Israel

Letter Concerning US Department of State Decision to Freeze Scholarships for Students from Gaza

[The following letter was issued by the Committee on Academic Freedom of the Middle East Studies Association concerning the decision by the US Department of State to freeze scholaships for students from Gaza seeking to study in the West Bank.] 13 November 2012 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton U.S. Department of State  2201 C Street NW  Washington, DC 20520 Dear Secretary Clinton: On behalf of the Committee on Academic Freedom (CAF) of the Middle East Studies Association of ...

Putting Palestine on the Map

They want their homeland? They should fight for it. -- Ali Khaled, father of Leila Khaled, 1950s With the US embroiled in Afghanistan’s endless theater, the debate around insurgencies has once more taken hold. In 2007, Jeffery Record’s Beating Goliath detailed the story of how some insurgencies end up defeating their much more powerful adversaries. Three years later, the RAND Corporation published Ben Connable and Martin Libicki’s How Insurgencies End, which showed that such struggles last for ten ...

Omar Saad: "I will not be a soldier in your army"

Open Letter on Israeli Beverage Company Operating Illegally in Palestine

[The following letter was issued by Corporate Watch on 21 September 2012.]  As Corporate Watch has previously reported SodaStream, an Israeli carbonated beverages manufacturer, has recently opened a shop called EcoStream in Brighton. SodaStream products are also stocked by major retailers such as Robert Dyas, John Lewis, Argos, Comet, Lakeland, Conran and some Tesco, Sainsbury and Asda stores. The Brighton shop is their first in the UK, the location was chosen because of the city's ...

On Positionality and Not Naming Names: A Rejoinder to the Response by Maikey and Schotten

[This article was written as a rejoinder to Haneen Maikey and Heike Schotten's response to the authors' article on the intersections and impasses between US centered pinkwashing and pinkwatching activism.  Click here to read Maikey and Schotten's response, and click here to read the original article by Mikdashi and Puar.] We thank Haneen Maikey and Heike Schotten for their thoughtful and detailed response to our article. We appreciate the time, effort, as well as ...

On Music, Politics, and Ethical Responsibility

[The following statement was issued by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) on 3 October 2012.] Earlier in September, in the lead up to a performance by the Red Hot Chili Peppers in apartheid Israel, a worldwide campaign calling on them to cancel their show gathered steam. Over the last several months, our South African, Lebanese, Indian, American, Israeli, and Italian partners, among others, had all written letters to RHCP, and a petition was ...

Call for Applications: PARC Fellowship for Scholars Conducting Field-Based Research on Palestine, 2013-2014

The Palestinian American Research Center (PARC) announces its 14th annual round of competition for post-doctoral and doctoral research fellowships in Palestinian Studies for 2013 - 2014. To be eligible for research fellowships, the following criteria must be met: The research project must make a contribution to Palestinian Studies. The research can be in any area of Palestinian Studies, including the humanities, social sciences, economics, law, health and sciences. Purely scientific research, ...

Demolishing Palestine

Since the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip began in 1967, Israel has demolished about 27,000 Palestinian homes and other structures crucial for a family’s livelihood, according to Israeli government statistics (Compiled by the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions). Almost half of these were carried out in just the last twelve years. So far this year, 702 people have been displaced and 140 homes demolished. The government categorizes many demolitions as the consequence of not ...

PACBI Thank You Letter to Mashrou' Leila

[The following letter was issued on 7 September 2012 by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI).] Dear Mashrou' Leila:   We at the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) wish to salute you for your principled decision not to perform with RHCP, a band that insists on entertaining apartheid and violating the cultural boycott of Israel.    You have set a precedent and set the bar high for others to follow, and ...