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

[Sky Croeser]

Have death tolls declined? Or have those who were able to count the deaths
(particularly hospital staff) been overwhelmed or killed? If the death
tolls are really reducing, does that mean we can all relax and simply wait
for the situation to play out?

Since you brought up South Africa, I also grew up in an anti-apartheid
family. My father is Afrikaans, and both of my parents grew up in South
Africa. I was born in Zimbabwe, where my father escaped to in order to
avoid the draft. He decided that despite what his parents said about it
being his duty to defend South Africa from terrorism, he could not stomach
it. One of his brothers did go to the army. My mother studied at Wits at
the time, so she has a direct understanding of what it was like to be a
student subject to the BDS movement of the time. She tells me that she grew
up utterly believing what the South African government said about the need
to combat the ANC's terrorism. She was so scared of terrorists. It was only
the Sharpeville massacre, and the arrest and torture of several of the
young men in one of her classes (who she describes as very soft and
gentle), that shifted her perspective.

Do I think a statement from AoIR will somehow stop a genocide? No. That is
not how social movements work.

Did my mother handing out pamphlets for the ANC and getting arrested for it
stop apartheid? No.
Did my father refusing the draft, and subsequently experiencing a deep rift
with his family, stop apartheid? No.
Did a few singers refusing to perform in l South Africa stop apartheid? No.
Did the ban on international sporting events stop it? Did international
sanctions from some countries? Did academic boycotts? No, no, no.

Would it have been better if no one had gone to protests, no one had
refused the draft, no academic institutions had issued statements, no one
had difficult conversations, no one had made colleagues uncomfortable?
Would I think better of my parents if they had not taken their small
ineffective actions? Would apartheid have ended sooner if no one had taken
any actions that would not, in themselves, materially end apartheid?

Perhaps I am wrong thinking it was millions of people doing their small
part that helped create the impetus for change. Along the way, they also
helped those who were resisting apartheid to feel like they were not
forgotten.

Of course there are many things we could do as a community that might have
a greater material effect than issuing a statement of solidarity with
Palestinian academics under attack. But given the controversy that has
resulted from the suggestion that we at the least call for an end to the
bombing of universities and the attack on civilians, that does not seem
like a path worth discussing here.

I live in Perth. I have two small children, and have not been able to make
it to international conferences over the last few years. This is one of the
few spaces where I can seek academic community. While it certainly seems
unlikely that the organisation will issue a strong statement, opening the
discussion has allowed my to find colleagues who are committed to the
values professed in AoIR's charter and we will discuss further actions
beyond this list.

Of course anyone is welcome to contact me about that, including those like
you who seem to feel we should do something more materially consequential
than a statement of solidarity.

On Wed, 24 Jan 2024 at 3:28 am, Katz, Vikki <vikkikatz at chapman.edu> wrote:

> I resonate deeply with Nik's message as AoIR president earlier today that
> the war has had enormous costs but should not cost AoIR its community, and
> believe others feel strongly about that shared value as well.
>
> Given the amount of pain that has been raised on this thread, Sky, I
> respectfully begin answering your question to Meryl and to me with one of
> my own: Can you clearly articulate the material benefits of what you are
> calling for? We are an association of internet researchers. Exactly no one
> is waiting to hear from us as a collective on geopolitical issues,
> especially 100+ days into this war when the death tolls are mercifully half
> of what they were a month ago
> <https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/22/briefing/israel-gaza-war-death-toll.html#:~:text=The%20daily%20death%20toll%20in,a%20change%20in%20war%20strategy.> and
> continuing to decline. If you wish to develop a statement of concern about
> the ways that technologies of surveillance are used in conflict, presuming
> that that is your area of scholarly expertise, that could make sense to do.
> I remain unsure why you feel that such a statement would need to come from
> the full association rather than being something generated by a subset of
> concerned scholars that anyone, AoIR affiliated or not, could sign if they
> choose. The same goes for a statement of concern for Palestinian academics
> and universities, of which many have already been circulated
> internationally in the past 3.5 months. If you feel a new version of such a
> statement will accomplish something important in the reality of this
> ongoing crisis, then you should of course pursue it with collaborators of
> your choosing, but it does not need to be issued by AoIR.
>
> I fully understand the impetus to do something, to say something, in the
> face of great suffering. The suffering is one of many commonalities between
> Palestinians and Israelis, two peoples native to the land who deserve
> equally to live in safety and whose children deserve to thrive in
> conditions of mutual security. There will be much work and moral courage
> needed toward these goals when this war concludes, and it is one of my
> deepest hopes to see those mutual rights realized in my lifetime. I grew up
> in South Africa in the 1980s and 1990s in an anti-apartheid family, so I
> speak from that experience in saying that what we do and say matters. For
> those of us with the great fortune not to live in this or other war zones
> around the world, our greatest responsibility, from our position of
> distance and comfort, is to open more doors and windows than we close for
> the people who live those conflicts—and their resolutions—up close.
> Boycotting our Israeli colleagues or their institutions (which is a
> distinction without a difference) does not advance such values, and I
> believe that those colleagues are owed an apology by those who have called
> for this drastic, anti-community move in the past two days.
>
> Sky asked me a direct question and so I have responded, but I am also
> mindful that the EC has asked that we leave decisions to them to deliberate
> at this stage, so this will be my last comment on this thread.
>
> Vikki
>
> --
> *Vikki Katz, Ph.D.*
> *Professor* | Chapman University School of Communication
> 1 University Drive, Orange CA 92866
> <https://www.google.com/maps/search/1+University+Drive,+Orange+CA+92866?entry=gmail&source=g>
>
> *Editor *| *Journal of Children and Media
> <https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rchm20>*
>
> Cell: 310.918.0428  | *Website <http://www.vikkikatz.com/>*  | *Faculty
> Profile <https://www.chapman.edu/our-faculty/vikki-katz>*
>
> ------------------------------
>
>
>