In America, as in Britain and mainland Europe, repression by universities of pro-Palestine activism is getting more extremism. But activists are now pushing back. This report details actions by pro-Palestine students at Columbia University in America to take the University to court for its harrassment of them. 9 February 2025 Columbia students just sued the…
7 February 2025 A group of Jewish academics at Rutgers, the state university of New Jersey, have published an open letter, reprinted below from Mondoweiss, vigorously denouncing Zionist racial supremacists who until now have largely dominated politics on American campuses. To judge from developments on the Rutgers campus, where the faculty union has just overwhelmingly…
1 February 2025 MESA, representing nearly 2,800 academic specialists on the Middle East and North Africa, has set out the circumstances that led to Professor Katherine Franke’s displinary investigation at Columbia University and the extremely one-sided approach taken by the administration in its letter calling for justice. The MESA letter is reprinted here from Informed…
29 January 2025 Members of the American Historical Association at their AGM earlier this month overwhelmingly supported a motion condemning Israel’s systematic destruction of schools, universities and archives and its mass killing of students and faculty: its “scholasticide” as it deserves to be known. But despite having adopted a motion in 2008 condemning the invasion…
28 January 2025 The union local representing faculty, graduate students and other staff at CUNY, City University of New York, voted to call for their Union’s divestment from Israel. The local is only a small component of the Personal Staff Congress (PSC), its executive was notoriously slow to move, the margin of eventual victory was…
28 January 2025 Ashjan Ajour (pictured), a Palestinian scholar, describes in this article published in Truthout, the worsening predicament of Palestinian universities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, as the result of deliberate Israeli obstruction and violent settler activity. Israel’s intention to destroy higher education in Palestine is clear, but what is equally clear is that…
26 January 2025 As recently reported, the Harvard University administration has caved in to pro-Israel pressure by agreeing to use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism in student disciplinary hearings. This definition is now commonly accompanied by eleven “illustrations”, seven of which refer not to Jews but to Israel, whose purpose is…
21 January 2025 FOBZU is holding an important webinar on Tuesday 28 January 5 – 6 pm to hear the experiences of faculty there. You are invited to attend online. This webinar will feature a short collaborative film created with students and academics in Gaza, followed by a panel discussion with Palestinian academics. Fobzu and…
22 January 2025 Harvard University, facing lawsuits for allegedly failing to protect Jewish students from antisemitism on campus, has agreed to employ the IHRA definition of antisemitism when sanctioning students for demonstrating against, or even openly criticising, Israel’s Apartheid and genocidal policies. As is by now well known, the eleven “illustrations” appended to the IHRA…
22 January 2025 As reported by Friends of Birzeit University, UK academics and university administrators met in Glasgow to discuss how they can assist in the reconstruction of Gaza higher education – when this becomes possible. But when will this be? UK academics commit to standing with Gaza universities at University of Glasgow’s Reconstructing Gaza…