Imad Barghouthi is Professor of Theoretical Space Plasma Physics at Al-Quds University, and has been unfairly arrested by Israeli police and sentenced to three months detention without charge.
Dr. Barghouthi is a renowned astrophysicist, who has worked for NASA and is widely published in international journals.
Join us in calling for his freedom and for the Palestinian right to education!
Benjamin Netanyahu
Prime Minister of Israel
Prime Minister’s Office
3 Kaplan St. Hakirya
Jerusalem 91950, Israel
PM_ENG2[at]pmo.gov.il
Dear Prime Minister Netanyahu:
We are writing to urge you to order the immediate release of Dr. Imad Ahmad Barghouthi from Israeli military custody.
Dr. Barghouthi, a Palestinian resident of the West Bank, is an astrophysicist and professor of physics at Al-Quds University in Jerusalem. He was reportedly arrested by Israeli soldiers at the military checkpoint at Nabi Saleh in the West Bank, northwest of Ramallah on 24 April 2016. The Times of Israel reported that “neither the IDF nor Israel Police would comment on the matter, and it remains unclear which branch of the Israeli security forces was responsible for his arrest.” The Palestine Information Center reported that on 2 May 2016, “An Israeli court … issued an administrative detention order against Professor Barghouthi ” [[Israel arrests pro-Hamas Palestinian astrophysics professor, Dov Lieber, The Times of Israel, April 26, 2016
Israeli Court Jails Prof. Imad Barghouti administratively, Palestine Information Center
]]. Professor Barghouthi is being held without charge [[Prominent Palestinian astrophysicist Imad Barghouthi detained by Israeli occupation forces, Samidoun]], a serious violation of human rights.
As described in the journal Nature, Professor Barghouthi was previously arrested without charge by Israeli Border Police on 6 December 2014 when he attempted to cross the border from the West Bank to Jordan to board a flight to the United Arab Emirates so that he could attend a meeting of the Arab Union of Astronomy and Space Sciences, an organization he helped to found [[Scientists protest detention of Palestinian physicist, Michele Catanzaro, Nature, International weekly journal of science, Nature News, 21 January 2015, Updated: 23 January 2015, Corrected: 22 January 2015]].
Professor Barghouthi’s attorney at that time, Jawad Boulos, alleged that Dr. Barghouthi was arrested because of his statements in support of Palestinian activities during Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip the previous summer, and that during interrogations Dr. Barghouthi was asked what statements he wrote on Facebook and what he said on television in opposition to the Israeli occupation [[Ibid.]]. Following letters of protest from international scientific organizations, including the Committee of Concerned Scientists in the United States, Dr. Barghouthi was released on 22 January 2015 [[Letter on behalf of the Committee of Concerned Scientists: Israel’s Detention of Palestinian Astronomer Traveling to Conference Violates Human Rights, Joel L. Lebowitz, Paul H. Plotz, Walter Reich, Eugene M. Chudnovsky, Alexander Greer, 17 January 2015]].
The re-arrest of Professor Barghouthi is part of a broader pattern of disruption and suppression of Palestinian educational systems. The University of Gaza has been bombed multiple times [[Israel-Gaza conflict: University hit as Palestinians endure more than 200 strikes in 24 hours, Lizzie Dearden, The Indenpendent, 2 August 2014]]. Birzeit University in the West Bank has been closed down at least 15 times by the Israeli military, and its former president, Dr. Hanna Nasir, a physicist, was deported and remained in exile for 19 years. Arrests of faculty and students, in some cases because of Facebook posts in opposition to military occupation, have continued into 2016 [[History of Birzeit University, Birzeit University website
Birzeit University rises up against Israel’s arrests, Mariam Barghouti, Aljazeera, 11 January 2016]]. Israel has destroyed or damaged hundreds of Palestinian schools, even kindergartens [[Suffocating the Gaza Strip under Israeli Blockade, Amnesty International report, January 2010
Gaza crisis: a closer look at Israeli strikes on UNRWA schools, Raya Jalabi, Tom McCarthy and Nadja Popovich, Guardian UK, 8 August 2014
Israeli attack on Gaza damaged 75 kindergartens and day-care centers, Mondoweiss, September 22, 2014]].
Article 26 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which Israel is a signatory, grants all people the right to education. We urge you henceforth to respect those principles and to order the immediate release of Professor Imad Barghouthi.
Join us in calling for his freedom and for the Palestinian right to education!
Signatories to the Open Letter on Behalf of Professor Barghouthi (last update 11 May 2016)
Lina Abbas
Student, History
Rutgers University
Ahmed Abbes
Directeur de recherche au CNRS
CNRS & IHES, Paris France
Rabab Abdulhadi
Associate Professor, Race and Resistance Studies
San Francisco state University
Khader Abu Alia
Lecturer, Language Center
Al quds university
S. Akshay
Assistant Professor, Computer Science
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Philip Argyres
Professor, Physics
University of Cincinnati
Mira Ariel
Professor, Linguistics
Tel Aviv University, Israel
Aiyalam Balachandran
Emeritus Professor, Physics
Syracuse University
Viviane Baladi
Directeur de recherche au CNRS,
NRS & UPMC, Paris, France
Suratno Basu
Research Scholar, Mathematics
Chennai Mathematical Institute
Rajendra Bhatia
Indian Statistical Institute
New Delhi, India
David Blanc
Professor, Mathamatics
University of Haifa, Israel
Felice Blake
Assistant Professor, English
UC Santa Barbara
Michael W. Busch
Research Scientist, SETI Institute, Mountain View California USA
Ana Cristina Cadavid
Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy
California State University Northridge
Vincent Calvetti Jr
Graduate Student, Jewish Studies , Jackson School of International Studies
University of Washington
Miguel Campiglia
Assistant Professor, Physics
Universidad de la Rep?blica, Uruguay
Noam Chomsky
Institute Professor, Emeritus,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Peter Collas
Emeritus Professor, Physics
California State University Northridge
Helen Cox
Director, Institute for Sustainability, Professor, Geography
California State University Northridge
Chandan Dalawat
Professor, Mathematics
Harish-Chandra Research Institute
Angela Y. Davis
Distinguished Professor Emerita, History of Consciousness and Feminist Studies
University of California, Santa Cruz
Chandler Davis
Professor Emeritus, Mathematics
University of Toronto
Kisha Delain
Adjunct Faculty, Physics Department
University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, MN
Jacobo Diaz-Polo
Postdoctoral Researcher, Physics
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
Rabia Djellouli
Professor and Chair, Department of Mathematics
California State University Northridge
Dimitri R. Dounas-Frazer
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Department of Phyics
University of Colorado Boulder
Deepak D’Souza
Associate Professor, Computer Science
Indian Institute of Science
Madhumita Dutta
PhD Student, Human Geography
Durham University
Freeman Dyson
Professor, Physics
Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton
Ivar Ekeland
Professor Emeritus & former President of Paris-Dauphine University, Mathematics
Paris-Dauphine University, France
Emmanuel Farjoun
Professor, Mathematics
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Johanna Fernandez
Assistant Professor, History
Baruch College, CUNY
Diane Fujino
Professor, Asian American Studies, Director, Center for Black Studies Research
University of California, Santa Barbara, CA
Avner Giladi, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, Islamic Studies, Department of Middle Eastern History
University of Haifa, Israel
Amit Gilutz
Visiting Professor, Music
University of New Orleans
Rachel Giora
Professor, Linguistics
Tel Aviv University, Israel
Sherna Berger Gluck
Emerita Director, Oral History
California State University Long Beach
Catherine Goldstein
Directrice de recherch_,
CNRS & IMJ-PRG, Paris, France
Mary W. Gray
Professor, mathematics and statistics
American University, Washington DC
Christian Haesemeyer
Professor, Pure Mathematics
University of Melbourne
Michael Harris
Professor, Mathematics
Columbia University
Harry Hellenbrand
Provost Emeritus,
California State University Northridge
Reuben Hersh
Professor Emeritus, Mathematics
University of New Mexico
Renée Hlozek
Assistant Professor , Astrophysics
University of Toronto
Jennifer L. Hoffman
Associate Professor, Department of Physics & Astronomy
University of Denver
Hala Iqbal
Post-doctoral Fellow, Chemical Biology
Rockefeller University
Nabil Iqbal
Postdoctoral Scholar, Theoretical Physics
University of Amsterdam
Deepak Iyer
Assistant Professor, Physics
Bucknell University
Eva Jablonka
Professor, Cohn Institute for the History of Philosophy of Science and Ideas
Tel Aviv University, Israel
Adam M. Jacobs
PhD Candidate, Physics
Stony Brook University
Dileep Jatkar
Professor, Physics
Harish-Chandra Research Institute. Allahabad, India
Nirmalya Kajuri
Postdoctoral Fellow, Theoretical Physics
Indian Institute of Technology, Madras
Tamar Katriel
Professor, Department of Communication
University of Haifa, Israel
David Klein
Professor, Mathematics
California State University Northridge
Neal Koblitz
Professor, Mathematics
University of Washington, Seattle
Scott Kurashige
Professor, Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences
University of Washington, Bothell
Alok Laddha
Assistant faculty, Physics
Chennai Mathematical Institute
Peter Lake
Associate Professor , Rural Family Medicine
University of British Columbia
Kiese Laymon
Professor, English and Creative Writing
University of Mississippi
Jean-Marc Lévy-Leblond
Emeritus Professor , Physics
Université de Nice, France
Say-Peng Lim
Professor and Chair, Department of Physics and Astronomy
California State University Northridge
Elena Long
Post Doctoral Researcher, Dept. of Physics
University of New Hampshire
Sunaina Maira
Professor, Asian American Studies
UC Davis
Mario Martone, Ph.D.
Post-doctoral scholar, Department of Physics
University of Cincinnati
Dr. Anat Matar
Philosophy Department, Tel Aviv University, Israel
William Messing
Professor, School of Mathematics
University of Minnesota
Jessica Metcalfe
Assistant Physicist, High Energy Physics Division
Argonne National Laboratory
Ralf Meyer
Professor, Mathematics
Universität Göttingen
R. James Milgram
Emeritus Professor, Mathematics
Stanford University
Elisabeth A.C. Mills
Jansky Fellow Postdoctoral Researcher, Steward Observatory and Department of Astronomy
University of Arizona
Chandra Kant Mishra
Post-doctoral fellow, Astrophysics
International Centre for Theoretical Sciences,Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, India
Adam Miyashiro
Assistant Professor of Literature , Literature
Stockton University
Clément Mouhot
Professor, Mathematical physics
University of Cambridge
David Mumford
Professor Emeritus, Mathematics
Brown University, Fields Medal 1974
Rima Najjar
Assistant Professor (retired), English
Al-Quds University
Orayb Najjar
Professor Emerita, Communication
Northern Illinois Univ. DeKalb
Chiara R. Nappi
Emeritus Professor, Physics
Princeton University
Gautham Narayan
Postdoctoral Scientist,
National Optical Astronomy Observatory & The University of Arizona
Raghavendra Nyshadham
Associate Professor, Mathematics
Harish-Chandra Research Institute
Andrew O’Bannon
Senior Researcher, Theoretical Physics
University of Southampton
Joseph Oesterlé
Professor Emeritus, Mathematics
University of Paris 6
Joseph Osmundson
Post-doctoral Fellow, Department of Biology
New York University
Avraham Oz
Professor, Department of Hebrew and Comparative Literature
University of Haifa, Israel
Gina Passante
Assistant Professor, Physics
California State University Fullerton
Kobi Peterzil
Professor, Mathematics
University of Haifa, Israel
Edie Pistolesi
Professor, Art
California State University Northridge
Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, Ph.D.
Research Associate, Department of Physics
University of Washington, Seattle
Arnab Priya
Graduate student, Theoretical Physics
Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai
Jaikumar Radhakrishnan
Professor, Computer Science
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, India
Madhusudhan Raman
Graduate Student, Theoretical Physics
Institute of Mathematical Sciences
Julie Rathbun
Professor, Physics
University of Redlands
Vijay Ravikumar
Assistant Professor, Mathematics
Chennai Mathematical Institute
Thomas Sean Rice
PhD student, Department of Astronomy
University of Michigan
Michael Ritter
Counselor Faculty, Health Promotion & Wellness
San Francisco State University
William I. Robinson
Professor, Sociology, Global Studies, and Latin American Studies
University of California at Santa Barbara
Jerry Rosen
Professor, Mathematics
California State University Northridge
Rafael Sánchez
Visiting professor, Condensed Matter Physics
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
Lionel Schwartz
Professor, Mathematics
Université Paris 13, Villetaneuse, France
Ananth Shankar
PhD student, Mathematics
Harvard University
Arul Shankar
Benjamin Pierce Fellow, Mathematics
Harvard University
Shiva Shankar
Professor, Electrical Engineering
Chennai Mathematical Institute
Sundar Shanmugasundaram
Assistant Professor, Mathematics
Chennai Mathematical Institute
Kobi Snitz
Department of Neurobiology
Weizmann institute, Israel
Alessondra Springmann
Graduate Research Assistant,, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory
University of Arizona
Steven Sperber
Professor, Mathematics
University of Minnesota
Peter Spitzform
Associate Library Professor, Bailey-Howe Library
University of Vermont
Viakalathur Sunder
Professor, Mathematics
Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai, India
Joshua Tan
FONDECYT Postdoctoral Fellow, Instituto de Astrof?sica, Pontificia
Universidad Cat?lica de Chile
Robert Trivers
Professor, Anthropology and Biological Sciences
Rutgers University
Sarah Tuttle
Researcher, McDonald Observatory
University of Texas at Austin
Bruno Vallette
Professor, Mathematics
Université Paris Nord XIII
Sushmita Venugopalan
Assistant Professor, Mathematics
Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai, India
Susan Walpole
BA Hons, American studies
UEA
Shirley Yap
Associate Professor, Mathematics
California State University East Bay