Intellectual Responsibility and the Voice of the Colonized
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) has recently encountered a number of projects that while intending to empower the colonized Palestinians, in essence end up undermining their will and choice of method of struggle for freedom, justice and self determination.
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) has recently encountered a number of projects that while intending to empower the colonized Palestinians, in essence end up undermining their will and choice of method of struggle for freedom, justice and self determination. The publication of a new book entitled The Power of Inclusive Exclusion: Anatomy of Israeli Rule in the Occupied Palestinian Territories [1] belongs to this category. The book project represents a classic example of how the collective voice of the colonized is ignored in the production of a scholarly work supposed to empower them.
While it is crucial for scholars in relevant fields to expose and analyze the colonial situation in Palestine, this academic imperative should not imply that one overlooks how scholarship engages this colonialism. That is, this book, as a collaboration of various scholars – Israeli and non-Israeli contributors – was completed with support from the Van Leer Institute [2]. In other words, through working under the aegis of the Van Leer Institute, this project has cooperated with one of the very institutions that PACBI and an overwhelming majority of Palestinian academics and intellectuals have called for boycotting. As such, the research project which led to the production of the volume violates the criteria of the academic and cultural boycott as set by PACBI and widely endorsed in Palestinian civil society, including by the Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees (PFUUPE) and University Teachers‘ Association in Palestine (UTA). [3]
Contrary to the claims of some left-wing Israeli academics that the Van Leer institute is an incubator for cutting-edge critical thinking and oppositional politics, the Institute is firmly planted in the prevailing Zionist consensus and is part and parcel of the structures of oppression and domination. It subscribes to the “vision of Israel as both a homeland for the Jewish people and a democratic society, predicated on justice, fairness and equality for all its residents,” ignoring the oxymoron presented by this inherently exclusionary vision -- a “Jewish State” of necessity discriminates against its “non-Jewish” citizens. The Van Leer Institute receives financial support from other Israeli universities and state institutions that are subject to boycott. Among its financial contributors and institutional “friends” are the Cohn Institute at
Furthermore, Van Leer, like all other Israeli academic institutions, has never taken a stance against
Though intellectual projects may aim to rigorously articulate the complex matrix of control that exists in Palestine, the intellectual process has a fundamental ethical and political component. As such, it is incumbent upon all scholars to realize that any collaboration which brings together Israeli and international academics (Arabs or otherwise) under the auspices of Israeli institutions is counterproductive to fighting Israeli colonial oppression, and is therefore subject to boycott.
A project involving only Israeli academics, on the other hand, receiving support from an Israeli academic institution, may be seen as a justifiable exercise of a right or an entitlement by Israeli scholars as tax payers and, as a result, may not per se be boycottable. [4]
As the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (
It is crucial to emphasize that the
Since the formulation of these calls, a great deal of emphasis has been placed on defining the principles of the boycott movement. Rooted in universal values and principles, the
PACBI
[1] Adi Ophir, Michal Givoni, and Sari Hanafi, eds (
[2] The acknowledgements page states that "[w]ork on this volume was made possible thanks to the generous support of the Van Leer Institute, which hosted the research group _Israel-Palestine, a Catastrophe in the Making,_ and funded its activities…”
[3] http://pacbi/etemplate.php?id=1108
[4] This follows the principle set in the PACBI Guidelines for the International Cultural Boycott of Israel, which states that, “Individual cultural products that receive state funding as part of the individual cultural worker’s entitlement as a tax-paying citizen, without her/him being bound to serve the state’s political and PR interests, are not boycottable, according to the PACBI criteria.” http://pacbi/etemplate.php?id=1047
[5] For instance, the introduction to the book in question, on page 27, states: "While some Palestinian scholars have not considered their participation in the joint Israeli-Palestinian research group to undermine their call for boycott of Israeli academic institutions (because the boycott campaign has explicitly encouraged cooperation and meeting with Israelis who oppose the occupation), others have considered the group as a legitimate target of the boycott and refused to cooperate with it." This statement is not accurate and fails to reference any specific principle in the Palestinian calls for boycott or the guidelines for applying the boycott.
[6]http://bdsmovement.net/?q=node/52
[7] http://pacbi/etemplate.php?id=869
[8] http://pacbi/etemplate.php?id=1047 and http://pacbi/etemplate.php?id=1107