FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contacts:
Sherna Berger Gluck, 310-455-1028, c: 310-383-0010, sbgluck[at]csulb.edu;
David Klein, 818-709-1530, c: 818-723-3362, david.klein[at]csun.edu
Afshin Matin-Asgari – available for interviews on-site on Friday: +1.323-633-4829

What: Informational Picket at the conference of the International Society for Iranian Studies in protest against a speaker from an illegal Israeli settlement
Where: Double Tree Hotel 1707 4th Street, Santa Monica, CA 90401
When: Friday, May 28 10:30 to 12:30

Outraged academics to protest against conference speaker from illegal Israeli settlement

On Friday, May 28 at 10:30 a.m., a group of concerned university professors and their supporters will gather outside the Double Tree Hotel in Santa Monica to hold an “informational picket” to protest the inclusion of a panelist from an illegal Israeli settlement in the conference of the International Society for Iranian Studies (ISIS) being held there.

It all began when a British scholar noticed that one of the conference panelists identified his institutional affiliation as “Ariel University, Samaria, Israel.” Samaria Israel? There is no such place. The so-called “university” is located in Ariel, an illegal settlement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. As Professor Emerita Sherna Berger Gluck noted, “The 4th Geneva Convention prohibits an occupying power from moving its population into occupied territory.” Additionally, as Professor David Klein points out, “Ariel University didn”t go through the normal accreditation process; instead Israel”s Minister of Defense, Ehud Barak, bestowed the university status by decree.”

Despite a protest letter signed by 120 academics, ISIS refused to drop the “Ariel University” identification. “ISIS”s response,” said Professor Vida Samiian “shows that it supports Israeli apartheid and endorses Israel”s brutal occupation.”

The informational picket is sponsored by the nation-wide US Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel committee (www.usacbi.org) and is endorsed by a host of peace and justice organizations, including LA Jews for Peace and Women in Black. They are joined by: Campaign to End Israel Apartheid – SC; USC Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP); LA-Palestine Labor Solidarity Committee; Café Intifada; and Anti-Racist Action/People against Racist Terror.

PROTEST ISIS RECOGNITION OF “ARIEL UNIVERSITY”

Ariel is the fourth largest Israeli settlement in the West Bank built in violation of the Geneva Convention on expropriated Palestinian land.

“Ariel University Center,” the institution identified in Panel #7 is not only an apartheid institution that is located in an illegal settlement, the academic standing of this apartheid institution is suspect. Rather than being accredited through the normal process, it was granted university status by Israeli Minister of Defense.

Despite the protest by 120 academics – many leading Iranian intellectuals among them – ISIS refused to drop its recognition of this institution (for more information and Open Letter: http://www.counterpunch.org/sasan03102010.html). Further, ISIS rejected a compromise proposal by some of its members to identify settler-colonialist Ronen Cohen as an “independent scholar.”

NO TO ARIEL UNIVERSITY

NO TO ISRAEL”S BRUTAL OCCUPATION

Sponsored by US Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (www.usacbi.org)
Endorsed by Anti-Racist Action/People Against Racist Terror (ARA/PART); Café Intifada
Campaign to End Israeli Apartheid (CEIA-SC); LA Jews for Peace; LA-Palestine Labor Solidarity Committee; USC Students for Justice in Palestine (USCSJP); Women in Black