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Abstract
This paper is a reflection on the role of intellectuals in engaging with Palestinian solidarity movements and liberation discourses, and on the place of international lawyers specifically within that context. The paper considers ‘the question of Palestine’ as a rigorous test for intellectuals in the Global North today, and examines particular debates over free speech, civility and balance that unfolded in the wake of Israel’s 2014 war on Gaza. It considers the interventions of international lawyers in these debates with reference to Edward Said’s ‘amateur’ and ‘professional’ intellectuals, and explores ways in which anti-colonial international lawyers (as amateur intellectuals) can transcend prevailing professional orthodoxies to deploy language, arguments or tactics that rupture liberal legal processes and narratives on Palestine.
Acknowledgments
Many thanks to the participants in the September 2015 TWAIL/Third World Quarterly writing workshop at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth for their valuable comments on an earlier draft of this article - in particular to Robert Knox and Mazen Masri for their close reading and incisive comments. Thanks also to the anonymous reviewers for their generous and constructive feedback. All errors of style and substance remain mine alone.
Notes
1. Said, Representations of the Intellectual, xvii.
2. Steven Salaita, twitter.com/stevesalaita/status/489022495392301057, July 15, 2014.
3. Cole, “Bad Laws.”
4. Said, Representations of the Intellectual, 8.
5. Richard Falk, “A Few Notes on What is Left (or Toward a Manifesto for Revolutionary Emancipation),” Global Justice in the 21st Century, https://richardfalk.wordpress.com/2011/06/19/a-few-notes-on-what-is-left-or-toward-a-manifesto-for-revolutionary-emancipation, June 19, 2011.
6. Tawil-Souri and Matar, Gaza as Metaphor.
7. Said, Representations of the Intellectual, x. See also Said, Out of Place.
8. Said, Representations of the Intellectual, 76.
9. Said, Representations of the Intellectual, xiii, 74.
10. Said, “American Intellectuals,” 44–45.
11. The Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israeli state institutions and agents was issued in 2005 by a broad collective of Palestinian political parties, unions and civil society organisations. It is modelled to a certain extent on the South African precedent, and calls for international solidarity in the form of consumer boycotts, commercial divestments and economic sanctions until Israel ends it occupation of Palestinian territory and its systems of racial domination over the Palestinian people. See Palestinian BDS National Committee, “Palestinian Civil Society call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions,” https://bdsmovement.net/call, July 9, 2005.
12. See, for example, “Memorandum of Understanding between the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the State of Israel regarding Public Diplomacy Cooperation,” signed January 18, 2015.
13. “US Trade Bill with EU includes Landmark anti-BDS Provisions,” Ha’aretz, June 30, 2015.
14. Said, Representations of the Intellectual, 13.
15. Steven Salaita, https://twitter.com/stevesalaita/status/490871788638072833, July 20, 2014.
16. Steven Salaita, https://twitter.com/stevesalaita/status/495219022607446017, August 1, 2014.
17. Steven Salaita, https://twitter.com/stevesalaita/status/490697281344397312, July 22, 2014.
18. Steven Salaita, https://twitter.com/stevesalaita/status/490862112957530112, July 20, 2014.
19. Steven Salaita, https://twitter.com/stevesalaita/status/491397701054267393, July 22, 2014.
20. Complaints annexed to: Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure (CAFT) of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, “Report on the Investigation into the Matter of Steven Salaita,” December 23, 2014.
21. Salaita, Uncivil Rites, 6.
22. Steven Salaita, https://twitter.com/stevesalaita/status/490186075022049280, July 18, 2014.
23. Mill, On Liberty, 24.
24. Locke, Some Thoughts concerning Education, 102.
25. Salaita, Uncivil Rites, 105.
26. Salaita, Uncivil Rites, 42.
27. Salaita, Uncivil Rites, 184.
28. Joan Scott, “The New Thought Police,” The Nation, May 4, 2015.
29. Phyllis Wise, “The Principles on which we Stand,” https://illinois.edu/blog/view/1109/115906, August 22, 2014 (emphasis added).
30. See, for example, the ‘Principles against Intolerance’ adopted by the regents of the University of California in March 2016, which conflate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism, and which Saree Makdisi and Judith Butler describe as ‘the latest manifestation of a well-funded and increasingly desperate – even panicky – political campaign to eradicate criticism of Israeli policy from American campuses…a thinly disguised attempt to suppress academic freedom and stifle open debate on our campuses.’ Saree Makdisi and Judith Butler, “Suppressing Criticism of Zionism on Campus is Catastrophic Censorship,” Los Angeles Times, March 23, 2016.
31. Marcuse, “Repressive Tolerance.”
32. Butler, “Israel/Palestine,” 16–17.
33. Center for Constitutional Rights, “The Firing of Steven Salaita: Palestine Solidarity and Academic Freedom,” http://ccrjustice.635elmp01.blackmesh.com/sites/default/files/attach/2015/02/Salaita_Factsheet_1-29-15.pdf, January 2015.
34. Phyllis Wise, “Moving past Digital Hate,” https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2014/01/30/chancellor-u-illinois-responds-twitter-incident, January 30, 2014.
35. National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie, 432 US 43 (1977).
36. Snyder v. Phelps, 562 US 443 (2011).
37. Center for Constitutional Rights and Palestine Legal, “The Palestine Exception to Free Speech: A Movement under Attack in the US,” http://ccrjustice.org/the-palestine-exception, September 2015.
38. Committee on Academic Freedom and Tenure (CAFT) of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, “Report on the Investigation into the Matter of Steven Salaita,” December 23, 2014.
39. Steven Salaita, https://twitter.com/stevesalaita/status/490672699631742976, July 20, 2014.
40. Email from Nick Burbules (UIUC Professor of Education Policy) to Chancellor Phyllis Wise, February 11, 2014.
41. Email from Christopher Kennedy (Chairman of the UIUC Board of Trustees) to Robert Easter, February 10, 2014.
42. Corey Robin, “Academic Freedom at UIUC: Freedom to Pursue Viewpoints and Positions that reflect the Values of the State,” Crooked Timber, August 10, 2015.
43. Quoted in “Commie Angela Davis is booted from Teaching: Regents finally able to kick Red Afro from Campus, Classes,” Desert Sun, June 20, 1970 (emphasis added).
44. Wallace Turner, “California Regents drop Communist from Faculty,” New York Times, June 20, 1970.
45. Ibid.
46. Salaita, Uncivil Rites, 60.
47. Jacobs’ blog, ‘Spreading the Jam’, is listed on his CV under the heading ‘Expert Blogging’. Said, incidentally, is somewhat scathing of ‘expertise and the cult of the certified expert…For “expertise” in the end has rather little, strictly speaking, to do with knowledge.’ Said, Representations of the Intellectual, 77, 79.
48. Dov Jacobs, “Is the Salaita Situation really about ‘Academic Freedom’?”, Spreading the Jam, https://dovjacobs.com/2014/09/13/is-the-salaita-situation-really-about-academic-freedom, September 13, 2014.
49. Ibid.
50. Michael Kearney, Response to Jacobs, “Is the Salaita Situation really about ‘Academic Freedom’?”, Spreading the Jam, September 26, 2014.
51. Said, Representations of the Intellectual, 20.
52. Kearney, Response to Jacobs.
53. Washington, “Black Interpretation,” 210.
54. Orwell, “Politics,” 265.
55. Wright Mills, The Politics of Truth, 19.
56. Said, Representations of the Intellectual, 22.
57. Alex Young, “Killer Mike gives Emotional Speech in Wake of Ferguson Verdict,” Consequence of Sound, November 25, 2014.
58. Kristian Davis Bailey, “Dream Defenders, Black Lives Matter & Ferguson Reps take Historic Trip to Palestine,” Ebony, January 9, 2015.
59. Jordan, Moving towards Home.
60. The influence of the Palestinian struggle on George Jackson’s thought and writings in prison, for example, is vividly detailed in an exhibition entitled ‘George Jackson in the Sun of Palestine’, curated by Greg Thomas of Tufts University and on display indefinitely at the Al-Quds University prisoners’ museum in Abu Dis, Jerusalem from October 2015.
61. Davis, Freedom is a Constant Struggle.
62. Joseph Weiler, “After Gaza 2014: Schabas,” EJIL: Talk!, November 4, 2014.
64. Weiler, “After Gaza 2014.”
65. Falk, “Weakening and discrediting the UN: The Mission of Israeli QGOs,” Global Justice in the 21st Century, https://richardfalk.wordpress.com/2015/04/17/weakening-and-discrediting-the-un-the-mission-of-israeli-qgos, April 17, 2015. Without sufficient prior knowledge of the region, Wibisono was unprepared for the level of obstruction he would meet from Israel; he resigned as a result after just over a year.
66. Allain, “On Coming to Terms,” 155.
67. Marcuse, “Repressive Tolerance” (emphasis added).
68. Said, Representations of the Intellectual, x.
69. Dabashi, “The Discreet Charm,” 7.
70. See, for example, Kubrin and Nielson, “Rap on Trial”; and Tanovich, “R v. Campbell.”
71. Weiler, “After Gaza 2014.”
72. Said, Representations of the Intellectual, 23.
73. Scalmer, “Edward Said,” 46, 49.
74. Scalmer, “Edward Said,” 45.
75. Scalmer, “Edward Said,” 48.
76. Rodney, Walter Rodney Speaks, 111.
77. Marcuse, “Repressive Tolerance.”
78. Ibid.
79. Genet et al., “Jean Genet,” 45–46. Genet spent time in Palestinian camps and PLO training bases on the Syrian–Jordanian border in the early 1970s, and was in Beirut at the time of the Sabra and Shatilla massacre in September 1982. See Genet, “Quatre heures à Chatila.”
80. Abi-Saab, “The Third World Intellectual in Praxis.”
81. Rodney, Walter Rodney Speaks, 112.
82. Rodney, Walter Rodney Speaks, 113.
83. Rodney, Walter Rodney Speaks, 110, 113.
84. “Walter Rodney Memorial Programme,” Kensington Town Hall, July 25, 1980.
85. Rodney, Walter Rodney Speaks, 16, 19.
86. Rajagopal, International Law from Below; and Rajagopal, “Counter-hegemonic International Law.”
87. Said, Representations of the Intellectual, 9.
88. Richardson v. Director of Public Prosecutions [2014] UKSC 8.
89. R. Fraser v. University & College Union, 2203390/2011, Judgment of March 22, 2013.
90. Reynolds, “Anti-colonial Legalities,” 38. See also Knox, “Strategy and Tactics.”
91. Sash Lewis, “The Luminous Bastard,” http://sashlewis.blogspot.com/2009/07/luminous-bastard.html, July 10, 2009.
92. “Statement: Over 80 Academics respond to Steven Salaita Lawsuit Settlement,” http://mondoweiss.net/2015/11/academics-settlement-university.
93. Richard Falk, “A Jurisprudence of Conscience,” Al-Jazeera, November 23, 2011.
94. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, “Concluding Observations: Israel,” UN Doc. CERD/C/ISR/CO/14–16, March 9, 2012, para 24. See also Dugard and Reynolds, “Apartheid.”
95. The Russell Tribunal on Palestine, “Extraordinary Session on Gaza: Summary of Findings,” Brussels, September 25, 2014.
96. Richard Falk, “The Palestinian ‘Legitimacy War’,” Al-Jazeera, December 24, 2010.
97. On the successes of the BDS movement, see, for example, Ben White, “Game Changer: 10 Years of BDS,” Al-Jazeera, July 9, 2015; and “BDS Victories,” https://bdsmovement.net/victories.
98. d’Aspremont, “The International Legal Scholar.”