Bruce Robbins

Bruce Robbins

Artists for Palestine

Artists for Palestine UK organized a petition dated November 17, 2021 denouncing Israel for designated pro-Palestinian groups as terrorist organizations linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Bruce Robbins signed the letter.

Statement verbatim:

Over the past two weeks, Israel has launched an unprecedented and blanket attack on Palestinian human rights defenders beginning with the designation, on 19 October 2021, of six leading Palestinian human rights organizations as “terrorist” groups. The organizations include: Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Al-Haq Law in the Service of Man (Al-Haq), Bisan Center for Research and Development, Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCI-P), the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), and the Union of Palestinian Women's Committees (UPWC). Still, despite international condemnation by the UN, international human rights groups, and government officials, the Israeli occupation has doubled down in their crackdown and issued a military order that outlaws, entirely, the six Palestinian organizations in the West Bank.

The designations target six of the most eminent Palestinian human rights defenders engaged in critical human rights work and cover all aspects of civil society in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). Addameer serves as one of the biggest organizations providing direct legal support to Palestinian political prisoners. Al-Haq, the oldest human rights organization both in Palestine and Middle East, extensively documents international humanitarian law and international human rights law violations in the occupied territory, specialising in individual and corporate accountability. Bisan Center produces extensive research and development reports in support of the poor and marginalized communities. DCI-P is a local affiliate of an international human rights organization that works to protect the rights of Palestinian children. The UAWC supports thousands of Palestinian farmers and their families amid the encroachment and violence of illegal Israeli settlements. The UPWC is a feminist, progressive, and grassroots organization that aims to empower Palestinian women. The vital work of these six organizations to protect and empower Palestinians and hold Israel accountable for its gross human rights violations and apartheid regime of institutionalized racial discrimination is precisely the work that Israel is trying to end.

Israel’s designation of these six Palestinian organizations as “terrorist” groups, and the military order that outlaws them places the safety of the organizations and their staff at imminent risk. The military order allows for Israeli occupation forces to raid their offices, forcibly shut them down, arbitrarily arrest their staff to be tried under Israeli military courts, and institute other reprisals including travel bans and residency revocations against their members. The threat of retaliation is real, and puts at risk not just the organizations themselves, but the entire Palestinian civil society and the tens of thousands of Palestinians they serve everyday.

To this end, we call on all persons of conscience across the globe to stand with us. We call on the international community to #StandWithThe6 and protect Palestinian human rights defenders, and demand that Israel rescind the terrorist designations immediately.

Socialist Scholars Conference 1990

The Socialist Scholars Conference 1990, held September 6-8, at the Hotel Commodore, New York, included panels such as:

Feminism and the Public Sphere

• Sponsor: Social Text
• Patricia Mann, City College of New York
• Nancy Fraser, Northwestern University
• Linda Zerilli, Rutgers University
• Bruce Robbins, Rutgers University

"Support Bill Ayers"

In October 2008, several thousand college professors, students and academic staff signed a statement "Support Bill Ayers" in solidarity with former Weather Underground Organization terrorist Bill Ayers.

In the run up to the U.S. presidential elections, Ayers had come under considerable media scrutiny, sparked by his relationship to presidential candidate Barack Obama.

"We write to support our colleague Professor William Ayers, Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who is currently under determined and sustained political attack...

We, the undersigned, stand on the side of education as an enterprise devoted to human inquiry, enlightenment, and liberation. We oppose the demonization of Professor William Ayers."

Bruce Robbins of Columbia University signed the statement.

References

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