Birzeit University continues to lose international faculty as Israel persists in discriminatory policy


Birzeit University International Staff Training Week, 2019

Birzeit University reports:

Heightened restrictions on Birzeit University’s right to hire and maintain international faculty persist into the 2019-2020 academic year. Israel has escalated what can only be understood as a policy whose ultimate goal is the elimination of any international faculty presence at Palestinian universities. Our 14,800 students returned to classes on 4 September with a third of their international faculty missing, the Israeli authorities having denied them entry or forced their departure by refusing them any viable means to stay in the country or return. The status of international faculty able to make it to campus remains extremely precarious; 60% have lapsed or only short-term visas due to expire before the end of the first semester. In short, except for a handful of instructors under foreign government fellowships or programs, all of our international faculty currently in the country are under constant threat of deportation.

Israel’s pursuit of this policy threatens to empty Palestinian classrooms and campuses of international faculty. Our numbers of international staff continue to fall while our departments and programs cannot entertain the possibility of recruiting further international faculty. Last year, more than twelve of our academic programs were negatively affected by this destructive policy; many of them are now being further compromised.

Birzeit University will continue to challenge Israel’s discriminatory and destructive policy which is in contravention of international law and all universally accepted standards of academic freedom. With the support of Palestinian human rights organizations Adalah and Al-Haq, we are moving forward with our legal challenge. We call on the international community to meet its own obligations in ensuring that Israel uphold these standards and the Palestinian right to education more generally.

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