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MLA Members for Palestine Protest Denial of BDS Vote at National Assembly
"We feel that it is our responsibility as the largest North American organization of scholars of literature and language to protest and stand with our colleagues who are being murdered for their existence," said one organizer.
Jan 12, 2025
"The more they try to silence us, the louder we will be!"
That was the message that protesters at the Modern Language Association Delegate Assembly in New Orleans wanted to send Saturday after the executive council of the MLA—the preeminent U.S. professional group for scholars of language and literature—blocked them from holding a member vote on a resolution endorsing the international Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian rights.
Like the resolution recently passed by the American Historical Association, the declaration issued by MLA Members for Justice in Palestine accuses Israel of committing scholasticide in Gaza, where—in addition to killing over 46,000 Palestinians, wounding nearly 110,000 others, and displacing around 2 million more—15 months of relentless Israeli onslaught has obliterated the embattled enclave's education infrastructure.
The MLA resolution—which supports the initial 2005 BDS call issued by Palestinian civil society groups—also acknowledges that international law experts accuse Israel of genocide and that the International Court of Justice, which is weighing a genocide case against Israel, has "determined that Israel is maintaining a system of apartheid."
"The MLA's commitment to 'justice throughout the humanities ecosystem' requires ending institutional complicity with genocide and supporting Palestinian colleagues," the statement asserts. "Therefore, be it resolved that we, the members of the MLA, endorse the 2005 BDS call."
Karim Mattar, an associate professor of English at the University of Colorado, Boulder, took part in Saturday's demonstration, during which supporters of the resolution staged a die-in and walkout, chanted slogans, and held a banner that read, "MLA Is Complicit in Genocide."
"I consider the executive council's decision to be a cowardly one," Mattar told Common Dreams. "The MLA is a humanities advocacy organization, and by repressing a membership vote, a democratic process to deliberate on the necessity of institutional divestment with companies that profit from genocide, it's actively contributing to the problem."
"I think it's a fundamental contradiction in the MLA's values between these stated values and principles of advocacy for the humanities and the blocking of a mechanism by which such advocacy might be facilitated," he added.
Mattar—who is Palestinian American and whose relatives were among the more than 750,000 Arabs who fled or were ethnically cleansed from Palestine during the Nakba, or "catastrophe" during the establishment of the modern state of Israel—said Saturday's protest brought tears to his eyes.
"To see this protest, this movement emerging at the MLA, to see this national and international movement of solidarity with Palestine to emerge in the last year, has been incredibly moving for me," he said.
Protest co-organizer Neelofer Qadir, an assistant professor of English at Georgia State University, told Common Dreams that protesters "really wanted to draw attention to how institutions are being destroyed, like universities, like libraries, like archives, which makes certain that there is a deep commitment to genocide and why scholasticide is part of genocide because the Israeli government intends to destroy all possible evidence of Palestinian life, past, present, and therefore no longer in the future."
"And we feel that it is our responsibility as the largest North American organization of scholars of literature and language to protest and stand with our colleagues who are being murdered for their existence," she added.
Last month, the MLA executive council
explained that while it is "appalled by the continued attack on Gaza," it believed that "supporting a BDS resolution was not a possible way forward for the association to address the crisis" due to "legal and fiduciary reasons."
Qadir dismissed the council's excuse, saying she believes the MLA is "engaged in a formal program of organized abandonment that is part and parcel of fascist and neoliberal governance that's happening in the U.S., Canada, and across the world."
St. John's University associate English professor Raj Chetty, who also organized Saturday's action, told Common Dreams that "whatever the MLA has said about the 'fiduciary concerns' about this, we're like, you're going to find out some other fiduciary concerns as you notice that both intellectual work and membership dues are going to start evaporating."
As part of their effort, MLA Members for Justice in Palestine are urging supporters to not renew their MLA membership "until there's a meaningful substantial change in position," as Chetty put it.
"This [protest] is a real call to humanity, a real call to justice, a real call against complicity, and a real call to support Palestinian life and rail against Israeli actions that are ending Palestinian life in all the ways that Neelofer talked about," he said.
Disclosure note: Olivia Rosane reported from the MLA conference, which she attended as a member, and has signed the pledge not to renew membership.
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UN Experts Urge US Senate to Reject ICC Sanctions Bill Passed by House
"It is shocking to see a country that considers itself a champion of the rule of law trying to stymie the actions of an independent and impartial tribunal set up by the international community, to thwart accountability."
Jan 11, 2025
Four independent United Nations experts on Friday urged United States senators to oppose legislation passed earlier this week in the House of Representatives that would sanction members of the International Criminal Court after the tribunal issued arrest warrants for Israeli leaders for alleged crimes against humanity in Gaza.
H.R. 23, the Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act—introduced by Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Brian Mast (R-Fla.)—passed the House on Thursday with strong bipartisan support. Forty-five Democrats joined all 198 Republicans who voted in favor of the bill, which, if passed by the Senate and signed by the president, would "impose sanctions with respect to the International Criminal Court (ICC) engaged in any effort to investigate, arrest, detain, or prosecute any protected person of the United States and its allies."
A similar bill was passed by the House earlier this year failed to clear the Democrat-controlled Senate. The upper chamber is now under Republican control.
Responding to the proposal, Margaret Satterthwaite, the U.N. special rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers; Francesca Albanese, special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967; George Katrougalos, independent expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order; and Ben Saul, special rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights, said in a statement:
It is shocking to see a country that considers itself a champion of the rule of law trying to stymie the actions of an independent and impartial tribunal set up by the international community, to thwart accountability. Threats against the ICC promote a culture of impunity. They make a mockery of the decades-long quest to place law above force and atrocity.
The tireless work of brave legal professionals at the ICC is the main driver for accountability. The work of its prosecutors becomes the foundation upon which our efforts to uphold the integrity of the system of international law is resting. We call upon all state parties to the ICC and on all member states in general, to observe and respect international standards, as it relates to legal professionals working to bring accountability for the most grave international crimes.
Although neither the Israel or the United States is a party to the Rome Statute, the treaty underpinning the ICC that's been ratified by 125 nations, Palestine is a signatory to the treaty and crimes committed there by non-signatories can still be prosecuted.
In November, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant—who ordered the "complete siege" of Gaza that experts say is to blame for the rampant starvation, sickness, and deprivation of basic human necessities such as food, water, medicine, and shelter that has resulted in Palestinians, mostly babies and children, dying of preventable causes including malnutrition, disease, and hypothermia.
The warrants were for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza. The ICC also issued an arrest warrant for Hamas leader Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, as well as the kidnapping and abuse of Israeli and international hostages.
According to the Gaza Health Ministry, Israel's 463-day assault on Gaza has killed more than 46,500 Palestinians in Gaza. However, this could be a vast undercount. A peer-reviewed study published this week by the esteemed British medical journal The Lancet found that, between October 7, 2023 and June 30, 2024 alone, more than 64,000 Gazans were killed by Israeli forces.
The International Court of Justice is currently weighing a
genocide case against Israel brought by South Africa and supported by numerous nations, most recently Ireland.
The Biden administration and most of Congress oppose the ICC warrants, as does Republican President-elect Donald Trump, whose pick for national security adviser, Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.), has threatened a "strong response" to the ICC for its move to bring the Israeli leaders to justice.
The U.N. experts asserted that "international standards provide that lawyers and justice personnel should be able to perform all of their professional functions without intimidation, hindrance, harassment or improper interference; and should not suffer, or be threatened with, prosecution or administrative, economic or other sanctions for any action taken in accordance with recognized professional duties, standards, and ethics."
"We urge U.S. lawmakers to uphold the rule of law and the independence of judges and lawyers," they added, "and we call on states to respect the court's independence as a judicial institution and protect the independence and impartiality of those who work within the court."
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US Pediatricians Ask Blinken to Intervene as Israel Extends Detention of Gaza Doctor
An Israeli court has ordered Kamal Adwan Hospital director Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya—whose distressed mother reportedly died earlier this week—to be held without charge until February 13.
Jan 10, 2025
The largest professional association of U.S. pediatricians is asking the State Department to intervene on behalf of a Gaza hospital director detained by Israel, where a court on Thursday ordered an extension of his imprisonment until mid-February.
The Gaza-based Al Mezan Center for Human Rights said Friday that the Ashkelon Magistrates' Court extended the detention of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, a 51-year-old pediatrician who is the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, without charges until February 13, and without access to legal counsel until January 22.
Israeli troops forcibly detained Abu Safiya on December 28 amid a prolonged siege and assault on Kamal Adwan Hospital, from which he refused to evacuate as long as patients were there. Former detainees recently released from the Sde Teiman torture prison in southern Israel said they met Abu Safiya there. According to testimonies gathered by the Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, Abu Safiya was tortured before his arrival at Sde Teiman and inside the notorious lockup.
Al Mezan said that Abu Safiya's attorney believes he is now being jailed at Ofer Prison in the illegally occupied West Bank.
Palestinian media reported earlier this week that Abu Safiya's mother died of a heart attack. MedGlobal, the Ilinois-based nonprofit for which Abu Safiya works as lead Gaza physician, said she died from "severe sadness" over her son's plight.
Dr. Sue Kressley, president of the 67,000-member American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), sent a letter Thursday to Secretary of State Antony Blinken to "seek the assistance of the U.S. government to inquire about the whereabouts and well-being" of Abu Safiya, and to voice concern "for the children who are now without access to pediatric emergency care in northern Gaza," where 15 months of relentless Israeli attacks and siege have obliterated the healthcare system.
As Common Dreams has reported, children in northern Gaza are being killed not only by Israeli bombs and bullets, but also by exposure to cold weather after Israeli troops forcibly expelled their families from homes and other places of shelter while "cleansing" the area.
Kressley's letter asks Blinken to explain what the Biden administration is doing to determine Abu Safiya's whereabouts and why he is being held, what condition he is in, a status report on northern Gaza's hospitals and their capacity for care, and what the U.S. is doing to "improve access to pediatric care in Gaza."
On Friday, the Council on American Islamic-Relations (CAIR) welcomed the AAP letter in a statement asserting that "Secretary Blinken could pick up the phone and demand" that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza—"release Dr. Abu Safiya and all those illegally detained and facing torture and abuse at the hands of Israeli forces."
"The Biden administration's silence on the kidnapping of Dr. Abu Safiya, and on the torture and mistreatment of Palestinian detainees by Israeli forces, sends the message that Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim lives and dignity are of no consequence to U.S. officials," CAIR added.
In the United Kingdom, the charity Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) on Thursday demanded that the U.K. government "take urgent action to protect healthcare workers and patients and ensure the immediate release of all arbitrarily detained medical staff."
"The Israeli military has escalated their systematic targeting of Palestinian healthcare workers, with hundreds currently arbitrarily detained under inhuman conditions," MAP said. "These detentions are part of Israel's systematic dismantling of Gaza's health system, which is making Palestinian survival impossible."
MAP Gaza director Fikr Shalltoot said in a statement: "We at MAP are extremely concerned for the life and safety of Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya and all Palestinian healthcare workers detained by Israeli forces. These detentions, alongside systematic assaults on hospitals in North Gaza, have left tens of thousands of people without access to healthcare and forced them to flee southwards."
"Dr. Abu Safiya spent weeks and months sending distress calls about Israeli military attacks on Kamal Adwan Hospital, and the dangers posed to his colleagues and patients," Shalltoot added. "His warnings were met with deafening silence from the international community. It is long overdue for the U.K. and other nations to act decisively to protect Palestinians from ethnic cleansing, ensure the safety of healthcare workers, and hold Israel accountable."
Back in the U.S.—where healthcare professionals staged a nationwide "SickFromGenocide" protest earlier this week—members of medical advocacy groups including Doctors Against Genocide, Jewish Voice for Peace-Health Advisory Council, and Healthcare Workers for Palestine-Chicago who recently returned from volunteering in Gaza held a press conference Friday in Chicago demanding the release of Abu Safiya and the "protection of hospitals and healthcare workers" in the embattled enclave.
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