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Everyone wants to ‘decolonise’ until… Palestine.


 


 

Some of us writing this are Palestinian, some have relatives in Israel, some of us are Jewish, some are Muslim, but all of us align with anti-colonial solidarity and ask LSHTM to explicitly do the same.


It is imperative that we understand that standing against Israeli apartheid and genocide is not anti-semitic. In the words of Na’amod (British Jews Against Occupation) ‘We stand against antisemitism and Islamophobia with the same determination that we oppose the occupation and apartheid’.


We include a list of statements by colleagues in Palestine and by higher education and global health/development institutions around the world expressing anti-colonial solidarity with Palestine below. We also include a list of organisations supporting Palestinians under attack by the State of Israel in occupied Gaza. If you can, please donate now.

 

In response to direct calls from colleagues at universities in Palestine for international academic institutions to maintain a critical distance from state-sponsored propaganda, and to hold the perpetrators of genocide and those complicit with them accountable, we express our explicit anti-colonial solidarity with Gaza and the rest of Palestine.


We call on LSHTM as an institution and as a community to do the same.


LSHTM have today published a statement on ‘Israel and Gaza’.


The statement does not explicitly name and condemn the apartheid, war crimes and genocide being enacted on the Palestinian people by the State of Israel, as many institutions and groups (see list of statements below) including the UN OHCHR have publicly done.


In the statement, LSHTM ‘encourage our community to take every opportunity to advance your own learning of the events that are happening” and note that LSHTM is “an institution committed to fostering a culture of inclusivity and thoughtful, reflective discourse”. The statement also states that "Neither harassment nor intimidation based on religious or cultural beliefs is acceptable”. We support all of these principles.


However, the LSHTM statement does "recognise that there are many divergent views". We disagree. There are no legitimate nor acceptable ‘divergent views’ on apartheid, genocide, and war crimes. This must be named and condemned.


All that is recognised in the LSHTM statement in terms of the violence is that “the horrifying nature of attacks and the humanitarian crisis unfolding across Israel and Gaza is being felt globally”. In terms of our duty to global public health the statement notes that “As a leading public and global health university, we have a role in looking at how this grave situation is impacting health and healthcare needs, and providing our expertise wherever needed. As an institution with humanitarian values we are committed to the preservation of human life and hope for a swift end to hostilities to prevent further loss of life and harm to people and communities.”


But LSHTM needs to enact now its value to ‘act with integrity’, which includes that “We need to know where we’ve come from and stay alive to the impact of the choices we’re making today, so we can keep on doing things better in the future”. In light of its commitment to ‘act with integrity’, and given its historical ties to colonialism and its international presence and central role in global health, LSHTM must engage in decolonisation efforts in solidarity with Palestine now, to rectify past injustices and uphold its mission to ‘improve health worldwide’.


Much of the LSHTM community are waiting for the Institution to explicitly and publicly condemn the State of Israel's colonial-settler occupation and genocide of Palestinian people, and align itself with the anti-racist and decolonial agenda it has committed to through a range of projects and activities over the past two years. Others are calling on groups and individuals within the Institution who hold power to advocate upwards to LSHTM’s leadership and governing structures for this also.


We recognise and are dismayed to see the suffering of, and violence perpetrated against every single life in this catastrophe. We do not favour one life over another. We know that Palestinian liberation needs to be combined with the emancipation of Israeli society itself (see Gilbert Achcar). But we will also not stay ‘neutral’ or support ‘neutrality’. An occupying colonial power cannot claim the right to self-defence against the people under its brutal occupation. There is no moral equivalence between the coloniser and the colonised (Birzeit University, Palestine) .


LSHTM and its community need to stand in anti-colonial solidarity with Palestine now and actively engage in a re-politicised, pro-decolonisation humanitarian/global health discourse.


Where is ‘decolonisation’ now?


If we as the LSHTM community sign up to a ‘decolonial agenda’ (as the Institution and many individuals, centres and other groups have committed to in recent years), we must stop reducing decolonisation to conscientisation and instead recognise it as a concrete practice. We must work to deconstruct and dismantle colonial practices and ideologies, rather than only focusing on some of the downstream manifestations of these legacies. We must actively and concretely support decolonisation in practice, and focus on how this can take form in aiding the people of Gaza.


Neutrality…?


Working within global/humanitarian health is inherently political. Attempts to depoliticise global and humanitarian health is in itself a political position that accepts the status quo and delegitimizes any challenge to the current world order (Aloudat and Khan, 2022). In conversation with some individuals and groups at the School, certain structures and rules within LSHTM enforcing ‘the need for neutrality’ and ‘instruction that political views are not permitted’ in public facing statements and communications has been cited. We see this as selective. LSHTM is not bound by the principle of neutrality, and has many times made politically informed statements and taken a strong political stance, for example on ‘the War in Ukraine’.


To remain 'neutral' in such contexts can be interpreted as tacit endorsement of the prevailing disparities and political inequalities within global health and humanitarian issues, and in this case, genocide.


We ask LSHTM not to choose ‘neutrality’ now.


The FAIR Network




Higher education and global health/development institutions expressing anti-colonial solidarity with Palestine

Organisations supporting Palestinians under attacks by the State of Israeli in occupied Gaza

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