[Air-L] The difficult conversation we don't seem to be having

[Sky Croeser]

Several of our colleagues in Israel have written to this list about the
loss of acquaintances, friends, students, and colleagues. They have asked
that their grief and fear not be forgotten. I send my condolences to those
who have experienced loss and trauma.

I would like to take a moment to note that we have not had Palestinian
colleagues send similar emails to the list. I want to take a moment to make
this visible.

It is not because we have no Palestinian colleagues. Since opening this
conversation, I have had private emails from Palestinian academics on this
list who have said they've felt forgotten and abandoned by their academic
communities. One wrote (asking me to share it with name and details removed
- and I do hope that this will be allowed through to the main list, as it
is one of the few messages from a Palestinian colleague about their
experiences):

"*Thank you for your courage in sending such an email. As a Palestinian, it
made me tear up, as I finally see my people being acknowledged by one of
several academic communities I am part of, which have been silent.*

*I am, of course, a very privileged Palestinian as I currently live
[overseas], but my whole family and friends are in Palestine, and I do
travel back home. I don’t even dare to post publicly in this forum, as I
have a great fear for my safety and my family’s safety.*

*Please look up [Technion] and how deeply it’s interlinked with the Israeli
military and apartheid, probably also developing the face recognition
technology that the Israeli occupation military used last summer in the
West Bank to scan [the faces of people who I know] and put them in their
database.*

*People like Ayelet who live across the wall of apartheid with all the
privileges and power she has are exactly why we need to have these tough
and rightful conversations. In her recent email she is also supporting the
collective punishment of millions of Palestinians and depriving them from
basic necessities like fuel that are essential to run hospitals that are
providing medical aid to hundreds of thousands of displaced and injured
Palestinian people. *
*It demonstrates that after 75 years of oppression and occupation, and 105
days of non-stop ethnic cleansing and genocide, change will never come from
within Israeli society, but rather from outside pressure.*

*Feel free to repost my message, but please remove my email and information
as this will pose great risk for my safety." *Further information on
Technion which this colleague refers to is available here
<https://bdsmovement.net/news/mcgill-and-concordia-must-boycott-technion>.

Do we have colleagues in Gaza who cannot reply to the mailing list to let
us know of their grief, fears, and suffering in the way that others have? I
don't know. *Did* we have colleagues in Gaza, 109 days ago, who we will now
never hear from again? I don't know.

I understand and sympathise with Israeli colleagues who do not want us to
forget their losses from October 7th 2023.

I also wonder if we have Palestinian colleagues who wish that they felt
safe telling us about their losses not just since that date, but also in
the years before it. If they would like to urge us, similarly, to see their
pain and acknowledge it. I wonder if there are Palestinian colleagues who
wish they could talk openly to us about the history of arrests of
Palestinian students
<https://law4palestine.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Law-for-Palestine-Report.-Israels-Arrest-Policy-against-Palestinian-University-Students-in-the-West-Bank-and-Israel-.pdf>.
Or about the delays and chaos they face in their own teaching. Personal
stories of students, colleagues, and loved ones who have been killed or
prevented from studying over the years.

We do not have those stories. I hope that none of us will allow ourselves
to imagine it is because they do not exist. And I hope that we will think
deeply about why it is that we do not get to read any of them.