14.03.2020, 15:24
Dear signatories,
Triggered by the letter recently sent from the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies to the president of Germany’s conference of academic rectors (HRK), we made contact with Gilbert Achcar, professor at the SOAS University of London.
Yesterday he became a signatory of this petition and inspired several other people to sign, such that overnight we have two dozen more signatories, including professors John Chalcraft, Lutz Marten, and Avi Shlaim from Great Britain, Karima Laachir from Australia, and Rashid Khalidi and Stephen R. Shalom from the U.S.A.
At this moment, we are 1,627 signatories, including about 130 German professors and about 50 professors from abroad.
Thanks to all of you! And let’s keep on raising our voices for freedom of speech in general, and for academic freedom in particular.
Just yesterday I was asked whether the German text of the resolution by HRK could be translated to English, so everybody signing this English version of the petition may actually know what she/he objects to.
I will send out that text in a separate message, due to limitations on message length imposed by this system.
Stay healthy (zy gezind, as my ancestors used to say in Yiddish)
Rolf Verleger