[News] Israel forces teachers to leave Palestine - a series of assaults on academic freedom

[Anti-Imperialist News]

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/israel-forces-teachers-leave-palestine 



  Israel forces teachers to leave Palestine

Nora Barrows-Friedman 
<https://electronicintifada.net/people/nora-barrows-friedman> - 26 July 
2018

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Israel has completely shut down a Palestinian university in Jerusalem 
amid a series of assaults on academic freedom.

On 14 July, Israeli police raided and shut down 
<http://english.wafa.ps/page.aspx?id=YqwpNEa98434102272aYqwpNE> the Hind 
al-Husseini college in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of occupied East 
Jerusalem, prohibited an academic conference 
<http://english.wafa.ps/page.aspx?id=LbWgJka98423632989aLbWgJk> from 
taking place and detained 15 participants of the conference.

Police acted on the order of Gilad Erdan 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/gilad-erdan>, Israel’s minister of 
public security and strategic affairs, who claimed 
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-shutters-pa-backed-conference-in-east-jerusalem-top-businessman-arrested/> 
that the conference promoted “incitement” against the Israeli state.

As well as being in charge of policing, Erdan leads Israel’s global 
effort to thwart activism in support of Palestinian rights.

The president of Arab American University, a private institution based 
in the West Bank city of Jenin, condemned Israel’s closure of the 
college. Ali Abu Zuhri argued it was an attempt to impose new facts on 
the ground aimed at changing the cultural and historical identity of 
Jerusalem, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.


    “Cultural genocide”

Israel’s closure of Hind al-Husseini college “is one more manifestation 
of Israel’s relentless assault on Palestinian education and culture, a 
systematic assault that is tantamount to cultural genocide,” Nada Elia 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/nada-elia>, an organizing committee 
member of the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of 
Israel <https://electronicintifada.net/tags/usacbi> (USACBI), told The 
Electronic Intifada.

“Israel imposes a Zionist curriculum on Palestinian schools in annexed 
East Jerusalem and has devised a Kafkaesque system of work permits in 
the West Bank that prevents faculty who hold foreign passports from 
teaching there legally, making them prone to arrest and deportation,” 
Elia explained.

At the same time, she said, Israel claims that the boycott, divestment 
and sanctions (BDS) movement, “rather than its own assault on 
Palestinian education, is preventing academic exchange and the free flow 
of ideas.”


    Forced to leave

Birzeit University 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/birzeit-university> – headquartered 
beside the West Bank city of Ramallah – released a statement 
<https://www.birzeit.edu/en/news/birzeit-university-condemns-breach-academic-freedom-after-academics-forced-leave-palestine> 
earlier this month admonishing Israel’s “breach of academic freedom” 
after 15 of its academics who hold foreign passports had their visa 
renewals either significantly delayed or denied outright.

Already, “some professors have been forced to leave the country,” the 
university stated, while others remain under threat of removal from 
faculty positions.

“These international professors play a critical role not only in the 
ongoing provision of quality education at Birzeit University but also in 
the long-term development of Palestinian higher education,” it said, 
warning that if this policy continues, Palestinian universities “will be 
further isolated from the global academic environment.”

More than half of Palestinian academics who hold foreign passports and 
work at Palestinian universities have had delays or denials of Israeli 
visas over the past two years, preventing them from beginning or staying 
in their faculty positions, according 
<http://english.wafa.ps/page.aspx?id=Mb3QUsa98403646176aMb3QUs> to the 
Palestinian Authority’s minister of education.


    “House arrest”

Israel has placed foreign academics who teach at Birzeit “effectively 
under house arrest” in order to avoid any of the hundreds of checkpoints 
around the West Bank, explained 
<http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/empty-chairs-combatting-israel-s-assault-palestinian-academia-65505017> 
Elia, writing for /Middle East Eye/.

Birzeit underscored the right to education as a fundamental human right 
enshrined in international law and admonished Israel for ignoring its 
responsibility as an occupying power in preventing Palestinians’ access 
to education.

    Israel is kicking out professors w/ foreign passports who teach at
    Palestinian universities in the occupied Palestinian West Bank by
    refusing to renew their visas. Many are indigenous Palestinians
    denied residency documents https://t.co/UbuqEj1fNw #AcademicFreedom
    <https://twitter.com/hashtag/AcademicFreedom?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
    #OngoingNakba
    <https://twitter.com/hashtag/OngoingNakba?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>
    pic.twitter.com/M9Yl2TqXub <https://t.co/M9Yl2TqXub>

    — BDS Movement (@BDSmovement) July 25, 2018
    <https://twitter.com/BDSmovement/status/1022134454939262976?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

    Prof Roger Heacock speaking (in Arabic) by Skype videolink from the
    USA (he left Ramallah due to denial of new visa) at today's
    conference at the Ministry of Education, describing Israel's refusal
    to renew his visa after he taught 30+ yrs at BirZeit University (+
    his wife too) https://t.co/73IDfcrbQV

    — Marian Houk (@Marianhouk) July 12, 2018
    <https://twitter.com/Marianhouk/status/1017330464812601344?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw>

While Israel holds Palestinian education hostage, it is involved in many 
exchange programs 
<https://electronicintifada.net/content/why-scientists-should-boycott-israel/23271> 
with educational 
<https://electronicintifada.net/tags/israeli-universities> and research 
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/scientists-urged-boycott-israel-biochemistry-conference> 
institutions around the world, Elia told The Electronic Intifada.

The British Committee for the Universities of Palestine (BRICUP) has 
launched the “Empty Chair 
<http://usacbi.org/2018/06/the-empty-chair-a-simple-action-that-academics-and-students-can-take-in-solidarity-with-palestinian-colleagues/>” 
campaign to bring attention to Israel’s violation of Palestinian 
academic freedom.

USACBI is responding to the ongoing attacks on Palestinian education by 
asking faculty to endorse <http://usacbi.org/about/> the academic and 
cultural boycott of Israel and for students to pledge 
<http://usacbi.org/boycott-study-abroad-in-israel/> not to participate 
in study abroad programs in Israel.


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