Who’s afraid of academics who support Palestine?
JVL Introduction
Independent Jewish Voices – Canada have published this report into silencing – and self-silencing – of academics in Canada and elsewhere who are Palestinian or who support Palestinians in their struggle for justice and equality. Some had been explicitly told to exclude work they had published or activism for Palestine from their résumés – and more had self-silenced, at least until they had attained tenure.
At one level this really is chilling – hence the report’s title – but one speaker at the webinar to launch the report asked “when has it ever been a warm atmosphere for pro Palestinian work?
But it was not all doom and gloom, despite the intense pressure on universities and many other institutions to adopt the IHRA, another speaker noted that the increased suppression of support and the intensification of the clampdown within Palestine are signs of weakness rather than strength. We were also reminded that ordinary people supported demands to end apartheid in South Africa many years before governments finally had to change and the tide is turning in much the same way regarding Israel and Palestine.
Below we publish the Executive Summary; you can read the full report here
This article was originally published by Independent Jewish Voices - Canada on Wed 12 Oct 2022. Read the original here.
Report: Unveiling the Chilly Climate – The Suppression of Speech on Palestine in Canada
IJV has spent the last year gathering research about the repression faced by academics, students and Palestine solidarity activists, collecting approximately 80 testimonies describing the resulting “chilling effect” in Canada. This report is the first of its kind anywhere in the world, utilizing ethnographic methodology and qualitative analysis to describe both the overarching effects of this repression as well as the deeply personal impact it has on activists, artists, students and professors. While focused on Canada, it also holds international ramifications as many of the processes we describe are present in other countries.
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Congratulations to IJV for documenting this horror
There appears to be echoes of 1930s Europe.
The comment about echoes of 1930s Europe I totally agree with.
This is how silence of the masses started….leading to Atrocities…
Pity that Universities don’t start acting like places of learning rather than servants of Israel’s bidding.
Aberdeen University has created its own version of antisemitism document refusing to use the politically created one by Zionists.
I congratulate Aberdeen for standing up for education & not Zionist Israel unreasonable demands!