09.03.2020, 15:15
Dear signatories of our petition,
Since some time, the number of signatories of our petition has been stagnant. We are now 1587, of which about 130 are German professors.
Yet today I got knowledge of a letter of February 26 to the HRK president. This letter may be found here:
www.brismes.ac.uk/images/BRISMES2020/caf_26022020_signed.pdf
It is from the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies, signed by its president, the Baroness Prof. em. Haleh Afshar, peer of the House of Lords.
The letter does not leave any explicitness to be desired: The HRK recommendation of applying the IHRA definition of antisemitism is “incompatible with the principles of academic freedom". Likewise, the HRK’s claim that the BDS movement is antisemitic will “impede the right of academics to speak about and research the BDS movement, for students to learn about, discuss, and debate the movement in a free and open manner, and for students and academics to engage in entirely legitimate political activity on and off university campuses”. Undoubtedly the resolution will “have a chilling effect on academic freedom” particularly because “85 percent of staff in universities and research institutes below the rank of full professor are working on fixed-term contracts”.
Against that “chilling effect” we warmly recommend this letter as an example for imitation.
Cordially, for the initiators,
Rolf Verleger