Letter to protest against “Procedure for Entry and Residency of Foreigners in Judea and Samaria Region”
Researchers in Japan
（日本語版はこちら。Click here for the Japanese version)
The Israeli Ministry of Defense is planning to implement “Procedure for Entry and Residency of Foreigners in Judea and Samaria Region” on May 2022, regarding the entry and residency of the “foreigners” (a person who is neither a citizen nor a resident of Israel and is not listed in the Palestinian Population Register) in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967[i].
We, researchers in Japan, protest against the Israeli decision to implement this procedure, which violates the academic and educational freedoms. This procedure targets the “foreigners” including the Palestinians holding foreign passports and citizenships, who intend to enter the West Bank through the Allenby bridge connecting it to Jordan with the visa issued by the occupying state of Israel. This procedure puts in the statutory form the policies implemented by the Israeli occupation authorities to regulate and restrict the entry and residency of researchers and students, who wish to study or work in the Palestinian universities in the West Bank, the policy which has isolated the Palestinian academic institutions in the West Bank from the outside world. The contents of this procedure substantively shows that it is the declaration that the Israeli occupation authorities will determine what “foreigners” can study or teach and what they cannot study or teach in the Palestinian universities in the West Bank.
This procedure violates the international laws regarding the occupied territory, the basic human rights and international human rights standards, because it restricts the freedoms of research and education of Palestinians and their possibility of development in those fields, and forces the further isolation of the Palestinian academic institutions in the West Bank. Moreover, for the researchers and students studying on Palestine/Israel and coming from outside of the region, the implementation of the procedure means that their freedoms and possibilities of the research and education will be widely restricted under the regulation and surveillance of the occupying state and this will have significant negative impact on their research and learning.
Birzeit University in the West Bank publicly rejects this procedure because it constricts the fundamental right of Palestinians to education, undermines the academic freedom and autonomy of Palestinians, isolate Palestinian universities from the outside world, and the attack on their right to education and academic freedom is inseparable from the racist and multilayered system of apartheid and persecution[ii], which is the serious violations of the international laws. Birzeit University also calls on all academic organizations and researchers to join them in refusing the procedure and demand that their governments hold Israel accountable for this clear violation of international laws[iii]。
Against these backgrounds and as a response to the call from Birzeit University, we protest against the procedure. We also strongly demand Israeli government to cancel the procedure and not to intervene in the entry and residency of researchers and students in the occupied Palestinian territories including the West Bank any longer. We also strongly urge Japanese government to hold officials of Israeli government accountable to their violations of international law, including the crime of Apartheid, and work on governments including Israeli’s, organizations of the United Nations, International Court of Justice and International Court of Crime in order to have Israeli government abolish all of the institutions and policies including the procedure, which undermine the academic freedom and autonomy in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Signatories
Aoe, TANAMI
Akiko SUGASE, Associate Professor, The National Museum of Ethnology
Akira UENO, Ph.D student, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo
Akira USUKI, Professor, Department of History, Japan Women’s University
Akihisa MATSUNO, Professor Emeritus, Osaka University
Aya TSURUTA, Faculty of International Studies, Chukyo University
Eiichi KIDO, Professor, Osaka University
Eiji NAGASAWA, Professor Emeritus, The University of Tokyo
Eisuke NARAMOTO, Japan Association for Middle East Studies
Fumiko HIRAI, Japan Association for Middle East Studies
Hani ABDELHADI
Hidemitsu KUROKI, Professor, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
Hiromoto KAJI, Aichi University
Hiroshi YASUI, Ph.D student, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokyo
Hiroshige MIZUNO
Hiroyuki, SUZUKI
Junichi TANIGUCHI
Junko HOKI, BDS Japan Bulletin
Kaoru YAYAMOTO, Assistant Professor, Keio University
Kazuko SHIOJIRI, Professor Emeritus, University of Tsukuba
Keiko SAKAI, Professor, Chiba University
Kiriko YOSHIMURA, Kyoto University
Kyoko OKUMOTO, Professor, Osaka Jogakuin University
Masae YUASA, Hiroshima City University
Masato TANAKA
Masahiko OKA
Masako MATSUI, Aichi Gakuin University
Miyuki KINJO, Project Research Fellow, Institute of Ars Vivendi, Ritsumeikan University
Rie TAKAHASHI
Shun, WATANABE
Sung-Il KIM
Takako OKUMURA
Taizo IMANO, Associate Professor, Chukyo University
Yoshihiro YAKUSHIGE, Researcher, Doshisha University
Taro ABE, Professor, Nagoya Gakuin University
Taro TSURUMI, Associate Professor, The University of Tokyo, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Tetsuya OHTOSHI, Waseda University
Tsuyoshi YAMAMOTO
Yasushi MIYAGAWA
and 6 others
[i] “Procedure for Entry and Residency of Foreigners in Judea and Samaria Region”（https://www.gov.il/en/departments/policies/judeaentry2022）; Amira Hass, “Israel to Decide for Palestinians Which Foreign Lecturers Can Teach at West Bank Universities,” Haaretz, 8th March 2022(https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israel-to-decide-which-foreigners-can-teach-at-west-bank-universities-1.10662018）.
[ii] Human Rights Watch Report, “A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution”（https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution）; Amnesty International Report, “Israel’s Apartheid against Palestinians: Cruel System of Domination and Crime against Humanity”（https://www.amnesty.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/MDE1551412022ENGLISH.pdf）; “Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories Occupied since 1967(A/HRC/49/87) (Advance Edited Version)”（https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/report-special-rapporteur-situation-human-rights-20）.
[iii] “Call to Action Birzeit University Rejects Israeli Measures Against Academic Freedom”(https://www.birzeit.edu/en/news/call-action-birzeit-university-rejects-israeli-measures-against-academic-freedom?fbclid=IwAR1G1adbUw56mTTaG36_-Asd2PlYO8LKo8RIAw-qvQYRljyosnujhIlt5QM).
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