We, in the Dutch, European, and International academic and cultural sectors, condemn the brutal Israeli assaults against Palestinians and stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people who are rising up against seven decades of Israeli settler colonial violence. The last week, yet again, witnessed further Palestinian death and dispossession at the hands of the Israeli state; from violent attempts to force out Palestinian inhabitants of Sheikh Jarrah, to the brutal suppression and arrest of protestors, and the horrifying aerial assault over Gaza. As we write, Gaza, the most densely populated besieged Palestinian enclave, is being heavily bombarded by Israeli military from the air and the sea. So far, over 220 Palestinians, including 62 children, were killed and hundreds injured by Israel. The death-toll is increasing by the second, as the world watches and reports on the events in the language of “conflict” and “clashes”. Decades of Palestinian dispossession from land and life, ethnic cleansing, and ecological devastation committed by the Israeli settler colonial state cannot be reduced to ‘a conflict’. We reject this supposedly objective and neutral terminology used in describing these practices of ethnic cleansing.

As scholars, activists, and artists committed to social justice, decolonial, anti-racist, lgbtq, and feminist politics, we cannot and refuse to look away from Palestine. We acknowledge and contest the long histories of colonial and settler colonial violence, and the role of Europe and North America in establishing, supporting, and maintaining the Israeli colonial occupation of Palestine. At a time when public and scholarly critiques of Israel in US and European universities are being silenced by the charge of anti-semitism, we firmly stand by our responsibility to speak out against such grave human rights and environmental violations against Palestinians. This comes from the conviction that a political critique of Israeli apartheid and settler colonial state violence cannot and should not be conflated with the racist speech of anti-semitism.

We commend the people of Palestine all over historic Palestine for their steadfastness and determination to affirm life in the face of such senseless violence.

We urge other academic programmes and departments in the Netherlands, Europe, and internationally, as well as cultural organisations, museums, and activist collectives, to join us in signing this statement to condemn the ongoing Israeli state violence and take collective action to express solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for life in dignity.

Netherlands

Graduate Gender Programme, Utrecht University, Utrecht

Netherlands Research School of Gender Studies, The Netherlands

Faculty of Humanities, Erasmus University College, Rotterdam

Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam

Amsterdam Center for Gender and Sexuality, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam

Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA), University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam

International Association for the study of Gender and Religion (IARG), The Netherlands

Erasmus Institute for Public Knowledge, Erasmus University, Rotterdam

Directors of the Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies (IMES) at the University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam

Race-Religion Constellation Research Team, Radboud University, Nimegen

Dutch Art Institute, DAI, The Netherlands

Graphic Design Department,  Royal Academy of Art, The Hague

Disarming Design Department, Sandberg Instituut, Amsterdam

Resolution: MA Moving Image, Sandberg Instituut, Amsterdam

Ecologies of Transformation programme, Sandberg Instituut, Amsterdam

Hogeschool voor de Kunsten Utrecht- HKU, MA Fine Art, Utrecht

Fashion Strategy MA, Artez University of the Arts, Arnhem

Terra Critica, Interdisciplinary Network for the Critical Humanities

Museum of Equality and Difference, (MOED),The Netherlands

Critical Decoloniality in the Museum (CRIDE Network), The Netherlands

Casco Art Institute: Working for the Commons, Utrecht

BAK- basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht

De Atelier, post-academic art institute, Amsterdam

Sonic Acts,  research organisation in art, science and theory, Amsterdam

Kunstverein, cultural organisation, Amsterdam

gate48: Critical Israelis in the Netherlands

Erasmus School of Colour (student-led organisation), Erasmus University

W139, contemporary art space, Amsterdam

Framer Framed, platform for contemporary art, visual culture, and critical theory & practice, Amsterdam

MA Photography & Society (MAPS), KABK Royal Academy of Art, The Hague

Qtopia, Queer Arts Festival, Nijmegen

UNSETTLING Rietveld Sandberg, Gerrit Rietveld Academie / Sandberg Instituut, Amsterdam

NEVERNEVERLAND Foundation, Amsterdam

PCI (Postcolonial Studies Initiative), Utrecht University, Utrecht

Black Pride NL, Amsterdam

Colored Qollective, Utrecht

de Appel, Amsterdam

Dutch Pavillion, Venice Biennale 2021 (Artist and Curators)

Creative Humanities Academy, Utrecht University, Utrecht

Deltaworkers New Orleans, Amsterdam

26 PhD candidates at Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication, Erasmus University (Henry Chow, Lise ZurnéZhen YeFemke VandenbergRosa SchiavoneApoorva NanjangudMaría Leonor Gaitán AguilarMarleen Hofland-MolDébora PóvoaAnnie HeslingaZouhair HammanaJasmin SeijbelShirley NieuwlandAria DagaBartosz ŻerebeckiQian HuangYongjian LiArne van LiendenAnouk MolsPhuong Hoan LeBritt SwartjesVictoria BalanKaren KlijnhoutCarolina Dalla ChiesaZeynep BirselEmily Mannheimer) 

Piet Zwart Institute, Master Fine Art, Rotterdam

Social Practices, Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam

Stichting ARK/Connor Schumacher – dance organization for Social Choreography, Rotterdam

NOG- Netherlands Research School for Gender Studies PhD Council

Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam

Doorbraak, Opinie & politiek

Theatre of Wrong Decisions, Den Haag

Rotterdam Arab Film Festival, Rotterdam

Europe and International 

Centre for Gender Studies, SOAS, University of London, UK

Centre for Women’s Studies, University of York, UK

Gender Studies Unit,  Department of Cultural Sciences at University of Gothenburg

GEMMA: Erasmus Mundus Master´s Degree in Women’s and Gender Studies, Granada

Faculty of Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies, University of Minnesota, USA

Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality, New York University, USA

Department of Gender & Women’s Studies, University of Arizona, USA

Birkbeck Gender and Sexuality (BiGS) forum, Birkbeck, University of London, UK

Department of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Rutgers University, USA

Board of Women’s Studies, University College Cork, Ireland

ECREA, Diaspora, Migration and the Media section

Jewish-Muslim Research Network, University of Michigan

BICAR- Beirut Institute for Critical Analysis and Research, American University of Beirut, Lebanon

Master Studi e Politiche di Genere – Roma Tre University, Italy 

AGITATE! Unsettling Knowledges Research Circle, University of Minnesota, USA

Imagining Transnational Solidarities Research Circle, University of Minnesota,USA

Hysteria! Revista, feminist organisation, México

NoaNoa Instituto de Investigaciones, México 

INVASORIX, feminist queer/cuir group from Mexico City, Mexico

Society of Equality, Respect, and Trust for All (SERATA), Malaysia

Instituto Universitario de Estudios de Mujeres y de Género, Universidad de Granada, Granada

Grupo de Investigación: Recepción, Modos y Géneros de la Literatura en Lengua Inglesa, Universidad de Granada, Granada

WHW Akademija, Zagreb, Croatia

Full-Time Faculty, School of Art, The Cooper Union, New York, USA

MFA Fine Art Practice, School of Visual Arts, New York, USA

Qalqalah قلقلة, editorial and curatorial platform, France