Source: Middle East Studies Association

Letter to Israeli authorities protesting the Government’s proposed policy regarding the selection of international scholars and students to teach and study in Palestinian universities, giving the Israeli military the unilateral power to select and exclude scholars and students and limiting their numbers significantly, while censoring certain disciplines and foci of research. If implemented, the policy would undermine Palestinian universities’ ability to recruit appropriate faculty and curtail Palestinians’ academic freedom.

MESA Board Joint Letter With CAF condemning the decimation of the education sector in Gaza

Various organizations have been documenting the Israeli military’s killing of Palestinian scholars and university professors. As a precise accounting is obstructed by the ongoing attacks and insecurity, we provide below only a partial list of the names and, where possible, academic affiliations of those scholars who have been killed. These individuals represent a very small percentage of those who have been integral to higher education and intellectual life in the Gaza Strip and have been catastrophically affected by death and suffering: the hundreds of faculty and staff and thousands of students and their families who have been killed in military assaults, bombings, or through prolonged exposure to starvation and disease since 7 October 2023.

MESA Board Joint Statement with CAF concerning escalating repression of protest on campuses

The Board of Directors of the Middle East Studies Association and its Committee on Academic Freedom view with increasing alarm the growing number of attempts to intimidate, repress, and criminalize campus protests against the ongoing Israeli state violence against Palestinians and the US diplomatic, military, and economic support for it.

MESA Board Statement on Palestine and Israel

The Board of Directors of the Middle East Studies Association of North America is acutely concerned with and heartbroken by the loss of Israeli and Palestinian lives over the last week. There can be no justification for the targeting of civilians. Many of our members have been directly affected and we join them in grieving. We also join all those who are committed to a political solution that offers safety, dignity, and equal rights for Palestinians and Israelis.

Letter protesting new Israel Government directive regarding selection of international scholars and students to teach and study in Palestinian Universities

The Middle East Studies Association Committee on Academic Freedom sent a letter to Israeli authorities protesting the Government’s proposed policy regarding the selection of international scholars and students to teach and study in Palestinian universities, giving the Israeli military the unilateral power to select and exclude scholars and students and limiting their numbers significantly, while censoring certain disciplines and foci of research. If implemented, the policy would undermine Palestinian universities’ ability to recruit appropriate faculty and curtail Palestinians’ academic freedom.