The SECP community stands in solidarity with the people of Palestine in their struggle against the occupation of their land by the apartheid regime of Israel. We recognize the Palestinian struggle as an indigenous liberation movement confronting a settler colonial state expropriating their land for over seventy years. As the Israeli military forcibly removes Palestinians from their homes in Occupied East Jerusalem and elsewhere, and conducts airstrikes in Gaza, civilian deaths continue to rise, sparking world-wide protests. These assaults occur alongside increased citizen and police terror against Palestinians throughout Israel and the illegally occupied territories.
The Israeli system of control has been condemned as akin to apartheid by both the Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem (https://www.btselem.org/publications/fulltext/202101_this_is_apartheid) as well as by Human Rights Watch (https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution), building on previous reports by Palestinian human rights organisations and scholars. As a research community, we see it as our ethical duty to condemn state terror and violence in all forms, wherever it may occur, and to continue to advance critical intellectual positions.
We mourn all loss of life. We also refuse the “two-sides” narrative that ignores the differences between one of the most heavily militarized states in the world and a Palestinian population resisting their oppressors. Palestinian resistance to this violent system of apartheid is a legal right.
We stand in solidarity with Palestinians, and see their struggle as fundamentally entwined with many other struggles for racial justice and liberation. We affirm our commitment to working against all forms of racism and injustice in our own institution and beyond.’
Commentary | Statement of solidarity with Palestine
The SECP community stands in solidarity with the people of Palestine in their struggle against the occupation of their land by the apartheid regime of Israel. We recognize the Palestinian struggle as an indigenous liberation movement confronting a settler colonial state expropriating their land for over seventy years. As the Israeli military forcibly removes Palestinians from their homes in Occupied East Jerusalem and elsewhere, and conducts airstrikes in Gaza, civilian deaths continue to rise, sparking world-wide protests. These assaults occur alongside increased citizen and police terror against Palestinians throughout Israel and the illegally occupied territories.
The Israeli system of control has been condemned as akin to apartheid by both the Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem (https://www.btselem.org/publications/fulltext/202101_this_is_apartheid) as well as by Human Rights Watch (https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution), building on previous reports by Palestinian human rights organisations and scholars. As a research community, we see it as our ethical duty to condemn state terror and violence in all forms, wherever it may occur, and to continue to advance critical intellectual positions.
We mourn all loss of life. We also refuse the “two-sides” narrative that ignores the differences between one of the most heavily militarized states in the world and a Palestinian population resisting their oppressors. Palestinian resistance to this violent system of apartheid is a legal right.
We stand in solidarity with Palestinians, and see their struggle as fundamentally entwined with many other struggles for racial justice and liberation. We affirm our commitment to working against all forms of racism and injustice in our own institution and beyond.’
Ian Sinclair
June 3, 2021
Commentaries