UKJAN

Still, it marks a decisive shift in public discourse on Palestine. It also challenges dominant political and media narratives which falsely tie Jewish safety to the persecution of Palestinians.

It should not need repeating that Palestinian lives are sacred in their own right. While we all wish for the return of Israeli hostages, the value of Palestinian lives is not contingent on strategic considerations linked to the formers' liberation.

Palestinians are entitled to self-determination in their own land, and we reiterate our call for a free Palestine. We call for an immediate end to the occupation of Palestine and to the repression of solidarity action in the name of protecting Jewish safety, including on our campuses. Our only safety is in solidarity.

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White text on green background: We welcome the statement from members of the Board of Deputies of British Jews expressing horror at the heartbreakng Israeli assault on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, and decrying the ongoing violence as opposed to fundamental Jewish values.

The statement, which was only signed by a small minority of Deputies, comes far too late and leaves much unsaid. It is disappointing that it does not ask for any concrete actions that could bring an end to the suffering and destruction.

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Text: UKJAN response to Board of Deputies of British Jews Image: two destroyed ambulances against the rubble of what appears to be a missile attack. a tall person is standing outside of one, holding the door ajar and peering in

In the thread that follows is UKJAN's response to the letter by the Board of Deputies of British Jews (original letter linked here: www.ft.com/content/6a50...)

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This includes recent cases such as an unnamed Turkish academic whose visa was revoked in February and last year's unsuccessful attempt to revoke the visa of student Dana Abuqamar.

Signed, Prof. Seth Aniszka Mohamed S. Farsi-Lindenbaum Professor of Jewish-Muslim Relations, University College London Prof. David Feldman Director, Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism Prof. Neve Gordon Professor of International Law, School of Law, Queen Mary University of London Prof. Richard Caplan Professor of International Relations, University of Oxford Prof. Hagar Kotef Professor of Political Theory, SOAS, University of London Prof. Jacqueline Rose Professor of Humanities, Co-Director, Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities

Prof. Michael Rosen Goldsmiths University London Prof. Catherine Rottenberg Professor of Feminist Media Studies, Goldsmiths College, University of London Prof. Avi Shlaim Emeritus Professor of International Relations, University of Oxford Prof. Adam Sutcliffe Professor of European History, Kings College London Prof. Neil Turok Higgs Chair of Theoretical Physics, University of Edinburgh Dr. Yair Wallach Reader (Associate Professor), SOAS Prof. Nira Yuval-Davis Professor Emeritus, University of East London

Full Statement and Signatories: UKJAN.org.uk

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As members of the UK Jewish Academic Network and alongside Jewish scholars, researchers and academic staff from across the UK, we protest the arrest and detention by US immigration agents of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University alumnus and Palestinian activist, on the grounds of alleged antisemitism.

This is chilling evidence of the Trump administration's cynical weaponisation of supposed concern for Jewish safety to attach freedom of expression. We call for Khalil's immediate release. It is especially abhorrent that Khalil's whereabouts were unknown for days to his lawyers or his family, including his wife, who is eight months pregnant.

We reject the Trump administration's false claims to be combating antisemitism and protecting Jewish staff and students at Columbia University by arresting student activists. We condemn attempts like this to instrumentalise our communities, and we recognise them for what they are: racist, authoritarian divide-and-rule tactics that weaken academic freedom and suppress political dissent.

Unfortunately, the US is not alone in facing these alarming trends. In the last few years, we have seen the ramping up of repressive policies and strategies at universities across the UK in relation to Palestine, including attempts to revoke visas or use lawfare to attack students and staff based on flimsy accusations of threatening public safety.

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Green background with white text: “We implore our government and all people of conscience to demand Mahmoud Khalil’s release and to defend the rights of those calling for Palestinian and indeed all human rights to be upheld“

“We implore our government and all people of conscience to demand Mahmoud Khalil’s release and to defend the rights of those calling for Palestinian and indeed all human rights to be upheld“

Full text of our statement and list of signatories can be found on our website at UKJAN.org.uk

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This includes recent cases such as an unnamed Turkish academic whose visa was revoked in February and last year's unsuccessful attempt to revoke the visa of student Dana Abuqamar.

Signed, Prof. Seth Aniszka Mohamed S. Farsi-Lindenbaum Professor of Jewish-Muslim Relations, University College London Prof. David Feldman Director, Birkbeck Institute for the Study of Antisemitism Prof. Neve Gordon Professor of International Law, School of Law, Queen Mary University of London Prof. Richard Caplan Professor of International Relations, University of Oxford Prof. Hagar Kotef Professor of Political Theory, SOAS, University of London Prof. Jacqueline Rose Professor of Humanities, Co-Director, Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities

Prof. Michael Rosen Goldsmiths University London Prof. Catherine Rottenberg Professor of Feminist Media Studies, Goldsmiths College, University of London Prof. Avi Shlaim Emeritus Professor of International Relations, University of Oxford Prof. Adam Sutcliffe Professor of European History, Kings College London Prof. Neil Turok Higgs Chair of Theoretical Physics, University of Edinburgh Dr. Yair Wallach Reader (Associate Professor), SOAS Prof. Nira Yuval-Davis Professor Emeritus, University of East London

Full Statement and Signatories: UKJAN.org.uk

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As members of the UK Jewish Academic Network and alongside Jewish scholars, researchers and academic staff from across the UK, we protest the arrest and detention by US immigration agents of Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University alumnus and Palestinian activist, on the grounds of alleged antisemitism.

This is chilling evidence of the Trump administration's cynical weaponisation of supposed concern for Jewish safety to attach freedom of expression. We call for Khalil's immediate release. It is especially abhorrent that Khalil's whereabouts were unknown for days to his lawyers or his family, including his wife, who is eight months pregnant.

We reject the Trump administration's false claims to be combating antisemitism and protecting Jewish staff and students at Columbia University by arresting student activists. We condemn attempts like this to instrumentalise our communities, and we recognise them for what they are: racist, authoritarian divide-and-rule tactics that weaken academic freedom and suppress political dissent.

Unfortunately, the US is not alone in facing these alarming trends. In the last few years, we have seen the ramping up of repressive policies and strategies at universities across the UK in relation to Palestine, including attempts to revoke visas or use lawfare to attack students and staff based on flimsy accusations of threatening public safety.

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Green background with white text: “We implore our government and all people of conscience to demand Mahmoud Khalil’s release and to defend the rights of those calling for Palestinian and indeed all human rights to be upheld“

“We implore our government and all people of conscience to demand Mahmoud Khalil’s release and to defend the rights of those calling for Palestinian and indeed all human rights to be upheld“

Full text of our statement and list of signatories can be found on our website at UKJAN.org.uk

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A green graphic with a stylized image of Mahmoud Khalil's face and text that says "UK Jewish Academics call for immediate release of Mahmoud Khalil"

We held back briefly while waiting for mainstream news platforms to pick up our letter. After prolonged silence, however, we feel we cannot delay this message any longer.

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1/5 A groundbreaking Amnesty report published today concludes Israeli authorities are committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. www.amnesty.org.uk/genocide-rep...

More than 60 British MPs have sent a letter to the UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy, urging him to impose sanctions on Israel over “repeated violations of international law”, according to the Wafa news agency.

🔴 LIVE updates: aje.io/3s86v8

83% all plant life in Gaza destroyed: two devastating reports on Israel's genocide Two reports detail the hideous consequences of Israel's Western-facilitated genocide. And yet the Western media bury or ignore them altogether.

83% of plant life in Gaza has been destroyed.

Israel's genocide is making Gaza uninhabitable - and our media outlets are complicit by suppressing the truth.

New post 👇

www.owenjones.news/p/83-all-pla...

May those forcibly displaced from their homes in the villages of south Lebanon return to their homes, their land, and rebuild.

May those Palestinians forcibly displaced in ongoing Nakba since 1948 all return to their homes and land, and rebuild.

“In unity and with unwavering determination, we declare that justice will prevail. We will not be silenced; we will resist, remember, and record.” - The Unified Call for Justice and Freedom in Palestine

“In unity and with unwavering determination, we declare that justice will prevail. We will not be silenced; we will resist, remember, and record.”

- The Unified Call for Justice and Freedom in Palestine

www.birzeit.edu/en/news/unif...

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A year later, after unfathomable death and destruction, as we watch Israel carry out ethnic cleansing in North Gaza, as state-supported settler terrorism wracks the West Bank, and as Israel ramps up its indiscriminate bombing campaign in Lebanon, these demands have only become more urgent.

As Jewish academics in the UK, we stand with our Palestinian colleagues in occupied Palestine and around the world (including our colleagues at Scholars for Palestine UK) in calling on our institutions to immediately take action in line with the Unified Call for Justice and Freedom in Palestine.

We also believe that UK higher education institutions have an urgent responsibility to suspend their relationships with Israeli universities, divest from companies complicit in Israeli human rights abuses and violations of international law, and exert political pressure on the UK government to end its support for the Israeli state.

A year later, these demands have only become more urgent.

www.scholarsforpalestine.org

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1. Call for an immediate and permanent humanitarian ceasefire, guaranteed by the UN 2. Urge immediate entry into Gaza of sufficient amounts of life-saving humanitarian needs (incl. water, food, fuel, medicine), equitably distributed throughout the whole territory of Gaza Strip.

3. Demand UN protection for the 2.3 million Palestinian civilians trapped under siege in Gaza 4. Issue clear positions rejecting any ethnic cleansing 5. Support in dismantling the settler colonial and apartheid system and to achieve and a just, comprehensive, and lasting peace.

The statement (www.birzeit.edu/en/news/unif...) lists five concrete actions for the international academic community, urging us to:

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(black text on a purple background) UK Jewish Academic Network The Unified Call for Justice and Freedom in Palestine One Year Later

What is the Unified Call for Justice and Freedom in Palestine? In November 2023, 15 Palestinian higher education institutions issued a joint statement calling upon academic institutions worldwide to take action against the genocide being perpetrated by Israel against Gazans. The statement lists five concrete actions for the international academic community, urging us to:

What is the Unified Call for Justice and Freedom in Palestine?

In Nov 2023, 15 Palestinian HE institutions issued a joint statement (www.birzeit.edu/en/news/unif...) calling upon academic institutions worldwide to take action against the genocide being perpetrated by Israel against Gazans.

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within the academy and in our communities. We commit to the struggle against Islamophobia and to combating antisemitism within the framework of broader anti-racist and decolonial liberation struggles and movements for social justice.

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• We promote ‘safety through solidarity’ (Burley & Lorber, 2024). We acknowledge our communities’ inherited traumas & antisemitism’s deep historical roots in British society. We advocate for compassionate & informed discussion of antisemitism & Israel/Palestine

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We note the long history of pro-Palestinian/non & anti-Zionist sentiment across Jewish communities globally & in the UK, and the accelerating fragmentation of public opinion on Israel in the Jewish diaspora - a diversity that our institutions too often fail to reflect.

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• We resist the assumption that UK Jews speak with a single voice on any issue inc. Israel/Zionism. Homogenising Jewish opinions on Israel is an act of erasure as is antisemitic stereotyping, so is conflating the interests of Jews worldwide with those of the Israeli state

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In doing so, they create confusion around what antisemitism is and risk trivialising the real threats it poses to Jewish safety, especially by deemphasising antisemitism on the right.

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• We reject the conflation of criticism of Israel/Zionism with antisemitism. Instruments like the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism have increasingly been used to discipline and criminalise legitimate political speech.

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• Universities must be free from political interference. As academics committed to academic freedom, we support the right of students and faculty to criticise Israel’s actions, to express support for Palestinian liberation, and to engage in nonviolent protest.

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• We refute the notion that the safety of Jews rests upon the oppression of Palestinians. We are committed to realising safety, dignity, and self-determination for all Palestinians and Israelis.

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• We call on the UK government to end its complicity in Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza and to press for an immediate and permanent ceasefire.

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Here are our main points and you can read the full statement on our website

• We support the struggle for freedom, equality, and justice for all Palestinians and Israelis.

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As Jews and academics, we represent diverse areas of expertise and a wide variety of political, religious, and cultural viewpoints. Jewish opinion is not homogenous, yet as members of UKJAN, we assert the following shared values and principles:

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Increasingly, we have seen accusations of antisemitism used to shut down criticism of Israeli violence in Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon. Such tactics ultimately endanger both Jews and other minoritised groups across the UK and beyond.

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