Dear Amitav Ghosh,

We wish to express our deep disappointment in your decision to accept the Dan David prize, administered by Tel Aviv University and to be awarded by the President of Israel. As a writer whose work has dwelled consistently on histories of colonialism and displacement, your refusal to take stance on the colonial question in the case of Israel and the occupation of Palestine has provoked deep dismay, frustration, and puzzlement among readers and fans of your work around the world. Many admired your principled stand, and respected your decision not to accept the Commonwealth Writers Prize in rejection of the colonialist framework it represented.

As scholars, writers, and activists of South Asian origin and those working on South Asia and on anti-racist, anti-colonial, anti-imperial politics at large, based largely in the United States like you, but also in South Asia, we think this is an important moment to consider the reasons why South Asians should take a principled stand, along with others, in refusing to legitimize a state guilty of war crimes and illegal occupation and instead joining the growing movement for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel. Supporters of Israel have used a number of arguments to oppose the boycott, which unfortunately seem to be part of your rationale for accepting the prize as well. It is also time to consider why those who have taken a principled stand in other cases, as in the boycott and divestment movement for South Africa, find it difficult to take the same stand in the case of Israel…read the full letter

Boycott Israel? Amitav Ghosh & the Dan David Prize

Dear Amitav Ghosh,

We wish to express our deep disappointment in your decision to accept the Dan David prize, administered by Tel Aviv University and to be awarded by the President of Israel. As a writer whose work has dwelled consistently on histories of colonialism and displacement, your refusal to take stance on the colonial question in the case of Israel and the occupation of Palestine has provoked deep dismay, frustration, and puzzlement among readers and fans of your work around the world. Many admired your principled stand, and respected your decision not to accept the Commonwealth Writers Prize in rejection of the colonialist framework it represented.

As scholars, writers, and activists of South Asian origin and those working on South Asia and on anti-racist, anti-colonial, anti-imperial politics at large, based largely in the United States like you, but also in South Asia, we think this is an important moment to consider the reasons why South Asians should take a principled stand, along with others, in refusing to legitimize a state guilty of war crimes and illegal occupation and instead joining the growing movement for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel. Supporters of Israel have used a number of arguments to oppose the boycott, which unfortunately seem to be part of your rationale for accepting the prize as well. It is also time to consider why those who have taken a principled stand in other cases, as in the boycott and divestment movement for South Africa, find it difficult to take the same stand in the case of Israel.

In doing this, we join a chorus of voices opposing your decision in India. In a recent letter addressed to you, fifty prominent Indian intellectuals wrote, “In rejecting the appeals of a number of organizations [to decline the prize] . . . you have argued on two different counts. One is that a boycott of Israel is tactically wrong; the other is that cultural and academic institutions should not be boycotted or embargoed. . . . the present situation calls for response–-to the continuing siege of Gaza; the brutal occupation regime in which Palestinians have to cross military checkpoints every day; and the policies of the apartheid state of Israel in which Arab and Jewish members have different rights. The options for resistance open to the Palestinians are limited, given this situation on the ground. But in any case, the tactics to be attempted is for the Palestinians to decide; and the overwhelming majority of Palestinian civil society is calling for a boycott of Israel. We, who are neither participants in their struggle nor living under occupation, can best respond by being part of the international solidarity backing their struggle. . . . . The second point you raise is that cultural and academic institutions should not be boycotted because they are independent of the state. Apart from the complicity of Tel Aviv University in the occupation regime . . . , the Dan David prize is presided over by Shimon Peres, the President of Israel.” (The full letter is at http://newsclick.in/international/open-letter-amitav-ghosh). This letter was a powerful one, especially since it comes from scholars in India, a country that has forged a close military and economic alliance with the U.S. (See http://www.counterpunch.org/prashad04212010.html). A campaign opposing normalization of relations with Israel has also recently been launched in Pakistan (http://paksforpal.wordpress.com/).

The argument that ties to Israeli academic or cultural institutions should not be severed is a critical one to be addressed as it goes to the crux of the academic and cultural boycott, which targets institutions, not individuals (http://www.pacbi.org/). A major report focused on Israeli academic institutions notes, “Israeli academic institutions have not opted to take a neutral, apolitical position toward the Israeli occupation but to fully support the Israeli security forces and policies toward the Palestinians, despite the serious suspicions of crimes and atrocities hovering over them…. all major Israeli academic institutions, certainly the ones with the strongest international connections, were found to provide unquestionable support to Israel’s occupation” (“Academic Boycott and the Complicity of Israeli Academic Institutions in Occupation of Palestinian Territories,” Economy of the Occupation, Bulletin #23, October 2009, http://www.alternativenews.org/).

Most Israeli universities are state-controlled and maintain programs of direct or indirect support of the military and occupation regimes, as does Tel Aviv University (TAU). In fact, “TAU has participated in 55 joint technological projects with the Israeli army over recent years. TAU’s campus occupies the site of a demolished Palestinian village, Sheikh Muwanis, whose inhabitants were forcibly evicted in 1948” (Steven Rose, EMBO reports 11, 151 – 152, March 2010, http://www.nature.com/embor/journal/v11/n3/full/embor201013.html). A statement by BRICUP, an organization of British academics who support the boycott, notes that “the head of TAU’s Security Studies Program was a former head of the R&D Directorate of the Israel Ministry of Defense…. The university appointed as a Law lecturer the colonel who provided the legal justification for Israel’s unrestrained assault on Gaza in 2008/9, who could be eligible for prosecution for war crimes according to the Goldstone Report” (http://www.bricup.org.uk/).

We are disturbed by your apparent belief that engaging in an academic boycott is somehow a violation of academic freedom. This fallacy is critiqued by many who point to the countless and ongoing violations of Palestinians’ right to education by Israel, which has bombed and raided colleges and schools (including in its most recent war on Gaza); prohibited access of Palestinian students to their educational institutions through road closures, checkpoints, and Jewish-only roads; and denied scholarships as well as educational materials to students in Gaza, where the educational system has been destroyed under Israeli siege (Marcy Newman, “The Fallacy of Academic Freedom and the Academic Boycott of Israel,” New Centennial Review, 8:2). In addition, for Palestinians living within the Israeli state that discriminates against them by law, there is “the discriminatory legislation that gives special benefits and credits to students from the Israeli Defense Force, which excludes Palestinian citizens of Israel,” not to mention “the many well-documented examples of racist harassment by professors and Jewish students of Palestinian students on the campuses of Haifa and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem” (Rose; see also http://www.adalah.org/eng/). Furthermore, the right to academic freedom cannot trump support for other basic human rights and freedoms, such as the right to live in equality and dignity or the right to freedom of movement.

Your own statement echoes another common rationale used by pro-Israel supporters, that to boycott Israel is to somehow treat it as exceptional, and different from other states that are also engaged in occupation or war crimes, such as, say, China or the U.S. This argument rests on another fallacy for it ignores the fact that Israel has exceptionalized itself—it is a state that has consistently tried to set itself above international law, having been condemned numerous times for its violations of international human rights and by numerous UN resolutions that are consistently vetoed by the U.S. It is this unique status, in fact, that is exceptional, especially in the U.S. where many states are denounced for their violations of human rights (including China and the U.S. itself) but to condemn Israel’s violence or racist policies is considered automatically “anti-Semitic.” It is this silencing, particularly in the U.S. academy, that has created an exception for Israel through practices of defaming, blacklisting, and harassing scholars or anyone who dares to publicly challenge the official line on Israel or name the systemic discrimination practiced by the state as apartheid, as Archbishop Desmond Tutu has described it.

Perhaps a factor that dissuades many from refusing complicity with apartheid and occupation is the might of the Israel lobby in the U.S. There is a fear of the smear campaigns and coordinated attacks that inevitably follow and that many prefer not to be burdened with the “other” boycott campaign, as it were, that intimidates and censors individuals. Yet, as in the case of the boycott and divestment movement opposing apartheid in South Africa, we wish to point out that these tactics of fear and desperation have been exposed for their moral bankruptcy and are being challenged by the gradually swelling tide of shifting public opinion. In fact, one tactical purpose boycott clearly serves is that of education, of inciting thinking, re-thinking, and discussion.

On college campuses across the U.S. the divestment movement is growing, from Hampshire College and Georgetown University to the University of Michigan-Dearborn and UC Berkeley. There is a growing community of academics, students, activists, cultural workers, and others who are speaking out against and refusing to legitimize the brutal excesses of this apartheid regime that has persisted into the 21st century. This network of individuals and organizations provides support for those who have the courage and principles to take this stand of principled solidarity (see http://usacbi.wordpress.com).

The question of solidarity is central here. That is the only way to avoid the charge of acceding to prevalent notions of Israeli exceptionalism. The call for academic and cultural boycott is thus clearly a way to encourage civil society to play a broader political role—that is why it has the support of wide sections of Palestinian civil society. One of the most significant questions that call poses to us is simply this: How could those of us who oppose apartheid, occupation, and colonialism not support such a call?

Signed,

Organizations:

Alliance of South Asians
Taking Action
South Bay Mobilization
Boycott! Supporting the Palestinian BDS Call from Within
Students for Justice in Palestine, UC Berkeley
Friends of South Asia
Progressive Democrats of the East Bay
Education Abroad Equality Coalition, UC Davis,
CA 
Culture and Conflict Forum, CA
US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel
Bay Area Women in Black 
Alliance for a Secular and Democratic South Asia
Action for a Progressive Pakistan
Teachers Against Occupation (Minnesota)
Artists Against Apartheid

Individuals:

Abha Sur, Women Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge
Abira Ashfaq, Lawyer, Peoples Resistance, Karachi, Pakistan
Abla M. Harara, Berkeley, CA
Adaner Usmani, Graduate Student, Department of Sociology, NYU
Alpana Mehta-International Socialist Organization
Amanullah Jiffrey Kariapper, Pakistanis for Palestine, Lahore, Pakistan
Amir Qureshi, San Jose, CA
Andy Smith, Assistant Professor, Media and Cultural Studies. UC Riverside
Anjali Arondekar, Associate Professor, Department of Feminist Studies, UCSC
Arpita Banerjee, Whittenmore school of Business and Economics, Durham, NH
Balaji Narasimhan, Los Altos, CA
Bhavin Patel, Activist, Somerville, MA
Brinda Mehta, Professor of French and Francophone Studies, Mills College
Bruce Braun, University of Minnesota
Bushra Ghazi, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Charlotte Casey, Treasurer, San Jose Peace and Justice Center, San Jose, CA
Chris Yatooma, Fiscal Director, California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, CA
Corbin Treacy, University of Minnesota
David Simpson, Professor of English, UC Davis
Dr. Amina Wadud, Retired Professor of Religion and Philosophy, Virgina Commonwealth University, Virginia
Dr. Sunera Thobani, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
Eleanor Roffman, Professor, Counseling and Psychology, Lesley University, Cambridge
Elora Choudhury, Assistant Professor, Women’s Studies, University of Massachusetts-Boston
Elora Chowdhury, Assistant Professor, WMST, UMass, Boston, MA
Fadi Saba, President, South Bay Mobilization, San Jose, CA
Farooq Tariq, Labour Party Pakistan Spokesperson, Lahore, Pakistan
Fathima Cader, Faculty of Law, University of British Coumbia, Canada
Fouzieyha Towghi, Dept. of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Zurich, Switzerland
Geoffrey Wildanger, President, Students for Justice in Palestine, University of California-Davis
Greta Berlin, Co-founder, Free Gaza Movement, Los Angeles, CA
Hedy Epstein, Holocaust survivor, MO
Heike Schotten, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Massachusetts Boston; Outreach and Communications Director, Birthright Unplugged
Hira Nabi, Hampshire College, MA, USA
Huma Dar, UC Berkeley, CA
Indranil Dutta, Rice University
Jackie Armijo, Associate Professor, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar
Jude Glaubman, Activist, MA
Kamal Ahmad, Activist, Arlington, MA
Kavita Phillip, Associate Professor, Women’s Studies, UC Irvine
Keya Ganguly, Professor, Dept. of Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature
Madiha Tahir, Freelance multimedia and print journalist, Columbia University, NY
Magid Shihade, Assistant Professor, LUMS, Lahore, Pakistan.
Manan Ahmad, Freie Universitaet Berlin, Germany
Marcy newman, Amman Al-Ahliyya University, Jordan
Marguerite Waller, Professor, Women’s Studies & Comparative Literature, University of California-Riverside
Matan Cohen, Hampshire College, MA
Mike Shonle, Activist, Cambridge, MA
Nada Elia, Antioch University, Seattle
Nadine Naber, Assistant Professor, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Nasir Mansoor, Deputy General Secretary, National Trade Union Federation, Karachi, Pakistan.
Nicholas De Genova, Visiting Research Professor, Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
Nosheen Ali, Stanford University, CA
Nurul Kabir, Cambridge, MA
Paola Bacchetta, Department of Gender and Women’s Studies; Director, Beatrice Bain Research Group, University of California-Berkeley
Partha Chakrabarti, Research Associate, Boston University
Patricia Morton, Associate Professor, History of Art Department, UC-Riverside
Paula Chakravartty, Associate Professor, Department of Communication, Univeresity of Massachusetts-Amherst
Piya Chatterjee, Associate Professor, Women’s Studies, UC Riverside
Priyanka Sharma, Activist, Arlington, MA
Qalandar Bux Memon, Editor, Naked Punch Review/Pakistanis for Palestine, Lahore, Pakistan
Rakshanda Saleem, Assistant Professor, Lesley University & Clinical Instructor, Harvard Medical School
Rev. Michael Yoshi, Buena Vista United Methodist Church, CA
Ronnie Barkan, Israel
Roshni Rustomji-Kerns, Sonoma State University, CA (Professor Emerita)
Saadia Toor, Assistant professor, Sociology, Anthropology and Social Sciences, College of Staten Island, NY
Sabina Sawhney, Hofstra University
Salma Abu Ayyash, Palestinian Activist, Cambridge, MA
Seemi Ghazi, Lecturer, University of British Columbia
Shaily Matani, College of Ethnic Studies, San Francisco State University
Sherbaz Khan, National Student Federation, Karachi, Pakistan.
Shireen Roshanravan, Assistant Professor, Women’s Studies, Kansas State University
Simona Sawhney, University of Minnesota
Snehal Shingavi, Asst. Professor, University of Texas, Austin
Soraya Tlatli, Associate Professor, Department of French, University of California-Berkeley
Sriram Ananth, University of Minnesota
Sunaina Maira, University of California-Davis
Susan Barney, activist, Arlington, MA
Susan Jacoby, Jewish Women for Justice in Israel and Palestine
Svati Shah, Assistant Professor, Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies; University of Massachusetts- Amherst
Swati Chattoopadhyay, Associate Professor, UC Santa Barbara
Umang Kumar, Harvard, Cambridge, MA
University of Minnesota
Veena Dubal, National Security & Civil Rights Program, Asian Law Caucus, CA
Vineet Manohar, Activist, Arlington, MA
Yasmin Qureshi, South Bay Mobilization, San Jose, CA

Learn more here

Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW) is an annual international series of Palestine solidarity events held in cities and campuses across the globe. This year, IAW comes to the University of Minnesota.

Protest Against Israel’s International Law and Human Rights Violations
A week ago Israel announced a decision to build 1,600 housing units in East Jerusalem in violation of international law. Israeli security forces are also preventing citizens from reaching al-Aqsa Mosque, an example of the many ways the human rights of Palestinians are violated. Please join us in solidarity with the Palestinian people and let your voices be heard!
[Monday March 22nd, Coffman Union Front Plaza, 12pm - 2pm]

Dr. Reecia Orzeck on “The roots of Israel’s colonial and apartheid questions”
Dr. Orzeck is an Assistant Professor in Geography at the University of Vermont, and currently a fellow at the Institute of Advanced Study at the U of MN. The talk will be followed by a moderated Q&A session.
[Tuesday March 23rd, 5:30 - 7:30pm, Blegen 415]

TAO (Teachers Against Occupation) directed teach-in on the implications of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions
[Wednesday March 24th, 5:30 - 7:30pm, Blegen 215]

A talk by refusenik and member of Boycott from Within, Yonatan Shapira
Yonatan will speak of his journey from being a pilot in the Israeli Defense Force to a conscientious objector (refusenik) and a leading activist with Boycott From Within in Israel and Combatants for Peace. He has a Masters in Peace and Conflict Studies from the European Peace University.  The talk will be followed by a moderated Q&A session.
[Thursday March 25th, 5:00 - 7:00pm, Blegen 5]

All events are open and free with refreshments provided.

IAW is sponsored at the U of MN by Break the Bonds, Teachers against Occupation, Al Madinah Cultural Centre, and International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network.

More information: http://www.tc.umn.edu/~mnbbc/apartheid.html

For more on Israeli Apartheid Weeks taking place across the world, see apartheidweek.org.

Sponsored by: Break the Bonds (visit http://mn.breakthebonds.org/) and Al-Madinah Cultural Center. Open and free to the public; snacks/dinner provided.

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Monday, January 25:

Jerusalem Art Exhibit
3-6pm @ Coffman Room 303

Gaza Bodies Project and a candle-light vigil
6-7pm @ Lawn outside Coffman Memorial

Tuesday, January 26:

Gaza Freedom March Panel Discussion
5-7pm @ Coffman Room 303

Wednesday, January 27:

Movie Screening of “Occupation 101″ followed by discussion
5-7pm @ Carlson 2-219

Thursday, January 28:

Talk by Dr. Hatem Bazian – “The Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Palestinian Diaspora”
5-7pm @ Carlson Room L-110 (Honeywell Auditorium)

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View event poster
Download event poster

View a video of the Barghouti event

More about the PACBI call and TaO’s position on academic boycott

See TaO’s response to criticism of academic boycott - Minnesota Daily

Project description

Bibliography of project resources

Wednesday, November 11th, 7:00 PM
Blegen Hall Room 150, West Bank, University of Minnesota

The $3 billion dollars of annual U.S. aid to Israel helps fund Israeli prisons and detention centers where 8,100 Palestinian prisoners — including 60 women, 390 children, and 550 administrative detainees held without charge — are imprisoned in substandard conditions and subject to torture.

Human rights activist Ala Jaradat, the program manager of Addameer, the Palestinian prisoners rights organization in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, and a former Palestinian political prisoner, will be sharing his experiences campaigning against political prosecution, for the rights of political detainees, actively working against the use of torture, arbitrary detention, the use of isolation, and other forms of political
repression.

Co-Sponsored by the Anti-War Committee, WAMM, and Teachers Against Occupation.  Endorsed by Al-Aqsa Institute.

Sponsored by: Break the Bonds (visit http://mn.breakthebonds.org/) and Al-Madinah Cultural Center. Open and free to the public; snacks/dinner provided.

-

Monday, January 25:

Jerusalem Art Exhibit
3-6pm @ Coffman Room 303

Gaza Bodies Project and a candle-light vigil
6-7pm @ Lawn outside Coffman Memorial

Tuesday, January 26:

Gaza Freedom March Panel Discussion
5-7pm @ Coffman Room 303

Wednesday, January 27:

Movie Screening of “Occupation 101″ followed by discussion
5-7pm @ Carlson 2-219

Thursday, January 28:

Talk by Dr. Hatem Bazian – “The Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the Palestinian Diaspora”
5-7pm @ Carlson Room L-110 (Honeywell Auditorium)

-

View event poster
Download event poster