US-based scholars express solidarity with Palestinians

KARACHI: The following is the statement by Harvard Faculty in support of Palestinian Liberation:

“As US-based scholars who oppose racism and colonial violence in all its forms, we write to express solidarity with the Palestinian people in their struggle for freedom and self-determination. Israeli state violence has devastated Palestinian life through a combination of warfare, territorial theft, and violent displacement. Unwavering US financial, military, and political support has fueled an apartheid system that institutionalizes the domination and repression of Palestinians. The recent reports by Human Rights Watch and the Israeli human rights organization B’tselem are only the latest to document this reality. The current effort to expel Palestinians from Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood; the violence in Israeli cities like Lydda and Haifa, in which Israeli police stand by and facilitate right-wing extremist attacks on Palestinians; and the military attack on the Gaza Strip are only the most recent events in a decades-long process of dispossession.

“Palestinians are not only denied freedom and self-determination, they are even denied the right to resist. Palestinian resistance in all its forms is criminalized by Israel and the US. Every measure of self-defense by a people without a state or an army against a nuclear power backed by the US is subject to immediate censure while Israel continues its violent aggressions with impunity.

Suppression of support for Palestinian liberation extends into the US academy where even scholarly criticism of Israeli human rights violations is increasingly equated with antisemitism and forbidden by law. The situation in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank is far worse. Academic freedom and basic educational rights are unavailable for students and faculty at Palestinian universities, and the rights of Palestinians at Israeli universities are severely curtailed. The Israeli government and academic institutions routinely punish scholars – both Jews and Palestinians – who criticize the state’s policies.

“In this moment when Israeli ethnonationalist violence is at an all-time high, US military support remains steadfast, and solidarity with Palestine is criminalized, US-based scholars cannot be silent. We demand an end to US support for Israel’s apartheid regime, condemn Israeli state aggression, and affirm our support for the Palestinian liberation struggle”.

Signatories

Ajantha Subramanian, Anthropology and South Asian Studies

Steven Caton, Anthropology

Vijay Iyer, Music and African and African American Studies

Walter Johnson, History and African and African American Studies

Kirsten Weld, History

Rosie Bsheer, History

Diane L. Moore, Religion and Public Life

Evelynn M. Hammonds, History of Science and African an African American Studies

Robert F. Pharr, Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality and African and African American Studies

Arunabh Ghosh, History

Ju Yon Kim, English

Sidney Chalhoub, History and African and African American Studies

Teju Cole, English

Cemal Kafadar, History

Soha Bayoumi, History of Science

Caroline Light, Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality

Bram Wispelwey, Medicine

Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Anthropology and Art, Film, and Visual Studies

Susanna Siegel, Philosophy

Michael Herzfeld, Anthropology

Ned Hall, Philosophy

Glenda Carpio, English and African and African American Studies

Ernst Karel, Anthropology and Art, Film, and Visual Studies

Joyce E. Chaplin, History

Adaner Usmani, Sociology and Social Studies

Tara K Menon, English

Bernhard Nickel, Philosophy

Ali Asani, Study of Religion and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations

Michael Bronski, Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality

Robin Bernstein, African and African American Studies and Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality

Alice Jardine, Romance Languages and Literatures and Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality

Jean Comaroff, African and African American Studies and Anthropology

Nicholas Harkness, Anthropology

Musa Syeed, English

Ingrid Monson, Music and African and African American Studies

Sarah S. Richardson, History of Science and Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality

Alex Rehding, Music

Lucie White, Harvard Law School

Suzanne Preston Blier, History of Art and Architecture; African and African American Studies

Katrina Forrester, Government and Social Studies

Christopher Hasty, Music

Robb Moss, Art, Film, and Visual Studies

Gabriela Soto Laveaga, History of Science

Ana Isabel Keilson, Social Studies

Sugata Bose, History and South Asian Studies

Peter E. Gordon, History

Jesse McCarthy, English and African and African American Studies

Jeffrey Schnapp, metaLAB (at) Harvard; Romance Languages and Literatures

Vincent Brown, History and African and African American Studies

Sylvaine Guyot, Romance Languages and Literatures and Theater, Dance & Media

Tracey Rosen, Social Studies

Tom Conley, Romance Languages and Art, Film & Visual Studies

Glory Liu, Social Studies

Linda Schlossberg, Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality

András Riedlmayer, Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture

Andrea Wright, Anthropology

Mary D. Lewis, History

Namwali Serpell, English

Malavika Reddy, Anthropology

Philip Deloria, History

Peter Der Manuelian, NELC and Anthropology

George Paul Meiu, Anthropology and AAAS

Matthew Liebmann, Anthropology

Byron Good, Global Health and Social Medicine, and Anthropology

Mary-Jo DelVecchio Good, Global Health and Social Medicine

Claire Messud, English

Claire Chase, Music

Karthik Pandian, Art, Film, and Visual Studies

Carissa Rodriguez, Art, Film and Visual Studies

Salma Waheedi, Harvard Law School

Rebecca Williams, Harvard Kennedy School

Samuel Dolbee, History and Literature.

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