Digital resources in the Social Sciences and Humanities OpenEdition Our platforms OpenEdition Books OpenEdition Journals Hypotheses Calenda Libraries OpenEdition Freemium Follow us

Tagged: protests

‘Acting Like a Law’: Regulating ‘Care’ Through Germany’s Anti-BDS Resolution

By Sophia Hoffinger. In May 2019, the German Parliament (Bundestag) passed a resolution condemning the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, a campaign initiated in 2005 by Palestinian civil society actors to pressure Israel into complying with international law. The resolution passed with the support of all major political parties, except for Die Linke and the Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). The story of the anti-BDS resolution in Germany raises pertinent questions about the relationship between law, the state, and the mobilization of antiracist principles: what does the application of a non-legally binding resolution as quasi-law reveal about the underlying norms shaping perceptions of history, Palestinians, Jews, and their relationships with Germany? Whilst laws are coercive, I suggest that quasi-laws like the BDS resolution present a site where we can follow the iteration and sedimentation of norms, which gives insights into how care is distributed between racialized subjects in Germany.

On the Margins of the University: Academics in the Face of Power in post-2016 Turkey

By Alihan Mestci. Culture is a battle that “has not yet been won” – this has been iterated on numerous occasions by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ever since late 2016, the year of the July 15th coup attempt. The state of emergency has given a legal blank check for thousands of dismissals in the civil service as well as for the criminalization and marginalization of dissenting voices from the media and civil society.

A Small Rift in the United States Regarding Palestine: A Shift in Rhetoric, But What About Foreign Policy?

By Jeffrey G. Karam. For decades, the United States’ steadfast support for Israel has been one of the pillars of its foreign policy in the Middle East. This has allowed successive Israeli governments to act with impunity and evade accountability for crimes against Palestinians.

Teaching Science Fiction While Living It in Lebanon

By Nadya Sbaiti. What is the point of teaching dystopian science fiction when actually living something just as terrifying? Reflecting on the last year in Lebanon, this essay argues for the pedagogical power of sci fi in thinking through the country’s popular uprising, economic implosion, pandemic, and port explosion.