Al-Quds Professor Imad Barghouthi was charged in August 2020 for the content of his Facebook posts.
Imad Barghouthi, renowned Palestinian astrophysicist, Professor of Plasma Physics at Al Quds university (West Bank), has been detained since July 22nd, 2020. It was only after being held in jail for several weeks that charges, related to the content of his Facebook posts, were moved against him. Now, more than half a year after his arrest, Imad is still incarcerated, awaiting trial.
Already in September, a judge had agreed on releasing him on bail, a decision which sparked hopes of seeing Prof. Barghouthi reunited with his family, as well as his colleagues and students at Al Quds. However, this verdict was rapidly overturned by the Isaeli Military commander of the West Bank who, based on secret evidence which not even the defense lawyer can access, placed Prof. Barghouthi in Administrative Detention since. Administrative detention is a system regularly employed by Israel to imprison Palestinians without any charges or trials; it can be prolonged for indefinite periods of time and is mandated top-down from Israeli military commanders. The initial three months detention order has since been renewed, and to this day Prof. Barghouthi remains in prison.
Residents of the West Bank, like Imad, are tried in Israeli military courts which are known to have astronomical conviction rates and violating basic international law. Imad’s lawyer, with the support of his family, decided then to appeal to the Israeli High Court of Justice, which is instead a civil institution. Unfortunately the first hearing, scheduled for February 15th, was postponed and took place on February 22nd. Allegedly, after hearing both sides, the judge listened behind closed doors to the Israeli Secret Service and was convinced to reject the appeal. Thus Prof. Barghouthi, one of Palestine’s most prominent scientists charged solely on the bases of a few Facebook posts, will remain in prison for the foreseeable future.
As concerned scientists and individuals, it is hard to remain silent in front of such a blatant human rights violation and in fact we should not. The harassment of scientists and their imprisonment without a fair trial is in direct violation of Universal Declaration of Human Rights, article 27, as well as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, article 14. We ask for the immediate liberation of professor Barghouthi which should be granted a fair and just trial!
Professional mathematicians are invited to nominate highly motivated and mathematically talented students from developing countries who plan to complete a doctoral degree in a developing country, including their own home country. Nominees must have a consistently good academic record and must be seriously interested in pursuing a career of research and teaching in mathematics.
The nomination process will open on February 1, 2021 and conclude at 09:00 AM hours CET on May 31, 2021.
The Department of Mathematical Sciences is offering a scholarship to a student from a low or middle income country (as defined below) who wishes to study for a Masters in Mathematical Sciences , or a Masters in Particles, Strings and Cosmology. The scholarship covers full fees and accommodation for one year at Trevelyan College, and includes full catering during term time.
The closing date for applications is Monday May 1st 2021.
Hours before Palestinian Astrophysicist Prof. Imad Barghouthi’s scheduled release on Sunday November 8th, the military commander of the West Bank issued a new administrative detention order extending his imprisonment, which has been going on since July 16th 2020, by an additional three months and three weeks. The justification for this decision by the Israeli military referenced secret files in possession of the Israeli forces, which neither Prof. Barghouthi nor his lawyer have been provided access to.
Prof. Bargouthi continues to be held, in violation of international law, and kept from his family, students, and colleagues. More than a thousand of scholars worldwide have been engaged in demanding the release of the Palestinian Astrophysicist since his unlawful arrest earlier in the year and only weeks before the scheduled beginning of the Fall semester in Palestine.
Administrative detention, a procedure employed by Israeli authorities to jail indefinitely without trial and without charges and used routinely against Palestinians, has been condemned by the UN and is in direct violation of Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Prof. Bargouthi’s detention has been justified based on his social media activity, but repeatedly judges on his case have ruled in favor of his release during the trial.
However, following an indictment by an Israeli military court, the judge decided to release him on bail on September 2nd. Hours before his release, the Israeli military commander of the West Bank ordered an extension of Imad’s detention until November 15th, in contradiction of the judge’s decision. Again, the judge decided to release him on November 8th which was communicated to his family as definitive. Again, the Israeli military commander has contradicted the judge’s decision.
Scientists for Palestine strongly condemns this unlawful detention of one of our Palestinian colleagues. Prof. Bargouthi’s situation is not uncommon and faced by many Palestinian scientists, students, and others. Through the case of Prof. Imad Barghouthi we hope to find a leverage to bring to the world’s attention also the situation of so many others. So long as this cruel, unlawful system continues, the hopes of Palestinian scientists (young and old) of becoming engaged members of the International Scientific Community will always fall short of becoming a reality!
Our thoughts are with Imad, his family and so many other Palestinians in similar situations. Please sign our petition if you have not done so yet.
On November 8th Scientists for Palestine will host an entire webinar dedicated to to celebrate the return to his family of our colleague Ubai Aboudi. Ubai will touch upon his experience in military jail, the prospects of education and research in Palestine and many other topics. The meeting will be convened and moderated by Haynes Miller, Professor of Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. See all details here.
Imad’s family cannot be happier about the news and, along with us, thank dearly the thousands of scholars worldwide who signed the petition to free him and took a stand to support the right to Science of Palestinians. Without your work this would not have been possible!
Today is time to celebrate for this great news, but we will keep following the case closely to avoid further surprises and you should too! Check our website and our Facebook page for the latest updates.
In collaboration with UNESCO and a number of centres of excellence in the South, TWAS has instituted a Joint Associateship Scheme to enable competent researchers from the South to visit these centres regularly. An associate is appointed for three years during which he/she can visit a Centre twice for research collaboration. Almost 300 centres have been selected to participate in the Scheme.
Our thoughts are with Ubai’s wife, Palestinian writer Hind Shraydeh, who never stopped fighting for Ubai’s liberation, and Ubai’s three kids who have been waiting for almost a year to see their beloved father. Scientists for Palestine looks forward to finally returning to the many projects that we initiated with Ubai before his brutal abduction!
The Nature Communications journals (Biology, Chemistry, Earth & Environment, Materials, and Physics) offer grants for early career researchers to attend training courses or workshops. The full details appear here.
We have just started a new page on our website where we are collecting links to various external resources on online teaching. If you know of other useful resources, please send them to us here.
We are extremely excited to announce a new S4P webinar discussing the various impediments to higher education and research facing Palestinians within the context of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, covering the practical barriers at various functional levels of higher education, up to and including the arbitrary detention of Palestinian academics. The presentation will include a recent paper from the Bisan Center, “The Obstacles of Scientific Research in Palestine”. See all details and how to register here. The event will also be streamed on our Facebook page.
Scientists for Palestine is organizing an online panel discussion with a Q&A session on different post-graduate opportunities outside of Palestine in medicine and medical fields. The event will take place on September 12 at 5PM Palestinian time and registration is required to receive the zoom link. Visit the page below for the speaker list and the registration link. Please share widely with Palestinian medical students or students in medical fields!
NEW YORK—On September 2nd Dr. Imad Barghouthi, Professor of Physics at Al-Quds University, Palestine, was placed under administrative detention until November 15th by an order of an Israeli military commander in the West Bank which came only hours before his scheduled release on bail.
Prof. Barghouthi was first arrested on July 16th at an Israeli check-point, then held without charges for over two weeks and then finally charged in relation to his Facebook activity. After thousands of scholars worldwide demanded Prof. Barghouthi to be freed from prison, his lawyer successfully argued for his release on bail which was granted by the judge on his case on September 2nd. Then an Israeli military order was issued in contradiction to the decision of the judge, indefinitely continuing the unlawful imprisonment of Prof. Barghouthi.
Our colleague Dr. Imad Barghouthi, Professor of Physics at Al-Quds University, who was scheduled to be released on bail within 48 hours, by an order of an Israeli military commander in the West Bank will remain under administrative detention until November 15th.
Prof. Barghouthi was first arrested on July 16th at an Israeli check-point, then held without charges for over two weeks and then finally charged in relation to his Facebook activity. After thousands of scholars worldwidedemanded Prof. Barghouthi to be freed from prison, his lawyer successfully argued for his release on bail which on September 2nd was granted by the judge on his case. But just when our hopes rose that Prof. Barghouthi could be freed, reunited with his family and restart his activity as a researcher and mentor of his many students, an Israeli military order was used to override the decision of the judge, indefinitely continuing the unlawful imprisonment of Prof. Barghouthi.
As concerned scientists, we condemn the arbitrary and unlawful administrative detention of professor Imad Barghouthi. This violation of international law and basic human rights is an attack on Prof. Barghouthi and his family, as well as his students and the scientific community everywhere in the world. We therefore demand that the judge rejects the military order and releases Prof. Imad immediately.
This scholarship is available to candidates from Palestine (residing in the West Bank, Gaza or East Jerusalem) who apply to take a Master’s in any subject. It is only tenable at Churchill College, and may not be awarded annually.
The Ignacy Łukasiewicz Scholarship Programme is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange (Polish: Narodowa Agencja Wymiany Akademickiej – NAWA within the framework of Polish Development Assistance.
Scientists for Palestine organized an online panel discussion with colleagues in Palestine on the impacts of Israel’s annexation plan in research and higher education in Palestine. You can watch the recording of the event here.
Scientists for Palestine have initiated a petition for the release of Imad Barghouthi. Please follow this link to sign the petition. The names of the signatories appear below. For more information about the case, see here.
On Thursday, July 16th 2020, Professor Barghouthi, an astrophysicist at the university of Al-Quds [1] in East Jerusalem was detained [2] by Israeli military forces at a military checkpoint outside of Anata while he was travelling from the university campus to his home in Ramallah. He is now being kept in an Israeli detention facility, prohibited from contact with his dear wife and children. No charges have been brought against him and he faces the potential threat of administrative detention. Administrative detention [3], an illegal measure used arbitrarily by the Israeli military forces to detain Palestinians without any charges or trials. If charges were to be placed against him, he would face trial by an Israeli military court, which notoriously has conviction rates of almost 100% [4].
This arrest is not an isolated case. Prof. Barghouthi, one of Palestine’s most prominent scientists, was placed under administrative detention for two months [5] in 2014, and was again detained for six months [6] in 2016. Mr. Ubai Aboudi (a US citizen), the director of the Bisan Center for Research and Development, was abducted from his home in November 2019 and placed in administrative detention. He remains in prison to this day. Both Prof. Barghouthi and Mr. Aboudi have worked with S4P on our international meetings and schools in Palestine, and their arrest and detention seriously hinders our work supporting science in Palestine.
The harassment of Palestinian Scientists is a direct violation of human rights (Universal Declaration of Human Rights [7], article 27, as well as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights [8], article 15), as well as an attack to scholars everywhere.
As concerned members of the international academic community, S4P calls for all scholars to join our plea and demand the immediate release of Prof. Barghouthi and a stop to the imprisonment of Palestinian scientists!
Scientists for Palestine – Central Committee Ahmed Abbes, Directeur de recherche au CNRS, Paris Nasser Mohieddin Abukhdeir, Associate Professor, Chemical Engineering, University of Waterloo Philip Argyres, Physics Department, University of Cincinnati Michel Broué, Professeur émérite à l’université Paris Diderot Noam Chomsky, Laureate Professor of Linguistics, Agnese Nelms Haury Chair, University of Arizona Chandler Davis, Professor of Mathematics, University of Toronto Michel Anne-Frederic DeGraff, Professor of Linguistics, MIT John Ellis, Clerk Maxwell Professor of Theoretical Physics, King’s College, London Catherine Goldstein, Directrice de recherche au CNRS, Paris Michael Harris, Professor of Mathematics, Columbia University Nabil Iqbal, Department of Mathematical Sciences, Durham University David Klein, Professor of Mathematics, California State University Northridge Assaf Kfouri, Professor of Mathematics, Boston University Madalena Lemos, Department of Mathematical Sciences, Durham University David Marsh, Professor of Physics, Stockholm University Mario Martone, Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin Anat Matar, Philosophy department, Tel Aviv University, Israel Haynes Miller, Professor of Mathematics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology David Mumford, Professor Emeritus of Applied Mathematics, Field Medalist, Brown University Rima Najjar, Retired Professor, AQU Andy O’Bannon, Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Royal Society Research Fellow, University of Southampton Joseph Oesterlé, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics, Sorbonne University Nasser Rabbat, Aga Khan Professor, Department of Architecture, MIT George P. Smith, Professor Emeritus of Biological Sciences, University of Missouri, 2018 Nobel Chemistry Laureate Raid M Suleiman, Center for Astrophysics Harvard & Smithsonian Annick Suzor-Weiner, Université de Paris-Saclay Edriss Titi, Professor of Mathematics, University of Cambridge Franz-Josef Ulm, Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Thomas Van Riet, Institute for Theoretical Physics, KU Leuven Roy Wagner, Prof. Geschichte u. Philo. d. Math.Wiss., ETH Zurich Bernardo Zan, Department of Physics, Princeton University
References:
[1] Department of Physics, Al-Quds University: https://www.alquds.edu/en/staff-profiles/faculty-of-science-technology/175-department-of-physics/707-imad-ah mad-barghouthi.html. [2]: http://english.wafa.ps/Pages/Details/118539. [3]: B’tselem, the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupation Territories: https://www.btselem.org/administrative_detention [4]: Human Rights Watch report: https://www.hrw.org/report/2019/12/17/born-without-civil-rights/israels-use-draconian-military-orders-repress. [5]: Nature: https://www.nature.com/news/scientists-protest-detention-of-palestinian-physicist-1.16770. [6]: Nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/535231a. [7]: Universal Declaration of Human Rights: https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/. [8]: International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/cescr.aspx.
Signatories (in order of signing, affiliations for identification purposes only):
A violation of the right to science anywhere is an attack to scientists everywhere.
On Thursday, July 16th 2020, renowned Palestinian scientist Imad Barghouthi was detained by Israeli military forces during a routine stop at a military checkpoint outside of Anata. A military court hearing is scheduled for Thursday July 23rd to discuss the case of professor Barghouthi, an astrophysicist at the university of Al-Quds in East Jerusalem. No charges have been brought against him and his lawyer fears that he will be put under administrative detention, an illegal measure commonly used by the Israeli military forces to put Palestinians in arbitrary detention without any charges or trials.
Scientists for Palestine condemns the continuous and arbitrary harassment of Professor Barghouthi in the strongest possible terms and calls on all members of the International Scientific community to demand the immediate release of our colleague. The right to science is protected under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (article 27), as well as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (article 15). The violation of the right to science anywhere is an attack to scientists everywhere.
Today, Wednesday June 10th, Scientists for Palestine joins the strike for black lives standing in solidarity with our black colleagues worldwide in the struggle against the plague of systemic racism.
Scientists for Palestine stands in solidarity with our black colleagues, in the US and around the world, in the struggle against the plague of systemic racism. We feel a particular resonance, as the similarities between the struggle faced by African-Americans and Palestinians are staggering. Palestinian scientists know all too well what it is like to have fundamental human rights stripped away from them. We join our colleagues in their commitment to ending the violent effects of systemic racism, wherever they take place.
As Dr. King said: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice”. We hope that soon the scientific and academic world will stand up united to end systematic racism against our black colleagues, against Palestinians, and against racism in all of its forms. Until then we will be steadfast in our active solidarity with our black colleagues. That is why we endorse the strike on Wednesday June 10th. To show our active support, we call on our Palestinian colleagues to submit a short video to express their solidarity with as well as joining the strike on June 10th!
Guidelines on how to make the video:
Please submit the video no later than Tuesday June 9th at 10 a.m. Palestine time to give us enough post-production time.
The video should be no longer than 30 seconds, all submissions which exceeds this limit will not be considered.
The video can be shot with professional cameras (preferred) or cell-phones, so long as the final product is of good enough quality.
Please shoot the video horizontally so that post-production will be easier.
Please start the video by introducing yourself mentioning your full name, your affiliation and your research field.
Please end your video with the sentence “I believe that Black Lives Matter”.
During the video, it would be appreciated if you could hold a sign with some of the hashtags created for the event, like #ShutDownSTEM, #ShutDownAcademia or other which can be found at: https://www.shutdownstem.com/.
We would appreciate it if the video contained a sentence or two explaining the special empathy felt by us as Palestinians. (e.g. As a Palestinian Scientists I know too well what systematic racism is like).
Please clearly state that you will be striking on June 10th (e.g. … that is why I am striking in solidarity with my black colleagues on June 10th).
كرد على الإشاعات التي تدور مؤخرا على الإنترنت، أنشأ
فريق من جامعة هارفارد بقيادة سارة الزعبي و أمينة زياد رسوم توضيحية لنشر معلومات صحيحة و دقيقة عن فيروس COVID-19 للمجتمعات العربية حول العالم.
نرجو منك نشر الرسالة إلى أفراد عائلتك و أصدقائك.
In
response to the misinformation being circulated online, Harvard
University team, lead by Sara Al-Zubi and Amina Ziad, created these
infographics with a focus on sharing accurate COVID-19 information with
Middle East- North African communities around the world. Please share
with your networks and family members!
The third International Meeting for Science in Palestine was a great success, watch this video for the highlights of the weekend:
The meeting aimed to escalate and refine plans toward Scientists for Palestine’s primary objectives of advancing science in Palestine and integrating Palestinian sciences into the international scientific community by: enhancing collaboration between Scientists in Palestine and exile with key partners globally; highlighting Palestinian scientists and scientific development; and devising measurable goals toward these ends. The international meeting provides space to access information about the challenges and successes of Palestinians practicing and researching science under occupation while also providing concrete opportunities for international scientists to get involved. A working group track ran to help develop enhanced strategies to identify mechanisms for sustained international collaboration with and elevation of Palestinian scientists.
The meeting included presentations by
Palestinian scientists from both Historic Palestine (Occupied
Palestinian Territories and Israel) and Palestinians abroad, as well as
other young and established scientists from around the world, and will
be joined by prominent scientists including 2018 Chemistry Nobel Prize
winner George Smith, MacArthur fellow Astrophysicist Nergis Mavalvala,
and renowned Palestinian medic and innovator Dr. Tarek Loubani.
The new Study in Canada Scholarships program will offer full academic scholarships for up to two years of study at the post-secondary level that leads to a diploma, post-secondary or post-graduate certificate, or Master’s degree at a college, technical or vocational institute, or university in Canada. The Study in Canada Scholarships program is open to students from all disciplines.
A Palestinian US Citizen, a father, a husband, education activist, human rights worker and one of Scientists for Palestine closest partner unlawfully abducted by Israeli military without charge.
Our dear friend and close partner in Palestine, education activist Mr. Ubai Aboudi, remains in Israeli military detention. A Twitter storm, a Facebook storm, and call-in to the US Department of State (DOS) are set for Wednesday January first at 1p.m. EST. Please be ready to tweet, call and post.
On Monday, November 18th, 2019, an Israeli tribunal placed Mr. Ubai Aboudi under administrative detention for 4 months despite no charges being brought against him.
We call on all scholars concerned about human rights and the enforcement of the universal right to education to join, among others, Nobel laureate George Smith and Noam Chomsky, to ask for Mr. Aboudi’s immediate release from military prison.
Update: Amnesty International has started a campaign for the release of Mr. Ubai Aboudi, see how to take action here.
Update from Dec. 2nd:
In the confirmation of detention hearing at the Ofer military court, the judge has reduced the detention order of S4P’s dear partner Mr. Ubai Aboudi to two months instead of the initial four. The judge unfortunately did not confirm that this detention order will be the last. Administrative detention orders can be indefinitely renewed. Also Ubai has thus far spent three weeks in jail, but no charges have been brought against him.
Mr. Ubai Aboudi, one of Scientists for Palestine’s closest partners in Palestine, was brutally abductedfrom his house on Wednesday at 3 a.m. in the morning and is currently held in jail without charges.
For this reason S4P started a campaign to call for his release which will be escalated in case he is not released on Monday. Our statement has the full support of Ubai’s family as well as the signatures of many prominent scientists among which Nobel prize winner George Smith.
Please share it as widely as possible among your contacts and social media. On top of the moral duty that we have to call for the release of Ubai, with Mr. Aboudi in jail the fate of the upcoming Third International Meeting at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is at stake.
We are very happy to announce that registration for the Third International Meeting for Science in Palestine is now open. We are proud to inform that this third meeting will be hosted the by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston from January 10 to January 12, 2020 and will see the participation of high-profiles figures of the caliber of George Smith, 2018 Chemistry Nobel Prize Winner, Nergis Mavalvala, MIT astrophysicists and MacArthur fellow and Mawan Awartani, Minister of Education of Palestine.
Over the past year, we have expanded and further developed the work and goals of Scientists for Palestine in collaboration with the broader scientific communities and in collaboration with Palestinian civil society. We are most excited to share these developments with you, as your input and participation is critical to the ambitious phase we are entering in the expansion of this important movement.
Please note that the weekend working groups and plenary sessions are strictly for registered participants and that registration will close December 15th, 2019, or whenever we reach capacity. Please also note that registration requires two steps:
Registering for the conference by paying the fee here. (basic registration is $10, sponsor options also available); and
The third Palestinian Advanced Physics School ended on July 18th 2019. The school took place in Birzeit University and was attended by around 30 students from different universities across the West Bank. An additional 10 students from Gaza, who did not receive travel permits to attend the school, gathered at the physics department of the Islamic University of Gaza to participate remotely in the school, through a video link. In addition to lectures on cosmology, quantum optics, electron microscopy and string theory, there was a public lecture on the expanding universe held at the A.M. Qattan foundation. Overall, the school was a resounding success, with all participants — students, lecturers and organizers — having a great time while learning physics.
The Saïd Foundation offers a number of scholarships annually. It also offers joint scholarships with selected universities in the UK. Find out more here.Applications for scholarships are now open, closing at 23.59 (UK time) on Friday 1 November 2019.
18 – 28 August 2019 at Palestine Polytechnic University and Bethlehem University, Palestine
The Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities (AGYA) in cooperation with Palestine Polytechnic University (PPU), Bethlehem University (BU), and Palestine Academy for Science and Technology (PALAST) are organizing the ‘AGYA Summer School in Numerical Simulation’. The AGYA Summer School takes place from 18 to 28 August 2019 at Palestine Polytechnic University, Hebron, and Bethlehem University, Bethlehem, in Palestine and will be led by international experts. It is aimed at students and young researchers studying or researching in the fields of mathematics, physics, engineering, and related fields.
More details here. the application form is available here, please see here where to send it to.
We are very happy to announce the third Palestinian Advanced Physics School, to be held at Birzeit University from July 14th — July 18th. The aim of the school is to provide Palestinian advanced undergraduate and master levels students with an overview of exciting recent developments in modern physics, not normally included in the regular curriculum. We encourage all qualified students to apply by May 31st at: www.scientists4palestine.com/paps2019.
ICTP offers fellowships to candidates coming from Developing Countries: it covers the MHPC tuition fees as well as the cost-of-living expenses and a return ticket from the origin country. The scholarships are provided by ICTP (not by MHPC), and winners are automatically admitted to MHPC.
The IPSP supports students from Palestine to undertake one-year Master’s-level studies in Ireland. Application forms and the course directory for the IPSP can be downloaded at the bottom of this page. The deadline for applications is 14 March 2019. Shortlisted candidates can be expected to be called for interviews and language testing exams in the first week of April 2019.
The Fellowship is offered to women scientists from Science and Technology Lagging Countries (STLCs) to undertake PhD research in the Natural, Engineering and Information Technology sciences at a host institute in the South.
All details here. Deadline for submission: 30 May 2019.
As part of the Global Challenge Research Fund (GCRF), the Royal Society has launched an award to enable outstanding UK research leaders to develop international collaborations with the best leading researchers from around the world, to work on some of the global challenges and problems facing developing countries. All the details here. The deadline is 3pm on Thursday 4 April 2019.
These schemes are for scientists based in the UK (or US for the Kan Tong Po programme) who want to stimulate collaborations with leading scientists overseas through either a one-off visit or bilateral travel. All the details here. The current deadline is 3pm on Wednesday 13 March 2019.
ICTP is now accepting applications from young physicists and mathematicians for the 2019-2020 class of the Postgraduate Diploma Programme. The one year course of study prepares talented students for PhD studies, as part of the Centre’s efforts to promote advanced scientific research in developing countries.
All the details here. The deadline is 28 February 2019.
The following statement was approved at the Annual General Meeting of Scientists for Palestine on January 13th 2019:
Scientists for Palestine believes that free collaboration among nations is one of the pillars of the way the scientific community should operate. Understanding how this principle is infringed in the case of Palestine is of tantamount importance, as we attempt to explain in this document.
The primary obstacle towards strengthening science in Palestine is the ongoing Israeli occupation of the West Bank, and the siege of the Gaza strip. The occupation infringes on:
The right to education of the Palestinian people: through systematic forced closure [1], raids [2], destructions and even bombing [3] of Palestinian universities, schools [4] and scientific infrastructures, Israeli forces prevent Palestinians from having the right to their own education [5], a right which is protected by Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights [6]. Furthermore, there have been instances in which established academics have been held in Israeli jails with neither trial nor official charges, apparently just for criticizing these policies [7].
The freedom of movement: the mobility of Palestinian scientists and students is critically limited by checkpoints in the West Bank [8], which tremendously delay internal travel, an incredibly convoluted system of permits to leave Gaza [9], which makes it a de facto open air prison, and the lack of a single operating airport between the West Bank and Gaza. Modern scientific collaboration can only flourish when scientists are free to travel and are able to experience an exchange of ideas and perspectives.
Access to equipment and infrastructure: Israeli institutions control nearly everything that comes into Gaza and the West Bank, severely restricting what can be imported [8], as well as the granting of planning permissions in ‘Area C’ of the West Bank. This makes it almost impossible for Palestinian scientists to build experiments or the infrastructure needed for large scientific projects.
Those restrictions have a strong impact on potential collaborations between the Palestinian academic community and the international scientific community, including in particular Israel. In fact:
There cannot be a true and fair collaboration between Palestinians and Israelis as long as the former do not have free access to the academic and scientific resources and infrastructure that the latter have (residents of the West Bank and Gaza cannot freely travel to Israel, for instance).
As discussed above, the primary obstacle to Palestinian scientific progress is not a lack of friendliness, but instead those policies implemented by the Israeli government, many in open violation of international law, which repress and discriminate Palestinians.
The Palestinian academic community has largely recognized that their Israeli colleagues’ denouncement and active opposition to the occupation are important. This must be clearly understood as a joint opposition effort between partners that are unequal due to the impacts of the ongoing occupation. Such joint opposition efforts are in contrast to activities that, under the pretext of collaboration, ignore – and thereby normalize – the impact of the occupation in science. Efforts from Israeli academics and scientists of conscience recognizing the situation described in this document and condemning without reservation human right abuses against Palestinians should be encouraged.
Scientists for Palestine had its second Annual General Meeting on Sunday, January 13th 2019, the first one since the constituent General Meeting where S4P’s constitution was approved. During this important meeting members came together to assess the actions of the organization over the last year, and to discuss the direction to take for the future year. Members also voted and passed various amendments to the S4P constitution which was thus accordingly modified, other resolutions and elected the leadership of the organization for the following year.
