The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) - a founding member of the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), the largest entity in Palestinian society that leads the global BDS movement - sent this letter to ReSource on September 24. Since that time, the number of Palestinians killed by Israel in Gaza has increased to more than 42,000 and injured to at least 99,000. Considering that ReSource still insists on crossing the Palestinian picket line, we call on our supporters in Ireland and the students of Burren College of Art to boycott the symposium hosted by ReSource, Towards Cultures of Healing & Seeing with New Eyes: Making Trauma Visible, which will be held from October 23 - 26.
To: ReSource at Burren College of Art
We are writing to you from the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) urging you to cancel the symposium hosted by your institution, Towards Cultures of Healing & Seeing with New Eyes: Making Trauma Visible, which will be held from October 23 - 26. As planned, and particularly in light of Israel’s ongoing genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in the occupied and besieged Gaza Strip, this symposium crosses the Palestinian picket line, undermines decades of Palestinian struggle towards real freedom, justice and equality, and exacerbates the collective Palestinian trauma.
The invitation and background information you have provided about this event raise many issues that are in violation of the normalization guidelines adopted by consensus by the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), the broadest Palestinian civil society coalition that leads the global BDS movement. Here’s the definition:
Normalization is the participation in any project, initiative or activity, local or international, that brings together (on the same "platform") Palestinians (and/or Arabs) and Israelis (individuals or institutions) and does not meet the following two conditions:
The Israeli side publicly recognizes the UN-affirmed inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, which are set out in the 2005 BDS Call.
The joint activity constitutes a form of co-resistance against the Israeli regime of occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid.
Your symposium, as it stands, is formulated in a way that creates a false premise of symmetry/parity between the oppressors and the oppressed, and assumes that both colonizers and colonized are equally responsible for the “conflict”. We believe that this formulation could be viewed as an ethically dishonest attempt to preserve the illegal status quo, rather than help to challenge it.
Just this past July, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel’s occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is illegal and that it is practicing apartheid against Palestinians. There is a virtual consensus in the international human rights community, including UN experts and Amnesty International, that Israel is guilty of apartheid.
The people of Ireland, having had a long history of resisting colonialism and oppression, is perhaps the most understanding and supportive of the Palestinian liberation struggle in Europe. The Irish understand that colonial rule is not a “conflict” but an oppressive order that must be resisted and dismantled, not sanitized or covered up.
Israel’s live streamed genocide has killed over 41,000 and injured more than 95,000 Palestinians, displaced over two million, and induced starvation among hundreds of thousands. In this context, we believe that the symposium’s focus on trauma, healing and peace-building, while failing to even mention justice, let alone the root cause of the issue, namely, Israel’s 76 years old occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid regime, is a thinly-veiled attempt to whitewash Israel’s genocide and underlying apartheid.
Palestinians have been heartened by the huge mobilizations in Ireland that have seen hundreds of thousands taking to the streets, month after month, to demand action from the Irish government. We have seen the Irish government partially respond to this pressure, including by being the first EU government to call for a ceasefire, to ban Israel from tendering for military contracts, and by divesting from Israeli banks. Most recently we have seen the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) cancel a high profile summit hosted by genocide enabler Red Hat that was scheduled to take place in Croke Park. We know the Irish public stands with Palestine - we ask you to do the same.
If you are unable to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for emancipation and justice, at the very least do no harm to our struggle. Cancel this unethical and traumatizing symposium.
Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI)