*🇵🇸The Nakba - The Catastrophy🇵🇸***

🗓️ 20.10.2024
⏰ 18:00
📍 Friedensgasse 1, 8001 (not 8003) Zürich

From the foundation of the Zionist settler colony to the Phony War; from the hegemonial dreams of the Zionist project to the treacherous plans of the Hashemites; we delve into the surroundings of the genocide on the Palestinian people and explore the crimes that were committed against different Palestinian communities, how the international community failed the people of Palestine and what lead to the tradition of the key as a necklace to be a symbol of the Palestinian struggle and of hope.

Based on a video essay by Bes D. Marx's titled "The Genocide of Palestine, In-depth History", Students for Palestine Zürich invites you to a political discussion that will explore questions that are key to understanding the history of Palestine.

We remind everyone that Students for Palestine does not tolerate hate speech or discrimination of any kind. Remember to be mindful of one another and keep discussions respectful! 💜

Seit mehr als einem Jahr massakriert Israel die palästinensische Bevölkerung in Gaza in einem Genozid und weitet diese lebensverachtende Gewalt mit voller Unterstützung Europas und der USA nun auch auf den Libanon aus.

Zurzeit greift Israel die Zelte in Gaza an, die auf und um die Ruinen des bereits mehrfach bombardierten Al-Aqsa-Märtyrer-Krankenhauses errichtet wurden, und verbrennt Menschen bei lebendigem Leib.
Auf dass sich diese Bilder in unsere Erinnerungen einbrennen!

WE WILL NEVER FORGET!

Trotzdem bleibt die Treue westlicher Regierungen und Staatsapparate zu diesem faschistischen zionistischen Projekt ungebrochen. Nehmen wir uns ein Beispiel an der Standhaftigkeit des palästinensischen Volkes und erheben wir wieder und wieder unsere Stimme auf den Strassen.

FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA, PALESTINE WILL BE FREE !
HOCH DIE INTERNATIONALE SOLIDARITAT!

We’re walking down to Mühlengasse. Join us!

*? Parity Group Statement ?***
The Parity Group, based in the ETHZ architecture department, released a statement on June 3rd, to the executive board of ETH.

Here are some excerpts ?

We are the Parity Group. You may remember us from last year when we were awarded the Prix Meret Oppenheim by the Federal Office of Culture. Back then, ETH put us on the front page of its website.

But now we have been facing, alongside some of our ETH colleagues, a number of defamatory public attacks, and you have not backed us up. Your consecutive public reactions to this have been to silence and scapegoat us rather than to condemn these attacks and show support.

Neither did you reach out to us internally, to enquire about our views or our wellbeing, nor did you offer legal or mental help. Meanwhile, you have policed and sued your own students for protesting a genocide unfolding in front of our eyes, silencing them under the premise of your inconsistent claim to political neutrality.

With a recent death threat issued to one of our colleagues as the sad tipping point, we now reach out to you today to demand that ETH Zurich does what it should have been doing for a long time: to stand up for its own community.

1. Respond adequately to NZZ attacks and offer support for victims.
False NZZ attacks have significantly impacted the professional and personal lives of us and our colleagues.

? We ask the ETH Executive Board to issue a public statement addressing the defamatory nature and impact of the NZZ articles, to put a firm end to the cycle of attacks and threats this has generated.
? We ask the ETH Executive Board to publish the support of gta on all its websites.
? We ask the ETH Executive Board to take its responsibility to ensure a safe working environment at ETH for all, by establishing protocols for handling public attacks and threats, and if needed, ensuring legal action is taken in coordination with the victims.

2. Be transparent and include affected ETH-members and experts from the ETH community in communication and strategic decision-making.
Until now, ETH has neither included nor communicated with, entirely or at least partially, the targeted ETH members on how to address these issues. Instead, ETH acted on their behalf, speaking ‘for’ them and not ‘with’ them, and with this, often neglected their perspectives as well as their well-being.

? We ask ETH leadership to consult the targeted groups and individuals in all strategic decision-making and communication processes and to ensure their well-being. We also ask ETH leadership to seek out and listen to its own experts.
? If safety and respect are core values, we ask ETH leadership to act on verified facts and real cases, not on rumours or unsubstantiated claims.

3. Protect academic freedom and the right to speak up at ETH.
Calling for police evictions and pressing charges on peacefully protesting students is unacceptable, as Amnesty International has also stated.

? We ask ETH leadership to not police peaceful student protests.
? We ask ETH leadership to ensure academic freedom to host public lectures concerning the ongoing genocide in Palestine.
? We ask ETH leadership to not misuse and discredit activism but recognize it as an important and pivotal force to realise ETH’s own ambition to “establish an open university culture.”

We would like to end this letter with one final comment.
We do not and will never tolerate anti-semitism, and will always stand up against all forms of discrimination.

However, we currently witness how certain framings of anti-semitism are used to actively silence scholars.

We believe that there is a clear political agenda to this: to prevent criticism of the state of Israel and its policies, and cut the conversation on zionism, colonialism and its consequences short.

Paraphrasing Edward Said: we do not question anyone’s right to exist, but call to acknowledge everyone’s right to exist. In light of what is happening today, as Parity Group, we have no other option but to stand up for that.

Full statement ?
Link

parity.arch.ethz.ch

Parity Group demand to ETH Zurich leadership to respond to NZZ attacks, unequivocally support targeted staff and ensure a safe…

Parity Talks - Parity Group demand to ETH Zurich leadership to respond to NZZ attacks, unequivocally support targeted staff and ensure a safe and open academic environment.

?? Lunch for Palestine ??

We’ll have an open discussion about the situation in Palestine, ETH's reaction to it and the need for an academic boycott as well as any other questions you might have.

Grab your lunch, bring kuffiyahs, and join us!

⏰ Friday, June 21st, 12h00
? ETH Zentrum: Green Floor (D Floor, CHN Building)

✊? DISCLOSE! DIVEST! WE WILL NOT STOP, WE WILL NOT REST! ✊?

Heute um 17:00 Uhr spricht eine Gruppe von uns in einem Radioprojekt der ZHdK über die Situation in Gaza und Palästina, unsere zwei Encampments und die Repression, welche wir in Zürich und Basel erfahren haben. Schalt dich ein und teile den Link!??
https://fmeral.world

----
Today at 17:00 CET a group of us will go on the ZHdK radio to talk about the situation in Gaza and Palestine, our two encampments and the repression we face in Basel and in Zurich. Listen and share! ??
https://fmeral.world

"But we will not allow the conditions for this to be dictated to us by a faction that continues to present itself anonymously."
Our previous point about the Executive Board's abuse of police violence and legal reprisal explains why our movement remains generally anonymous. Despite this abuse, several members of our movement have had the courage to stand up, show their faces, share their names and interact as spokespeople for the movement. Therefore, we reject Joël Mesot's framing that we are all anonymous. We are not some radicalized external "faction". We are part of the ETH community and the Executive Board's abuses are margnializing us.
"The protests [...] were perceived by many as aggressive and threatening."
The protests were not aggressive and threatening. Justifying calling the Police on students because many "perceived" them as "aggressive and threatening" is worrying.

A more important question would have been: why do you think the protests were perceived as aggressive and threatening? We perceive that this comes from islamophobic sentiments at ETHZ that are fed by the Executive Board's inability to acknowledge the disproportionate murder of Palestinians. An Israeli civilian life is the victim of a terrorist attack by Hamas. A Palestinian civilian life does not exist in the ETH's official statement from 27.10.2023. It's a mere 38'000 casualties in an inevitable war against "Hamas terror".

"We consequently assumed our duty of care towards all employees and students and acted accordingly."
It is worrying that Joël Mesot believes that the Executive Board's duty of care is to send the police to violently suppress students' speech. The consequence of "assuming your duty of care" in such a violent manner is (1) to further feed into growing islamophobic sentiments in Switzerland and the ETH, (2) to marginalize pro-Palestinian voices at ETH, (3) to criminalize students instead of starting a dialogue, and (4) to capitulate to pressure by tabloids and pro-genocide narratives instead of engaging with the ETH community.

"On the contrary, we need to address the issue and create space for a fact-based and respectful academic debate"
We have been trying to create space for fact-based and respectful academic debate. However, pro-Palestinian voices at ETH Zürich have been mostly faced with censorship and police repression by the Executive Board.

"ETH Zurich will never allow itself to be dictated to from outside about the research it engages in."
We want to end this with a reminder: we refuse Joël Mesot's framing that we are an "outside group". We are a part of the ETH community, and our pro-Palestinian voices have been silenced and delegitimized with the Executive Board's abuse of legal reprisal. We want to end the ETH's complacent silence in the face of an ongoing genocide perpetrated by an apartheid state.

Free Palestine! ??

*✉️ Open letter to Swissuniversities ✉️***

In defense of academic freedom, against student repression

You are a professor, a teacher, a researcher, an admin, technical staff or TA?
You are an academic staff member of any kind?
Sign the open letter to swissuniversities!
https://academic-freedom-and-democracy.ch/

Excerpts ?

We, as professors, teachers, researchers and academic staff of Swiss universities and universities of applied sciences, call on swissuniversities to ensure that the institution which represents our academic community at the federal level takes a swift stand against the use of force in the face of student movements and occupations, and for the promotion and protection of academic freedom, currently under attack by the media and targeted by political initiatives seeking to control universities and the knowledge they produce.
We call on swissuniversities to take a firm stand to ensure that violence and intimidation against students and all members of the university community cease immediately. Swissuniversities must commit to guaranteeing freedom of expression in higher education by issuing clear rules of conduct for its members: the use of the police is unacceptable when it aims to prevent dialogue or negotiations.

academic-freedom-and-democracy.ch

Open letter Academic freedom and democracy

This page is the open letter to swissuniversities : In defense of academic freedom, against student repression. June 2024