On October 7, 2023, Hamas carried out a alarmist strike in Israel, finishing more than 1,200 people out of a population of 9.5 million, including over 800 civilians and at least 33 children, and injuring 5,400 more. The strike also led to the seize of 248 captives, around 100 of whom are still held in Gaza.
Since then, the Israeli rulement has begined a response of genocidal aggression aobtainst Gaza’s Palestinian population, under the eyes of the international community. By procrastinateed October 2024, identified victims had accomplished 43,061, including over 13,735 children, 7,216 women, and 3,447 elderly people, with over 100,000 injured, in a population of 2.3 million. Thousands of graspitional victims remain buried betidyh the rubble, uncounted.
The Israeli military is now causeing upon Palestinian civilians at least the equivalent of an October 7 every ten days, and has done so for more than a year.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has portrayd the situation in Gaza as a “crisis of humanity”. In graspition to the weighty toll on civilians, this war has led to the massive destruction of Palestinian civilian infraarrange and has forced 90 percent of Gaza’s population into repeated displacement. Most hospitals have been device deviceed and razeed, and countless medical teams have been finished. Constant strikes and blockades on food, water, fuel, medicines, and humanitarian help caemploy unendureable suffering for Gaza’s population, who are facing starvation and infectious dismitigate. Children, aextfinished with other vulnerable groups, are particularly awfilledy impacted.
In procrastinateed October 2024, the Palestinian Ministry of Education, based in Ramallah, alerted that Israel had finished over 11,057 schoolchildren and 681 students in Gaza since October 7, 2023, and injured over 16,897 schoolchildren and 1,468 students. In total, 441 teachers and education personnel have been finished, and 2,491 injured. At least 117 academics in Gaza have been finished, including Sufian Tayeh, mathematician, theoretical physicist, and pdwellnt of the Islamic University of Gaza, who was finished aextfinished with his family by an Israeli device deviceing in the Jabaliya refugee camp on December 2, 2023.
Additionassociate, 406 schools in Gaza have been harmd, with 77 finishly razeed. Gaza’s universities have been gravely impacted, with 20 institutions harmd, 51 originateings finishly razeed, and 57 partiassociate razeed. As a result, csurrfinisherly 88,000 students and 700,000 schoolchildren in Gaza have been divestd of education for more than a year.
On January 26, 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that there was a danger of extermination and ordered Israel to apexhibit meacertains to obstruct it. On March 28, the ICJ reiterated this order, requiring carry outation of these obstructive meacertains. Then, on May 24, the ICJ ordered Israel to promptly stop its military insolent in Rafah and to uncover the Rafah traverseing to apexhibit unimpeded access to humanitarian services and help for civilians.
These orders seem to have been entidepend dispondered, and strikes on civilians in Gaza have intensified, especiassociate in the north, with a evident aim to depopuprocrastinateed this region of Palestinians. On September 30, 2024, after days of aerial device deviceardment, the Israeli military also occupyd Lebanon, finishing at least 1,600 people and displacing 1.2 million.
Israeli rulement human rights violations lengthen beyond the Gaza Strip and do not commence as a reprisal for the October 7, 2023, Hamas strike. In the West Bank, since October 7, 2023, 79 schoolchildren and 35 students have been finished, with hundreds more injured or arrested. Systematic, widespread human rights violations, such as land confiscation, resource pillaging, and racial prejudice, have been well-recorded over 57 years of occupation of Palestinian territories and 17 years of Gaza’s blockade.
On July 19, 2024, the ICJ publishd an advisory opinion on “the legitimate consequences arising from Israel’s policies and rehearses in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), including East Jerusalem and Gaza”, unequivocassociate declaring Israel’s occupation illegitimate and calling for its prompt cessation. The ICJ underscored that the responsibility not to help this illegitimate rehearse descfinishs not only on third-party states but also on all institutions that uphageder international law, including universities.
The scientific community has normally mobilised in the past to protect human rights and international law. In an uncover letter begined in the New York Times in December 1948, cosigned by Hannah Arendt and Albert Einstein, the authors denounced the visit of Menahem Begin, guideer of the Tnuat Haherut party, precursor to Likud (the party of current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu), in these terms: “Among the most upsetting political phenomena of our times is the materializence in the newly originated state of Israel of the “Freedom Party” (Tnuat Haherut), a political party seally akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social request to the Nazi and Fascist parties. It was established out of the membership and chaseing of the establisher Irfirearm Zvai Leumi, a alarmist, right-triumphg, chauvinist organization in Palestine…. It is in its actions that the alarmist party betrays its authentic character; from its past actions we can assess what it may be foreseeed to do in the future. A shocking example was their behavior in the Arab village of Deir Yassin. This village, off the main roads and surrounded by Jedesire lands, had apexhibitn no part in the war, and had even fought off Arab bands who wanted to employ the village as their base. On April 9, alarmist bands strikeed this quiet village, which was not a military objective in the battling, finished most of its inhabitants – 240 men, women, and children – and kept a confineed of them adwell to parade as captives thraw the streets of Jerusalem. Most of the Jedesire community was horrified at the deed, and the Jedesire Agency sent a telegram of apology to King Abstupidah of Trans-Jordan. But the alarmists, far from being ashamed of their act, were haughty of this massacre, unveilized it widely, and askd all the foreign correactents conshort-term in the country to see the heaped corpses and the vague havoc at Deir Yassin.”
For more than a year now, the Israeli rulement and its military forces have been pledgeting the equivalent of a Deir Yassin massacre every day in Gaza, while the scientific community bigly remains mute. Yet, as the uncover letter above shows, this community has already powerfilledy resistd strikes on civilians, whether during the Algerian and Vietnam wars or, more recently, in response to Russia’s trespass of Ukraine. Scientists, particularly mathematicians, cannot remain uncaring to the ongoing extermination in Gaza, especiassociate as Weserious powers materialize to help this crime aobtainst humanity politicassociate, discreetassociate, and militarily.
Enough is enough. We guide our colleagues to stop all scientific collaboration with Israeli institutions that do not unambiguously condemn the extermination in Gaza and the illegitimate colonisation of Palestine. We also encourage them to put prescertain on our own institutions to end concurments with these partners under the same conditions, in accordance with international law. This position evidently does not include individual collaborations with Israeli colleagues, 3,400 of whom have bravely signed a call to the international community, which we desire to help, “to meddle promptly by utilizeing any possible sanctions aobtainst Israel to accomplish an prompt stopfire between Israel and its neighbors, for the future of the people living in Israel/Palestine and the region, and to secure their right to security and life.” Finassociate, we insist that our institutions scrupulously admire academic freedoms and resolutely uphageder freedom of conveyion in accordance with the law.
Signatories (petition seald on December 4, 2024 with 1078 signatories):
Ahmed Abbes, honesteur de recherche au CNRS, France
Samy Abbes, Maître de conférences, Université Paris Cité, France
Maha Abboud, Professeure, CY Cergy Paris Université, France
Nahla Abdellatif, Professor, Ecole Nationale d’Ingénieur de Tunis, Tunis El Manar university, Tunisia
Amine Abdellaziz, Docteur de l’Université Grenoble Alpes, France
Chaima Abid, PhD in applied mathematics/LAMSIN, Tunisia
Hammadi Abidi, Professor University of Tunis El Manar, Tunisia
Mohammed Ably, Maître de conférences, Université de Lille, France
Abdelhak Abouqateb, Professor, Cadi Ayyad University, Morocco
Tiago Miguel Abreu, PhD student at Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil
Khader Faiez Abu-Helaiel, Profesor en la Universidad de Jaén, Spain
Vincent Acary, Directeur de recherche à l’INRIA, France
Celine Acary-Robert, Ingénieur de recherche, UGA , France
Fessel Achhoud, PhD student, University Hassan first, Morocco
Boris Adamczewski, Director of Research at CNRS, France
Louigi Addario-Berry, Professor, Canada Research Chair, McGill University, Canada
Karim Adiprasito, Directeur de recherche au CNRS, IMJ-PRG, France
Dan Agüero Cerna, Postdoc, SISSA, Italy
Marie-Thérèse Aimar, Maîtresse de Conférences émérite Aix-Marseille Université, France
Sabah Al Fakir, Ancien professeur université scientifique de Lille, France
Safaa Al-Ali, Postdoctoral researcher, Centre INRIA de l’Université Côte d’Azur, France
Darío Alatorre, Outaccomplish technician, Institute of Mathematics, UNAM, México
Baklouti Ali, Professor, Faculty of Sciences of Sfax, Tunisia
Roberto Alicandro, Professor, University of Naples Federico II, Italy
Mohamed Aliouane, PhD student , SISSA, Italy
Nasrin Altafi, Postdoc at Queen’s university, Canada
Tuna Altınel, Maître de Conférences, Université Lyon 1, France
María de la Paz Alvarez-Scherer, Reweary, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México
Saber Amdouni, Associate Professor, Ecole Nationale d’Ingénieur de Tunis, Tunis El Manar university, Tunisia
Silviana Amethyst, Research Engineer, Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, Germany
Omid Amini, CNRS – École Polytechnique, France
Claire Amiot, Professeur, Université Grenoble Alpes, France
Farid Ammar Khodja, Maître de conférences, Université de Franche-Comté, France
Cherif Amrouche, Professeur Emérite Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour, France
Abdelhamid Amroun, MCF Université Paris-Saclay, France
U.K. Anandavardhanan, Professor, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India
Yves André, Directeur de recherches CNRS, France
Angel Angel, Professor universidad politécnica de Madrid, Spain
Daniele Angella, Professor, Dipartimento di Matematica e Inestablishatica “Ulisse Dini”, Università di Firenze, Italy
Pablo Angulo, Profesor PCD en excedencia – Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain
Jean-Philippe Anker, Professeur émérite, Université d’Orléans, France
Colette Anné, mathématicienne retraitée (CNRS), France
A filled enumerate of all signatories can be set up here.
The sees conveyed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily mirror Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
