[Air-L] Difficult conversations

[Blayne Haggart]

Dear Dr. John:

You write of your worry that continuing this debate and publishing a statement might “cost us our community.” I think the AOIR Executive should take very seriously the reality that choosing to ignore the war in Gaza by not issuing a statement would also be divisive to the AOIR community. It silences the many members who labour under the well-documented (UN statement: https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/11/speaking-out-gaza-israel-must-be-allowed-un-experts) penalties of censure, blacklists and firing for expressing support for Palestinians and for criticizing Israeli policies and military strategies. The fracture, I fear, has already happened. Silence won’t fix that.

I would hope that every academic on this listserv could at least agree that the Israeli military’s destruction of Gaza’s university system, the killing of so many Palestinian academics and the killing of an unprecedented number of journalists deserves harsh censure from the global academic community, including from Israeli academics. As I noted in my previous email, war crimes and genocide are illegal and immoral, no matter the context. What’s more, they destroy the victims and demean the perpetrators. As such, condemning such atrocities is an act of loyalty to the state, though it may not feel that way in the moment. The region’s history may be complex, but these specific actions are not.

There is room to condemn Hamas’ shockingly brutal attack while also recognizing that Israel itself has agency, and has committed many war crimes in its prosecution of the war. If AOIR as a community cannot even find it within itself to condemn such extraordinary (and relevant to us) atrocities against our fellow academics and students, it will send a clear message to AOIR’s members about whose voices count in this community, and whose don’t.

On a technical note, my last email took almost eight hours to appear. Is this normal? I was very surprised at the very long lead time. This doesn’t seem to be the case for every email that appeared on the main thread.

Regards,
Blayne


Blayne Haggart
Associate Professor
On sabbatical, July 2023-June 2024
Department of Political Science
Brock University
St. Catharines, ON Canada

New book:
The New Knowledge: Information, Data and the Remaking of Global Power (with Natasha Tusikov). Rowman and Littlefield.
Open Access: https://blaynehaggart.files.wordpress.com/2023/07/haggart-tusikov-the-new-knowledge.pdf?force_download=true

Also out:
Power and Authority in Internet Governance: Return of the State?
Edited by Blayne Haggart, Natasha Tusikov and Jan Aart Scholte
Buy it here: https://www.routledge.com/Power-and-Authority-in-Internet-Governance-Return-of-the-State/Haggart-Tusikov-Scholte/p/book/9780367442033




On Jan 22, 2024, at 6:10 PM, Nicholas John via Air-L <air-l at listserv.aoir.org> wrote:

Dear all

I have been following the discussion here very closely throughout what has
been a very long day. I wish to address a couple of points from the various
posts that have been sent.

For those of you who don’t know me, I am, among other things, the President
of AoIR, Jewish, and Israeli. I have skin in the game. For some, this may
disqualify me from speaking; for others, my lived experience may be
considered relevant. If you know me, you likely know my views on the
conflict and the current government. I do not feel a need to share them
here. For the sake of openness, though, I can say that I am yet to see a
statement about the conflict that does justice to the complexities of the
situation.

My primary concern right now, therefore, is for AoIR. I think it is already
clear that it is unlikely that the AoIR community will agree on a statement
about the current situation in the Middle East. So far, the discussion has,
by and large, been pretty civil, though I am extremely concerned that it
might stop being so. Let me remind everyone of our code of conduct (
https://aoir.org/codeofconduct) and the rules of use (
https://aoir.org/mailing-lists/mailing-list-rules-and-etiquette) for the
mailing list.

On a practical note, and after conversations with the exec members who were
available today, the conversation on this list will be slowed down a bit.
Every message will get through (unless it really shouldn’t), though not
immediately. It’s 1am where I am, but tomorrow morning I will release a
bunch of messages, and will continue to do so through the day.

I know that this conflict has already cost people real friendships within
academia. It must not cost us our community.

Nik


Nicholas John
Associate Professor
President, Association of Internet Researchers
Department of Communication and Journalism
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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