A month ago, more than 300 academics and thinkers – including Arturo Escobar, Gloria Wekker, Helen Verran, Erik Swyngedouw, Zoe Todd, Rashid Khalidi, Catherine Walsh – signed an open letter denouncing German complicity in Israel's genocide against the Palestinians. and German censorship. of his critics.
Since then, every word of this letter has been brutally confirmed, as the terrible horrors committed by the Israeli army in Gaza and the West Bank have only increased. On January 11, South Africa's legal team presented detailed evidence of genocidal intentions and actions by Israel, when it asked the International Court of Justice to impose provisional measures to stop Israeli aggression.
However, the position of the German State has not changed one bit. On the contrary, military and diplomatic support for the extermination of the Palestinians persists. And now, the German state has decided to attack the South African petition before the court, in an eloquent example of its commitment to supporting an ongoing genocide. Meanwhile, within the country, censorship and repression have intensified and cases of institutional harassment have accumulated.
As a group of scholars and artists from the Global South based in Berlin, we share the alarm of colleagues and friends about the persecution of critical voices and want to echo what Ilan Pappé recently posed as a question to students during one of our lectures in Berlin: “Should we therefore treat Germany as a dictatorship of knowledge when it comes to Palestine?
That [decoco] The decolonial research group, in support of the defense of freedom of expression and in memory of the efforts of our colleagues, asked Al Jazeera to reproduce the open letter 30 days late, but more timely than ever.
The text of the original letter:
We, as academics from various regions of the world, wish to express our concerns:
The recent censorship, persecution and threats that German and non-German academics face in Germany due to their criticism of Israel's state policies towards the Palestinians are totally unacceptable.
Public statements by representatives of the State of Israel and its military and political leaders unequivocally indicate their willingness to dispossess Palestinians of their land, colonize them and engage in ethnic cleansing.
In essence, the State of Israel is pursuing a genocidal policy against Palestinians, with the goal of dispossessing them of their homeland.
The indiscriminate attacks on civilians, hospitals and health centers, which constitute war crimes under international law, clearly demonstrate Israel's willingness to operate beyond any legal or ethical boundaries.
Instead of denouncing these actions or joining the calls for a ceasefire along with other nations, the German State has chosen to provide unwavering support to the State of Israel, dismissing any criticism of these policies as absurd.
What is apparent and evident to the international community seems not to be recognized by the German State.
Censorship efforts, cancellations of academic events, and threats of job loss or withdrawal of funding against academics who speak out against these issues have become commonplace at German universities, cultural bodies, and government institutions.
The German government and media platforms misuse Holocaust memories, conflating all criticism of the State of Israel with anti-Semitism. At the same time, they propagate the unfounded notion that Germany's immigrant population, particularly Muslims, are inherently anti-Semitic.
This represents a manipulation of German historical memory to silence dissent while fostering xenophobia and Islamophobia.
These developments coincide with the rise of new anti-immigration policies and a rise in supremacist, racist and far-right political movements across Europe.
As international academics who frequently interact with our counterparts facing these challenges, we reflect on the direction in which the German state and German universities are heading. Both appear to be abandoning pluralistic and democratic principles, opting for a singular narrative, persecuting those who challenge their policies, and censoring and repressing any speech that is not aligned with the state agenda, thus allowing the rise of xenophobia and genuine hate speech. within their institutions.
We urgently call for an end to these trends of censorship, persecution and stigmatization and advocate for the restoration of respect for free academic, cultural and intellectual expression.
Furthermore, we urge the German State to join the global demand for a comprehensive ceasefire and end to the occupation, to adhere to international law and to cease all political and discursive support for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against the Palestinian people.
Signatories:
Arturo Escobar, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.
Gloria Wekker, Professor Emerita of Gender Studies, Faculty of Humanities, Utrecht University, Netherlands
Yvonne Haddad, Professor Emerita, Georgetown University, USA.
Rita Segato, Professor Emerita, University of Brasilia, Brazil
Salima Hashmi, Professor Emerita, National Beaconhouse University, Pakistan
Alberto Gomes, Professor Emeritus, La Trobe University in Melbourne and Director of Global DEEP Network, Australia
Catherine Walsh, international academic, Ecuador/United States
Rosalba Icaza, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands
Judith Butler
Nelson Maldonado-Torres, international academic, United States/Puerto Rico
Breny Mendoza, California State University, Northbridge, USA.
Sylvia Marcos, International Academic, Mexico
Lisa Lowe, Samuel Knight Professor of American Studies and Professor of Ethnicity, Race and Migration, Yale University, USA.
Zoe Todd
Helen Verran, Charles Darwin University, Australia
Erik Swyngedouw, Professor of Human Geography, University of Manchester, UK
Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies, Columbia University, USA.
Andrea Cornwall, Professor of Anthropology and Global Development, King's College, London, UK
Svati Shah, Associate Professor, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA.
Ariella Aïsha Azoulay
…
A complete list of all signatories can be found here:
The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of Al Jazeera.
