On Tuesday evening, over 20 LSE students silently occupied a meeting of LSE’s governing body for over 30 minutes in protest at LSE Director Howard Davies’ implicit support for the Israeli occupation of Palestine.
Holding up banners stating “Academic Freedom for All” and “Equal Rights for Palestinians”, the students peacefully entered an LSE Council meeting, the monthly meeting of LSE’s 25 directors, bringing it to a halt, and reissued a request for a meeting with Davies to discuss the issue, as well as that a statement be displayed on the LSE website recognising the right to education for Palestinians. After lengthy deliberation, and threatening to ask security to forcibly remove the students, Davies and Council Chair, Lord Grabiner, reluctantly agreed to attend a meeting and that a statement would be issued that acknowledged Palestinians’ right to education.
LSE staff and students had twice written to Davies to protest his stance against any debate of a boycott of Israeli academic institutions, as proposed by the UCU (University and College Union) in May 2007. In two subsequent responses (22 June 2007 and 5 September 2007) Davies had refused outright to meet with student representatives. He also declined to address or recognise the desperate condition of Palestinian academic institutions, stating that the School “has no corporate position” on this matter.
Widespread student outcry emerged after Davies posted a controversial statement on the LSE website condemning the UCU resolution and any debate on the issue, ignoring entirely the plight of Palestinians.
LSE students, staff and alumni wrote a joint letter to Davies in response. The letter, signed by most of the LSE Students Union Executive and more than 100 students, staff, alumni and heads of student societies, expressed concern at Davies’ apparent opposition to the free expression of opinion and debate on campus. The letter also questioned the school’s continued silence on “the massive Israeli assault on Palestinian academic institutions and the fundamental rights and freedoms of Palestinians, including freedom of expression, association and movement and the right to education.”
The letter went on to note that “the speed with which the School appeared to oppose any sanctions on Israeli academic institutions, while remaining silent on the desperate conditions facing Palestinian academic institutions, is bound to have created the impression of bias.”
Seph Brown, spokesperson for the LSE Students’ Union Palestinian Society, stated:
“As a Director of a world-class academic institution, Howard Davies should represent a balanced and fair perspective, especially on the issue of the colonization of Palestine. To condemn the discussion of an academic boycott of Israel, but to then ignore their blatant disruption and devastation of Palestinian academic freedom is entirely hypocritical. Davies is ignoring the existence of the hardships and suffering of Palestinian students all together.”
“We hope now that Davies will keep his promise and attend a meeting with the students who pay his wages and that the subsequent statement on the LSE website will finally recognise the right to education for Palestinians.”
From “The Guardian”
We find it deeply ironic, given the recent heated debate on the proposed academic boycott of Israeli universities by the UCU (Report, September 29), that the Israeli supreme court on October 2 ruled that Kahled al-Mudallal, a Bradford University student, cannot leave Gaza and return to his studies in the UK. We hope the voices that criticised the boycott and called so vociferously for preserving academic freedom and promoting dialogue will lend their support to those of us calling on the Israeli government to reverse the supreme court decision, and on the UK government to do all in its power to support the human rights of students like Kahled.
This is not just an issue of academic freedom, important though that is, but is a flagrant breach of a fundamental human right to education. This judgment undermines both academic freedom and the very possibility of constructive dialogue across communities.
Sarah Perrigo,
Dr Mandy Turner,
Prof Jenny Pearce,
Prof Mike Pugh,
Prof Donna Pankhurst,
Prof Nana Poku,
Valentina Bartolucci and 10 others
Department of peace studies, University of Bradford
______________
The right to education is a human right as stated in the UN universal declaration of human rights. Khaled al-Mudallal is one of hundreds of Palestinian students who are currently unable to leave Gaza to begin the new academic year. The British government should do everything in its power to ensure that Israel lifts the restrictions that are preventing Khaled and other students leaving Gaza to complete their education.
Richard Burden MP
Gemma Tumelty President, NUS
Sally Hunt General secretary, UCU
Ruqayyah Collector NUS Black Students’ Campaign
Dan Judelson Jews for Justice for Palestinians
Professor Irene Bruegel
Betty Hunter Palestine Solidarity Campaign
Professor Lynne Segal
Richard Kuper
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article2591922.ece
http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,,2184016,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2184210,00.html
In a special meeting to discuss this issue the Staffordshire students’ union council passed a motion calling for the removal of the travel restrictions on Khaled Mudallal and all Palestinians. The motion was put forward by member of council Assed Baig and passed with no votes against.
The motion called for the following:
1) To pressurize the UK Government to do all in its power to secure the right to travel for Khaled Mudallal and all other Palestinians.
2) To lobby the University and the NUS to pressurize the UK Government to do all in its power to secure the right to travel for Khaled Mudallal and all other Palestinians.
3) To work with the main lecturer’s Union, the Universities and Colleges Union (UCU), to pressure Universities in Israel and the UK to campaign for the removal of travel restrictions on Palestinians.
4) To work with students and lecturers in Israel to demand that Israeli educational institutions end their complicity in the denial of Palestinian human rights and campaign for the removal of travel restrictions on all Palestinians.
5) To send a letter of condemnation to the Israeli Embassy in the UK, calling for a removal of the travel restrictions on Khaled Mudallal and all Palestinians.
6) To work in conjunction with Palestinian solidarity groups to ensure that Palestinian human rights are protected.
7) To organize and run a campaign to raise awareness and educate the Students’ Union membership and University lecturers and staff about the occupation and oppression of Palestine, particularly highlighting the denial of the right to education and the travel restrictions.
Khaled Mudallal urgently trying to get back to Bradford University to start his third year of study, has found him self unable to do so after Israel identified Gaza as “hostile territory” this week, effectively closing it off to the outside world and in the process creating the world’s largest open air prison. Khaled Mudallal, 22, a British-educated business and management student who risks losing his third year if he does not return to Bradford next week, has become its latest inmate.