Silencing Palestinian voices while Gaza’s destruction goes on
JVL Introduction
Dr. Shahd Abusalama writes about how she had to fight for her job against the imposition of the IHRA working “definition” of antisemitism. Family members have been killed, others displaced and bombed in Gaza and still the censorship continues. Even as millions of people throughout the world have taken to the streets and to direct action to demand that this ends, the response of the mainstream media, most political leaders and security forces to the mass killings has been met with increasing repression and vilification and a narrative that, at best, takes the October 7th Hamas attack as the starting point as though there was no repression before.
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This article was originally published by Eurozine on Wed 24 Jul 2024. Read the original here.
Offending colonial sensibilities
In 2022, Shahd Abusalama, a Palestinian academic working the UK, was suspended from her teaching position on antisemitism charges. Here she recalls the defamation campaign against her and discusses how her case reveals the structural vulnerability of Palestinians in the West.
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Heart-breaking but also uplifting: Dr. Shahd Abusalama is inspirational. Well done University of Westminster for giving Dr. Shahd Abusalama a platform that is work opportunity.
Solidarity with Shahd. Point of detail – the picture above is of Sheffield University not Sheffield Hallam University. In fact, the picture is taken from the Students’ Union Concourse which currently contains the Sheffield Student Encampment for Gaza. This looks set to be removed by the university authorities today. The students have issued a statement this afternoon which says: “For 90 days, we kept the encampment standing as protest to the university’s complicity in genocide, a testament to our solidarity with Palestinians. Now, the university has chosen violence against its own students, evicting us forcefully and dismantling our sanctuary. This pain echoes the forced evictions faced by Palestinians, a stark reminder of recycled state violence. Despite this setback, we draw strength from the resilience of Palestinians. We will not give up”.