We, in the Dutch, European, and International academic and cultural sectors, condemn the brutal Israeli assaults against Palestinians and stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people who are rising up against seven decades of Israeli settler colonial violence. The last week, yet again, witnessed further Palestinian death and dispossession at the hands of the Israeli state; from violent attempts to force out Palestinian inhabitants of Sheikh Jarrah, to the brutal suppression and arrest of protestors, and the horrifying aerial assault over Gaza. As we write, Gaza, the most densely populated besieged Palestinian enclave, is being heavily bombarded by Israeli military from the air and the sea. So far, over 220 Palestinians, including 62 children, were killed and hundreds injured by Israel. The death-toll is increasing by the second, as the world watches and reports on the events in the language of “conflict” and “clashes”. Decades of Palestinian dispossession from land and life, ethnic cleansing, and ecological devastation committed by the Israeli settler colonial state cannot be reduced to ‘a conflict’. We reject this supposedly objective and neutral terminology used in describing these practices of ethnic cleansing.

As scholars, activists, and artists committed to social justice, decolonial, anti-racist, lgbtq, and feminist politics, we cannot and refuse to look away from Palestine. We acknowledge and contest the long histories of colonial and settler colonial violence, and the role of Europe and North America in establishing, supporting, and maintaining the Israeli colonial occupation of Palestine. At a time when public and scholarly critiques of Israel in US and European universities are being silenced by the charge of anti-semitism, we firmly stand by our responsibility to speak out against such grave human rights and environmental violations against Palestinians. This comes from the conviction that a political critique of Israeli apartheid and settler colonial state violence cannot and should not be conflated with the racist speech of anti-semitism.

We commend the people of Palestine all over historic Palestine for their steadfastness and determination to affirm life in the face of such senseless violence.

We urge other academic programmes and departments in the Netherlands, Europe, and internationally, as well as cultural organisations, museums, and activist collectives, to join us in signing this statement to condemn the ongoing Israeli state violence and take collective action to express solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for life in dignity.