- Date
- Friday 25 Mar 2022, 16:00 - 18:00
- Type
- Conference
- Spoken Language
- English
- Room
- Aula
- Location
- International Institute of Social Studies
- Ticket information
Registration is required to attend this event. Please note that you may be required to show proof of identity.
You can also watch the event live - click on the video stream below.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
'I have witnessed the systemic humiliation of Palestinian men, women and children by members of the Israeli security forces. Their humiliation is familiar to all black South Africans who were corralled and harassed and insulted and assaulted by the security forces of the apartheid government.'
During this event we will welcome Omar Barghouti, a Palestinian human rights defender, co-founder of the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement and co-recipient of the 2017 Gandhi Peace Award. He is pursuing a PhD in Philosophy (ethics) at the University of Amsterdam. He will deliver a keynote lecture on Israel’s regime of apartheid and what can be done to resist it.
He will be followed by three discussants, each of whom will share their perspectives on his message.
- Saleh Hijazi - Deputy Regional Director, Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International
- Jaap Hamburger - Chair of a Different Jewish Voice, part of European Jews for a Just Peace
- Danah Abueida - Law student at Maastricht University and member of Free Palestine Maastricht advisory board
- Fatima Faïd - Member of the Council, Municipality of The Hague and leader of the Haagse Stads Partij
The event will be moderated by Jeff Handmaker, Associate Professor in Legal Sociology at ISS.
Watch the event live
Background
'Apartheid—both petty and grand—is obviously evil.' It is sad that these words by prominent South African anti-apartheid activist Steven Biko bear repeating, not to remind us of South Africa’s apartheid regime, but to condemn systemic, institutionalized discrimination in Israel against Palestinians and its accompanying regime of settler-colonialism.
It will not have gone unnoticed to most human rights observers that Amnesty International – the largest and one of the oldest human rights organizations in the world – has been the latest to condemn Israel’s regime of apartheid against the Palestinians in a report entitled Apartheid Against Palestinians: Cruel System of Domination and Crime Against Humanity. Amnesty’s 280-page report adds to a very large and growing body of literature by Palestinian, Israeli and international scholars, UN experts and NGOs that scrupulously documents Israel’s apartheid regime directed at Palestinians. It is important and affirming. However, for those who have followed developments in the region for a longer period, accusations of Israeli apartheid are not new, nor is the predictable backlash and silencing whereby antisemitism has been weaponized by Israel and its supporters against critics of Israeli apartheid.
Hendrik Verwoerd, widely acknowledged as the 'architect of apartheid' stated in 1961 that 'Israel, like South Africa, is an apartheid state'. Indeed, since Israel’s establishment as a settler-colonial state in 1948, and subsequent denial of the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and lands, Israel’s racist regime of apartheid has become ever-more entrenched in its legal system. It started by denationalizing Palestinians and continued by comprehensively stripping them of their rights.
To this day, Israeli nationality does not exist in Israeli law. Israel’s legal system only fully recognizes Jewish nationality, excluding non-Jews from basic services, rights and privileges. Israel’s settler-colonial regime affects not only Palestinians in the occupied territories, but also Palestinians who became citizens of Israel in 1948 and lack legally protected nationality as well as millions of Palestinian refugees and their descendants who have been prevented from returning to their homeland.
Professor Angela Davis reminds us that 'Freedom is a Constant Struggle' and that the Palestinian struggle has global resonance. We live in a time where the message Black Lives Matter resonates strongly with oppressed people around the globe. Yet, we must also be reminded that Racism, Islamophobia, Antisemitism, homophobia and other forms of discrimination, hatred and intolerance are on the rise in our polarized societies. It is therefore important to also recall that Jewish groups too are calling for an end to Israeli apartheid.
Organizers
- Dutch Scholars for Palestine
- Students for Palestine (Leiden)
- Students for Palestine (The Hague)
- Utrecht Students for Palestine
- Decolonize Groningen
- Free Palestine Maastricht
- ISS SCHOLAS (ISS students association)