Join us online for this special webinar to discuss Nick Riemer’s important new book on Boycott Theory and the Struggle for Palestine: Universities, Intellectualism and Liberation

With author Dr. Nick Riemer (University of Sydney) and readers Dr. Yara Hawari (Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network) and Dr. Brendan Browne (Trinity College Dublin). 

Hosted by Academics for Palestine and the Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign 

Wednesday 28 June 2023, online on zoom at 12pm Irish time / 2pm Palestine. 

Join Zoom Meeting: https://tcd-ie.zoom.us/j/97990434288
Meeting ID: 979 9043 4288

About the book:

Boycott Theory and the Struggle for Palestine

Universities, Intellectualism and Liberation

NICK RIEMER

The academic boycott of Israel, a branch of the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, is one of the richest—and most divisive—topics in the politics of knowledge today. In Boycott Theory and the Struggle for Palestine, Nick Riemer addresses the most fundamental questions raised by the call to sever ties with Israeli universities, and offers fresh arguments for doing so. More than a narrow study of the boycott campaign, the book details how academic BDS relates to a range of live controversies in progressive politics on questions such as disruptive protest, silencing and free speech, the real-world consequences of intellectual work, the rise of the far right, and the nature of grassroots campaigning. 

Written for open-minded readers, the book presents the fullest justification for the academic boycott yet given, considering BDS efforts on campuses around the world. The opening chapters explore the fundamentals of the academic boycott campaign, detailing the conditions on the ground in Palestinian and Israeli higher education and analyzing debates over the boycott and its adoption or resistance in the west. The later chapters contextualize the boycott with respect to broader questions about the links between theory and practice in political change. Directly rebutting the arguments of BDS’s opponents, Boycott Theory and the Struggle for Palestine demonstrates the political and intellectual soundness of a controversial and often misrepresented campaign. In defending an original view of the differences between reflecting on politics and doing it in the specific context of the liberation of Palestine, the book’s arguments will have a resonance for many wider debates beyond the context of either universities or the Middle East.

https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538175866/Boycott-Theory-and-the-Struggle-for-Palestine-Universities-Intellectualism-and-Liberation

About the author:

Nick Riemer is senior lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Sydney. As a Palestine solidarity activist, Riemer has published widely in both academic and popular outlets and been criticized openly by conservative media. In addition to his Palestine solidarity work, his political activity includes long-term, close involvement both with the Australian National Tertiary Education Union and with the Refugee Action Coalition in Sydney, a grassroots refugee rights group. He has written for The Guardian, Jacobin, Al Jazeera English, The Australian, The Sydney Morning Herald and many other publications.

Self-determination under occupation: the enduring reality in (what remains) of Palestine

Maxwell Theatre, Hamilton Building, Trinity College Dublin, 6.30pm

Francesca Albanese is the successor to Michael Lynk, whose report last year concluded that Israel was practising apartheid in the Occupied Territories. Ms Albanese’s first report in her UN role was published last autumn, and her second, focussing on Israel’s carceral regime, is due this month.

Francesca Albanese was appointed the ‘Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967’ by the UN Human Rights Council at its 49th session in March 2022 and has taken up her function as of 1 May 2022. She is a lawyer by training, specialising in human rights. Albanese is an Affiliate Scholar at the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University, as well as a Senior Advisor on Migration and Forced Displacement for a think-tank, Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development (ARDD). She has widely published on the legal situation in Israel and the State of Palestine. Her book Palestinian Refugees in International Law, co-authored with Lex Takkenberg, is considered a milestone in refugee academic literature. She regularly teaches and lectures on international law and forced displacement at universities in Europe and the Arab region. Albanese has also worked as a human rights expert for the United Nations, including the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees.