The decision by Southampton University to cancel a conference on Israel and International Law, of all subjects, is an act of sheer cowardice. Universities have a duty, not only legally but morally, to uphold academic freedom, the cut and thrust of debate, the right to present alternative ideas to those of the mainstream.
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| A Police State University |
It also demonstrates the hypocrisy of the state. It was less than 3 months ago that 8 journalists and cartoonists from Charlie Hebdo were murdered in their offices. World leaders, including those from the most repressive states such as Saudi Arabia and Israel, attended a march dedicated to upholding the values of freedom of speech. David Cameron also attended but that hasn't prevented his Communities Minister, the loathsome Eric Pickles from adding his (considerable) weight to the call to ban the Conference. Tory MPs have also weighed in to support the call from the misnamed Board of Deputies of British Jews and various other Zionist front groups.
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| The loathsome Eric Pickles MP - Called for the Conference to be Banned |
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| A University of Cowardice |
My own view is that we should hold a demonstration at Southampton University to ensure that the Administration is left in no doubt as to our anger.
Tony Greenstein
Statement from Organisers
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| The March of the World Hypocrites and Tyrants 1 |
It is with extreme astonishment and sadness that we have to inform you that the University of Southampton has told us earlier yesterday (Monday 30 March 2015) that it intends to withdraw its permission to hold the academic conference on International Law and the State of Israel. We were told that the decision was taken on the grounds of health and safety: a number of groups may be demonstrating for or against the conference which could present risks to the safety of the participants, students and staff. The University claims that it does not have enough resources to mitigate the risks, despite a clear statement from the Police confirming that they are able to deal with the protest and ensure the security of the event.
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| Southampton University - Where Freedom of Speech Carries no Weight |
A number of risks have been identified by the police but it is very clear from the Police’s report that they are more than capable of policing the conference and ensuring the safety of university staff, speakers, delegates, students and property. However, instead of accepting this at face value the University decided to focus on the risks identified by the Police and ignore their statement about their ability to police the event – we were told the Police will never say in writing they are not able to police an event, in other words the University had doubts about the Police’s ability to do their job of upholding the law! The university claims that the Police are not able or unwilling to become too involved because the University is ‘private property’, which we find astonishing. The University is a public space, it was established by a Royal Charter and it has public roles and duties including upholding freedom of speech and to that extent it should be able to resort to police assistance in order to curb security risks to enable it to fulfil its legal obligation to uphold freedom of speech. If this is not done, if commitment to safety is not undertaken by the police, freedom of speech becomes an idle worthless notion. At no point were we given an indication that the University has indeed allowed itself the time to seek viable police assistance to supplement its own resources. Additionally, and unconvincingly, the University claims that it is now too late to put proper security arrangements in place. We do not accept that in any way as there are still 18 days left before the conference.
Given the Police’s confidence in providing security and given that there are other possible mitigating measures that are yet to be explored that could be put in place to minimize the risk, a decision to cancel the conference would be grossly disproportionate and therefore may well be illegal and unconstitutional. Such an action by Southampton University will severely undermine the public’s confidence in the Police’s and the in the University’s ability to protect freedom of speech. Indeed it will have wider implications to all Universities and organisations. We feel that the manner the university communicated with the police and conducted the risk assessment shows that the security argument was used to rationalise a decision to cancel the conference that has been taken under public pressure of the Israeli Lobby. It is quite simply unbelievable that the University cannot ask the Police to handle the risk of demonstrations.
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| The March of the World Hypocrites and Tyrants 2 |
This is a sad decision for freedom of speech and for historic Palestine (which includes what is now the Jewish State of Israel and the 1967 Occupied Territories) and ALL the people who live there.
We will explore legal emergency measures to prevent the University from cancelling the conference, to reverse its decision and to properly collaborate with the police so that the demonstrations can be managed. In addition we call for the widest and most intense public campaign possible that would urgently encourage the university to reverse its decision and which would allow the conference to go ahead.
Finally, we must make it clear that we have made several attempts to meet with the Vice Chancellor to consult him on the organisation of this conference, and to invite him to open the conference but we have never been given the opportunity to do so. On the other hand, the Vice Chancellor has met with pro-Israel representatives without ever calling us to attend meetings and we, as Professors in the University, feel disempowered and marginalised by this disrespectful behaviour.
Professor Oren Ben-Dor, University of Southampton.
Professor George Bisharat, University of California, Hastings College of the Law.
Professor Suleiman Sharkh, University of Southampton.
Ms. Juman Ismail.
Conference Organisers
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http://www.southampton.ac.uk/israelpalestinelaw/index.page
http://electronicintifada.net/…/israel-lobby-uk-officials-a…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/…/Universitys-anti-Semitic-Israe…