[H-PAD] Please send out - this is the letter about Palestine we approved.

[Margaret Power]

In recent years, Israel has been placing increasing restrictions on the
ability of international scholars to work at Palestinian universities in
the West Bank and Gaza. These restrictions have resulted in a sharp
decrease in the number of international academics in Palestinian
universities, and threaten to hinder Palestinian students’ access
to quality higher education. H-Pad has joined Palestinian, Israeli, and
international organizations in condemning these restrictive measure and
demanding that the Israeli government lift them.
Please join us in supporting Palestinian academic freedom by signing this
petition
<https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfxbyzS9gPuiuNqD1vDpvbm2Cc9VgAm0OD5lRR8wf8IVdZRig/viewform?fbclid=IwAR2DjD62wuBbyzpToS4mgPV5l6nbYWa5kqVQvvL93Asykbc_NDN8-F03b6A>,
organized by Academia for Equality.

H-PAD has sent the letter below to Israeli officials to protest Israeli
attacks on Palestinians’ academic freedom.

We, scholars and academics in the United States and members of Historians
for Peace and Democracy (H-PAD), write to protest the continuing Israeli
infringement on Palestinians’ academic freedom through the restrictions
imposed on faculty members at Palestinian universities in the West Bank and
Gaza who are foreign nationals. Over the past three years, by placing a
wide range of arbitrary demands and conditions for obtaining re-entry visas
that allow their employment in Palestinian universities, Israeli
authorities have further undermined the ability of international academic
personnel to work at Palestinian universities. In addition, Israeli
authorities have increasingly denied visas to academics scheduled for
employment in Palestinian universities. These measures have significantly
hindered the course of academic life in Palestinian higher education.

As a result of these measures, faculty members and universities face
continuing uncertainty. Some faculty members have had to leave before the
end of the academic year, while others remain in legal limbo, unable to
leave given the absence of assurances that they would be allowed to return
to the West Bank. Over the previous two academic years (2016/2017 and
2017/2018), Israeli authorities denied 12 entries into the country and at
least 20 academics are currently facing obstacles to extending/securing
visas. Under these conditions, there has been a sharp decrease in the
number of international academics in Palestinian universities. At Birzeit
University alone, twelve departments or affiliated institutions now face
losing faculty members in the coming academic year.

As Adalah - the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel has argued,
Israeli practices are contrary to international law. They are also in clear
violation of academic freedom. They are unacceptable. They have devastating
short- and long-term effects on Palestinian universities. They will limit
the development of the universities’ teaching, research, and
academic-scientific publications, and hinder Palestinian students’ access
to quality higher education.

 We condemn the ongoing constraints imposed by the Israeli authorities on
higher education in the Palestinian territories and we urge Israeli
authorities to end this discriminatory policy immediately. We call upon the
Israeli government to lift the restrictions preventing international
academics from staying and working in the West Bank and refrain from
imposing arbitrary restrictions on the duration of stay for international
academics.





Margaret Power and Van Gosse

Co-Chairs

Historians for Peace and Democracy
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