En student ved Ben-Gurion University i Jerusalem har lest opp fra den palestinske poet Mahmoud Darwish. Det har gitt innkalling til en disiplinær-høring fra universitetet der hun er student.
120 akademikere ved universitetet protesterer på innkallingen:
"120 Israeli Academics Demand Scrapping Complaint Against Student Who Quoted Palestinian Poet" (Haaretz 31. juli 2022, HELE artikkelen under Kilde)
Disse 120 står opp for ytringsfrihet og sier at universitetsledelsen ikke har forstått ordbruken og sammenhengen der opplesingen er gjort.
Skudeneshavn 1. august 2022
Jan Marton Jensen
Ny info:
10. november 2022
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-11-10/ty-article/.premium/proceedings-against-arab-student-who-read-darwish-at-nakba-rally-halted/00000184-6106-df31-afc5-e7de08840000?lts=1668095381205
Kilde:
31. juli 2022
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-07-31/ty-article/.premium/israeli-academics-demand-scrapping-complaint-against-student-who-quoted-mahmoud-darwish/00000182-54c0-d7de-a3c7-76f132100000?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=Content&utm_campaign=daily-brief&utm_content=10c02e76f6
HELE artikkelen i Haaretz 31. juli 2022
120 Israeli Academics Demand Scrapping Complaint Against Student Who Quoted Palestinian Poet
The
Arab student, Watan Madi, used the term 'martyrs' while quoting an
article by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish at a memorial event to mark
Nakba Day. She was later summoned by Ben-Gurion for a disciplinary
hearing
Israeli and Palestinian flags waved at demonstrations at Ben-Gurion University in the southern city of Be'er Sheva, in May.Credit: Eliyahu Hershkovitz
A group of 120 faculty members at
Ben-Gurion University sent a letter to the school’s chief administrator
on Sunday, calling to withdraw its disciplinary complaint against an
Arab student for using the word shahids (martyrs in Arabic) at a
memorial event to mark Nakba Day about two months ago.
The student, Watan Madi, used the term while quoting an article by Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish, after which the university summoned her for a disciplinary hearing.
The
quote relates specifically to the victims of the Nakba, the Arabic word
meaning catastrophe that refers to the events of Israel's War of
Independence in which more than 700,000 Arabs fled or were expelled from
their homes.
The
university claims that because the word shahid usually refers to
terrorists who have been killed, Madi’s remarks are to be interpreted as
support for terrorism. The university also said that it “takes very
seriously” the flying of Palestinian flags at the event.
Palestinian flags waved at Ben-Gurion University, in May.Credit: Eliyahu Hershkovitz
In their letter to the university’s chief
administrator, Mira Golomb, the faculty members said that using "the
flag-waving as evidence of support for terror is absurd,” in light of
the permission the university had given to fly them and the reasons
university President Prof. Daniel Haimovich gave after the fact for
granting permission.
“As
the faculty members from the relevant fields can attest,” the meaning
of the word in Arabic is martyrs or fallen and not terrorists or suicide
bombers, the letter stated. “Moreover, the text that Watan Madi read
relates specifically to the fallen of the Nakba.”
“We hope that the university aspires to be
an academic home for all students, faculty and employees,” the letter
went on to state. “Therefore, the university should relate to their
cultures, identities and native languages in light of their own
viewpoints – and not through the perspective of organizations that
undermine the legitimacy of varied viewpoints.”
At
the end of the letter, the writers stated that those of the signatories
who had been present at the event could attest that Madi complied with
earlier agreements regarding the event, “even in the face of
provocations by some of the participants at an adjacent demonstration”
of students from the university’s chapter of the right-wing group Im Tirtzu.
The initiator of the letter, Dr. Yael Ben-Zvi, said, “It was clear to me
that there was no basis for a complaint and therefore the right thing
to do is withdraw it.” Ben-Zvi said she was assisted by a faculty group,
Campus Against Racism, in circulating the letter but said it "was not
written on behalf of the forum but only on behalf of the signatories.”
Israeli flags waved by right-wing activists at Ben-Gurion University, in May.Credit: Eliyahu Hershkovitz
“If the disciplinary action proceeds in spite of the letter, I intend to
be there, and I know of others who are also expected to come,” Ben-Zvi
added.
The university's summons to Madi to appear at a disciplinary hearing was sent last week
following a complaint filed by the university’s chapter of Im Tirtzu.
It alleged that the student is “suspected of behavior that involves
disobedience or refusal to obey the authorities' instructions.”
Golomb has not yet responded to the faculty
member's letter, and as it currently stands, Madi is expected to appear
before a disciplinary panel of three judges from the university on
Monday.
Prof.
Oren Yiftahel, another of the letter’s signatories, said, "It didn’t at
all occur to [the university] to summon the dozens of students who [at
the Im Tirzu counterprotest] screamed ‘death to terrorists’ in the faces
of a few dozen Arab students who heaven forbid were reading from an
article by Darwish about the Nakba."
“This
is intimidation and silencing, and it must be fought against for the
sake of academia, for the remaining democratic spaces,” he remarked.
Watan Madi
Yiftahel is one of the founders of Campus Against Racism, which was
established a little over two years ago following complaints by students
of Ethiopian origin.
Last week, Madi told Haaretz that Im Tirzu
“keeps going after leftists on campuses. It’s unclear how you turn a
passage that closes with a call for freedom and peace into support for
terrorism. It’s absurd,” she alleged.
In
deliberations at the Knesset in May, Madi said the quote she presented
only related to “the martyrs who fell in 1948 and were expelled from
their homes.” Darwish ended the article with a reference to the need to
insist on "the path of freedom and the path of uprising, until the two
eternal twins meet: freedom and peace.”
