We as scholars, researchers, and educators of the Middle East in Denmark stand in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel, as well as the 7….
We as scholars, researchers, and educators of the Middle East in Denmark stand in solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, and Israel, as well as the 7 million Palestinian refugees around the world, including those living in Denmark, some of whom are our colleagues, students, and friends.
We stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people, as they face bombardment, police brutality and dispossession – and with their right to resist occupation and discrimination. The violence happening now in Gaza, Jerusalem and across historic Palestine is the result of the continuous expansion of settler colonialism and the implementation of a system of apartheid. We as teachers, researchers and human beings concerned with decolonization and international justice stand with the Palestinian people’s broad resistance to this oppression across civil society and all geographies that connect them.
The perception that the conflict is one between two equal sides is an obfuscation; it deflects from the reality that it is the Palestinians who live under military occupation, who are dispossessed of their homes, and who live as second class citizens in a system of segregation, described as apartheid by both Palestinian, Israeli, and international human rights organizations.
We condemn the Israeli government’s acts of war and violence against Palestinian civilians. We call on our elected representatives to support targeted sanctions on Israel as pressure to cease attacks on the Gaza Strip, end efforts to ethnically cleanse Palestinian families from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah and stop the continued encroachment on Palestinian land in the Occupied Territory. We call on the Danish government, the EU and the UN to take immediate steps to implement a comprehensive and legally binding military embargo on Israel, similar to that imposed on South Africa during apartheid.
Israel’s military technology is marketed as “field-tested” and exported across the world. Military trade and joint military-related research relations with Israel embolden Israeli impunity in committing grave violations of international law and facilitate the entrenchment of Israel’s system of occupation, colonization and systematic denial of Palestinian rights. Denmark was the first Western nation to impose full sanctions on apartheid South Africa in 1986 – we believe that Denmark should take a leading stand in the fight against Israeli apartheid today.
We call on Danish universities and research institutions to fully divest and end all official collaboration with Israeli institutions in violation of BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanction). This entails the boycott of institutional collaborations with Israeli universities and research institutions complicit in Israeli occupation and militarism.
It should be made clear that this position has no effect on collaboration and cooperation with individual Israeli scholars and colleagues. We extend our support and solidarity to Palestinian scholars, researchers, and students. Over the past decade, more than 400 Palestinian students have been arrested and detained by Israeli forces, often without trial. There are many reports of these detainees being subjected to forms of torture. Palestinian scholars have been subjected to harassment, and academics living abroad are banned from entering Israel.
We call for taking action in support of the Palestinian people – attend local demonstrations, speak out on Israeli apartheid, amplify Palestinian voices in our work and in our public engagement, change the language we use to describe settler colonial violence, support BDS, and pressure our elected representatives to be accountable for their silence on the root causes of the current situation and hence their complicity. We will not be complicit with settler colonial violence or its normalization.
As scholars, researchers, and educators in Denmark, a former colonial power, our support for Palestinian liberation is integral to the broader process of decolonization. We advocate for equality for all people, an end to all racism, and an end to all colonial violence. This cause is integral to both our teaching and scholarship.
Signed:
Sorcha Thomson, PhD Fellow, Roskilde University
Pelle Valentin Olsen, Postdoctoral Fellow, Roskilde University
Sune Haugbølle, Professor, Roskilde University
Michelle Pace, Professor, Roskilde University
Henrik Andersen, PhD Fellow, Roskilde University
Saer El-Jaichi, Postdoctoral Fellow, Danish Institute for International Studies
Marc Schade-Poulsen, Visiting Researcher, Roskilde University
Somdeep Sen, Associate Professor, Roskilde University
Rasmus Christian Elling, Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen
Christine Crone, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Copenhagen
Laure Guirguis, AIAS – COFUND Fellow, Aarhus University
Ehab Galal, Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen
Claus Valling Pedersen, University of Copenhagen
Anders Hastrup, Post. Doc. Fellow, University of Copenhagen
June Dahy, Teaching Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen
Lise Paulsen Galal, Associate Professor, Roskilde University
Sara Lei Sparre, Associate Professor, Aarhus University
Zenia Yonus, PhD Fellow, University of Copenhagen
Jørgen Bæk Simonsen, Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen
Peter Seeberg, Associate Professor Emeritus, University of Southern Denmark
Marie Odgaard, PhD fellow, Aarhus University
Abir Mohamad Ismail, PhD fellow, Aarhus University
Katrine Mandrup Bach, PhD Student, Aarhus University
Ahlam Chemlali, PhD Fellow, Aalborg University and DIIS
Birgitte Stampe Holst, Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Copenhagen
Mette Edith Stendevad, PhD Fellow, University of Leicester
Nina Grønlykke Mollerup, Associate professor, University of Copenhagen
Özlem Has, PhD Fellow, University of Copenhagen
Ildikó Bellér-Hann, Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen
Jørgen S. Nielsen, Affiliate Professor, University of Copenhagen
Buthaina Shaheen, PhD Fellow, Bundeswehr University Munich
Rasmus Aarslev, PhD Fellow, University of Copenhagen
Rasmus Alenius Boserup, former senior researcher at DIIS
Andreas Bandak, Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen
Anne Kirstine Rønn, PhD Fellow, Aarhus University
Jihan Zakarriya, Assistant Professor, Aarhus University
Maj B. Ørskov, PhD Fellow, Aarhus University
Received after Politiken’s deadline (will be published on the website):
https://ruc.dk/en/situation-palestine-building-solidarity-danish-academia
Kumm Sabba Mirza, Postdoctoral Fellow, Roskilde University
Christina Varvia, PhD Fellow, Aarhus University
Darin Stephanov, Guest Researcher, Aarhus University
Karen Waltorp, Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen
Runa Johannessen, PhD Cand Arch, Royal Danish Academy – Architecture, Design, Conservation
Tina Dransfeldt Christensen, PhD, external lecturer, Roskilde University
Iram Khawaja, associate professor, Aarhus University.
Lamies Nassri, Teaching assistant, University of Copenhagen
Nazila Kivi, External lecturer, DIS.
Julie Bønnelycke, Assistant professor, IKH, RUC
Derek Pardue, Associate Professor, Aarhus University
John Andersen, Professor, RUC
Fannie Agerschou-Madsen, Research Assistant, DIIS
Ahmed Abou El Zalaf, Research assistant, University of Southern Denmark