Latest Posts

Jewish Faculty Response to Columbia University Task Force Report on Anti-Semitism

« We write as Jewish faculty of Columbia and Barnard in response to the Antisemitism Task Force’s second report, which documents a number of disturbing incidents and student experiences. We join the report’s authors in abhorring all instances of harassment, intimidation, and violence against students for being Jewish, and agree that at Columbia, “[n]o one should feel excluded, marginalized, disrespected, or unheard.” We are writing to demonstrate how the report undermines these fundamental values by subjecting the incidents described to analysis and framing that misrepresent their meaning and implications. We are troubled by the way the widely publicized report contributes to a hostile narrative about Columbia, which is used to justify interference in the institution’s governance and operations. »

From a hospital in Gaza: ‘Please let me die’

We urge the international and medical community to demand an immediate and permanent cease-fire, and to allow access to the humanitarian aid so desperately needed.

Michael Berry is an anesthetist and intensive care doctor. Suheal Khan is an orthopedic surgeon. Edward Brown is a consultant vascular and general surgeon. They recently returned from volunteering in one of Medical Aid for Palestinians’ and International Rescue Committee’s emergency medical teams in Gaza.

Academic Freedom | Letter Regarding Draft Joint Parliamentary Resolution in Germany

We write on behalf of the Committee on Academic Freedom of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies (BRISMES) to express our profound concern over a draft joint parliamentary resolution of the parliamentary groups of the SPD, Bündnis90/Die Grünen, FDP and CDU/CSU that claims to aim to protect, preserve and strengthen Jewish life in Germany, a draft version of which recently became public. The draft resolution that you are proposing, however, fundamentally undermines artistic and academic freedoms protected both by international law and by Germany’s Basic Law, and therefore must be abandoned. There are several deeply concerning aspects of this proposed resolution.

In Defense of Life and Breath: Free Khalida Jarrar

On August 12, 2024, Zionist prisoner authorities violently transferred researcher and lecturer at Birzeit University, Khalida Jarrar, into solitary confinement. This occurred after nearly eight months of an unjust imprisonment without charge, where she has been held under illegal administrative detention. In the early morning hours of December 26, 2023, the Israeli settler army invaded Khalida Jarrar’s home and stole her away from her family and her work. Khalida Jarrar is a political leader and a researcher and lecturer. Over the course of her life as a feminist activist and political scholar, the Israeli state has consistently tried to silence her. This most recent solitary confinement is part of the landscape of structural violence against Palestinians and an intensification of its war of elimination of Gaza and all of Palestine.

More Than 65 Palestinian Filmmakers, Including Hany Abu Assad, Elia Suleiman and Farah Nabulsi, Sign Letter Accusing Hollywood of ‘Dehumanizing’ Palestinians

A group of almost 70 Palestinian filmmakers — including two-time Oscar nominee Hany Abu Assad, acclaimed director Elia Suleiman and recent BAFTA winner Farah Nabulsi — have signed a strongly-worded letter in which they accuse Hollywood of “dehumanising” Palestinians on screen over decades, a factor they assert has helped enable the ongoing devastation in Gaza.