Les universitaires se mobilisent sur place. Ici, en France, pourquoi notre complicité ? Dear All, Many, many thanks for signing the call to Israeli academics. I do not need to tell you what is at stake, as whole families are wiped out by the IDF war crimes. We now have a list of some 1020 signatures which you can see on my Gaza website: haimbresheeth/gaza/an-open-letter-to-israel-academics-july-13th-2014/ - please also note that the names of the Israeli academics signing up to the statement (together with the statement) are at the lower part of the list. There are 60 names of Israeli academics working in Israel who have signed it, and it keeps growin slowly. We have decided not to include anyone who had just sent us their names, without affiliation, title or location, as there is no way of ascertaining identity. About 200 people did that. Hence, only credible signatures are included. We still have some backlog, and actually names keep coming in, despite the website and my facebook status asking people not to send signatures... There are 10 or so coming every hour. For this reason, please avoid sending mail to me for the next couple of days, as I am unlikely to be able to deal with it, until this flood reduces. I have sent a letter of thanks to those whose names could not be included, due to lack of identifying details like affiliation, location and title, and asked them to write to their Israeli connections – maybe you could do the same – and ask the Israeli academics to sign the Statement, by writing to Prof. Rachel Giora, who has kindly agreed to coordinate the Israeli signatures, on: rachel.giora@gmail. What happens now? You may have read the blog on Electronic Intifada, electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/handful-israeli-academics-responds-call-condemn-gaza-slaughter. It makes little of this amazing response from leading academics across the world, concentrating on the meager reaction amongst Israeli academics. A Press Release went out this morning to media outlets, and some have already contacted us. We hope to publish it in a number of outlets: The Guardian, Chronicle of Higher Education, Times Higher Education Supplement, Haaretz, Kibbush, +972, AJTV, BBC, to name but a few. There is a small group of committed people who have divided the tasks between them. I shall put any new publications links in my Gaza website, so this may be the best way of following it. I hope all our and your efforts may affect the public debate in Israel and beyond, but one must be realistic – Israel as an apartheid state is now ona racist roll – over 93% of the (Jewish) population supports the slaughter in Gaza, so it will be also reasonable to assume that a similar percentage of the over 10,000 academics in Israel also supports this war crime. If any of you can help with getting this call onto media organs anywhere, please contact me or Prof. Jonathan Rosenhead: [email protected]. We need all the help we can get. One of the Israeli signatories has suggested that we amend the letter: “Let me add that I think you would have received more Israeli signatures if you had added a sentence acknowledging Hamas indiscriminate attack on Israeli civilians, which is also a result of the refusal of negotiations on both sides”. I think this argument is faulty for a number of reason, but will mention here only two, which are quoted from my reply: There is NO symmetry between the sides, which such a sentence would suggest. This is NOT a war (as Chomsky said recently) but just one-sided criminal destruction. The UN with its warnings to Hamas is also doing the unforgivable – speaking of two sides as if they are equal, and leaving aside 50 years of occupation and oppression, not to mention the illegal blockade. Of course you know all that. The ‘indiscriminate attack’ you refer to is another issue which is quite confusing, I find. Of course it is indiscriminate – the Hamas has not got the very sophisticated Israeli devices, which manage to kill a family of 17, or decimate a Disabled Medical facility. All we need is to give the Hamas some Iron Domes and the advance missiles drones Israel uses, and they will become as discriminating as Israel...I think this argument is a verbatim repeat of Israeli propaganda. With discrimination, Israel managed to kill over 170 civilians; Hamas, with its indiscriminate attacks, managed to kill no Israelis. Do the figures mean anything? Many thanks to all of you, again. We know that no amount of blood shed will achieve the goal of breaking the Palestinians, and we should redouble our efforts to liberate them from occupation and repression. This will also liberate the Israelis, of course. La Luta continua! Haim Prof. Haim Bresheeth Faculty of Arts and Humanities School of Oriental and African Studies And Director of Camera Obscura Films Mobile: +44 7971 431242 Personal Website: haimbresheeth haimbresheeth/> Gaza Website: haimbresheeth/gaza/ One State website: 1not2.org/One_State_in_Palestine/Welcome.html Film website:haimbresheeth/lib/London_is_Burning/Welcome.html Publications: independent.academia.edu/HaimBresheeth
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 12:01:37 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015