With an Israeli divestment campaign underway on campus, a group of Carleton faculty members have banded together to support Palestinian human rights.
Twenty-four current and retired faculty members have joined the group, which is part of a network of similar groups across the country called Faculty for Palestine, according to group member and Carleton sociology and anthropology professor Nahla Abdo.
“It started out of recognition for the need to establish a freedom of expression at [Carleton] itself,” Abdo said.
The group, which was founded almost four months ago, has issued a pamphlet calling on Israel to end its “occupation and colonization of all Arab lands,” recognize “the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality,” and respect the “rights of Palestinian refuges to return to their homes and properties.”
Abdo said the group has also pledged to support the student group Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) in their recent divestment campaign.
The campaign, which was officially launched at Carleton Jan. 28, calls on the university to withdraw its pension fund money from five companies SAIA says supply the Israeli government with weapons, building supplies and communications technology used in Gaza and the West Bank.
“We would like to pull our funds from this pension fund,” Abdo said, noting that the group stands for all kinds of socially responsible actions.
“Our focus is on Palestinians, but we have a more general framework. We also stand in solidarity with [opposition] groups around the world, especially indigenous groups around the world,” Abdo said.
Queen’s University political studies professor Abigail Bakan stressed the importance of holding a lecture at Carleton on the subject when she spoke at Carleton Feb. 5.
“That, in itself, is a political act,” she said.
Bakan spoke about the concept of Israeli apartheid and more at Carleton Feb. 5.
In her speech and in the questions that followed, Bakan also spoke of the political strategy of Zionism, the two-state solultion versus a one-state solution, the racialized nature of Apartheid, and the use of the word “apartheid” in South America. She referenced a number of different solutions to the problems posed by Israel’s treatment of Palestinians written by scholars in the process.
A major focus of the professor’s speech was asking why applying the term “apartheid” is unspeakable. Bakan said calling Israel an apartheid state shatters the myth of Israel being a “strong state” — with all of the democracy and stability that entails — and this provokes strong emotions.