BY HANK REICHMAN
In two remarkable statements issued recently scholars from more than thirty countries, including Germany, Israel and the U.S., have spoken out against efforts by the German government to restrict the academic freedom and free speech rights of artists and scholars suspected of supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian rights. In March, public officials, including Felix Klein, the Federal government Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany and the Fight against Antisemitism, put pressure on the Ruhrtriennale Festival to disinvite Cameroonian philosopher Achille Mbembe, who was to deliver the festival’s opening address. The festival has since been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. Last year, the City of Dortmund reversed the decision to award British-Pakistani author Kamila Shamsie the Nelly Sachs Prize for Literature.
On April 30, a group of Jewish scholars from Israel and elsewhere released an open letter to German Minister of the Interior Horst Seehofer, with copies to Chancellor Angela Merkel and Minister of Foreign Affairs Heiko Maas, calling for the removal and replacement of Commissioner Klein for his support of the attacks on Mbembe, which the letter said had “degraded into a witch-hunt.”
“Prof. Achille Mbembe is one of the most important intellectuals in Africa, whose humanistic voice and scholarship is heard and admired globally,” the letter said. “We consider Mr. Klein’s attempt to frame Prof. Mbembe as an antisemite baseless, inappropriate, offensive and harmful.”
The letter continued:
By accusing Prof. Mbembe of “relativizing the Holocaust”, Mr. Klein has also harmed academic freedom. This toxic allegation relates to Prof. Mbembe’s study in reference to the Holocaust in comparative context. We wish to be very clear: such study isn’t a trivialization of the Holocaust and certainly not antisemitism. It is legitimate, essential and in fact commonplace in Holocaust and genocide studies. Some 600 leading Holocaust scholars recently asserted that banning analogies from the debate about the Holocaust is “a radical position that is far removed from mainstream scholarship on the Holocaust and genocide. And it makes learning from the past almost impossible.”
“Unjustified allegations of antisemitism are increasingly creating a climate of fear in Germany, deterring intellectuals, journalists and the public at large from exercising free speech regarding controversial issues that should be publicly debated. At this very hour, free and critical speech in relation to Israel is needed more than ever,” the letter continued. The signatories noted that “our views on BDS differ, but it is entirely clear: BDS as such is not antisemitic and is essentially protected by freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.”
Among those signing the letter were Daniel Boyarin, Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture at the University of California, Berkeley; Alon Confino, Pen Tishkach Chair of Holocaust Studies, Director of The Institute for Holocaust, Genocide and Memory Studies, Department of History and of Jewish and Near Eastern Studies at the University of Massachusetts; Amos Goldberg, Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Nurit Peled-Elhanan, School of Education at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and co-recipient of the Sakharov Prize; Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin, Department of Jewish History at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev; and Barry Trachtenberg, Michael R. and Deborah K. Rubin Presidential Chair of Jewish History, Department of History at Wake Forest University.
Last year some 240 Israeli and Jewish professors had urged Germany not to enact into law a bill that would define the BDS movement as “anti-Semitic.” That letter had declared that “we all reject the deceitful allegation that BDS as such is anti-Semitic and maintain that boycotts are a legitimate and non-violent tool of resistance.” Signatories included 24 scholars from the Hebrew University, 24 from Tel Aviv University, 11 from Ben Gurion University, nine from Haifa University, five from the Weizmann Institute of Science and five from the Open University of Israel.
Then today it was announced that 384 scholars and artists from over thirty countries, including forty from Germany, had signed a statement pledging not to serve on juries or prize committees or in academic hiring consultations in Germany whenever there are “convincing indicators that their decisions may be subject to ideological or political interference or litmus tests.” The pledge signatories state that they “hold a variety of positions on BDS, but we agree with the 40 Jewish organizations and also with the three German courts — most recently the Administrative Court of Cologne, in September 2019 — that have reaffirmed that support for BDS is a legitimate exercise of the universally recognized right of freedom of expression.”
The pledge signatories affirm that, “To reverse a prize jury’s decision or to withdraw an invitation to speak on ideological grounds is an intolerable interference that we cannot condone, even by our participation in juries subject to such interference.” They state that making decisions contingent on a commitment to disavow BDS violates academic freedom and freedom of expression, making “a mockery of the very system for and purpose of awarding prizes to individuals judged to be leaders in their fields.”
Signatories include Judith Butler of the University of California, Berkeley; Étienne Balibar of Columbia University; Nobel laureate in Chemistry George P. Smith; AAUP Committee A member Joan W. Scott; and linguist and social critic Noam Chomsky. The statement declares that accusations directed by German officials against Shamsie, Mbembe, and others “are intended to narrow the frame of discussion solely to antisemitism and its pernicious impacts” and “are designed to draw attention away from, and to silence, any critical focus on the treatment of Palestinians in Israel-Palestine.” Shamsie and Mbembe both signed the pledge.
Below are the full texts and lists of signatories of both statements.
Mr. Horst Seehofer
Minister of the Interior, Building and Community
Alt-Moabit 140
10557 Berlin
GermanyCopied: Angela Merkel, Chancellor of Germany
Heiko Maas, Minister of Foreign AffairsConcerns: Call to replace Felix Klein as the Federal government Commissioner for the Fight against Antisemitism
30 April 2020
Dear Minister Seehofer,
We, Jewish scholars and artists from Israel and elsewhere, many of whom specialize in anti-Semitism and in Jewish, Holocaust and Israel Studies, are calling on you to replace Felix Klein, the Federal government Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany and the Fight against Antisemitism, following his shameful attack on Prof. Achille Mbembe.
As you know, Prof. Achille Mbembe is one of the most important intellectuals in Africa, whose humanistic voice and scholarship is heard and admired globally. We consider Mr. Klein’s attempt to frame Prof. Mbembe as an antisemite baseless, inappropriate, offensive and harmful.
We are aware that the attack on Prof. Mbembe was initiated by others, who rejected him as the opening speaker of this year’s Ruhrtriennale Festival. Given his official role and responsibility, we find it unacceptable that Mr. Klein joined this attack, which degraded into a witch-hunt.
We are perplexed that Mr. Klein did so without bothering to study Prof. Mbembe’s work. Instead, he relied for his allegations on a deeply selective reading and manipulative interpretation of Prof. Mbembe’s writings by others. Considering that accusations of antisemitism can ruin someone’s reputation, this in itself amounts to severe professional and moral misconduct.
The Ruhrtriennale Festival has been cancelled by now, due to the coronavirus. This incident, however, cannot remain without consequences for Mr. Klein. Apart from the personal and professional harm done to Prof. Mbembe, Mr. Klein has done a disservice to the urgent fight against real antisemitism, casting a shadow over the integrity of his public office.
By accusing Prof. Mbembe of “relativizing the Holocaust”, Mr. Klein has also harmed academic freedom. This toxic allegation relates to Prof. Mbembe’s study in reference to the Holocaust in comparative context. We wish to be very clear: such study isn’t a trivialization of the Holocaust and certainly not antisemitism. It is legitimate, essential and in fact commonplace in Holocaust and genocide studies. Some 600 leading Holocaust scholars recently asserted that banning analogies from the debate about the Holocaust is “a radical position that is far removed from mainstream scholarship on the Holocaust and genocide. And it makes learning from the past almost impossible”.
Mr. Klein’s attack on Prof. Mbembe fits into a pattern. He has assumed a leading role in the “weaponization” of antisemitism against critics of the Israeli government and activists exercising their freedom of speech and assembly to protest Israel’s violations of basic rights of the Palestinians. As an official representative of the German government, Mr. Klein is undermining the exercise of fundamental freedoms – this should deeply alarm your government, considering itscommitment to democratic principles and the rule of law.
Unjustified allegations of antisemitism are increasingly creating a climate of fear in Germany, deterring intellectuals, journalists and the public at large from exercising free speech regarding controversial issues that should be publicly debated. At this very hour, free and critical speech in relation to Israel is needed more than ever. While the world is desperately fighting the coronavirus, the incoming Israeli government is moving towards annexation of vital parts of the occupied Palestinian West Bank – a grave violation of international law, formalizing a situation of two peoples with unequal rights inside one territory.
56 former members of the Knesset, some of whom have served as ministers in various Israeli governments, have recently warned this would establish an Apartheid state in Israel-Palestine.
Does Mr. Klein consider them antisemites? And all others who will speak of inequality and discrimination, after annexation has been implemented? These questions arise after Mr. Klein has accused Prof. Mbembe of antisemitism for allegedly equating Israel with Apartheid South Africa.
In addition, Mr. Klein has promoted and amplified aggressive campaigns against organizations and individuals, some of them Jewish, due to their support for “BDS”. He is clearly obsessed by the BDS campaign, which has a miniscule footprint in Germany, and appears to devote more of his time to it than to the acute threat that the surge in far-right antisemitism poses to Jews and Jewish life in Germany.
Our views on BDS differ, but it is entirely clear: BDS as such is not antisemitic and is essentially protected by freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, as also confirmed by several German courts. It is deplorable but unsurprising that the Israeli government is waging war against BDS – but how can a German government official join this war in the frontline?
In this context, we wish to add that this anti-BDS crusade is undeniably contributing to the marginalization of non-white voices and minorities in Germany, fostering racism and nationalistic sentiments. It is a shame that none other than the Federal Commissioner for the Fight against Antisemitism is leading this trend.
We also deplore that Mr. Klein has been encouraging politicized abuse of the IHRA definition, which conflates antisemitism with criticism and activism directed at Israel, to discredit and silence opponents of Israel’s policies. Here again, we observe Mr. Klein operating in synergy with the Israeli government.
That same Israeli government is currently preparing for annexation of vital parts of Palestine. It has deliberately weaponized allegations of antisemitism to politically shield this dramatic step and to distract from the documented evidence about its systematic violations of the human rights of the Palestinians.
On numerous occasions since his appointment in May 2018, Mr. Klein has facilitated and legitimized this fatal instrumentalization, which – we wish to repeat – harms the fight against real anti-Semitism. The latest example is his attack on Prof. Mbembe.
For all these reasons, we consider Mr. Klein unqualified and unfit for the important task assigned to him. He is a civil servant that operates and falls under your political responsibility. We call on you to replace Mr. Klein without delay as the German government Commissioner for Jewish Life and the Fight against Antisemitism.
Yours sincerely,
Prof. Gadi Algazi, Department of History, Tel Aviv University; Associate Fellow at Re:Work:
International Research Center Work and Human Lifecycle in Global History at Humboldt
University, BerlinDr. Seth Anziska, Department of Hebrew and Jewish Studies, University College London
Prof. Louise Bethlehem, Department of English and the Program in Cultural Studies, The
Hebrew University of Jerusalem; recipient European Research Council Consolidators GrantProf. Daniel Boyarin, Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture, University of California,
Berkeley; Fellow American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Von Humboldt Senior LaureateProf. (emeritus) Jose Brunner, Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and
Ideas (former director) and Buchmann Faculty of Law; co-founder of Israel’s first legal clinic for
the rights of Holocaust survivors, Tel Aviv UniversityProf. (emerita) Jane Caplan, History Department, University of Oxford; Emeritus Fellow, St.
Antony’s College, Oxford; Marjorie Walter Goodhart Professor Emeritus of European History,
Bryn Mawr College; Visiting Professor, Birkbeck, University of LondonDr. Raya Cohen, formerly Department of Jewish History, Tel Aviv University; formerly
Department of Sociology, University of Naples Federico IIProf. Jean Comaroff, Alfred North Whitehead Professor of African and African American
Studies and of Anthropology; Oppenheimer Research Fellow in African Studies, Harvard
UniversityProf. John Comaroff, Hugh K. Foster Professor of African and African American Studies and of
Anthropology; Oppenheimer Research Fellow in African Studies, Harvard UniversityProf. Alon Confino, Pen Tishkach Chair of Holocaust Studies, Director of The Institute for
Holocaust, Genocide and Memory Studies, Department of History and of Jewish and Near Eastern
Studies, University of Massachusetts; recipient of the Humboldt-Stiftung and of the Guggenheim
FellowshipsProf. (emerita) Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi, Department of General and Comparative Literature, The
Hebrew University of Jerusalem; recipient of Guggenheim FellowshipProf. (emeritus) Gideon Freudenthal, The Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of
Science and Ideas, Tel Aviv UniversityDr. Katharina Galor, Hirschfeld Visiting Associate Professor, Program in Judaic Studies, Brown
UniversityProf. Amos Goldberg, Department of Jewish History and Contemporary Jewry, The Hebrew
University of JerusalemProf. Neve Gordon, School of Law, Marie Curie Fellow, Queen Mary University of London
Dr. Ilana Hammerman, Writer, recipient of the Yeshayahu Leibowitz Prize
Prof. David Harel, Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, The Weizmann
Institute of Science; recipient of the Israel Prize and of the EMET PrizeProf. Eva Illouz, The Department of Sociology and Anthropology, The Hebrew University of
Jerusalem; The European Centre for Sociology and Political Science, Paris; recipient of the
Anneliese Meier International Award for Excellence in Research from the Alexander von
Humboldt-Foundation and of the EMET PrizeDani Karavan, Sculptor, projects include the Memorial to the Sinti and Roma victims of National
Socialism in Berlin, the Regensburg Synagogue Memorial and the Way of Human Rights in
Nuremberg; recipient of the Israel PrizeMiki Kratsman, Photographer; former head of the Photography Department at Bezalel Academy
of Arts and Design; recipient of the EMET PrizeAlex Levac, Photographer, recipient of the Israel Prize
Prof. (emeritus) Yehuda Judd Ne’eman, Tel Aviv University, recipient of the Israel Prize
Dr. (emeritus) Mark Levene, Department of History, University of Southampton UK; Parkes
Centre for Jewish/non-Jewish Relations; recipient of the Lemkin Prize of the Institute for the
Study of GenocideProf. Neil Levi, English Department (chair), Drew University
Dr. Anat Matar, Department of Philosophy, Tel Aviv University
Prof. (emeritus) Paul Mendes-Flohr, Dorothy Grant Maclear Professor Emeritus of Modern
Jewish History and Thought and Associate Faculty in the Department of History, The University
of Chicago Divinity School; Professor Emeritus of Jewish Thought, The Hebrew University of
JerusalemProf. Isaac Nevo, Department of Philosophy, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
Prof. (emeritus) Adi Ophir, The Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and
Ideas, Tel Aviv University; Visiting Professor of the Humanities, The Cogut Institute for the
Humanities and the Center for Middle East Studies, Brown UniversityProf. Nurit Peled-Elhanan, School of Education, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; The
David Yellin Academic College of Education; co-recipient of the Sakharov Prize
Prof. Amnon Raz-Krakotzkin, Department of Jewish History, Ben-Gurion University of the
Negev, recipient of the Zalman Shazar Prize for Jewish HistoryProf. (emerita) Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan, Departments of English Literature and Comparative
Literature, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and
HumanitiesProf. Ishay Rosen-Zvi, Head of the Talmud and Late Antiquity section, The Department of
Jewish Philosophy and Talmud, Tel Aviv UniversityProf. Michael Rothberg, 1939 Society Samuel Goetz Chair in Holocaust Studies, Department of
Comparative Literature, University of CaliforniaProf. Catherine Rottenberg, Department of American and Canadian Studies, University of
NottinghamProf. Barry Trachtenberg, Michael R. and Deborah K. Rubin Presidential Chair of Jewish
History, Department of History, Wake Forest UniversityProf. David Shulman, Department of Asian Studies, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem,
member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, recipient of the Israel Prize and of the
EMET PrizeProf. (emeritus) Moshe Zuckermann, The Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of
Science and Ideas, Tel Aviv University
Pledge opposing ideological or political interference and litmus tests in Germany
We the undersigned writers, artists, scientists, and scholars have either been invited (many of us more than once) or occupy professional positions that make it likely that we will in future be invited to nominate candidates for literary, artistic, scientific, and scholarly honors awarded by German institutions, to serve on or report to the juries selecting the recipients for these honors, and/or to assist academic committees at German universities with hiring or promotion decisions. We were therefore dismayed to learn that on two recent occasions city authorities in Germany have intervened to overrule the decisions of prize committees on ideological and political grounds, and that for similar reasons a performer has been threatened with cancellation of an already publicized concert.
On September 14, 2019, the City of Dortmund rescinded the award—already announced—of the Nelly Sachs Prize for Literature that was to have gone to British-Pakistani author Kamila Shamsie. Sixteen days later, the City of Aachen announced that it had reversed a previous decision to award the Aachen Art Prize to the Lebanese-American artist Walid Raad. Around the same time, Israeli-German performer Nirit Sommerfeld received a warning from the municipal Gasteig cultural center in Munich that her planned concert at the center faced cancellation if she broached certain themes. This March, Stephanie Carp, curator of the 2020 Ruhrtriennale Festival in Bochum, came under pressure from two public officials (Lorenz Deutsch, a Deputy in the Nordrhein-Westfalen State Parliament, and Felix Klein, Federal Government Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany and the Fight against Anti-Semitism) to rescind the invitation to Cameroonian philosopher Achille Mbembe to deliver the festival’s opening address; the two falsely claimed that Mbembe’s academic work was anti-Semitic because it includes an analysis and critique of Israeli government policies.
These four incidents, involving four German cities and four different forms of expression, had one thing in common: in each case, the artist or intellectual in question was considered a supporter of the non-violent Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement for Palestinian rights. In Raad’s case it was his “evasive[ness]” when asked to “distance himself from BDS” that led to the withdrawal of Aachen’s sponsorship of his prize, on the grounds that BDS is a form of anti-Semitism; and even though the Verein der Freunde des Ludwig Forums decided to award the prize to Raad without the city’s cooperation, they did so only after their “intensive” investigation turned up no “conclusive” proof that the accusations against Raad were justified. Although Sommerfeld’s concert went forward as planned, three years earlier a benefit concert in which she was scheduled to perform, in the same city, was cancelled on the same grounds. And while this year’s Ruhrtriennale has been cancelled because of Covid-19, Carp and the festival organizers remain under pressure not to invite Mbembe in the future either.
In declaring BDS a form of anti-Semitism, the authors of the attacks on Mbembe and the cities of Aachen, Dortmund, and Munich aligned themselves in direct opposition to more than forty progressive Jewish organizations around the world — including European Jews for a Just Peace, the Israeli Coalition of Women for Peace, and the German Jüdische Stimme für gerechten Frieden im Nahost e.V. — that on July 17 2018 issued a statement affirming that “dangerously [conflating] anti-Jewish racism with opposition to Israel’s policies and system of occupation and apartheid … undermines both the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice and equality and the global struggle against anti-Semitism. It also serves to shield Israel from being held accountable to universal standards of human rights and international law.”
The signatories of this letter hold a variety of positions on BDS, but we agree with the 40 Jewish organizations and also with the three German courts — most recently the Administrative Court of Cologne, in September 2019 — that have reaffirmed that support for BDS is a legitimate exercise of the universally recognized right of freedom of expression.
To make the awarding of a prize, or a hiring decision, contingent on a commitment to disavow BDS not only violates academic freedom and the rights of freedom of expression described above. It also makes a mockery of the very system for and purpose of awarding prizes to individuals judged to be leaders in their fields. To reverse a prize jury’s decision or to withdraw an invitation to speak on ideological grounds is an intolerable interference that we cannot condone, even by our participation in juries subject to such interference.
Accusations of the kind levelled by politicians like Deutsch, Klein, and city officials in Germany are intended to narrow the frame of discussion solely to antisemitism and its pernicious impacts. They are designed to draw attention away from, and to silence, any critical focus on the treatment of Palestinians in Israel-Palestine. We anticipate that some will seek to paint this point as an expression of or relativization of anti-Semitism; to do so would be to engage in exactly the tactics we are opposing with this statement.
While we wish to acknowledge how much we appreciate the honor of being chosen to consult on prizes and hiring decisions, we cannot continue to lend our weight to judgments of artistic, scientific, or scholarly distinction that are subject to political interference. We therefore wish to inform the German artistic and academic community and the institutions that support them, including municipal councils, that all of us undersigned will no longer agree to serve on prize committees or in hiring consultations if there are convincing indicators that their decisions may be subject to ideological or political interference or litmus tests. In such cases, we will specifically require assurance that the support for any non-violent campaign (including BDS) directed at any country that practices discrimination and violence against any population under its control will not be used as a litmus test to disqualify candidates selected for hiring, distinction, or honor.
- Ackbar Abbas, University of California, Irvine, United States
- Ahmed Abbes, mathematician, Directeur de recherche au CNRS, France
- Rabab Abdulhadi, Director and Senior Scholar, Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies, San Francisco State University, United States
- Malek Abisaab, McGill University, Canada
- Nadia Abu El-Haj, Barnard College and Columbia University , United States
- Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Artist, Lebanon
- Lila Abu-Lughod, Columbia University, United States
- Evelyne Accad, University of Illinois / Prof Emerita, United States
- María del Rosario Acosta , University of California Riverside , United States
- Mojisola Adebayo, Lecturer, Queen Mary, University of London, UK
- Elena Agudio, curator, art historian, Germany
- Arnika Ahldag, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi , India
- Mounira Al Solh, Lebanese Artist , Netherlands
- Nadje Al-Ali, Professor of Anthropology and Middle East Studies, Brown University, United States
- Antonia Alampi, Artistic Co-Director, SAVVY Contemporary, Germany
- Mehdi Alioua, Sociologist, International University of Rabat (UIR), Morocco
- Heba Y. Amin, Artist, Germany
- Hila Amit, Writer, Germany
- Evelyn Annuss, Professor of Gender Studies, University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Austria
- Arjun Appadurai, The Hertie School and New York University, Germany
- Iasmin Omar Ata, Graphic novelist, United States
- Danielle Aubert, Wayne State University, United States
- Ariella Azoulay, Brown University, United States
- Annie Baker, Playwright and Associate Professor, the University of Texas at Austin, United States
- Viviane Baladi, Mathematician, CNRS, France
- Alex Baladi, Comic book artist, Switzerland
- Lynhan Balatbat-Helbock , SAVVY Contemporary , Germany
- Etienne Balibar, Department of French & Institute for Comparative Literature and Society, Columbia University, United States
- Nicolas Bancel, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
- Sindre Bangstad, Research Professor KIFO (Institute For Church, Religion And Worldview Research, NO
- Kass Banning, University of Toronto, Professor, Canada
- Edwige Baron, Project Manager, Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, Germany
- Yto Barrada, Artist, United States
- Taysir Batniji, Visual artist, France
- Ian Baucom, University of Virginia, United States
- Jean-François Bayart, IHEID (Genève), Suisse
- Arnaud Beauville, Professor emeritus, Université Côte d’Azur, France
- Joel Beinin, Donald J McLachlan Professor of History, Emeritus, Stanford University, United States
- Habib Bel Hedi, Producer, Tunisia
- Joachim Ben Yakoub, Ghent University, Belgium
- Roberto Beneduce, University of Turin, Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Dept. of Cultures, Politics, and Society, Italy
- Ruha Benjamin, Princeton University, United States
- Hourya Benthouami , Université de Toulouse , France
- Lauren Berlant, University of Chicago , USA
- Florence Bernault, Centre d’Histoire, Sciences Po, France
- Susan Bernofsky, Associate Professor of Writing & Director, Literary Translation at Columbia, School of the Arts, Columbia University, United States
- Omar Berrada, Writer and Curator, Morocco
- Bjørn Enge Bertelsen, Dept. of social anthropology, University of Bergen, Norway
- Jess Bier, Assistant Professor of Urban Sociology, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
- Yahya Birt, University of Leeds, United Kingdom
- Susan Blackwell, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Pascal Blanchard, Groupe recherche Achac (Paris) et LCP CNRS, France
- Nicholas Blincoe, Writer, United Kingdom
- Gilles Boetsch, CNRS, France
- Claudia Bosse, artist, choreographer, artistic director theatercombinat, Österreich
- Stefanie Böttcher, Director Kunsthalle Mainz, Germany
- Charles Bottex, Retraité , Canada
- Hemley Boum, Writer, France
- Daniel Boyarin, Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture, United States
- Robert Boyce, London School of Economis and Political Science, United Kingdom
- Brian Boyd, Columbia University, United States
- Sarah Bracke, Professor of Sociology, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Anouar Brahem, Composer, Tunisia
- Rony Brauman, Physician, writer, France
- Candice Breitz, Hochschule für Bildende Künste Braunschweig, Germany
- Marie Brennan, University of South Australia, Australia
- Timothy Brennan, University of Minnesota, United States
- Haim Bresheeth, SOAS, London, United Kingdom
- Wendy Brown, University of California, Berkeley, United States
- Judith Butler, Maxine Elliot Professor of Comparative Literature and Critical Theory, University of California, Berkeley, United States
- Alexandre Capitaine, Writer, France
- Ana Casares, Escritora. Editora. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Unversidad Nacional de Jujuy. Argentina, Argentina
- James Chandler, Univerisity of Chicago, U.S.
- Julie Chateauvert, School of social Innovation, St-Paul University, Canada
- Zahid Chaudhary, Princeton University, United States
- Hannah Chazin, Columbia University, United States
- Usuf Chikte, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa
- Noam Chomsky, Professor Emeritus at MIT, Laureate Professor of Linguistics, Agnese Nelms Haury Chair University of Arizona, United States
- Barriere Christine , Headmaster, France
- Andrés Claro, Universidad de Chile, Chile
- Véronique Clette-Gakuba, Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgique
- Yinon Cohen, Sociology, Columbia University, United States
- Steven Cohen, Artist, France
- Juan Cole, University of Michigan, United States
- Elliott Colla, Georgetown University , United States
- Imraan Coovadia, University of Cape Town, South Africa
- Eli Cortiñas, Visual artist, Germany
- Molly Crabapple, artist and writer, United States
- Carolina Crespo, CONICET-INAPL- UBA, Argentina
- Warren Crichlow, York University, Toronto, Canada
- Jacopo Crivelli Visconti, curator, Brazil
- Robin Huw Crompton, Hon. Professor, Institute of Ageing and Chronic Disease and School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, University of Liverpool, United Kingdom
- Ayça Çubukçu, Asssociate Professor, Co-Director, LSE Human Rights, London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kindgdom
- Iftikhar Dadi, Cornell University, United States
- Patricia Dailey, Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University, United States
- Leyla Dakhli, CNRS, Centre Marc Bloch, Allemagne
- Luis Dapelo, translator, France
- Chandler Davis, Professor of Mathematics, University of Toronto, Canada
- Sonia Dayan-Herzbrun, Sociologist, Emeritus Professor at the University of Paris Diderot, France
- Université libre de Bruxelles de Vries, Director Weserburg Museum for Modern Art, Germany
- Tj Demos, University of California, Santa Cruz / Professor, United States
- Manthia Diawara, University Professor, New York University, United States
- James Dickins, University of Leeds, United Kingdom
- Laurence Dreyfus, Professor Emeritus, University of Oxford, FBA, United Kingdom
- Madhusree Dutta, Artistic Director Akademie der Künste der Welt, Köln, Germany
- Ronit Eden, Curator, Netherlands
- Ben Ehrenreich, Writer, United States
- Anna Ehrenstein, visual artist, Germany
- Paul Eid, Professor, dept. of sociology, Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada
- Galit Eilat, Curator, writer, The Netherlands
- Ivar Ekeland, Professor Emeritus and Former President, the University of Paris-Dauphine, France
- Yara El-Ghadban, Anthropologist and novelist, Canada
- David Eng, University of Pennsylvania, United States
- Farid Esack, Professor, University of Johannesburg, South Africa
- Arturo Escobar, Professor of Anthropology Emeritus, University of North Carlina, Chapel Hill, United States
- Maria J. Esteban, Mathematician, director of research at CNRS, France
- Iolanda Évora, University of Lisbon, Portugal
- Reem Fadda, Curator , Palestine
- Mohammad Fadel, University of Toronto Faculty of Law, Canada
- Richard Falk, Professor of International Law, Emeritus, Princeton University, United States
- Emmanuel Farjoun, Mathematics Department, Hebrew University, Israel
- Leila Farsakh, Associate Professor and Chair, Political Science Department, University of Massachusetts Boston, United States
- Aslam Fataar, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
- Gary Fields, University of California, San Diego, United States
- Jonathan Flatley, Wayne State University, United States
- Marilyn Frankenstein, University of Massachusetts/Boston (retired), United States
- Gideon Freudenthal, Professor emeritus, Tel-Aviv University, Israel
- Will Fredo Furtado, artist writer, Germany
- Jeanne Marie Gagnebin, Catholic Pontifical University in São Paulo, Prof.f.sil, Brazil
- Verónica Gago, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Zeynep Gambetti, Political theorist, Turkey
- Debjani Ganguly, Professor of English, University of Virginia, USA
- Keya Ganguly, Professor, Cultural Studies & Comparative Literature, U of Minnesota, United States
- Luis-Manuel Garcia, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom
- Flavia Gasetua, Citca-CONICET, Argentina
- Irene Gendzier, Prof. Emeritus, Boston University, United States
- Peter Geschiere, Emeritus Professor for the anthropology of Africa, University of Amsterdam / Leiden University, Netherlands
- Bishnupriya Ghosh, University of California, Santa Barbara, United States
- Natasha Ginwala , Curator and Writer, Germany
- Carlo Ginzburg, UCLA/Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa, Italy
- Charles Glass, Author and journalist, England
- Amos Goldberg, Holocaust history professor, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
- David Theo Goldberg, University of California, Irvine, USA, USA
- Catherine Goldstein, CNRS, IMJ-PRG, France
- Priyamvada Gopal, Cambridge University, United Kingdom
- Arunima Gopinath, Jawaharlal Nehru University/ Professor, India
- Neve Gordon, Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom
- Michael Götting, Writer, Germany
- Daragh Grant, University of Chicago, United States
- Erella Grassiani, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Herman Gray, University of California, Santa Cruz, United States
- Lev Grinberg, Ben Gurion University, Israel
- Raphaël Grisey, Artist, Germany
- Francio Guadeloupe, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands
- Nacira Guénif, Professor of sociology and anthropology at University Paris 8 Vincennes – Saint- Denis, France
- Mahmoud Guettat, Ethnomusicologist, Professor Emeritus, University of Tunis, Tunisia
- Henriette Gunkel, Professor of Media Studies, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany
- Farid Hafez, University of Salzburg, Austria
- Ghassan Hage, University of Melbourne, Australia
- Wael Hallaq, Columbia University, United States
- Ross Hamilton, Professor, Barnard College, Columbia University, United States
- Yael Harlap, University of Bergen, Norway
- Michael Harris, Professor of Mathematics, Columbia University and Université Paris-Diderot, United States
- Michelle Hartman, Professor, McGill University, Canada
- Salah Hassan, Professor, Cornell University, USA
- Wail Hassan, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, United States
- Abe Hayeem, Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), Chair of Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine, United Kingdom
- Eric Hazan, Editor, France
- Nanna Heidenreich, media/cultural studies scholar and curator, Germany
- Ethan Heitner, Cartoonist and visual artist, United States
- Charles Heller, Co-director of the Forensic Oceanography project, Goldsmiths, University of London, United Kingdom
- Barry Heselwood, Honorary Senior Lecturer, University of Leeds, UK, United Kingdom
- Shir Hever, Scholar, journalist, Germany
- Béatrice Hibou, CNRS – SciencesPo, France
- Alcinda Honwana, London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom
- Laura Horelli, Visual artist and filmmaker, Germany
- Nancy Rose Hunt, Universities of Florida | Michigan, United States
- Hannah Hurtzig, Mobile academy Berlin / theatre maker, Germany
- Simon Inou, Journalist, Austria
- Jean E. Jackson, Professor of Anthropology Emerita, MIT, United States
- Sean Jacobs, The New School, United States
- Stine Marie Jacobsen, Artist, Germany
- Shamil Jeppie, University of Cape Town, South Africa
- Ivana Jofre, Conicet, Argentina
- Emily Jones, Lecturer in Law, University of Essex, United Kingdom
- Rebecca Jordan-Young, Professor, Barnard College, United States
- Ashraf Kagee, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
- Tom Kalin, Columbia University School of the Arts, Film, United States
- Louis Kampf, Professor of Literature and Women’s Studies, Emeritus, MIT, United States
- Sibel Karadag, Koc University, Turkey
- Nina Katchadourian, New York University, United States/Germany
- Suvir Kaul, A M Rosenthal Professor, United States
- David Kazanjian, University of Pennsylvania, United States
- Michael Keith, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
- Enora Keller, Theater Author & Director, Perfomer, Artist, France
- Assaf Kfoury, Computer Science Department, Boston University, United States
- Rashid Khalidi, Columbia University, United States
- Laleh Khalili, Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom
- Ranjana Khanna, Duke University , United States
- Sami Khatib, Professor of Visual Arts, American University in Cairo, Egypt
- Dina Khoury, Professor of History, George Washington University, USA, United States
- Ana Kiffer, Ponficia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, PUC-Rio, BRAZIL
- Nadia Yala Kisukidi, Philosopher, Associate Professor at Paris 8 Vincennes St Denis / France, France
- Séverine Kodjo-Grandvaux, Philosopher, France
- Lina Louisa Krämer, Kunsthalle Mainz, Germany, Germany
- Kobi Kremnitzer, University of Oxford, England
- Nancy Kricorian, Writer, United States
- Phil Kutzko, Professor Emeritus of Mathematics, University of Iowa, United States
- Dominique Lacombe, Syndicaliste, France
- Premesh Lalu, Centre for Humanities Research, University of the Western Cape, South Africa
- Brian Larkin, Barnard College, Columbia University, United States
- Vito Laterza, Associate Professor, Department of Global Development and Planning, University of Agder, Norway
- Maurizio Lazzarato, Writer, France
- Patrick Le Monnier, Sound engineer and musician, Canada
- Nitzan Lebovic, Lehigh University, United States
- Herman Lebovics, Distinguished Professor of History emeritus, Stony Brook University, United States
- Patricio Lepe-Carrión, Núcleo de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, Universidad de La Frontera, Chile
- Les Levidow, Open University, United Kingdom
- Jean-Marc Lévy-Leblond, Emeritus professor, University of Nice, France
- Zachary Lockman, Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies and of History Acting Chair, Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies New York University, United States
- Ania Loomba, University of Pennsylvania, United States
- Ali Louati, Writer, Tunisia
- Geraldine Lublin, Swansea University, United Kingdom
- John MacKay, Yale University, United States
- Revital Madar, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, France
- Ewa Majewska, ICI Berlin (affiliated fellow), Poland
- Antje Majewski, Artist, Professor for painting at Muthesius Kunsthochschule Kiel, Germany
- Fouad Makki, Development Sociology, Cornell University, United States
- Dominique Malaquais, CNRS, France
- Mahmood Mamdani, Columbia University, United States
- Firoze Manji, Daraja Press, Canada
- Sarah Marusek, University of Leeds, United Kingdom
- Brian Massumi, Professor (retired), Communication Department, University of Montreal, Canada
- Anat Matar, Tel Aviv University, Israel
- Florencia Mazzadi, Director of cinema, Argentina
- Achille Mbembe , University of the Witwatersrand, Cameroon/South Africa
- Alberto Medina, Professor, Columbia University, United States
- Monika Mehta, Binghamton University, United States
- Natalie Melas, Cornell University, United States
- Bjørn Melhus, Kunsthochschule Kassel, Germany
- Constanza Mendoza Sutherland, artist and researcher, Germany, Germany
- Dilip Menon, University of Witwatersrand , South Africa
- Nivedita Menon, Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India
- Lena Merhej, Samandal collective, France
- Brinkley Messick, Professor of Anthropology, Columbia University, United States
- Soumaya Mestiri, Professor of political and social philosophy, University of Tunis, Tunisia
- Birgit Meyer, Utrecht University, Netherlands
- Faranak Miraftab, Professor, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, United States
- Nicholas Mirzoeff, New York University, United States
- Timothy Mitchell, Columbia University, United States
- Tariq Modood, University of Bristol, United Kingdom
- Raul Mondragon , Comunicador, Músico , Perú
- Célestin Monga, Economist, University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, USA
- Pete Moore, Case Western Reserve University, United States
- Marissa J. Moorman, Associate Professor, Indiana University, United States
- Annelies Moors, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
- Clément Mouhot, Professor of mathematics, University of Cambridge, United Kingdom
- Franz Müller, film director, Germany
- Abdul-Karim Mustapha, Writer/ Multitudes Journal , United States
- Charles NACH, Generation 90 Think Tank, Malaysia
- Lubna Nadvi, Senior Lecturer, School of Social Sciences, University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa
- Sina Najafi, Editor-in-Chief, Cabinet Magazine, Germany & United States
- Arlette-Louise Ndakoze, Philosopher, writer, curator, Germany
- Bonaventure Ndikung, SAVVY Contemporary (Director), Germany
- Basile Ndjio, Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study/university of Douala, Cameroon, the Netherlands
- Mary Jane Nealon, Writer, United States
- Michael Neocosmos, Emeritus Professor in Humanities Rhodes University , South Africa
- Christopher Newfield, University of California, Santa Barbara, United States
- Alf Nilsen, University of Pretoria, South Africa
- Onur Suzan Nobrega, Institute of Sociology, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany, Germany
- Anne Norton, University of Pennsylvania, United States
- John Oakes, OR Books, publisher, United States
- Adi Ophir, Tel Aviv University, Israel
- Elsa Oréal, CNRS, France
- Juan Orrantia, Photographer, South Africa
- Pablo Oyarzun, Professor, University of Chile, Chile
- Rose Parfitt, Kent Law School, United Kingdom
- Hadas Pe’ery, Tel Aviv University, Israel
- Peter Pelbart, Professor in Catholic Pontifical University in São Paulo, Brasil
- Nicola Perugini, University of Edinburgh , United Kingdom
- Gregory Pflugfelder, Associate Professor of Japanese History, Columbia University, United States
- Edgar Pieterse, African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town, South Africa
- Charles Piot, Duke University, United States
- Alexandra Pirici , Artist, Romania
- Sheldon Pollock, Raghunathan Professor of Sanskrit and South Asian Studies, Columbia University, United States
- Megan Povey, Professor of Food Physics, United Kingdom
- Anjali Prabhu, Wellesley College, United States
- Nicola Pratt, University of Warwick, United Kingdom
- Nasser Rabbat, Aga Khan Professor of Architecture, MIT, United States
- Anandi Ramamurthy, Sheffield Hallam University , United Kingdom
- Norma Rantisi, Professor, Canada
- Roshdi Rashed, CNRS, Paris, France
- Marwan Rashed, Professor of Philosophy, Sorbonne University, France
- Carina Ray, African and African American Studies, Brandeis University, United States
- Bruce Robbins, Columbia University, United States
- François Robinet, Paris-Saclay University, France
- Steven Robins, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa
- Shira Robinson, The George Washington University, United States
- Mariela Rodríguez , Universidad de Buenos Aires- CONICET, Argentina
- Noa Roei, Assistant Professor, Department of Literary and Cultural Analysis, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- Jonathan Rosenhead, Emeritus Professor of Operational Research, London School of Economics, United Kingdom
- Andrew Ross, New York University, United States
- Michael Rothberg, 1939 Society Samuel Goetz Chair in Holocaust Studies, UCLA, United States
- E. Natalie Rothman, University of Toronto, Associate Professor of History, Canada
- Catherine Rottenberg, University of Nottingham, United Kingdom
- Renée Roukens, Creative producer, Nederland
- Mario Rufer, Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, Mexico, Mexico
- Teemu Ruskola, Emory University, United States
- Marie-Noëlle Ryan, Professor of Philosophy, Université de Moncton, Canada
- Vladimir Safatle, Professor, Universidade de São Paulo, Brasil
- Dana Sajdi, Associate Professor of History, Boston College, United States
- Maréme Samb Malong, Fondation MAM , Cameroun
- Katya Sander, Professor, Nordland School for Art & Film, Germany
- Peter Santos, Sociologist, Brazil
- Felwine Sarr, Professor of Economics, University Gaston Berger, Saint-Louis, Sénégal
- S. Sayyid, Professor, University of Leeds, United Kingdom
- James Schamus, Professor of Professional Practice, Columbia University, United States
- Pierre Schapira, Professor emeritus, Sorbonne University, France
- Nancy Scheper-Hughes, University of California, Berkeley, United States
- Willem Schinkel, Professor of Social Theory, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands
- Joan W. Scott, Professor Emerita, Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton NJ), United States
- Richard Seaford, Professor, United Kingdom
- Karen Seeley, Columbia University, United States
- Michel Seymour, Université de Montréal, Canada
- Andrée Sfeir-Semler, Gallery Owner, Germany
- Dr. Andrée Sfeir-Semler, Sfeir-Semler Gallery Owner, Germany & Lebanon
- Nishant Shah, ArtEZ University of the Arts, The Netherlands
- Sa’diyya Shaikh, Associate Professor, University of Cape Town, South Africa
- Kamila Shamsie, Writer, United Kingdom
- Wendy Shaw, Free University, Berlin/ Professor, Germany
- Dr. Simon Sheikh, Programme Director, MFA CUarting, Goldsmiths, University of London, Germany
- Todd Shepard, Johns Hopkins University, United States
- Marc Siegel, Scholar, Berlin, Germany
- Shelly Silver, Associate Professor, Columbia University, United States
- Adam Sitze, Amherst College, United States
- Eyal Sivan, Filmmaker and Professor, Head of Research in Cinema, Amsterdam University of the Arts, Netherlands
- Leila Slimani, Writer, France
- John Smith, Artist filmmaker, United Kingdom
- George Smith, Professor emeritus of Biological Sciences, University of Missouri; Nobel laureate in Chemistry 2018, United States
- Rasha Soliman, University of Leeds, United Kingdom
- Ania Soliman, Artist, France
- Sylvain Sorin, Professor of mathematics, France
- Michael Sorkin, Urbanist, Distinghished Professor, CUNY, United States
- Ahdaf Soueif, Writer, Egypt
- Sid Ahmed Soussi, Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada
- Chantal Spitz, Tahitian writer, French Polynesia
- Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, University Professor in the Humanities, Columbia University, United States
- Bettina Steinbrügge, Kunstverein in Hamburg, Director, Germany
- Raid M. Suleiman, Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, United States
- Zohreh T. Sullivan, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, United States
- Kaushik Sunder Rajan, University of Chicago, United States
- Leslie Swartz, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
- Simona Taliani, University of Turin, Dep. of Cultures, Politics and Society, Italy
- Michael Thaddeus, Columbia University, United States
- Madeleine Thien, Writer, Canada
- Lembe Tiky, University of Connecticut , United States
- Anya Topolski, Nijmegen University, The Netherlands
- Maryse Tripier, Sociologist, University of Paris Diderot, France
- Lou Turner, Clinical Assistant Professor, Dept. of Urban & Regional Planning, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, United States
- Gray Tuttle, Leila Hadley Luce Professor of Modern Tibet, Columbia University, United States
- Beata Umubyeyi, Writer, France
- Eli Valley, Comic Artist, United States
- Salim Vally, Professor, University of Johannesburg, South Africa
- Peter Van Der Veer, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Göttingen, Germany
- Rogier van Reekum, Assistant Professor, The Netherlands
- Pierre Vanhove, Physicist, Commissariat à l’énergie Atomique, France
- Zachary Vaupen, artist and writer, United States
- Françoise Vergès, Writer, Antiracist Decolonial Feminist, France
- Claude Vergès, Professor of Medical Ethics University of Panama, Panama
- Guido Veronese, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy
- Tonje Vold, Oslo Metropolitan University, Norge
- Elisa von Joeden-Forgey, Stockton University, USA
- Elisa von Joeden-Forgey, Associate Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Stockton University, United States
- Hans von Sponeck, UN Assistant Secretary-General (ret.), Germany
- Dror Warschawski, Biophysics, UQAM, Montréal, Canada, Canada
- Joanna Warsza, Curator / Konstfack University of Arts , Germany
- Silja Weber, Germanic Languages, Columbia University, United States
- Lisa Wedeen, Professor, The University of Chicago, United States
- Eyal Weizman, Professor, Goldsmith’s, University of London, United Kingdom
- Robert Wintemute, Professor of Human Rights Law, King’s College London, England, United Kingdom
- Nicole Wolf, Goldsmiths, University of London, United Kingdom/Germany
- Natalie Zemon Davis, Professor of History, University of Toronto, Canada
- Linda M. G. Zerilli, Charles E. Merriam Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago, USA
- Lew Zipin, University of South Australia, Australia
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