[haw-info] Message in support of Professor Rabab Abdul Hadi

Dear Members of H-PAD,

Professor Rabab Abdul Hadi and the Arab Muslim and Ethnicities Diasporas (AMED) Studies program at San Francisco State University (SFSU) have been the target of a number of attacks by right-wing Zionist organizations over the last year. In June of this year, one such group, the Lawfare Project filed a suit against SFSU in an attempt to intimidate Professor Abdulhadi and other faculty and students who teach, conduct research on, or speak in favor of Palestinian rights. The goal of the lawsuit is to both silence them and extract a punishment in order to further intimidate others as well.

The H-PAD steering committee has discussed how best to respond to this clear violation of academic freedom. First, we urge you to sign the petition in the following link in defense of Profesor Rabab Abdul Hadi and the Arab Muslim and Ethnicities Diasporas (AMED) Studies program at SF State. : https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeeArXzfd9MNbGqCIqNGnz3y_yFwYo34Gj1AZEdBiJsW_hizw/viewform

Second, we have sent a letter to SFSU President Wong and the Board of Trustees stating our support for Professor  Rabab Abdul Hadi and the Arab Muslim and Ethnicities Diasporas (AMED) Studies program at SFSU and urging him to take a firm position in favor of academic freedom and in opposition to the attempts of the Lawfare Project's to prevent it. (See below.)

Thank you.

Van Goss, Margaret Power, Andor Skotnes

H-PAD Co-chairs

Below is the letter H-PAD sent in support of Professor Rabab Abdul Hadi. 

Dear Dr. Wong,

We are an organization of historically minded activists, scholars, students, and teachers founded in 2003 at the American Historical Association meeting (www.historiansforpeace.org). Since then, we have defended the rights of both faculty and students to speak out on issues that are not particularly popular. 

We feel compelled to express our concern over the treatment of Professor Rabab Abdul Hadi, an internationally recognized scholar, who has been attacked yet again by the right-wing Zionist organization, The Lawfare Project, and other similar organizations. Like Professor Abdul Hadi, serious scholars around the country have been outspoken in their criticism of Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights. In fact, in 2015 and 2016, our organization introduced resolutions at American Historical Association condemning Israel's attack on the right to education in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

We view open criticism of Israeli policy to be critical to the educational process and deplore all attempts to close it down. Such efforts are an infringement on free speech and academic freedom and are an affront to our roles as scholars and teachers.

It is incumbent on you to protect your faculty and students from attempts to intimidate them and hope that you will take a strong public stand against the false accusations and harassment of Dr. Abdul Hadi and the efforts to quash student activism.

Van Gosse, Co-Chair, Franklin and Marshall College

Margaret Power, Co-Chair, Illinois Institute of Technology

Andor Skotnes, Co-Chair, The Sage Colleges

--

[haw-info] HAW Notes 7/18/17: Links to recent articles of interest

Note: Historians Against the War is in the process of transitioning to Historians for Peace and Democracy (H-PAD), with a new in-progress website at https://www.historiansforpeace.org

Links to Recent Articles of Interest

"The Demolition of U.S. Global Power: Donald Trump's Road to Debacle in the Greater Middle East"

By Alfred W. McCoy, TomDispatch.com, posted July 17

The author teaches history at the University of Wisconsin.

 

"Silencing War Criticism: The Iraq Invasion of 2003"

By William J. Astore, Bracing Views, posted July 17

The author, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, taught history for fifteen years at military and civilian schools.

 

"Vietnam Redux: An Open Letter to Ken Burns"

By Greg Laxer, The Contrary Perspective, posted July 11

The author served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, 1967-71, and is active in Veterans for Peace.

 

"Why Won't China Help with North Korea? Remember 1956"

By Sergey Radchencko, ChinaFile, posted July 9

The author teaches international relations at Cardiff University.

 

"Observations on the Korea Crisis and Donald Trump"

By Gary Leupp, CounterPunch.com, posted July 7

The author teaches history at Tufts University.

 

"The Enemy of My Enemy Is My . . .? The Saudi-American-Iranian-Russian-Qatari-Syrian Conundrum"

By Dilip Hiro, TomDispatch.com, posted July 6

Dilip Hiro is the author of A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Middle East; this article has much historical background.

 

"Now We Know What theState Department Was Hiding"

By Ervand Abrahamian, LobeLog, posted July 4

The author is a professor emeritus of Middle East history at Baruch College and the CUNY Graduate Center. This article concerns recently released documents on the 1954 coup in Iran.

 

"New Left Historian Norman Pollack Has Died"\

By Jesse Lemisch, History News Network, posted July 1

The author is a professor emeritus of history at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York.

 

"Why Is Afghanistan the 'Graveyard of Empires'? A Brief History of the Empires That Were Broken in the Hindu Kush"

By Akhilesh Pillalamarri, The Diplomat, posted June 30

"The 'Global Order Myth: Teary-Eyed Nostalgia as Cover for U.S. Hegemony"

By Andrew Bacevich, The American Conservative, posted June 15

This article was listed in a previous mailing; Rusti Eisenberg suggested it be listed again because of its importance.

 

Thanks to an anonymous reader for suggesting several articles included in the above list. Suggestions can be sent to jimobrien48@gmail.com.

[haw-info] An important message from Historians for Peace and Democracy, formerly Historians Against the War

July 4, 2017

 

Dear Friends of HAW/Historians for Peace and Democracy,

 

            We are writing you because you were once a member of Historians Against the War (HAW) or signed a HAW petition. We want to let you know about some changes we have undergone recently and our current campaign. We hope you will rejoin HAW and/or become active in our work. It is necessary for us to work together to resist the current reactionary politics of the Trump administration. As you may or may not be aware, HAW has undergone some changes recently. In April, we ratified a new policy statement to better address and oppose the perilous times we live in following Donald Trump et al's ascension to power. We also elected a new steering committee (Marc Becker, Matt Bokovoy, Sandra Deutsch, Carolyn Eisenberg, Barbara Epstein, John J. Fitzgerald, Jeri Fogel, Martin Halpern, Tom Harbison, Jeremy Kuzmarov, Staughton Lynd, Jim O'Brien, Roger Peace, Ellen Schrecker, Andor Skotnes, James Swarts, Barbara Weinstein, Max Weiss, Kevin Young) and named Van Gosse and Margaret Power as co-chairs. And, we changed our name to Historians for Peace and Democracy, H-PAD. We hope you are as excited with these changes as we are!

 

            We are now launching a fall campaign of dialogue, "Threats to Democracy, Dangers of War." Via roundtables, workshops, teach-ins, podcasts and more, we will engage students, faculty, and members of the broader community in discussions about the different forms of authoritarianism, anti-democratic governance, and racial injustice that we currently face, how they were countered in the past, and how we can resist them today. To facilitate and maximize the campaign, we have developed a very impressive list of endorsers and a Speakers' Bureau of historians and public intellectuals, who are available for speaking engagements as part of this campaign.

 

We hope you will take part in it this work.

 

            Here's how you can get involved. First, we hope you join H-PAD. To do so, please sign the new membership form we have designed. And – good news -- it should take under one minute to fill out. Please go to https://www.historiansforpeace.org/join-us/ to sign up. We have also designed a new web page, which you can access at https://www.historiansforpeace.org/. Most of all, we hope you become an active member of the ""Threats to Democracy, Dangers of War" campaign.

            Here are some different ways you can become involved (go to the membership form at https://www.historiansforpeace.org/join-us/ to tell how you want to participate):

·      a Teach-In with faculty/student/community participants addressing the range of issues

·      a Roundtable addressing basic civil liberties and rights, with ACLU, law professors etc.

·      hosting a live Streaming of citywide Teach-In with leading scholars and activists

·      hosting a lecture by a historian or activist intellectual from our Speaker's Bureau on one of the major issues connected to rights, repression, or militarism in U.S. history

·      I'm in a major metropolitan area and want to help organize a citywide Teach-In:  put me in touch with other H-PAD members

 

            We look forward to hearing from you. If you have any questions, please contact Margaret Power (power@iit.edu) or Van Gosse (mailto:vgosse@fandm.edu)

 

             

Van Gosse and Margaret Power

--

Margaret Power
Professor of History and Chair of the Department of Humanities
Illinois Institute of Technology
3301 S. Dearborn St.
Room 218 Siegel Hall
Chicago, IL 60616
312-567-6921