On Thursday, January 25th, our esteemed colleague, Professor Imad Barghouti, was finally granted the long-awaited opportunity to meet with his lawyer. This meeting, repeatedly rescheduled by Israeli forces without any provided justification, marked a significant moment. Despite his ongoing incarceration without formal charges, the interaction allowed Professor Barghouti’s family to gain direct insight into his health, which has been a subject of concern during his three months long detention. Echoing earlier reports, he has lost a considerable amount of weight. Nevertheless Professor Barghouti remains in relatively good health and displays an incredibly positive spirit. By his own admission, this resilience is largely attributed to the outpouring of solidarity from scientists and scholars across the globe, and the support of his beloved family.

In an emotionally charged moment during the visit, his lawyer presented nearly 200 messages of support from all around the world, collected in mere hours. Our beloved Imad, deeply moved, found it challenging to articulate his immense gratitude for this overwhelming demonstration of love and support.

Despite Professor Barghouti’s optimistic outlook for a prompt release, there have been no recent updates concerning his case or a potential release date. He was sentenced to six months of administrative detention in November, a term with the potential for indefinite extension. This situation underscores the imperative to persistently advocate for the immediate release of Professor Barghouti and all Palestinians unjustly detained in Israeli prisons.

After almost a year in administrative detention, professor Imad Barghouthi has been finally released from prison. Read the full statement here.

Given the current situation in Gaza we feel compelled to give space for some of our colleagues in Gaza to tell us how science and education, and life more generally are being impacted. We hosted a webinar titled “Doing Science under Bombing” today, a recording is available on our Facebook page, and on the webinar’s webpage.

Scientists for Palestine and the Bisan Center for Research and Development are hosting a joint public education event in Arabic for the general Palestinian public to explain the science and efficiency of the available COVID- 19 vaccines with medical experts. The registration page and the speaker’s bios is available here.

The full recording of the webinar on about renewable energy advances in the West Bank and Gaza is available on the webinar’s webpage , as well as the speakers’ presentations.

Mentorship: A Pathway to Succeed
in Medicine and Allied Health Professions

We were very happy to host a webinar with keynote speakers, to address topics ranging from developing strong mentorship relationships to academic research and career/networking advancement. The recording of the webinar is available here as well as the speaker’s slides. Thanks to everyone who participated and to our wonderful panelists!

We are extremely happy to host a panel discussion on “Building a Technology Innovation Ecosystem in the West Bank”.

The recording is now available in our webpage.

Hours before Palestinian Astrophysicist Prof. Imad Barghouthi’s scheduled release on Sunday November 8th, the military commander of the West Bank issued a new administrative detention order extending his imprisonment, which has been going on since July 16th 2020, by an additional three months and three weeks. The justification for this decision by the Israeli military referenced secret files in possession of the Israeli forces, which neither Prof. Barghouthi nor his lawyer have been provided access to.

Prof. Bargouthi continues to be held, in violation of international law, and kept from his family, students, and colleagues. More than a thousand of scholars worldwide have been engaged in demanding the release of the Palestinian Astrophysicist since his unlawful arrest earlier in the year and only weeks before the scheduled beginning of the Fall semester in Palestine.

Administrative detention, a procedure employed by Israeli authorities to jail indefinitely without trial and without charges and used routinely against Palestinians, has been condemned by the UN and is in direct violation of Article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Prof. Bargouthi’s detention has been justified based on his social media activity, but repeatedly judges on his case have ruled in favor of his release during the trial.

However, following an indictment by an Israeli military court, the judge decided to release him on bail on September 2nd. Hours before his release, the Israeli military commander of the West Bank ordered an extension of Imad’s detention until November 15th, in contradiction of the judge’s decision. Again, the judge decided to release him on November 8th which was communicated to his family as definitive. Again, the Israeli military commander has contradicted the judge’s decision.

Scientists for Palestine strongly condemns this unlawful detention of one of our Palestinian colleagues. Prof. Bargouthi’s situation is not uncommon and faced by many Palestinian scientists, students, and others. Through the case of Prof. Imad Barghouthi we hope to find a leverage to bring to the world’s attention also the situation of so many others. So long as this cruel, unlawful system continues, the hopes of Palestinian scientists (young and old) of becoming engaged members of the International Scientific Community will always fall short of becoming a reality!

Our thoughts are with Imad, his family and so many other Palestinians in similar situations. Please sign our petition if you have not done so yet.

A Conversation with Ubai Aboudi

On November 8th Scientists for Palestine will host an entire webinar dedicated to to celebrate the return to his family of our colleague Ubai Aboudi. Ubai will touch upon his experience in military jail, the prospects of education and research in Palestine and many other topics. The meeting will be convened and moderated by Haynes Miller, Professor of Mathematics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. See all details here.

Register for the event here.

After nearly three months of detention, overwhelmingly either without charges or in administrative detention, Prof. Imad Barghouthi will come home!The judge on the case of our the internationally renowned Palestinian astrophysicist, announced that Imad is set to be released on November 8th.

Imad’s family cannot be happier about the news and, along with us, thank dearly the thousands of scholars worldwide who signed the petition to free him and took a stand to support the right to Science of Palestinians. Without your work this would not have been possible!

Today is time to celebrate for this great news, but we will keep following the case closely to avoid further surprises and you should too! Check our website and our Facebook page for the latest updates.

Scientists for Palestine held a plenary panel discussion titled “Challenges and Opportunities for Science in the West Bank and Gaza” in the online conference on “Science, Technology and Human Rights 2020” organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The panel featured Dr. Samah Jabr, Tarek Loubani, M.D., Prof. Rana Samara and Prof. George Smith.

We have just started a new page on our website where we are collecting links to various external resources on online teaching. If you know of other useful resources, please send them to us here.

We are extremely excited to announce a new S4P webinar discussing the various impediments to higher education and research facing Palestinians within the context of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, covering the practical barriers at various functional levels of higher education, up to and including the arbitrary detention of Palestinian academics. The presentation will include a recent paper from the Bisan Center, “The Obstacles of Scientific Research in Palestine”. See all details and how to register here. The event will also be streamed on our Facebook page.

Scientists for Palestine is organizing an online panel discussion with a Q&A session on different post-graduate opportunities outside of Palestine in medicine and medical fields. The event will take place on September 12 at 5PM Palestinian time and registration is required to receive the zoom link. Visit the page below for the speaker list and the registration link. Please share widely with Palestinian medical students or students in medical fields!

We have a brand new FAQ page! If you want to know more about our organization, just click here.

Our colleague Dr. Imad Barghouthi, Professor of Physics at Al-Quds University, who was scheduled to be released on bail within 48 hours, by an order of an Israeli military commander in the West Bank will remain under administrative detention until November 15th.

Prof. Barghouthi was first arrested on July 16th at an Israeli check-point, then held without charges for over two weeks and then finally charged in relation to his Facebook activity. After thousands of scholars worldwide demanded Prof. Barghouthi to be freed from prison, his lawyer successfully argued for his release on bail which on September 2nd was granted by the judge on his case. But just when our hopes rose that Prof. Barghouthi could be freed, reunited with his family and restart his activity as a researcher and mentor of his many students, an Israeli military order was used to override the decision of the judge, indefinitely continuing the unlawful imprisonment of Prof. Barghouthi.

Administrative detention, a procedure employed by Israeli authorities to jail indefinitely without trial and without charges and used routinely against Palestinian, has been condemned by the UN (see for example paragraph 80 of document A/HRC/28/80/Add.1) and is in direct violation of article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

As concerned scientists, we condemn the arbitrary and unlawful administrative detention of professor Imad Barghouthi. This violation of international law and basic human rights is an attack on Prof. Barghouthi and his family, as well as his students and the scientific community everywhere in the world. We therefore demand that the judge rejects the military order and releases Prof. Imad immediately.

Scientists for Palestine organized an online panel discussion with colleagues in Palestine on the impacts of Israel’s annexation plan in research and higher education in Palestine. You can watch the recording of the event here.

A violation of the right to science anywhere is an attack to scientists everywhere.

On Thursday, July 16th 2020, renowned Palestinian scientist Imad Barghouthi was detained by Israeli military forces during a routine stop at a military checkpoint outside of Anata. A military court hearing is scheduled for Thursday July 23rd to discuss the case of professor Barghouthi, an astrophysicist at the university of Al-Quds in East Jerusalem. No charges have been brought against him and his lawyer fears that he will be put under administrative detention, an illegal measure commonly used by the Israeli military forces to put Palestinians in arbitrary detention without any charges or trials.

This is not the first time that the Israeli military forces have arrested professor Barghouti, one of Palestine’s most prominent scientists. In 2014 he was placed under administrative detention for two months, and in 2016 he was again detained for six months. In both cases his arrest triggered a significant indignation of the international Scientific community.

Scientists for Palestine condemns the continuous and arbitrary harassment of Professor Barghouthi in the strongest possible terms and calls on all members of the International Scientific community to demand the immediate release of our colleague. The right to science is protected under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (article 27), as well as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (article 15). The violation of the right to science anywhere is an attack to scientists everywhere.

Today, Wednesday June 10th, Scientists for Palestine joins the strike for black lives standing in solidarity with our black colleagues worldwide in the struggle against the plague of systemic racism.

كرد على الإشاعات التي تدور مؤخرا على الإنترنت، أنشأ 

فريق من جامعة هارفارد بقيادة سارة الزعبي  و أمينة زياد رسوم توضيحية لنشر معلومات صحيحة و دقيقة عن فيروس COVID-19 للمجتمعات العربية حول العالم.

نرجو منك نشر الرسالة إلى أفراد عائلتك و أصدقائك.

In response to the misinformation being circulated online, Harvard University team, lead by Sara Al-Zubi and Amina Ziad, created these infographics with a focus on sharing accurate COVID-19 information with Middle East- North African communities around the world. Please share with your networks and family members!

The third International Meeting for Science in Palestine was a great success, watch this video for the highlights of the weekend:

The meeting aimed to escalate and refine plans toward Scientists for Palestine’s primary objectives of advancing science in Palestine and integrating Palestinian sciences into the international scientific community by: enhancing collaboration between Scientists in Palestine and exile with key partners globally; highlighting Palestinian scientists and scientific development; and devising measurable goals toward these ends. The international meeting provides space to access information about the challenges and successes of Palestinians practicing and researching science under occupation while also providing concrete opportunities for international scientists to get involved. A working group track ran to help develop enhanced strategies to identify mechanisms for sustained international collaboration with and elevation of Palestinian scientists.

The meeting included presentations by Palestinian scientists from both Historic Palestine (Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel) and Palestinians abroad, as well as other young and established scientists from around the world, and will be joined by prominent scientists including 2018 Chemistry Nobel Prize winner George Smith, MacArthur fellow Astrophysicist Nergis Mavalvala, and renowned Palestinian medic and innovator Dr. Tarek Loubani.

The Third International Meeting for Science in Palestine is taking place on January 10-12 at MIT, Boston, USA. The meeting kicks off with a public open event:

The Friday and Saturday events will be live-streamed on S4P’s Facebook page. See here for the program.

A Palestinian US Citizen, a father, a husband, education activist, human rights worker and one of Scientists for Palestine closest partner unlawfully abducted by Israeli military without charge.

Our dear friend and close partner in Palestine, education activist Mr. Ubai Aboudi, remains in Israeli military detention. A Twitter storm, a Facebook storm, and call-in to the US Department of State (DOS) are set for Wednesday January first at 1p.m. EST. Please be ready to tweet, call and post.

Twitter storm for #Freedom4Ubai #Science4Palestine #AdministrativeDetentionIsAWarCrime #EducationNotDetention

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Mr. Ubai Aboudi, one of Scientists for Palestine’s closest partners in Palestine, was brutally abducted from his house on Wednesday at 3 a.m. in the morning and is currently held in jail without charges.

For this reason S4P started a campaign to call for his release which will be escalated in case he is not released on Monday. Our statement has the full support of Ubai’s family as well as the signatures of many prominent scientists among which Nobel prize winner George Smith.

Please share it as widely as possible among your contacts and social media. On top of the moral duty that we have to call for the release of Ubai, with Mr. Aboudi in jail the fate of the upcoming Third International Meeting at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is at stake.

The statement appears below, and here is a link to our Facebook post.

We are very happy to announce that registration for the Third International Meeting for Science in Palestine is now open. We are proud to inform that this third meeting will be hosted the by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston from January 10 to January 12, 2020 and will see the participation of high-profiles figures of the caliber of George Smith, 2018 Chemistry Nobel Prize Winner, Nergis Mavalvala, MIT astrophysicists and MacArthur fellow and Mawan Awartani, Minister of Education of Palestine.

Over the past year, we have expanded and further developed the work and goals of Scientists for Palestine in collaboration with the broader scientific communities and in collaboration with Palestinian civil society. We are most excited to share these developments with you, as your input and participation is critical to the ambitious phase we are entering in the expansion of this important movement.

Please note that the weekend working groups and plenary sessions are strictly for registered participants and that registration will close December 15th, 2019, or whenever we reach capacity. Please also note that registration requires two steps:

1. Registering for the conference by paying the fee here. (basic registration is $10, sponsor options also available); and
2. Completing the registration form here

The third Palestinian Advanced Physics School ended on July 18th 2019. The school took place in Birzeit University and was attended by around 30 students from different universities across the West Bank. An additional 10 students from Gaza, who did not receive travel permits to attend the school, gathered at the physics department of the Islamic University of Gaza to participate remotely in the school, through a video link. In addition to lectures on cosmology, quantum optics, electron microscopy and string theory, there was a public lecture on the expanding universe held at the A.M. Qattan foundation. Overall, the school was a resounding success, with all participants — students, lecturers and organizers — having a great time while learning physics.

The following statement was approved at the Annual General Meeting of Scientists for Palestine on January 13th 2019:

Scientists for Palestine believes that free collaboration among nations is one of the pillars of the way the scientific community should operate. Understanding how this principle is infringed in the case of Palestine is of tantamount importance, as we attempt to explain in this document.

The primary obstacle towards strengthening science in Palestine is the ongoing Israeli  occupation of the West Bank, and the siege of the Gaza strip. The occupation infringes on:

1. The right to education of the Palestinian people: through systematic forced closure [1], raids [2], destructions and even bombing [3] of Palestinian universities, schools [4] and scientific infrastructures, Israeli forces prevent Palestinians from having the right to their own education [5], a right which is protected by Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights [6]. Furthermore, there have been instances in which established academics have been held in Israeli jails with neither trial nor official charges, apparently just for criticizing these policies [7].
2. The freedom of movement: the mobility of Palestinian scientists and students is critically limited by checkpoints in the West Bank [8], which tremendously delay internal travel, an incredibly convoluted system of permits to leave Gaza [9], which makes it a de facto open air prison, and the lack of a single operating airport between the West Bank and Gaza. Modern scientific collaboration can only flourish when scientists are free to travel and are able to experience an exchange of ideas and perspectives.
3. Access to equipment and infrastructure: Israeli institutions control nearly everything that comes into Gaza and the West Bank, severely restricting what can be imported [8], as well as the granting of planning permissions in ‘Area C’ of the West Bank. This makes it almost impossible for Palestinian scientists to build experiments or the infrastructure needed for large scientific projects.

Those restrictions have a strong impact on potential collaborations between the Palestinian academic community and the international scientific community, including in particular Israel. In fact:

1. There cannot be a true and fair collaboration between Palestinians and Israelis as long as the former do not have free access to the academic and scientific resources and infrastructure that the latter have (residents of the West Bank and Gaza cannot freely travel to Israel, for instance).
2. As discussed above, the primary obstacle to Palestinian scientific progress is not a lack of friendliness, but instead those policies implemented by the Israeli government, many in open violation of international law, which repress and discriminate Palestinians.

The Palestinian academic community has largely recognized that their Israeli colleagues’ denouncement and active opposition to the occupation are important. This must be clearly understood as a joint opposition effort between partners that are unequal due to the impacts of the ongoing occupation. Such joint opposition efforts are in contrast to activities that, under the pretext of collaboration, ignore – and thereby normalize – the impact of the occupation in science. Efforts from Israeli academics and scientists of conscience recognizing the situation described in this document and condemning without reservation human right abuses against Palestinians should be encouraged.

References:

[1] University Closure History | Birzeit University.
[2] Birzeit University denounces early-morning campus raid by Israeli military (2017, 14 Dec).
Al-Quds University strongly condemns the raid by the Israeli forces of its campus (2017, 18 Dec).
[3] Israel strikes university in Gaza city, (2014, 2 Aug).
[4] EU Local statement on the dismantling of schools in the West Bank (2018, 26 Oct.).
[5] Israel’s assault on Palestinian universities is a threat to human rights and a tragedy for this generation of students (2018, 21 Oct).
[6] The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
[7] Starved of justice: Palestinians detained without trial by Israel.
[8] Nature: In the Palestinian territories, science struggles against all odds.
[9] Science in the Gaza Strip: the impact of the Israeli occupation. Video produced by Scientists for Palestine.

Scientists for Palestine had its second Annual General Meeting on Sunday, January 13th 2019, the first one since the constituent General Meeting where S4P’s constitution was approved. During this important meeting members came together to assess the actions of the organization over the last year, and to discuss the direction to take for the future year. Members also voted and passed various amendments to the S4P constitution which was thus accordingly modified, other resolutions and elected the leadership of the organization for the following year.

Our  Second International Meeting for Science in Palestine ended this Sunday at Columbia University, NY, USA.

We are tremendously grateful to everyone who took the time to participate. The weekend was an incredible success and it was beyond wonderful seeing so many people, coming from different backgrounds and sharing different skills, all working towards the same goal: developing innovative visions to support and advanced the integration of the Palestinian scientific community into the broader international community.

If you missed the meeting you can watch the recordings of the events on our Facebook page, direct links to the various sessions are available here.

Friday’s public event was streamed live, and can be seen here.

The meeting’s sessions are being streamed live on our Facebook page. The first session is here.

The second International Meeting for Science in Palestine will start soon at Columbia University, NY, USA.

The meeting starts this Friday at 5:30PM with a public event on Doing science under military occupation: the case of Palestine.

The rest of the weekend is for registered participant only, but we will try to live-stream the meeting – more information will be posted here and on our facebook page.

You see the full program here.

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The program of the Second International Meeting for Science in Palestine is now available here.

The meeting will open with a public event on Doing science under military occupation: the case of Palestine.

The meeting will continue on Saturday and Sunday with sessions for registered participants only. We will hear updates from Palestinian academics on their research along with the challenges they face to carry it out. The meeting will be a unique opportunity to connect with concerned scientists who are willing to work to help build connections with Palestine.

The Second International Meeting for Science in Palestine will open with a public event discussing the circumstances faced by Palestinian academics, and scientists in particular, and what we can do to help.

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Applications are still open for the Second International Meeting for Science in  Palestine, the event is for registered participants only.

If you would like to participate please don’t forget to fill out the application form here. The application deadline is October 30th 2018.

Scientists for Palestine is raising funds for the Second International Meeting for Science in  Palestine, and we need your support.

Most of the money collected here will go towards the essential expenses to run the meeting and in particular towards funding airfare and visa fees for our Palestinian colleagues to make it possible for them to attend the gathering. The breakdown will be as follows:

• $ 3400 will go towards reimbursing visa and travel expenses for Palestinian scientists.
• $ 1000 will go towards meals during the event and one social dinner.
• $ 600 will go towards advertisment and extra expenses.

No donation is too small, and all contributions are greatly appreciated!

From November 9th through 11th, 2018 Scientists for Palestine and many other members of the international scientific community, will gather at Columbia University in the City of New York for our Second International Meeting for Science in Palestine, a weekend-long meeting involving multiple plenary and parallel sessions.

The goal of the workshop is to reaffirm our vision and establish new and ambitious objectives for scientific collaboration between the Palestinian and the international community, transcending the limitations caused by 50 years of ongoing occupation.

International meetings for science in Palestine are essential to break the international isolation of the Palestinian academic community. Though organising high-level scientific events requires funding. To make sure that Palestinian academics are able to participate and take an active role in the event we need to face the high cost of airfares and visa fees. Unfortunately securing funding for non-standard scientific gatherings like the upcoming one at Columbia University, can be challenging. Very few universities, laboratories, or science agencies provide funding for such events.

From November 9th through 11th, 2018 Scientists for Palestine and many other members of the international scientific community, will gather at Columbia University in the City of New York for a weekend-long meeting involving multiple plenary and parallel sessions. The event is co-sponsored by the Center for Palestine Studies at Columbia University, Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine, Science for the People and Within our Lifetime • United for Palestine. This will be Scientists for Palestine’s second international gathering, after a similar initiative hosted earlier this year at the University of Cambridge, UK.

The event is only open for registered participants, if you would like to participate please fill out the application form. The application deadline is October 30th 2018. Up to date information will be available in the gathering’s webpage, and on the Facebook event.

Participants are expected to make their own travel and accommodation arrangements.

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