We condemn the intimidation of our colleagues
We condemn the intimidation of our colleagues for talking about Israel's genocide
Statement condemning the treatment of Professor Richard Falk and Professor Hial Elver, signed by the Directors of 6 Research Centres in Queen Mary University of London
We write this to condemn, in the strongest terms, the interrogation of our colleagues Professor Richard Falk and Professor Hilal Elver by Canadian authorities on “national security” grounds last Thursday as they travelled to the Palestine Tribunal on Canadian Responsibility in Ottawa.
Richard Falk, a former Global Professor at Queen Mary University of London and a former UN Special Rapporteur on Palestinian Human Rights was held and questioned alongside his wife Hilal Elver, also a former UN Special Rapporteur. Richard is co-Director of the Centre for Climate Crime and Climate Justice at Queen Mary and Hilal is formerly a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Queen Mary.
They were both questioned for 4 hours at Toronto Pearson International Airport. Thursday also happened to be Richard’s 95th birthday.
We are appalled at what is a very obvious act of intimidation by the Canadian state. The detention and questioning of Richard and Hilal was clearly aimed at disrupting the Palestine Tribunal on Canadian Responsibility, a peoples’ tribunal established to question the role of the Canadian government in supporting the Israeli state and genocide. Although the tribunal was delayed, Richard and Hilal were able to give evidence. Queen Mary Professors Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian (a member of Queen Mary’s Centre for Law and Society in a Global Context) and David Whyte (co-Director of the Centre for Climate Crime and Climate Justice) also gave evidence at the tribunal. Professor Shalhoub-Kevorkian was previously suspended by her former employer at Hebrew University for speaking out against the genocide, as well as being arrested, detained and subject to inhumane and degrading treatment by Israeli authorities.
Richard and Hilal’s detention is another clear sign of a global clampdown aimed at silencing criticism of Israel for the genocide in Gaza. The detention of Israel’s critics has been a recent feature of US border policies. The events of last week show that this clampdown is spreading across states. We pledge to defend the right of academics and intellectuals to speak freely about the crimes of any state, in any state.
Our Research Centres all conduct research that reflects on and engages with global geographies, economics, politics and law. The Israeli genocide has profoundly affected how we think about and research those global contexts. As the Directors of Research Centres at Queen Mary we will not be intimidated and prevented from conducting research or research-related activities that hold the Israeli state accountable for the ongoing atrocities in Palestine. We expect the senior management of our University to make a similarly unequivocal statement.
We pledge to work in solidarity with the Palestinian people. We are part of a global movement, and because of this we cannot be silenced.