UN, this area is defined as the “Occupied Palestinian territories” (OPT, Pt). 4) The Palestinian residents living around Ariel are prevented from entering the Ariel settlement, and certainly not to the university. This contrasts the situation in Israel, where all academic institutions are equally open to all residents, as in any democratic country. 5) The Ariel settlement, and Ariel University, were built as part of a political policy of the right-wing parties in Israel, who wish to make the Israeli occupation of the territories a permanent and irreversible situation. Hence, faculty members at Ariel University have to agree to a political worldview, which makes the entire institution have a clear political affiliation, unlike all other higher education institutions in Israel and any democratic country. 6) The settlements, and Ariel University, are illegal according to the Geneva Convention and international law.” He ended his appeal by stating, “I hope you will take these facts into account, and make the moral and decent decision, in favor of peace and human rights.”

Gov urged his academic peers to boycott the “Is-Ko-Space 2023“ in his plea to boycott Ariel University. Ironically, Gov’s employer, Weizmann Institute, is part of the conference.

Prof. Emeritus Amos Korczyn of the Department of Neurology at Tel Aviv University responded to Gov: “Thanks, Nir. I think writing to the scientific journals that publish scientific articles from Ariel University is important because the address “Ariel University, Israel” is false. Therefore these articles should be rejected and deleted if published. Amos Korczyn, emeritus Medicine, Tel Aviv.”

Gov then assured Korczyn, “Hello Amos; indeed, Prof. Ofer Aharony and I write to Scientific journals and request that they write a correct address and that Ariel is not in the State of Israel. Several journals agreed that writing this false claim should be prevented, but we must persevere. If you know of such cases, please email the journal editors, as many requests will help in this struggle. Thank you, Nir.”This is not the first time Israeli academics are calling for the boycott of Israel in general or Ariel University in particular.

To recall, Professor Oded Goldreich, also from Weizmann Institute, urged boycotting Ariel University, thus breaching the Boycott Law passed by the Knesset in 2011. Two Education Ministers rejected the prize committee’s recommendation to award Goldreich the prestigious Israel Prize.

Without providing an explanation, the Israeli Supreme Court decided to bypass the Boycott Law and ordered the Prize to be awarded to Goldreich.

More generally, since the 2011 Boycott Law has never been implemented, Israeli radical-leftist academics preach for a boycott without impunity.

References:

https://www.ariel.ac.il/wp/iskospace/

Israel-Korea workshop for Astronomy and Space Science

Dr. Lev Tal-Or

ISKOSpace

Is-Ko-Space 2023: the first Israeli-Korean

Astronomy & Space Science workshop

January 29 – February 03

The goal of Is-Ko-Space 2023 is to enhance collaborations between the Korean and Israeli highly productive astronomical communities. The workshop will

include two days of science presentations, a two-day visit to Israeli astronomical observatories, and plenty of time to discuss collaborations.

The science-presentation part (January 29 – 30) will include four plenary sessions:

Observational Facilities and Instrumentation
Extragalactic Physics and Astronomy
Stars and Planets
Solar System Physics and Space Science

For students: Award prizes will be given to the best poster and the best talk.

The observatory visit will be held on February 02 – 03 and will feature:

Visit of Wise Observatory in Mitzpe Ramon
Visit of Weizmann Institute Observatory in Ne’ot Smadar
Time to discuss possible collaborations

In between (January 31 – February 01) participants are invited to:

Attend the 18th Ilan Ramon International Space Conference
Work on individual Israeli-Korean collaborations

Invited speakers:

Hagai Netzer (Tel-Aviv University, TAU), Chung-Uk Lee (Korea Astronomy and pace Science Institute, KASI), Eli Waxman (Weizmann Institute of Science, WIS), Thiem Hoang (KASI), Shay Zucker (TAU), Myungshin Im (Seoul National University, SNU), Ehud Behar (Technion, Israel Institute of Technology), Hyung Mok Lee (SNU), Re’em

Sari (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Jaejin Lee (KASI), Sagi Ben-Ami (WIS), Hagai Perets (Technion), Leon Ofman (TAU, CUA/NASA GSFC), Adi Zitrin (Ben-Gurion

University of the Negev), Dafne Guetta (Ariel University, AU), Asaf Pe’er (Bar-Ilan University), Doron Chelouche (Haifa University), Ido Ben-Dayan (AU), Amit Kashi (AU).

SOC:

Inwoo Han (Co-Chair, KASI), Lev Tal-Or (Co-Chair, AU), Sagi Ben-Ami (WIS), Dafne Guetta (AU), Amit Kashi (AU), Chung-Uk Lee (KASI), Hyung Mok Lee (SNU), Jaejin Lee (KASI), Myeong-Gu Park (Kyungpook National University), Volker Perdelwitz (WIS), Noam Soker (Technion), Shay Zucker (TAU).

LOC:

Yossi Zaguri (Ariel University, AU), Bareket Tesfay (Ariel University, AU)

Important dates

31/12/2022 – Registration with title submission

07/01/2023 – Abstract submission

14/01/2023 – Registration deadline

29/01/2023 – 03/02/2023 – Workshop and collaboration discussions

For further inquiries please contact:

iskospace – at – ariel.ac.il

The Workshop is supported by Ariel University and by the Israeli Space Agency

==================================================

———- Forwarded message ———
From: Nir Gov
Date: Sun, Jan 29, 2023 at 9:15 PM
‪Subject: [Academia-IL-Bashaar] לידיעת חברי האקדמיה בישראל שמתלבטים לגבי השתתפות בכנס ב”אונ’ אריאל”‬
To: Academia List List <academia-il@listserver.cc.huji.ac.il>

לכל חברי האקדמיה בישראל, שמוכנים לשתף פעולה עם המוסד הנקרא “אונ’ אריאל”,

כמו למשל שמופיעים באתר: https://www.ariel.ac.il/wp/iskospace/

אני מקוה שאתם מודעים לכך:

1) אונ’ אריאל ממוקמת בהתנחלות אריאל בלב הגדה המערבית שנכבשה ב-1967, על שטח שברובו הוכרז כאדמות מדינה ובדרך זו הופקע משימוש התושבים הפלשתינים המקומיים ע”י צווים של הצבא.

2) מדינת ישראל מפעילה בשטח זה שלטון צבאי כלפי התושבים הפלשתינים, כולל בית-משפט צבאי, ללא זכויות אדם בסיסיות.

3) השטח שבו ממוקמת אריאל מעולם לא סופח למדינת ישראל, כפי שנקבע ע”י בג”צ בפסיקתו בנושא אונ’ אריאל. אריאל איננה נמצאת בתוך מדינת ישראל. ע”פ האו”ם מוגדר שטח זה כ”שטחים הפלסטינים הכבושים” ( Occupied Palestinian territories – OPT, Pt).

4) התושבים הפלשתינים הגרים מסביב לאריאל מנועים מלהיכנס להתנחלות אריאל, ובוודאי שלא לאוניברסיטה. זאת בניגוד למצב בתוך ישראל, היכן שכל המוסדות האקדמיים פתוחים באופן שוויוני לכל התושבים, כבכל מדינה דמוקרטית.

5) ההתנחלות אריאל, ואונ’ אריאל, נבנו כחלק ממדיניות פוליטית של מפלגות הימין בישראל, המעוניינות להפוך את הכיבוש הישראלי בשטחים למצב קבוע ובלתי-הפיך. מכאן שלמעשה אנשי סגל באונ’ אריאל צריכים להסכים לתפישת עולם פוליטית, דבר ההופך את המוסד כולו לבעל זיקה פוליטית מובהקת, בניגוד לכל שאר מוסדות ההשכלה הגבוהה בישראל ובכל מדינה דמוקרטית.

6) ההתנחלויות, ואונ’ אריאל, אינן חוקיות לפי אמנת ז’נבה והחוק הבינלאומי.

אני מקוה שתקחו בחשבון את העובדות הללו, ותקבלו את ההחלטה המוסרית וההגונה, בעד שלום וזכויות-אדם.

עוד מידע על אונ’ אריאל:

https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fisraeli-academics-for-peace.org.il%2F%25d7%2594%25d7%2590%25d7%259e%25d7%25aa-%25d7%25a2%25d7%259c-%25d7%2590%25d7%2595%25d7%25a0%25d7%2599%25d7%2591%25d7%25a8%25d7%25a1%25d7%2599%25d7%2598%25d7%25aa-%25d7%2590%25d7%25a8%25d7%2599%25d7%2590%25d7%259c%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR1X9nNVZtyN8tBPJm8i87bZt2M_Picvq7YJq9M-8-GLMTrBUa8WMs7oiMc&h=AT3YuqiZ0O29pudbkOEpqfeJvzaqo7eYWnG3v2d2D16rQkQZIaTclL0I5-zitnLCy69zVysQEwkqFIWHYwR0NCUk-M1EZdf9V_rZ7XEtpZl9xf3Ml6AsDy-1lyl2loMOVCmZ&__tn__=-UK-R&c%5B0%5D=AT1bViXM5a0U0mQVJ-mUYIncZnsXJJZU-qBgu75Tabr95OHuQekL_3NPD6204zujEmprc4J9SqjFKWaeTRo0PlmrfXu_s3DZH8MdgdbMEetGww6sIVOGzRMaBvDXUv3m_DoXPE3Tn__VV0XooXF65HombA

————————————–

Prof. Nir Gov

Department of Chemical and Biological Physics

Weizmann Institute of Science

Rehovot, Israel

=================================================

———- הודעה שהועברה ———

מאת: Nir Gov

תאריך: יום ב׳, 30 בינו׳ 2023 ב-17:40

נושא: Re: [Academia-IL-Bashaar] לידיעת חברי האקדמיה בישראל שמתלבטים לגבי השתתפות בכנס ב”אונ’ אריאל”

שלום עמוס

אכן פרופ’ עופר אהרוני ואנוכי כותבים לעיתונים

מדעיים ומבקשים שיכתבו כתובת נכונה, ושאריאל

איננה במדינת ישראל. מספר עיתונים הסכימו שאכן

צריך למנוע את הפירסום השקרי הזה, אבל

חייבים להתמיד בנושא. אם אתם.ן מכירים

מקרים כאלו, אנא שלחו מייל לעורכי העתון. פניות

רבות יואילו במאבק הזה. תודה רבה

ניר

————————————–

Prof. Nir Gov

Department of Chemical and Biological Physics

Weizmann Institute of Science

Rehovot, Israel

From: amos korczyn
Sent: Sunday, January 29, 2023 9:56:44 PM
To: Nir Gov
Cc: Academia List List; Daniel Michaelson; Dan F; Gozes Illana
Subject: Re: [Academia-IL-Bashaar] לידיעת חברי האקדמיה בישראל שמתלבטים לגבי השתתפות בכנס ב”אונ’ אריאל”

תודה ניר.

לדעתי חשוב לכתוב אל העיתונים המדעיים המפרסמים מדעיים מאוניברסיטת אריאל, כי הכתובת ״אוניברסיטת אריאל, ישראל״ היא כתובת שקרית ולכן יש לדחות מאמרים אלה, ולמחקם אם פורסמו.

עמוס קורצ׳ין, דימוסאי רפואה, תל אביב

Professor emeritus Amos D Korczyn
CONy President
Department of Neurology
Tel Aviv University

Nadera Shalhoub Kevorkian Abuses her Position to Bash Israel

26.01.23

Editorial Note

In recent weeks Prof. Nadera Shalhoub Kevorkian, the chair of the Law Faculty at the Hebrew University, hit the news when the George Washington University (GWU) Professional Psychology Program held an event in September 2022 which featured her, among others. In her presentation, Shalhoub-Kevorkian said that Israel uses its humanitarian aid to distract from its “oppressive power.” Shalhoub-Kevorkian also argued in support of Palestinians throwing stones at Jewish Israelis as a form of “violent resistance” against Israel. In her lecture, she “examines the framing, production and performance of security regimes that create and encourage systems of racialized oppression,” as quoted in the event’s flyer. Jewish students filed a complaint, and now GWU is investigating.

Not wasting any time, the GWU Institute for Middle East Studies, together with the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) Program, is hosting a webinar, “Gender, Violence, and the Geopolitics of Feminism,” also titled “Gender, Violence, and Governance Feminism,” on February 2, 2023. This webinar is the “kickoff event of Spring 2023 to celebrate 50 years at GW! We will feature Lila Abu-Lughod and Nadera Shalhoub Kevorkian who will share their expertise.”

The two speakers are, “Lila Abu-Lughod is a Professor of Social Science within the Department of Anthropology at Columbia University in the city of New York. Her work, strongly ethnographic and mostly based in Egypt, has focused on three broad issues: the relationship between cultural forms and power; the politics of knowledge and representation; and the dynamics of women’s and human rights, global liberalism, and feminist governance of the Muslim world. Current research focuses on museum politics in Palestine and other settler colonies, security discourses and Islamophobia, and religion in the global governance of gender violence. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian is the Lawrence D. Biele Chair in Law at the Faculty of Law-Institute of Criminology and the School of Social Work and Public Welfare at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Global Chair in Law- Queen Mary University of London. Her research focuses on trauma, state crimes and criminology, surveillance, gender violence, law and society. She studies the crime of femicide and other forms of gendered based violence, violence against children in conflict ridden areas, crimes of abuse of power in settler colonial contexts, surveillance, securitization and social control. the author of numerous books among them “Militarization and Violence Against Women in Conflict Zones in the Middle East: The Palestinian Case Study” published in 2010; “Security Theology, Surveillance and the Politics of Fear”, published by Cambridge University Press, 2015.”

Earlier work by Shalhoub Kevorkian includes the following abstract in a journal of Criminology: “Colonial and settler colonial dispossession is performed through various forms of violence, justified by cultural, historical, religious and national imperatives. In this paper, I define one of these forms of violence as the occupation of the senses, referring to the sensory technologies that manage bodies, language, sight, time and space in the colony. This paper analyses the parades, marches and festivals performed in the Palestinian city space of occupied East Jerusalem; shares the slogans, chants and graffiti used by Israeli civil, religious and nationalist entities; and explores what is lived, seen, heard, felt and smelled by the colonized to uncover the political violence implicated in the occupation of the senses.”

Last year, IAM reported that Shalhoub Kevorkian espoused fake news about Israel. IAM reported that in her co-authored article, “Colonial Necrocapitalism, State Secrecy and the Palestinian Freedom Tunnel,” she argued that “the very existence of the Palestinian endangers the colonial state” of Israel, “their death is necessary for the survival” of Israel. “Necrocapitalism” is “operationalized through violent policing of Palestinians.”

For Shalhoub-Kevorkian, necrocapitalism is the “means of accumulating capital and profit from the death” of Palestinians, where “profit flows from visible and invisible violence, as well as the killing of the colonized, as a state of fear generates continuous insecurity, which in turn generates a demand for security goods.” Because “Israel is one of the top arms exporters in the world.” As with other writings in the genre of neo-Marxist, critical theory, this egregiously convoluted article is full of made-up words like “necrocapitalism.“ To the extent that one can fathom Shalboub-Kevorkian’s reasoning, Israel became a leading economic power because it kills Palestinians. Nothing could be further from the truth. Israel achieved its position because of its outstanding capacity for innovation in Information Technology. Here is something to enlighten her, written in 2022 by Sheikh Riad, a Bangladeshi blogger, programmer, and web developer:

“Science and technology in Israel are one of the country’s most developed sectors. Israel spent 4.3% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on civil research and development in 2015, the highest ratio in the world. In 2019, Israel was ranked the world’s fifth most innovative country by the Bloomberg Innovation Index. It ranks thirteenth in the world for scientific output as measured by the number of scientific publications per million citizens. In 2014, Israel’s share of scientific articles published worldwide (0.9%) was much higher than its share of the global population (0.1%). Israel is home to major companies in the high-tech industry and has one of the world’s most technologically literate populations. As mentioned earlier, there are more than 4,000 tech companies in Israel, including some of the world’s largest companies. Israel has 60 of the world’s top 500 tech giants with research centres and new technology centres in Israel!”

He speaks of Tel Aviv, as “one of the largest technology centres in the world, right next to Silicon Valley in the United States in terms of tech startups. Israel is even number 3 on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange, which is made up of shares of US-based tech companies, with only the United States and China topping the list. Israel is also behind the list of combined technology companies of Germany, Spain, Italy and France! The most surprising thing is that a large part of Israel’s income comes from this technology sector. The money earned from the research and development sector of big companies including IBM, PayPal, Cisco, Amazon, Facebook and the import of technology is 12.5% of Israel’s GDP!”

Clearly, Shalboub-Kevorkian and the Middle East Institute who invited her as the opening event for celebrating the 50th anniversary of GWU demonstrate the bankruptcy of the advocacy-driven Middle East scholarship. It has created a false narrative replete with obscure jargon totally disconnected from reality. Bashing Israel is its only achievement.

References:

https://forward.com/fast-forward/531840/george-washington-university-lara-sheehi-antisemitism-zionism/

Jewish students say anti-Zionist professor created hostile environment

A psychology professor at George Washington University allegedly dismissed concerns that her hostile anti-Zionism was antisemitic, and retaliated against Jewish students who complained

By Arno Rosenfeld January 13, 2023

An Israel advocacy group is alleging that an anti-Zionist George Washington University professor created a hostile environment for Jewish students who support the country. StandWithUs filed a federal complaint against the school Thursday, arguing that Zionism is an integral part of Jewish identity.

The filing claims that Lara Sheehi, who teaches a mandatory course on diversity, discriminated against several Jewish students because of their Israeli and Zionist identities in her class during the fall semester.

“It’s not your fault you were born in Israel,” Sheehi allegedly told one student after she introduced herself.

Much of the complaint focuses on Sheehi’s disagreements with students over whether hostility toward Israel and Zionism is antisemitic. Many pro-Israel organizations, including Hillel, have argued in recent years that institutions such as universities must treat Zionism — support for a Jewish state in Israel — as an integral part of Jewish identity, and one that is protected from discrimination in the same manner as race, religion, gender and other protected categories.

Opponents of this approach say that Zionism is a political ideology that must be open to debate, and that shielding it from criticism will have a chilling effect on Palestinian activism.

In its account of Sheehi’s course, which is mandatory for psychology students at George Washington, StandWithUs wrote that it had identified an extreme case of a faculty member’s hostile anti-Zionism leading to discrimination against students.

“A professor singling out and targeting Jewish and Israeli students for adverse treatment because of their identity is textbook antisemitic discriminatory conduct,” Roz Rothstein, the head of StandWithUs, said in a statement.

Julia Metjian, a spokesperson for George Washington, said the school was aware of the complaint.

“George Washington University strongly condemns antisemitism and hatred,” she said in an email. “The university also recognizes and supports academic freedom, and the right of all members of our community to speak out on issues of public concern.”

The organization’s civil rights complaint, which was filed with the Department of Education, highlights an optional guest lecture for the class delivered by Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, a professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem who has generated controversy over her research on the Israeli military.

Complaint stems from lecture

At the lecture, Shalhoub-Kevorkian “demonized Israel, and Israelis in general,” according to the complaint, and claimed that Israeli philanthropy and humanitarian aid was meant to cover up human rights abuses. It also said that she defended the act of throwing stones at Israeli soldiers.

During the first class following the talk, the complaint states that several Jewish students told Sheehi they believed Shalhoub-Kevorkian’s lecture was antisemitic, with one saying she “felt like it was an excuse to bash Jews.”

Sheehi reportedly responded that “in no uncertain terms, anti-Zionism is not antisemitism.”

“There are many people who say that Zionism in and of itself is an antisemitic movement,” she allegedly responded. “Why? Because it locates that Jewish folks are that much more different that they need to have a space unto themselves.”

The complaint states that Sheehi, the author of Psychoanalysis Under Occupation: Practicing Resistance in Palestine, had previously made a series of remarks on Twitter that included hostile anti-Zionism, including: “Israelis are so f****ing racist” and “F*** every person who is not yet an anti-Zionist.”

(The Twitter account referenced in the report has since been taken offline. It did not include Sheehi’s name, but it repeatedly referenced her authorship of the psychoanalysis book, which won a 2022 Palestine Book Award.)

Elsewhere, Sheehi has said that psychoanalysts must actively practice anti-Zionism.

She graduated from the American University of Beirut in 2006 and received her doctorate from GW in 2010, during which time she was also active in the “campus anti-war network,” according to her LinkedIn profile. She has been teaching at the school since 2016.

When an Israeli student described her fear of “terrorist attacks” in Tel Aviv, Sheehi allegedly said that the use of that term was Islamophobic.

StandWithUs, which mostly focuses on campus Israel advocacy, also claimed that Sheehi retaliated against two of students who raised concerns with university administrators about Shalhoub-Kevorkian and Sheehi’s overall attitude toward Israel and antisemitism.

The report states that Sheehi subsequently claimed that the students had called Shalhoub-Kevorkian a terrorist, wrote “combative” journal entries for the class, and that they were racist. The students were then informed that the university had initiated disciplinary proceedings against them, and asked them to detail what they did wrong.

The complaint claims that George Washington violated the civil rights of the Jewish students in Sheehi’s class by failing to address her behavior. StandWithUs is calling on the school to investigate the student complaints and use the controversial International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism to adjudicate them.

Anyone can file a complaint with the Department of Education, and it is not clear whether the agency will investigate further.

Arno Rosenfeld is an enterprise reporter for the Forward, where he covers antisemitism, philanthropy and American Jewish institutions. You can reach him at arno@forward.com and follow him on Twitter @arnorosenfeld.

==========================================

https://www.jpost.com/international/article-728485

Complaint alleges George Washington U prof. discriminated against Jews, Israelis

StandWithUs has launched a complaint against George Washington University over its failure to deal with Professor Lara Sheehi’s alleged antisemitism.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF

Published: JANUARY 14, 2023 21:05

Updated: JANUARY 15, 2023 22:41

The George Washington University, in the United States capital of Washington, DC, was accused by pro-Israel nonprofit StandWithUs of providing a pervasive, hostile, and discriminatory environment for Jewish and Israeli students in a complaint filed with the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Right on Thursday.

StandWithUs further claimed the university violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which states that “no person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”

The program in question is the university’s Professional Psychology Program, whose facilitator of the program’s mandatory diversity course prof. Sheehi was accused by StandWithUs of denying Jewish and Israeli students “the right to an equal educational opportunity.”

The complaint alleges that Israeli and Jewish students who came forward about their experience were punished for speaking out, with the letter claiming Sheesi slandered students’ reputations to other faculty members and launched excessive and irregular disciplinary procedures against them.

The complaint further claims that Sheehi invited a guest lecturer who invoked antisemitic tropes about Jews being dishonest and using their influence for nefarious purposes. The guest speaker, who was identified as Dr. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian by the Jewish Journal, “expressed support for violence against Israeli civilians,” as per the complaint.

As written in the complaint, “when the students raised concerns about the antisemitic harassment they were experiencing, Sheehi denied that what the students had experienced was antisemitism and distorted the Jewish students’ comments to accuse the Jewish students of attacking other identity groups.

Sheehi has been writing in support of the Palestinian cause for many years, according to her academia.org page, which serves as an open repository of free-to-read academic articles. These include: “The will to Live in Palestine (2021),” “Psychotherapeutic Commons in Liberated Palestine (2021),” “Enactments of otherness and searching for a third space in the Palestine-Israel matrix (2016)” and “The settlers’ town is strongly built: Fanon in Palestine (2020).”

Professor’s acts are ‘textbook antisemitic conduct’

Roz Rothstein, StandWithUs CEO and co-founder, noted that “a professor singling out and targeting Jewish and Israeli students for adverse treatment because of their identity is textbook antisemitic discriminatory conduct.”

“A professor singling out and targeting Jewish and Israeli students for adverse treatment because of their identity is textbook antisemitic discriminatory conduct,”Roz Rothstein, StandWithUs CEO and Co-Founder

“This is a dangerous and unacceptable trend on far too many campuses, especially as this discriminatory treatment increasingly originates from faculty and too often goes unchecked by administrators.

“It is imperative that university administrators take an unequivocal stand against antisemitism and in support of Jewish students, in both word and deed,” Rothstein added.

“In our 2022 Antisemitism on US College & University Campuses Report, GW was rated a ‘D’ with many Jewish students stating GW administrators do not take their safety seriously and often do not feel comfortable sharing their Jewish identity with others due to the climate on campus,” Executive Director of StopAntisemitism Liora Rez told the Jerusalem Post. “George Washington University is miserably failing its Jewish students and it is a relief to see legal action being taken. Jewish students deserve an environment free of anti-Jewish bias to learn and flourish; with Jew-hating professors like Lara Sheehi and clubs like SJP being allowed to spread their bigotry and cause havoc on campuses nationwide, this is nearly impossible to achieve.”

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https://www.timesofisrael.com/george-washington-university-probing-alleged-antisemitic-harassment-by-professor/

George Washington University probing alleged antisemitic harassment by professor

January 19, 2023

news

JTA – George Washington University says it has launched an investigation into whether a psychology professor displayed antisemitic behavior in his interactions with Jewish and Israeli students in the latest row over the state of Jewish life at the university in Washington, D.C. Was it or not

The investigation was prompted by a federal complaint filed by the pro-Israel watchdog group StandWithYou, citing graduate psychology students who were targeted last fall by their professor because of “their Jewish and Israeli identity.”

The group’s complaint, filed with the US. The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights quotes Professor Lara Sheehy as saying to an Israeli student on her first day, “It is not your fault that you were born in Israel.” It is alleged that Jewish students felt targeted by a guest speaker Shehi had brought to class, Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, for comments she advocated throwing stones at Israelis as a form of resistance. Was. The complaint alleges that when the students brought their concerns to Shehi, he accused them of Islamophobia.

It has been said in the complaint that after this the meetings held with the higher officials in the university did not yield satisfactory results.

In a statement last week, GWU President Mark Righton said the university would open “an investigation by a third party” into the complaint’s “claims of discrimination and retaliation against unnamed students in the GW curriculum.” A GWU spokesperson previously told The Forward that the university “strongly condemns antisemitism and hatred” and also “recognizes and supports academic freedom.”

The Department of Education has yet to weigh whether it will open its own investigation, as there have been similar complaints of campus antisemitism in recent years.

The university, whose Hillel opened a new kosher cafe this week, has been the flashpoint of several incidents over the past few years highlighting Jewish student life. Groups posted anti-Zionist fliers near Campus Hillel and Jewish students rallied in 2021 following vandalism at a Jewish fraternity in which a replica Torah was damaged.

But during the 2021-2022 academic year, Jewish students from across the political spectrum told Forward that they found claims of rampant antisemitism on campus exaggerated. Some said they felt the continued involvement of pro-Israel groups was counterproductive.

A graduate of the American University of Beirut, Shehi is professor of clinical psychology and co-author of “Psychoanalysis Under Occupation: Practicing Resistance in Palestine”. The events described in the StandWithUs report allegedly occurred in Sheehy’s required diversity training course for GWU’s psychology graduate students.

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https://www.gwhatchet.com/2023/01/17/gw-failed-to-act-against-alleged-antisemitism-from-professor-civil-rights-complaint/

GW failed to act against alleged antisemitism from professor: civil rights complaint

NEWS

By Caitlin Kitson Jan 17, 2023 3:30 AM

A Jewish and pro-Israel advocacy organization filed a Title VI complaint Thursday with the Department of Education alleging that a professor was antisemitic toward Jewish and Israeli students in a graduate-level psychology course during the fall semester.

StandWithUs filed the complaint with the Office for Civil Rights, alleging Lara Sheehi, an assistant professor of clinical psychology, created a “hostile environment” for Jewish and Israeli students within her Diversity I course, part of GW’s Professional Psychology Program. The complaint alleges faculty and administrators “retaliated” with “disciplinary proceedings” against students who raised concerns about hostile conduct from Sheehi throughout the fall and a guest speaker and course materials that addressed the Israel-Palestine conflict.

The complaint alleges that the University violated Title VI, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color or national origin in any “educational program or activity” that receives federal funds like GW.

“Jewish students informed the University about the harassment and discrimination they were experiencing,” the complaint alleges. “George Washington, however, failed to take prompt and effective steps to end the harassment and eliminate the hostile environment.”

The complaint calls on the University to null the “disciplinary proceedings” against the students who raised concerns and provide them with an alternative method of receiving course credit “out of Sherri’s orbit and influence.” The complaint also urges GW to investigate the discrimination allegations, institute mandatory bias and sensitivity training and use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism to identify discrimination claims.

Sheehi, who has worked at GW since 2016, also taught a section of the Third Year Psychotherapy course in the Professional Psychology Program during the fall semester, according to the University’s schedule of classes. Sheehi is not scheduled to teach any classes this spring, according to the schedule of classes.

Sheehi did not return a request for comment.

Interim University President Mark Wrighton issued a statement to the GW community Friday saying a “third party” will investigate the claims, but he did not comment on the details of the allegations.

“I want to be clear that we reaffirm that the George Washington University strongly condemns antisemitism and hatred, discrimination and bias in all forms,” Wrighton said in the statement. “We remain committed to fostering a welcoming and inclusive environment where all feel safe and free of harassment, hostility or marginalization.”

University spokesperson Julia Metjian declined to comment on Sheehi’s employment status. She also declined to comment on StandWithUs’ allegation that students who complained about Sheehi were subjected to “disciplinary proceedings” or what the third-party investigation of the complaint’s claims will entail.

Metjian deferred to Wrighton’s public statement in response to The Hatchet’s questions.

Progressive organizations, like Jewish Voice for Peace, have criticized StandWithUs for its reported ties to the Israel government through its work with the government’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the country’s marketing materials.

“They are allegations and reflect the advocacy group’s perspective,” officials said in a now-expired Instagram story posted Thursday on GW’s official account. “The University will respond to OCR regarding any complaint it may receive from OCR.”

The complaint states that after a student said she was from Israel on the first day of the fall semester when Sheehi asked students in the course to share where they were from, Sheehi responded by saying, “It’s not your fault you were born in Israel.”

The complaint alleges that students continued to experience discriminatory actions at the Professional Psychology Program’s speaker event in September featuring a presentation from Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, the chair of law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. During the presentation, Shalhoub-Kevorkian said Israel uses its humanitarian aid to distract from its “oppressive power,” a statement that students believed played into antisemitic stereotypes of Jewish people “using money for nefarious purposes,” according to the complaint.

Shalhoub-Kevorkian also allegedly argued in support of Palestinians throwing stones as a form of “violent resistance” against Israel during her presentation.

“It examines the framing, production and performance of security regimes that create and encourage systems of racialized oppression,” Shalhoub-Kevorkian said of the presentation in the flier for the September speaker event. She did not return a request for comment.

In the class following the speaker event, one Jewish student told Sheehi the presentation made her feel “vulnerable and unsafe” because she believed it “targeted” Israeli and Jewish people, according to the complaint. Sheehi allegedly replied by saying “in no uncertain terms, anti-Zionism is not antisemitism.”

The complaint states that students in the program received an email from a Columbian College of Arts and Sciences vice dean Oct. 22, which stated officials were aware of the criticism of Shalhoub-Kevorkian’s presentation and planned to host a discussion between students and faculty to address students’ concerns.

“As an institution of higher learning, we encourage robust debate on issues that impact our global society, but it is our expectation that all community members engage respectfully with one another, even when discussing issues that implicate deeply held beliefs,” the email states, according to the complaint.

The complaint states the Jewish students also raised concerns to Sheehi about three class readings, which included references to racist treatment against Arab and Muslim people and the Israel-Palestine conflict. The students said the readings portrayed Israel and Jewish people in a negative light “within the greater context of antisemitism in the class,” according to the complaint.

The complaint states students were frustrated that there were reportedly no required class materials covering antisemitism in their Diversity I course.

The complaint alleges that Jewish students from the course shared their criticisms of Sheehi with a staff member from the Professional Psychology Program in early October. They asked to fulfill the program’s diversity course requirement through other means, submit their classwork to another professor and invite a speaker to the program to give a presentation on antisemitism, according to the complaint.

The complaint states that the staff member allegedly told the students that he would sit in on Sheehi’s course, allow the students to submit their course work to him and invite a guest speaker to host a presentation on antisemitism. Later that month, he allegedly walked back those promises.

StandWithUs alleges that a student met a CCAS dean Oct. 26 and shared a joint letter signed by other Jewish students in the course explaining their “grievances” with officials from the school. The student reportedly told the dean that Jewish upperclassmen in the program reported they had also experienced antisemitism in Sheehi’s course years prior, according to the complaint.

The CCAS dean allegedly described the conflict as the result of “deeply held beliefs” and told the student who met with the dean that they could submit a bias report. In a separate Oct. 30 email to the student, the dean said they could either remain enrolled in the course or withdraw.

The complaint alleges the program’s faculty voted to subject the students who shared criticism of Sheehi with program staff members and the dean to “disciplinary proceedings.” The faculty allegedly threatened to place a “permanent negative mark” on the students’ academic records if they refused to explain “what harm they caused.”

A staff member from the psychology program refused a student’s request to appeal the disciplinary proceedings, the complaint states.

Carly Gammill, the director of StandWithUs’ Center for Combating Antisemitism, said the OCR will decide if it has the authority to examine the complaint before determining if the allegations constitute a Title VI violation. If a Title VI violation is found, the office will launch an investigation and consider terminating federal funding or referring the case to the Department of Justice, according to the DOJ.

“If and when a full investigation is open, then we would be notified of that, the University would be notified of that,” she said. “Then their investigation would proceed according to their protocols.”

This article appeared in the January 17, 2023 issue of the Hatchet.

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https://imes.elliott.gwu.edu/events/gender-violence-and-the-geopolitics-of-feminism/

EVENT

Gender, Violence, and the Geopolitics of Feminism

6:00 – 7:00 PM

2 FEB 2023

WEBINAR

Join the WGSS program for our kickoff event of Spring 2023 to celebrate 50 years at GW! We will feature Lila Abu-Lughod and Nadera Shalhoub Kevorkian who will share their expertise on “Gender, Violence, and Governance Feminism.”

After submitting your RSVP, you will receive the Zoom connection details via email the week of the event.

Speakers

Lila Abu-Lughod is a Professor of Social Science within the Department of Anthropololgy at Columbia University in the city of New York. Her work, strongly ethnographic and mostly based in Egypt, has focused on three broad issues: the relationship between cultural forms and power; the politics of knowledge and representation; and the dynamics of women’s and human rights, global liberalism, and feminist governance of the Muslim world. Current research focuses on museum politics in Palestine and other settler colonies, security discourses and Islamophobia, and religion in the global governance of gender violence.
Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian is the Lawrence D. Biele Chair in Law at the Faculty of Law-Institute of Criminology and the School of Social Work and Public Welfare at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Global Chair in Law- Queen Mary University of London. Her research focuses on trauma, state crimes and criminology, surveillance, gender violence, law and society. She studies the crime of femicide and other forms of gendered based violence, violence against children in conflict ridden areas, crimes of abuse of power in settler colonial contexts, surveillance, securitization and social control. the author of numerous books among them “Militarization and Violence Against Women in Conflict Zones in the Middle East: The Palestinian Case Study” published in 2010; “Security Theology, Surveillance and the Politics of Fear”, published by Cambridge University Press, 2015.

RSVP

Gender, Violence, and the Geopolitics of Feminism

=====================================================

Click to access september-brown-bag-flyer-prof.-nadera-shalhoub-kevorkian_0.pdf

The George Washington University Professional Psychology Program is pleased to announce our September 2022 Brown Bag presentation

Sponsored by The Psychoanalysis and the Arab World Lab Prof. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian

Global Mental Health “Expertise”, “Therapeutic” Military Occupation and its Deadly Exchange

How can we map, connect and trace the securitization of transnational mental health “interventions” and “collaborations”? How can the suffering of refugees, the wounding following natural disasters, or the smell of

decomposing bodies mobilize broader international possibilities not only to promote the emotional well-being of those affected, but also to serve a securitized apparatus maintaining and exporting colonial occupation?

My talk parcels out the broad range of questions on global mental health, sovereignty, security, and the resulting “deadly exchange” that arise when analyzing the cunning of global mental health programs. It examines the framing, production and performance of security regimes that create and encourage systems of racialized oppression.

Prof. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian- a Palestinian feminist, is the Lawrence D. Biele Chair in Law at the Faculty of Law-Institute of Criminology and the School of Social Work and Public Welfare at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Global Chair in Law- Queen Mary University of London. Her research focuses on liberation psychosocial intervention, critical trauma studies, state crimes and criminology, securitized surveillance, gender violence, law and society and genocide studies. She is the author of numerous academic articles and books among them “Militarization and Violence Against Women in Conflict Zones in the Middle East: The Palestinian Case Study” published in 2010; “Security Theology, Surveillance and the Politics of Fear”, published in 2015; “Incarcerated Childhood and the Politics of Unchilding”, published in 2019; all by Cambridge University Press. She also co-edited two books, the latest entitled: “

In-person and on Zoom Friday, September 30, 2022 2:00 PM — 3:50 PM 1957 E Street, NW, Room 113

When Politics are Sacralized: Comparative Perspectives on Religious

Claims and Nationalism”, CUP 2021, and is completing an edited volume with Lila Abu-Lughod and Rema

Hammami entitled: The Cunning of Gender Based Violence”, to be published with Duke University Press in 2023.

ORGANIZER

“Israel/Palestine: What the Archives Reveal and Conceal”

February 15 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

Email:info@chgcah.orgView

VENUE

DETAILS

ISRAEL/PALESTINE: WHAT DO THE ARCHIVES REVEAL AND CONCEAL?

HOSTED BY

ADMISSION PRICE

REGISTER

CHAIR AND MODERATOR

SPEAKERS

THIS EVENT IS HOSTED IN ASSOCIATION WITH

“Israel/Palestine: What do the Archives Reveal and Conceal?”

The Bedouin Village of Rah’ma: Toward Recognition and Beyond.

Reviews

Jerusalem: Examining Settler Colonialism and Undoing Colonial Knowledge Production

Date:

Location:

Readings and Digital Resources on Palestine

ACADEMIC READINGS

FICTION / POETRY

HUMAN RIGHTS REPORTS

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

INDEPENDENT MEDIA

TEACH-INS

DIGITAL ARCHIVES / RESOURCES

CMES: Political Thought In The Islamic World: Findings From A Study Of 280 Muslim Scholars From The 7th Century To The Present

Date:

Location:

Anti-theory in the Philosophy of Science and Ethics

Speakers:

Organisers:

Topic areas

Talks at this conference

Details

Supporting material

Reminders

Registration

Scholar Sophie Grace Chappell Withdraws From Ethics Conference in Apartheid Israel

Students for Justice in Palestine mark ‘Apartheid Week’

Seena

Israeli Apartheid Week Begins! #UnitedAgainstRacism

[Wexford] Israeli Apartheid Week – Boycott Israeli Goods Action

Sat, 4 March 2023, 14:00 The Bullring, Wexford

Bashir Bashir, Amos Goldberg, Charlotte Wiedemann

Understanding the Pain of OthersThe Holocaust, the Nakba and German Memory Culture

German event comparing Holocaust to ‘Nakba’ canceled after Yad Vashem intervenes

The planned panel faced stark criticism from the Israeli Foreign Ministry and Jewish organizations.

Foreign Ministry, Jewish and Zionist organizations express outrage at planned panel

Journalist at center of panel has faced criticism for anti-Israel views

EMBO Workshop

Mechanisms of neuronal remodelling

About the Workshop

Speakers

Programme

Day 1 | 11 March 2023

Day 2 | 12 March 2023

Day 3 | 13 March 2023

Day 4 | 14 March 2023

Palestinian Scientists Urge EMBO to Relocate Workshops from Apartheid Israel, Including at Site of Tantura Massacre

New cybercrime group calling itself DarkBit attacks Israeli university

DarkBit (.Darkbit) ransomware virus – removal and decryption options

Black Police Power: The Political Moment of the Jamaica Constabulary

ISKOSpace

Is-Ko-Space 2023: the first Israeli-Korean

Astronomy & Space Science workshop

January 29 – February 03

Invited speakers:

SOC:

LOC:

Important dates

Jewish students say anti-Zionist professor created hostile environment

Complaint stems from lecture

Complaint alleges George Washington U prof. discriminated against Jews, Israelis

StandWithUs has launched a complaint against George Washington University over its failure to deal with Professor Lara Sheehi’s alleged antisemitism.

Professor’s acts are ‘textbook antisemitic conduct’

George Washington University probing alleged antisemitic harassment by professor

GW failed to act against alleged antisemitism from professor: civil rights complaint

Gender, Violence, and the Geopolitics of Feminism

Email:
info@chgcah.org View

Understanding the Pain of Others
The Holocaust, the Nakba and German Memory Culture